Tag: sewing

All Southeast Shop Hop – only two shops left

August 10, 2026

Completing the two regions that include the greater metro Atlanta area is enough for me. I still need to make the trek down I-75 to Macon & Byron (with a stop @ Buc-cee’s) to complete the Central Region shops. The North Central Region shops were completed with my 7 hour road trip on Saturday.

One of the benefits of shop hopping is to get a feel for different quilt shops in a region. Each shop has a unique vibe. You’ll quickly learn which ones best meet your needs. And realize that your short list of shops will likely need adjusting every year. Life changes can mean an owner choosing to close, sell or bring in a new manager to run the business. Trends and the need to increase sales may have your fave quilt shop now carrying bag making supplies, cross-stitch/embroidery supplies and even yarn. As you stop to collect your passport sticker and fabric square, take 5-10 minutes to really look around the shop. Take a shopping list with you and try to buy a little something at each shop – a FQ or two, pack of hand sewing needles, travel size ironing spray in your favorite scent, pack of EPP papers or even a replacement cover for your favorite pair of turquoise handled scissors. Bonus: some shops offered additional swag for those who made purchases. I really appreciated the 2-1/2″ x 6-1/2″ Creative Grids ruler and chocolate from Mountain Quilts in Hiawassee.

Things I’ll definitely keep in mind:

Needle Down quilt shop in Ringgold carries a lot of Lori Holt merchandise. There’s also a really cool antique mall in the same shopping center. I’ll make time to stop in the next time I visit Chattanooga. (Important to me because the two shops that carried a wide selection of Lori Holt fabric either closed or have new owners and now carry different fabric lines.)

Sew Senoia recently purchased a circa 1905 home in Turin, GA. The shop will be moving about 25 minutes south of its current location. It’s dog friendly and the new location is in a really pretty part of west-central Georgia. They also host weekend retreats a few times a year. With the current westside perimeter road projects, it would be totally worth spending money on 2 nights of hotel to attend a retreat once the new location opens.

Photo by Tahir Xu0259lfu0259quliyev on Pexels.com

Back to [almost] normal

July 24, 2026

Today, I took the last dose of prednisone. Thank goodness! I’m ready for my sleep cycle to get back to normal. Most evidence of my allergic reaction to the insect repellent is completely gone. There’s still some redness in the areas that reacted the strongest, but it’s slowly fading away. Mosquitos are still biting. I purchased a bottle of Cutter Skinsations with DEET 7% to use when working in the garden. Zero reaction and no mosquito bites either.

Our weather forecast is calling for heavy rain most of the weekend. Sadie and I ran took advantage of this morning’s dry window to run errands. We passed several schools and a teacher supply store on our travels. The parking lots were full. Then, I remembered that local school staff report on Monday for preplanning week. Has it really been five years since I reported for what would become my last preplanning week as a public school librarian? Indeed it has.

Fast forward five years. There’s still some semblance of back-to-school prep that takes place in my life around late July. I take advantage of back-to-school sales to stock up on school supplies, reward trinkets and books we’ll use in the R.E.A.D. program and CraftLAB. This weekend, I’ll be finishing up the final few details for quilt camp. We start Monday at 10:00 a.m. in my basement sewing space. Instructional planning is a lot more fun when it’s on my terms and my schedule!

Not much teaching took place spring semester because life and the quilt show happened. For fall semester, my teaching schedule includes CraftLAB, a monthly sewing group at the Midtown Library and a machine maintenance class at the quilt museum in Carrollton. It feels good to see my teaching calendar active again.

I’m also collaborating with a local indie pet supply store to host a personalize your pet’s stocking workshop in early November. I’ll teach students how to add their pet’s name to a cuffed stocking or create a personalized hang tag using a simple backstitch and embroidery floss. We’ll see what happens locally, if anything, after that. I’d love to find a spot where I can teach classes a couple of times a month. I don’t mind paying a modest fee to use the space, but I have zero interest in opening a full-blown stitch lab in a retail storefront. That ship has long since sailed.

Quilt Camp Preparations

July 21, 2026

Next week, Sadie & I will be hosting three teens (can’t call them ‘tweens anymore!) for quilt camp. So far, it’s been a collective effort with friends adding things to make it extra special for the girls. One friend contributed a collectible box for each girl to hold her fabric kit and camp swag. I was able to borrow two folding tables to help meet workspace needs. Others donated random batik leftovers so I could cut extra 10″ squares to offer more variety for their selected projects.

A sewing machine I’d loaned out several months ago for a teen sewing program at a nearby library (and thought was permanently gone) was returned in time for camp. It’s original shipping box had deteriorated to the point where we actually threw it away at the library last week. A hard plastic sewing machine case was suggested as its replacement. FB marketplace showed one available 6 miles away from me – clearly in good condition, but rather dirty. Twenty minutes of scrubbing with hot, soapy water yielded a perfectly usable sewing machine case at a fraction of the current crazy retail prices – plus Sadie got a ride.

I’m also trying to complete two current projects and get the quilt sandwiches basted before my sewing space is converted back into classroom mode for a solid week. This way, I can FMQ and work on other projects while their creative chaos is basically confined to the rest of the room.

I’m thankful to be on day six of prednisone. The allergic rash is mostly gone. My doctor mentioned it would probably be another week before the flare-up subsided completely and my feet/ankles would be the last to recover. This definitely seems to be the case! Anyhow, I can wear short sleeves in public again without grimacing. That’s a good sign.