Dear Friends,

The new year has started! Hopefully, it will be a healthy and prosperous year for everyone. So many possibilities right now!

So far, the new year has brought my family a new member (born this morning!), and I've joined a facebook group to organize my sewing room. While I doubt that I will be able to maintain the schedule, I WILL follow through and get it all done! I am also continuing my learning about AI and how to best utilize it. What do you hope the new year will bring for you?

 Happy Sewing!  

-Marianne

From the Morris Creative Group at QT Fabrics, we have Solstice Kaleidoscope. Fascinating and hypnotizing designs will create stunning, one of a kind projects. Set your creativity in motion with a 36” focal panel that works in perfect harmony with picture patches, a border stripe, geos, tossed layouts, and blenders.

With Sewbots, you can create projects that will ignite imagination and spark curiousity. The playful designs are rendered in a soothing color pallette of cream, white, and tan. The Sewbot patch panel comes in two colorways, and is supported with a border stripe and cute as a bug coordinates. Designed by the Morris Creative Group for QT Fabrics.

We have new widebacks!

The first is Crushed Velvet from P&B Textiles.

And QT Fabrics has sent us Blooming Bouquet, a very modern floral.

You are going to LOVE the Gypsy Quilter 12" Presser Bar! It has a rounded edge covered with 100% Wool for pressing. The wood base doubles as a clapper. Use the rounded surface to press seams open.
Once seams are pressed, lay the wood base on the seam to set the seam and flatten it even further. Perfect for any project where the seams are close together like Dresden Plates and Fans.

We now carry pre-made Bias Binding. Sold by the yard, we have six colors available.

We have new books!

Step into a world of color, creativity and charm with Creative Precut Quilts: Inspiring Designs With Fabric Bundles, a quilt pattern book from industry favorite Barbara Cherniwchan. The book is filled with fun and fanciful designs that will make your heart smile. This collection is a celebration of joyful stitching, featuring quilts that combine playful motifs, vibrant fabrics and imaginative layouts to spark inspiration and delight. Each pattern is thoughtfully written with clear instructions, full-color diagrams and helpful tips, making it easy for quilters of all skill levels to create something magical. 

In The 10-Inch Square Quilt Block Book, you’ll find the most cost-effective and inspiring strategies for getting into quilting! Author Carolina Moore, a lifelong quilting enthusiast, will show you why pre-cut quilt blocks are all the rage. You’ll find endless ideas for mixing and matching 10” pre-cut squares for your own creative twists, all while minimizing waste with this fresh and increasingly popular approach to quilting!

Finally, we have two books from Fabric Cafe, the three yard quilt people. 

Donna Robertson and Fran Morgan co-founders of Fabric Café, known for their signature 3-yard quilt method, announce a new pattern book, Stash Busting With 3-Yard Quilts! You now have a choice, use yardage, Layer Cakes, Jelly Rolls, and Charm Packs! Instructions for lap, twin, and queen/king are included. This means no more complicated math when a larger size quilt is desired and more time to quilt!
Fans of 3-yard quilts will love these!

The Magic of 3 Yard Quilts includes 8 quilt designs written for 3 sizes- Lap, Twin and Queen/King. Three 1-yard cuts make lap quilt kit. Twin uses 2 lap kits, Queen/King uses 4 lap kits.

Classes

We've just had a spot open up in tomorrow's (Wednesday, 1/7) CQ Cares: Quilts for Kids workshop.

The Second Saturday Club starts THIS Saturday!

Dresden plates are such happy blocks! Not only are they fun to stitch, but they can be made into so many useful items, from full-size quilts to throws to table runners to pillows to totes. Betsy and Jan lead the way, as you work from Candyce Copp Grisham’s book, Dresden Quilt Blocks Reimagined, to make Dresdens with different edge finishes, plain and pieced wedges, and different sizes. These Dresdens have turned edges, so they are super-easy to machine-stitch into place. Each Dresden can stand alone or be layered for a fun, dancing effect.

