When One Door Closes Another Opens,

and Sometimes it is Literal

   Hi all!  Last week I received the news that a local quilt shop was closing its doors. While I did not frequent this shop all that much (I have had myself on a tight budget lately) it is a bummer. I had worked at this shop several years ago before it changed owners and loved it. I met a lot of great people- and am still in touch with some of them. One of which happens to be my bossJ. While the new owner was always very gracious and kind when I did go in, it just wasn’t the same. It had also changed the locations so it wasn’t familiar at all anymore.

   Then, on Saturday while perusing Facebook a friend of mine had posted something regarding fabric, to which one of her friends replied indicating there was a new quilt shop close by. WHAT??? How in the hell did that happen without me knowing, the one who tries to know all shops quilting? I asked the friends’ friend- who I do not know- where I can find this shop and she kindly responded quickly with the website of said shop.

  After perusing the website, and noting it was open on Sundays, plans were made for the following day. We are not going to mention I had just got back from a day spent at a quilt show and also visited a quilt shop. It is an addiction- I know. MY NAME IS COURTENAY AND I AM A QUILTING ADDICT. There- I said it. Let’s move on.

www.aquilterscorner.com


  After forcing (asking) hubby to drive, off we went. We arrived at the shop and the minute I entered I loved it. I was greeted by Marci, the owner, and then saw this wall of Kaffe. It was like a light shined down from the heavens- ok, so I am being melodramatic but it was beautiful.

Kaffe Wall

  After wondering around for a bit while Marci was finishing up with her customer, I was drooling so much Bob had to go to the car and get me a napkin. I saw a large selection of Grunge fabrics, solids, Denyse Schmidts’ new line, pretty flannels, fall, Halloween, Christmas, reproductions, etc. The shop is so new the plastic was even on some of the bolts!

   I soon got to chat with Marci a bit. What a sweet woman! The shop wasn’t supposed to be open until next month, but she decided since she was always there anywhere she may as well open the doors! I loved how she wrapped my purchases (a pattern because I need more patterns, a piece of light background and a squirrel) in pretty tissue and gave me a pretty bag to put them in. Are you now wondering what the hell is a squirrel doing at a quilt shop? Well- turns out she has a few home deco items as well. She has these great pickets for sale, and some cool critters that hand from them. One of which happened to be a squirrel, my favorite critter! Now I have to save up to get the picket to hang him from, but for now he is sitting on a shelf in my kitchen, waiting patiently for me to get my act together. Guess I need to make a trip to East Colfax- those of you that don’t know the significance of it just think Bunny Ranch but on a stretch of road in Denver. Maybe by this time next year I will have the money haha.

Squirrel and Picket

Squirrel

  I am looking forward to visit again soon- and I encourage anyone who is the Erie/Lafayette/Louisville are to stop by. You won’t be sorry!

A Quilters Corner

71 Erie Parkway, Unit 104

Erie, CO 80516
720-328-8181

                                                       Trying to stay cool-

  Hello everyone!  Boy, summer has finally arrived! Our A/C went out last week- thank goodness our complex jumped on getting it fixed- right after they got rid of the 9 wasp nests that were inside of it!

  The hubs took me to the south end of town a few weekends ago to try out a cupcake shop I’ve been wanting to try. They did not disappoint! One the way home he asked if I needed to go to the quilt shop (already knowing what the answer would be) and we stopped. I have been very good at not buying fabric for the heck of it- but this one I could not resist. Look at those faces! I bought 3 damn yards- and No, I don’t have a clue what I am going to do with it. Don’t judge me-

 

Mermaid Fabric

 I also have been working on another baby quilt for my daughter’s friend. I will share pics after the quilt has been given. Last Sunday I started my machine up and the damn thing wouldn’t sew! Now- I have been trouble shooting students’ problems with their machines for years, and have usually been successful at determining the issue. I have not had any trouble with my machine since I bought it. I am kind of freakishly anal about keeping my machine clean- thank you to all my teacher friends and bosses who stressed that a clean machine is a happy machine! I had just cleaned out the darn thing, very well I might add, after the last time I used it. Did I put something back in wrong? There is only one way the bobbin case goes in- I took it back out and put it back in a dozen times. I also re- threaded it about 40 times. Still no luck. Of course this was on a Sunday when no place is open for machine repair. RATS! (I said a lot worse than that- ask Bob) So, Tuesday after work we took it to a new shop I was trying out. They called on Thursday- yes 2 days later- and said it was ready. I asked the repair guy what was wrong and he told me he took the bobbin case out and put it back in. NO FUCKING WAY. I don’t believe him. LOL.

   I was impressed they got it turned around so quickly- they also did the yearly maintenance on it for me. Another place I called wanted to keep it 3 weeks just for the maintenance part- maybe longer if I needed any new parts. Now- anyone that knows me well knows that me without a machine for 3 weeks could be ugly. Bob was terrified at the idea- thank goodness I ran into the new place and checked it out. I have tried it out on these fun, fast wallets- and it is running like a dream!

Wallets

                                                                     

     I also finished up a 3 year old UFO- can I get an Hallelujah?  I didn’t want to do a lot of fancy quilting. I tried to make this scrappy, but then when I put all the blocks together I hated that bright red block. And I am not thrilled with a few others. Oh well. Lesson learned- I threw it in the wash to get all of the critter hair off of it. It shrunk up nicely!

                                                                       embroidered quilt

    Due to the fact my machine was out of commission, I actually got to read a book! I bought the book by Sue Klebold, the mother of one of the shooters at Columbine. All I can say is wow- it is an amazing read- but you do have to put it down every few hours to catch your breath and hug your kids. She is very brave to tell her story- and all of the proceeds from her book go to a few mental/brain health charities. I think that is great. I admit- as a mother of young children when it happened I remember thinking “how could they not know?” And now as the mother of now 25/26 year olds- I totally understand. She was very involved in her children’s lives- almost a helicopter parent- and Columbine still happened. Read it if you can handle it.

     Well dear readers I hope you are enjoying this time of year-

 Courtenay