For the blogging challenge day 4 the topic is my favourite tools. I could fill a shop with the things I love to use for quilting and.. hey wait a minute, I Did! I’ll narrow it down to my top five tools I can’t live without.

Stork scissors – my grandmother either gave me a pair or I inherited them, and I also went and bought a second pair. While the classic gold stork is available everywhere, I carry these rainbow unicorn ones for fun. I’m really trying not to own a third pair, even if I do leave both pairs lying around and always have to hunt for them.

Seam tape – this is washi tape with 1/4″ seams marked on it, and for many people they are underwhelmed. But I have this on the bed of my machine and the extension table and it really helps me keep my seam straight and accurate – especially when I’m sewing fast! It will lift up over time, but it’s a big roll and you can place it on all your machines. I even use it to line up seams when I do the diagonal bit for binding. I never mark these!

Numbered pins – I got these one year as a Christmas present and I use them all the time to make rows as I put them together. They are very long pins as well, so I’ve been known to grab one in a hurry to pin a pile of pieces together too.

Ergonomic rotary cutter – I have a few rotary cutter bodies, and some I like for different reasons, like the price. But when my hand or arm hurts, I reach for this ergonomic cutter. You can lock the blade open so you don’t have to squeeze it to stay open, thus making it easier on your grip if it’s weak that day.

Design Wall – this is a sleeper hit, as you don’t realize how much you actually DO use it and it’s way better than arranging blocks and pieces on the floor or bed. Worth every penny and you don’t even think about how you’re actually using it every day.

Since I own a quilt shop, i could argue the entire shop is my sewing space, but I do have a dedicated space for sewing. It’s in an upstairs bedroom that we use for an office as well as a sewing space. It is just down the hall from the shop.

Every so often I rearrange the room, so this is something like the third arrangement since last year.

Slightly out of frame to the right is my desk and Ron’s recliner. To the left is more storage for office supplies, the printer, and a large tv. Hey, I have all the important things in here.

Also to the extreme right and almost behind me is the closet with all my fabric stash and quilts and craft things. It’s a hot mess. It is driving me crazy bit I have to live with it for now.

My longarm is in the downstairs rec room, but it’s been sold and is about to be removed. But that’s not really a sewing space! It is also a mess right now.

This post is part of the 31 day blogging challenge. Yesterday I mistakenly called it a 30 day challenge. Oops. I blame my covid sick brain.

Hi there!

I’m Andrea, the owner and operator of the Quilting Shed, which is a tiny wee shop outside of Fredericton NB in Canada. One of my hobbies used to be blogging way back when I didn’t have a quilt shop in what I call The Before Times.

For those who don’t know me, I have been crafting, quilting, and sewing since I was very young. My paternal grandmother is still a HUGE influence on my work, even though she’s been gone for 20 years. She was the one who taught me my first hand stitches and my first attempts at quilting. Now I have my own grandchildren and you bet I’m passing on my love of crafting and sewing and quilting to them too!

While I haven been quilting for a good 30 years, my shop here is only about 4 years old, coming up on five. WOW. I had to stop and think. I started out longarming for people while I still held down a full time remote job in tech. For my tech career, I had started out as a web developer, ran a consulting company with my husband, wrote a book, contributed to the code base that runs this very website, and ended up running a support team before finally leaving that world for this one.

My style runs all over the place and I appreciate most fabrics that cross my hand. Left to my own devices, I choose crisp clear and bright colors, with designs that lean modern. I love tiny paper piecing and I love large blocks that finish fast. I’ve tried almost every technique at least twice! I love to learn and love to figure everything out – from where thread comes from to how to add a new feature to the website.

I’ve done the 30 Day Blog Challenge from Muppin before and figured now was a good time to go at it again. Hopefully, I can get back in the habit of regular updates here on our shop blog. Not just for shop updates, but for learning and sharing too!

You read that right – all in stock patterns and books in the shop are on sale for 30% off for the month of November! If you are from outside our local area and would like some patterns (or even just one) shipped to you, we are even offering an added bonus of FREE SHIPPING on patterns!

Just use the code “pattern-blowout” when you check out.

Here’s just some of our patterns and books below.

On top of holidays, we have a few extra days this month we will be closed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Oct 10 – Closed for Thanksgiving
Oct 11 – Closed
Oct 18 – Closed
Nov 1st – Closed
Nov 9 – Closed
Nov 11 – Closed for Remembrance Day

If you would like to shop outside our regular hours and closures, you can also call / email / message to make an appointment. Some evenings and after hours may be doable.

You read that right! All the wideback 108″ fabrics, all the Fireside, and wider width fabrics we have are all on sale twenty percent off their regular price for the whole month of October.

This is a good time to look at the quilt tops you have finished and see which ones need a backing. You’ll have time to get it quilted and be ready for Christmas!

Some people love working with panels, some hate them! Either way, they give you a lot to talk about.

When you sign up for our newsletter, we send you a free pattern for a throw quilt using a standard sized panel for the center, with three matching fabrics. I thought I’d do some mockups with some panels we have in stock to see how they’d look all made up.

I used the EQ software for this. Once I had the pattern diagram in the program, it is super easy to recolor in new fabrics!

This is our Save the Bees panel. I choose a bright yellow and ebony black from our Canvas blenders line. Simple and easy! I didn’t choose a third accent color and used black there as well. For dark quilts like this I recommend using a black batting as well. Any bearding from the batting will be black and not noticeable.

Then I did a mockup using Feathered Nest. I actually tried a few different combos with the fabrics. Every single one looked great, no matter what fabric I used or where it was placed.

This fabric is so new I’ve barely mentioned it! Father Christmas arrived early and I had to see what it looked like in a quilt. Stunning, but we all know I am a sucker for the blue and white snowflakes. I played around with the accent colors and placement here.

Even though the pattern I used is fairly simple, there’s lots of room for customization – changing the borders, substituting blocks in the corners, and placing different fabrics in alternate areas. Which panel would you pick?

If you are looking for more ideas to use panels in quilts, I made a Pinterest board for you to peruse.

It’s true! Every single pattern in our shop, and even more in store, are now on sale for 20% off until the end of June. If you’ve had your eye on one, now is the time to get it! We’ve been clearing out so we can restock with all new patterns.

Shop now.

Similar to Minky and Cuddle, Fireside is a 100% polyester stable knit that comes in a 60″ width. This is perfect for lap quilt and cuddling! With a shorter pile, there’s less fuzz when cutting and it shows off your quilting beautifully.

Available in 48 colors, in stock colors are listed below. Please order in 1/4 m increments. For example, to order 1 meter you’d place 4 units in your cart.