To make a sampler quilt (like the example), we’ll show you how to pre-quilt a sandwich with your walking foot, appliqué the Dresden into place, and assemble the quilted blocks using the quilt-as-you-go gusset & cover strip method. 

The Longarm and Prostitcher Clubs have been combined, and the first meeting will be on Sunday, 1/11. The Longarmers Club is open to all long- arm quilters, regardless of the brand of machine you own.  Enjoy a lecture each month, with either a guest speaker or a club member with expertise in the particular skill being demonstrated, Show & Tell, and a Q&A period.

The first CQ Cares: Quilt of Valor workshop is being held on the 12th. Seats are available in the afternoon session. Please come help make a Quilt of Valor to be awarded to a veteran. These quilts mean so much to those who receive them!

Sandwiching Service appointments are available starting January 13th. Let us baste your quilt for you! 

Please drop off your top, backing, batting, and spray baste or pins no later than the day before your "appointment".  (You will not be present for the actual basting.) Quilt top and backing MUST be well pressed and "square".  Capital Quilts will not iron for you. Your quilt backing and batting should both be AT LEAST 3" larger than your quilt top on all sides. We will notify you when your quilt sandwich is ready to be picked up.

The Bodobo Pucker Up Project Tote is a great bag! If you've been in one of our charitable workshops, you may have seen Linda Henson's bag. Now, she'll show you how to make it yourself!! It's a perfect bag for quilting, knitting, shopping, the pool, and more. Learn how on the 17th.

The English Paper Piecing Club has expanded! It is now the English Paper Piecing & Handwork Club, and their first meeting is on January 18th. Bring your EPP, applique, hand-piecing, embroidery, knitting, crochet, etc. to the group and spend 2 hours stitching, sharing, and learning from each other.

Betsy is again teaching her popular Walking Foot 101 on January 31st! In this class, you will: install your walking foot, test thread tension, learn to start and stop; learn several methods for marking a design on your quilt sandwich; and fill six squares with different walking foot designs: straight lines, regular grids, irregular grids, triangles, curves, and spirals.

Do you need a little extra motivation to get your UFOs (UnFinished Objects) done? The Area 51 Club is for you! Between February and December, make progress on 10 of your UFO projects (one each month), and report in by the deadline. Each milestone earns a discount coupon and a chance at the grand prize drawing (10 projects done = 10 discount coupons and 10 chances to win the grand prize). Register and submit your list of UFOs by February 1st.

Laurie Sieminski is teaching Drafting for Quilters on February 13th. Have you ever looked at a quilt block or pattern and wondered how it was put together? In this class you will learn how to draft a variety of blocks in different sizes and how to make templates so you can stitch that block.

Also on 2/13 are longarm classes; Getting Started: Long Arm Rental Class and Getting Started: ProStitcher Rental Class. These are what you need to rent our longarms! 

On 3/14, Betsy is teaching Quilting in Sections. In this class, you’ll learn three techniques for quilting a large quilt on your domestic sewing machine. With these techniques, you can quilt manageable areas of your quilt and then assemble the sections into a complete whole.

CQ Cares (Community Sewing)

We have free pillowcase kits available! We donate all pillowcases to Ryan's Case for Smiles, who in turn distributes them to children battling serious illness. Pick one up next time you're in the shop, then complete it and return on your schedule. Alternately, use your stash and any of the Million Pillowcase Project patterns.

We have placemat kits available at the shop; please stop by to pick up one (or two). For those who want to sew from their stash, click on the picture for the beginner-friendly Charm Square Placemats pattern, or you can use your own pattern.

Please return all completed placemats to Capital Quilts.
Thank you for your continued support of the Capital Quilts Cares program. 

We have free small kennel quilts kits available. These little quilts are sent to shelters who take in pets displaced by natural disasters. To quilters, they are a great beginner project, a use for leftover fabric, and a place to practice free motion skills. To use your stash, visit www.kennelquilts.com