Information Highway Brings Us…

… lots and lots of ideas. It's a huge forum with all the things you could ever think about wanting to know …and then some. Surfing around, I came across Cinda Baxter's brainchild: the 3/50 project. I don't want to preach, but I do want to share. I think Cinda is brilliant. Her concept, in a nutshell is to save local economies, three stores at a time. Cinda points out that shopping local has the impact of keeping that money local which in turn benefits the local economy. Cinda's principals are built around our neighbours to the South and their economy, but I believe that her concept can be applied just as easily in Canada. Obviously the Canadian figures would be different than the American ones, to approximately the tune of 1/10^th. That still brings us to the impressive figure of $4 billion in revenue a year. The idea of saving the brick and mortars that any nation is built on is an important one. I would encourage you to go look at Cinda's website www.the350project.net.

Fabric

Many quilters wonder if the type and quality of fabric they purchase makes a difference. There are no two ways about it: not all fabric is created equal. Quilting is a form of artistic expression, and there is a wide range of fabrics available for your perusal and consideration before you start any project.

There are a few central reasons that you may want to purchase quality fabric. Of course, the flip side of the coin has its own attractions as well. With quality comes increased price. The alternative to more expensive fabrics leaves you outside the traditional quilt shops, like The Running Stitch, and brings you to discount stores or sitting at home and doing on-line purchasing. This type of buying can be more miss than hit. Often the range of possibilities is narrowed and can be out-dated when compared to what quilt shops have to offer. Buying online might be fast and easy. However, it may leave you feeling far from satisfied when the delivery isn't what you had in mind when you compare what you're holding in your hand to what you saw on your computer screen (never mind the physical delivery issues). It's also harder to audition fabrics via computer screen. You might also be faced with the constriction that many fabric distributors only sell their collections to major customers (like quilt shops).

Back to basics: why you want to buy quality fabric. Quilt shops, and certainly The Running Stitch, pride themselves on meeting with distributors to ensure quality of fabric, availability, variety and competitive pricing. Fabric selection is at the heart of any quilt shop and becomes a defining trademark. The satisfaction of being able to pull beautiful quality fabric off the shelf and line it up in different permutations and combinations in the company of those who understand the need to have it "just so" isn't something to be taken lightly.
After all, quality fabric is like your favourite restaurant. You go out for the promise of an all-round first-rate experience, and that includes the chef using quality ingredients. You would never expect the ingredients or the final product at the restaurant to be inferior. So why go for less than high quality in a lasting product like your quilt?

The importance of quality fabric carries through after you get home from the store. High quality fabric is easier (and more enjoyable) to work with from beginning to end of your project. It stands up to the test of time in the way that lesser quality can't hope to compete with. It also leaves you with a second-to-none quality final product that best reflects your happy dedicated hours spent in production. Besides, when all is said and done, the satisfaction of having a lasting work of art that reflects you is priceless.

Moving and Shaking

There certainly has been a lot going on lately, both in and out of the store. Never a dull moment! Not so long ago, we were sitting at our dining room table, and we were talking about the fact that we love our house in Gatineau, but we thought… wouldn’t it be nice to be closer to work, meaning the store? Instead of spending a couple of hours a day commuting, that time could be better spent doing something productive or better yet, just having fun (more time to quilt!)!

Next step: the all important house hunting adventure. Because of Barb, I’m happy to say, it was pretty short! While driving in Kanata, she saw what she considered to be the perfect house for us. She rushed into the store to tell me “Michèle, I found your house!” Sure enough! Barb was right on, and it was just the house we were looking for! So in less than two days, the deal was done and the house was ours. Hello!!! We had our Gatineau house to sell and lots of other arrangements to make. The whole moving process takes some doing. What were we thinking?

Our home in Gatineau is on the bigger side. It has been a busy place, hopping with activities and it was also the place for family and friends to come by, visit and sleepover. For a few years, our house was transformed into a Bed & Breakfast. It certainly is a big change to be moving away after 19 years there, but we are making a good deal: closer to the store and less to maintain is an excellent plan.

