One-Day Fabric Sale, September 2

Yes, summer is nearly over. Sad, but this means more time to get back to quilting.

To help get your creative juices flowing again, stop by my studio at 1115 East Main Street and check out all of the new fabrics that have come in since last fall.

I will be open extra hours for First Friday, September 2, 2 - 9 p.m. so you have time to take advantage of the Special Labor Day Fabric Sale. All by-the-yard fabrics will be 25% OFF the already low regular prices.

I also have some table runner kits and gift item kits left from the past two Get-Away Weekends. Also new since last fall are lots of Riley Blake fabrics by-the-yard, plus precuts like 5” squares, 10” squares, 2 1/2” jelly rolls and fat quarter sets.

If you can’t make it for the sale, you can still schedule a personal shopping hour. Just give me a call, email me or text me to schedule. I will be open this fall on First Fridays and second Saturdays and anytime by appointment.

Hope to see you Friday afternoon or evening for the BIG SALE!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The perfect Valentine’s Day Gift…a weekend Get-Away for your Valentine! Give your Valentine a rejuvenating weekend with fellow creative makers. No meals to cook, no beds to make, no house to clean. A weekend to do what your Valentine loves to do.

April 29 - May 1 (Friday - Sunday) is Quilting with Margaret’s 16th Get-Away Weekend will happen at Beaver Hollow. This spring will also have an optional extra day and night on Thursday, April 28. The all-inclusive weekend includes gourmet meals, happy hour each night, all-day and evening quilting/crafting time, traveling quilt shop and a comfortable room. Who could ask for more after two years of a pandemic! This is the perfect chance to rejuvenate.

Or if your Valentine is already planning to attend, how about adding on the extra day on Thursday to extend the weekend even longer. Or treat yourself! We all deserve a little “me time!”

Find out more here. Or download the sign-up brochure and give your Valentine a special gift this year.

Schedule a Personal Shopping Hour

As I was sitting at home today, looking out the window and watching the steady snowfall, I decided to write a blog. The recent Covid spike prompted me to keep the studio closed for First Friday and Second Saturday in January and February. But the numbers are starting to come down again.

So soon I can start going to my studio regularly. Besides I need to make that sample for our upcoming Get-Away Weekend at Beaver Hollow, April 27 - May 1. If you are looking to get away for a little ”me time” in a couple of months, check out the details of this fun event here. I think we should be close to being “back to normal” by end of April.

But meanwhile, if you want to shop at Quilting with Margaret, it’s easy. Just schedule your Personal Shopping Hour and you can come to the studio when it is convenient for you. No large crowds like on a First Friday. You will have a safe shopping experience with the shop to yourself while you check out all of the new fabrics that have come in over the past year.

The latest additions are some of the Riley Blake fabric line “She Who Sews.” It’s kind of a steampunk version of sewing tools and advertisements. There are a couple of larger scale prints, one with a pale blue background and the other a black and white chalkboard print. The three coordinates are a grey background with tomato pincushions, a red background with tossed black buttons and a white background with tiny little black sewing machines.

Also, I have a “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” print, a line called “Coffee Chalk” and “I’d Rather Be Playing Chess.” And coming in soon: “Honey Bee” collection plus precut 5” and 10” squares and fat quarter sets of all of these collections.

Then there are the Paintbrush Studio flat fat stacks, where the entire set of fat quarters are all printed together on 45” wide yardage. These have lots of possibilities and come in some fun novelty themed prints. Along with these, I also have the Jacquie’s Favorites collection of Jacquie Gering’s favorite 18 solids on bolts and in fat quarter sets. These would be great for making a modern quilt from her book Quilting Modern.

So schedule your Personal Shopping Hour today! Just drop me an email and let me know when you would like to stop by. Give me your cell phone number in the email so you can text when you arrive for me to meet you at door #2 with the elevator and bring you up to my third floor studio.

Groundhog Day

The last two years feels like we have been living in the movie Groundhog Day, doesn’t it? A few months ago I said to someone, “You are probably younger than me.” She asked, “How old are you?” Without hesitation, I said 62.

She thought we were the same age. “What year were you born?”

“Nineteen fifty-seven.”

“You’re not 62,” she said, “you are 64!”

I quick did the math, and she was right… I’m 64. It’s like time and life stopped in 2020.

And I seem to have lost a lot of my creative energy as a result of this Covid Groundhog Day that we are living in. But this past summer and fall, after being vaccinated and boosted, I was once again feeling sort of “normal.” I re-opened my studio for First Fridays and Second Saturdays. I was doing things again outdoors, but also indoors, when masked. I even added a special extra Get-Away weekend in October, where we made holiday gifts. I required vaccination to attend and it felt very safe, “normal,” and we all had a wonderful time.

Things were feeling pretty positive until the holidays, when Omicron hit. To be safe, I closed my studio for the January FIrst Friday and Second Saturday. But I believe this variant will be short lived, if things go as they have elsewhere around the world. If we all are careful and wear masks when indoors, we will get past this. Hopefully within a month things will be looking up again.

Meanwhile, I have been trying to get my creative energy back. One thing I did to try to accomplish this was to enter Nancy Valle’s Annual Self-Portrait Show for the fourth consecutive year. This year, instead of creating a more literal quilted self-portrait, as I have done in the past, I made a quilted wall-hanging without my image. The show runs January 7 through February 12 at Studio 402 in the Anderson Arts Building.

Several years ago, in the winter of 2018, I attended a workshop led by Maria Shell to learn more about piecing freeform circles. It was so creatively inspiring that I was very energized to quilt more freeform circles and explore her technique. At home that evening, right in front of me, my mom had a massive stroke. It was very scary and dramatically changed my life for the next six months. At 92, she made a miraculous recovery after surgery, but only lived for another six months.

It’s amazing how life events can zap your creativity. I never picked up those blocks from the Maria Shell workshop again until this fall. After looking at them for some time, I decided to cut them apart and try sewing them back again in another design all together. The result is my entry for the 2022 Self-Portrait show, “Circle of Life.”

Due to the Omicron surge, the Opening Night for the show has been postponed until First Friday in February. If the surge flattens and starts to decline later this month, you will be able to schedule a visit to see the exhibit at Studio 402. The exhibit includes over 60 artists from all mediums who did self-portraits with the theme this year of “Lost & Found.” Meanwhile, Nancy has put together a series of photographs of the show which you can see on her Facebook page.

Also in 2021, I got a mention on a national blog at Redfin.com. The blog was about unique ways to uplift your interior with one-of-a-kind decor, like my quilted pinup oven mitts and potholders. You can see the blog here. Even though my studio is currently closed, you can shop for these items and others on the shop page of my website.

So I guess I haven’t been totally stagnant throughout 2021. Here’s to a more productive and creative 2022!