Showing posts with label The City Stitcher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The City Stitcher. Show all posts

Saturday, August 10, 2019

Quilt Show Vendors

A week ago I attended the Circleville Quilt Show, shared here, and made a thorough round of both the quilts on display and the vendors present. I love checking out all the various booths; it gives me a chance to discover new shops as well as some local favorites.


I mentioned in the last post that I bought several FQs from a couple of vendors; the one I used for my UFO came from Annette at Sewing the Good Life. (Shown above at Hillsboro.) I love visiting with her and checking out her new patterns and displays. I always come away learning a lot, especially about applique, and grabbing up some choice precuts to add to my stash. I saw her at both the Hillsboro and Circleville shows.


Another vendor I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with in Circleville was Janet at The City Stitcher. She has an online shop out of Centerville, OH. That's a Dayton suburb, for anyone unfamiliar with the region. She has come to this show for years, and I even mentioned her in a post from 2016.


I am always fascinated by the variety of items for sale at Janet's booth. She makes blocks. That sounds like an ordinary thing, but that is the bulk of her display - well, it always draws my attention, at least. Check out the table of goodies in the photo, above. I see Economy blocks, Evening Star blocks, and 9-Patch blocks. Often these are separated by color with enough blocks for a whole quilt. I am sure mixing and matching options are available, too.


For the busy quilter who doesn't have the time, the skill or the inclination to cut and piece blocks, she does the hard stuff for you! Making them and selling them by the bundle is inspired, if you ask me. So all a seamstress has to do then is prepare setting squares (or not), sew the rows and create the quilt top. What a great service. To some, the piecing of blocks is so tedious and overwhelming. I can see where skipping this part would be desirable.

Janet also has other products for sale. She has lots of patterns available, shown on the wall in the photos (check the link above) and she has crocheted items.



Assorted flowers, leaves, butterflies and more in a wide range of colors - and to inspire people, she provides examples like the hat, above, for making use of these dainty creations.

If you love traditional quilts and designs, cross stitch, and crochet, and you have limited time, you need to check out her shop. It seems like she would have the exact product for you.

Hope you are having a super Saturday!

Happy Quilting, Friends!


Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Circleville Quilt Show - Vendors and Shopping

Gosh, there were some great vendors at the show. I enjoyed talking to many; they were so engaging and genuinely interested in visiting with customers. Maybe it was the excitement of just starting the show, as opposed to nearing closing time on the last day - everyone was upbeat and cheerful. It made for an awesome quilt show experience, for sure. (It would be an interesting experiment to go back towards the end of a show to see if everyone is still as upbeat as they were at the beginning.)

While I visited several vendors, I only remembered to take pictures of a few. That makes me a poor correspondent, right? Several vendors were quite busy with shoppers, and I obviously did not make it into every booth. (Please don't feel slighted if a shop at the show isn't mentioned here!)

One that I visited early on and later returned to was Sew Happy Quilting Traditions located in Belpre, OH. What a cute little shop with a vivacious young owner, Rachelle Yost. I would really love to take a trip across the state to visit her shop and I know some ladies who, too, would be up for such a trip. *wink* Most of the spending I did while at the quilt show was done in this shop; I will just show you a couple of fabric stacks.




This pack of baby-themed fabric will go into a quilt for a special little one due near the end of the year. I don't know if they know the gender, but this should work for either.


This second pack is just a random group of reproduction prints that I thought I might use as filler or neutrals for many of those hexagon blocks I'm making.


Many quilts displayed in the quilt show featured 30s prints, so perhaps this put me in the mood to stock up. A handful of these prints came from Rachelle above, but I bought most of them at The Laughing Ewe booth from Canal Winchester, OH. I talked to the a woman who I think was the owner quite extensively, but there was lots going on and I failed to get a picture. I do have a few ideas brewing in my mind for using this stack of happiness. I will report on that as things take shape.

One vendor came all the way from North Carolina - Karen Comstock of Quiltricks. Her booth's feature quilt is called Anna's Rose. (I have a niece named Anna Rose.) I learned that the Anna for whom the pattern is named was Karen's grandmother, who had passed before Karen was born. In her grandmother's things, Karen discovered an appliqued rose, so she adapted it into this quilt. What a sweet, sweet story - and an equally sweet shop owner!


I met Annette Williams of Sewing the Good Life at the Hillsboro show a few weeks ago, so I was sure to look her up while in Circleville. She was quite busy demonstrating techniques and answering questions, so I talked mostly with her husband. He knows his stuff in the quilting business! I picked out just one fabric (exercising restraint!) and he commented "that'll be great for fussy-cutting." I just had to giggle. So cute. Here is that fabric and the pic I took of Annette in Hillsboro.



Other shops I visited - in some I made purchases, in some I did not - are worth mentioning, for sure. Lavender Street of Cincinnati. She is selling out her store inventory and going totally on-line, so I got a great deal here. Quiltmakers Workshop (the website is under construction, but she's on Facebook) run by Mary Beth Simms had tons of Kaffe Fassett fabrics, and I got 2 fat quarters - how to decide on just two??? I know; it was tough.


A shop local to me, Creations Sew Clever, had a booth which I visited, but did not linger; I can go to the store anytime, so I visited booths of those who came from greater distances. I know Rita Fishel takes her shop to lots of shows across the country; she has more energy than I can fathom! I hope you'll look for her if you are out at shows. Or better yet, come to Chillicothe!

I stopped by The City Stitcher of Centerville, OH, and I recall visiting with her last year. The thing that strikes me as interesting in her shop is her many premade blocks that busy quilters can buy for finishing up. The picture below shows a few of the options available. Blocks are packaged by color, or by design, or by size. Lots of variety. I didn't get to talk to her because she was with another customer, but her business fascinates me, and based on the crowdedness of her booth, lots of others were fascinated, too.


Finally, I will tell you about The Soap Shepherd out of Brookville, IN. She had so many soaps and lotions - all made with goat milk. I loved talking to the owner, Rebecca Meyer, and I had intended to go back to her booth before I left, but I forgot. I have looked at her website and I see that she offers on-line sales, so certain folks on my Christmas list might well see some fragrant-filled goodness wrapped up come holiday time.

That pretty well wraps up the 2017 Good Time Quilters quilt show. I hope you've looked at the quilts in the previous two posts, and possibly gained a little bit of inspiration.

Happy Quilting, Friends!