It certainly has been quite the journey cleaning up stuff to get ready to move. As I’m sure you can imagine, lots of stuff in nooks and crannies that we have not even touched in a while. Friends and charities are the lucky recipients (no garage sale for me!).

Moving Day is coming up quickly, and we are looking forward to settling into our new home and enjoy all that Kanata has to offer. That makes two big moves this year: the store and my house. When this move is all said and done, I think we’ll stay put for a while!

I am thrilled to tell you that this week was a pretty exciting week. We received so much fabric, it was Christmas every day. The store is bursting at the seams. There is so much to see that one visit to the store might not do it. We received a new line of Princess Mirah batiks (34 bolts of it)! That’s just the tip of the iceberg! There are tables full of new treasures which certainly won’t last long such as French General, Rouenneries Collection from Moda, Floral Melody, Stonehenge and Natures Palette from Northcott, Collection for a Cause (Alliance) by Moda, Bali Pops, Lovely as a Tree by Cyntia Coulter, etc… We still have a little bit of Christmas fabric to complete your projects...
Of course, there are books (loads of new books), patterns, notions and accessories and pre-cut fat quarters to add to your enjoyment. I’ve added some pictures but the best way of taking it all in is to come to the store.
If you need help choosing (or would just like an extra opinion), we are always happy to help you coordinate your new quilt or any other project that you have on the go or would like to dive into. There is no shortage of fresh new ideas and with all the new fabrics, it’s sure to get your creativity flowing and urge you to get your sewing machine running. If you’ve been waiting for a piece of “something special fabric” the time could be now. Possibly, there are no words to describe the new additions to the store.

Charity work

Working at The Running Stitch is a pleasure for me for several reasons. Among those reasons is the ability to be part of important causes. Recently, The Running Stitch had the opportunity to contribute to the Tour For Kids Quilt Day, which was an event held by the Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation. This Foundation supports camps in Ontario for children living with cancer. The photos are of the group who attended the event and some of the hard work they did. It was a pleasure to be able to contribute to this event, and I hope to be part of events like this in the future.

Batting

There is so much buzz about batting, environment and organics that you may wonder what is best for your quilt why what you have been buying does not seem good enough. There are many batting products available and include lightweight, heavyweight, puffy, thermal, green, bamboo, silk, wool, cotton, polyester blends and others. Each material has a specific purpose and it is important that you know what kind of quilt the batting will be used for.


Hand quilting is best served by wool batting because of the lanolin (basically a soap) in the wool helps the needle slide more easily. Silk batting is also an alternative for hand quilters. You may wish to use synthetic batting for large quilt and ones that will be washed fairly regularly since the batting will be more lightweight and will not bunch. A wall hanging may use cotton batting but be careful when using natural cotton because of cotton seed oil present in the cotton.


Bamboo does not seem better than cotton and is not more environmental friendly. Because bamboo is a hard wood it requires a considerable amount of chemicals to break the wood into fibers which are short so require bonding with another material usually cotton because of its long fiber. Bamboo is not as easily renewable as wool which is sheared from sheep’s or cotton which is grown yearly.


Organics are difficult to control outside of industrialized countries which have very strict regulations for the label. In many other countries the word may not mean the same and may have as organic only the ink used to print it.


When you are looking for batting make sure to tell the story of your quilt so we, the employees of The Running Stitch, can help you choose the most suitable batting for your project.


This article is a synopsis of a piece in FabShop News.

The Bernina 830

Hello everybody:


The Bernina 830 is in. Come and see this machine. It's the ultimate sewing experience. It offers the kind of high-performance features that'll allow you: " to create more, create bigger and create longer than ever before". Gabriele will do demo on this machine on Tuesdays and Wedenesdays. It will be a pleasure for her because she's pretty excited about it.