Uncategorized478 Videos

Use found objects, kitchen materials to make your own fabric

You don’t need fancy equipment, expensive resists and printmaking stencils to create your own beautiful fabrics at home. That’s the lesson of “Fabric Printing at Home” by Julie Booth, an artist and experience fabric designer. In the 127-page full-color book filled with photo illustrations of the steps and techniques, Booth teaches readers how to create one-of-a-kind […]

Stephanie Soebbing

24 February, 2015

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Using storage totes to organize fabric by project

Like most sewers I have trouble keeping my fabric organized. I have a closet packed with fabric, but it is mostly just yardage stacked on top of each other. I needed a solution for projects with little pieces or notions that don’t stack well. I found it during one of those trips to Target when […]

Stephanie Soebbing

21 April, 2015

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Utilizing vertical space in a small sewing room

My sewing room is a tiny eight by 12 feet. At that size it is critical that I not only take advantage of each square foot of floor space, but also the vertical space. You might not think of your walls as potential storage for sewing items, but that’s what I’m doing in my sewing […]

Stephanie Soebbing

27 May, 2015

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Virtual Shop Hop – A Quilting Bee, Mahomet, Ill.

You can find A Quilting Bee in charming downtown Mahomet, Ill. It’s the kind of main street that is just a couple of blocks long, filled with small shops where you used to be able to buy everything you needed before Walmart came along. The quilt shop, which is located about 15 minutes from Champaign/Urbana, […]

Stephanie Soebbing

29 December, 2011

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Virtual Shop Hop: A Touch of Amish, Barrington, Ill.

Let me start with a disclaimer that while the quilt shop is named, A Touch of Amish, that doesn’t mean you’ll find Amish quilts there. According to the store’s website, when A Touch of Amish opened 25 years ago, it sold Amish toys, rugs and food. Today the only connection are occasional Amish-style quilting bees […]

Stephanie Soebbing

5 January, 2012

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Virtual Shop Hop: Cotton Creek Mill, West Branch, Iowa

If I ever opened a quilt shop, I would want it to be like Cotton Creek Mill. Located on a historic main street in West Branch, Iowa, the quilt shop has character you often find. There are original hardwood floors, stained wood shelves, painted wood trim facade. Every detail about the building is beautiful. And […]

Stephanie Soebbing

20 July, 2015

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Virtual Shop Hop: Expressions in Threads, LeClaire, Iowa

I call the Quad-Cities home. It is a metropolitan area made up of five cities bordering the Mississippi River in Iowa and Illinois. I know you just read “Quad-Cities” and then “five cities.” It’s weird, we know it. But in addition to the cities that make up the Quad-Cities proper, there are several smaller communities just outside […]

Stephanie Soebbing

20 July, 2015

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Virtual Shop Hop: Fern Hill Gifts and Quilts, South Amana, Iowa

Fern Hill Gifts and Quilts is one of two quilt shops located in the historic Amana Colonies in Iowa, not far from I-80. At first we thought this stop was a bust. The first floor is filled with gifts and tchotchkes, the kind of thing you buy on vacation or for an older relative who […]

Stephanie Soebbing

20 July, 2015

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Virtual shop hop: Glad Creations, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.

The first time I saw a quilt was when my freshman year roommate was stitching the binding on hers by hand one of the first nights we spent in the all girls dorm at Augustana College. I don’t remember much about the quilt except that it was bright, modern and I couldn’t believe that someone my […]

Stephanie Soebbing

13 December, 2011

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Virtual Shop Hop: Heartland Cottons, DeWitt, Iowa

Heartland Cottons is a quaint quilt shop in DeWitt, Iowa, that carries an impressive collection considering it is located in a town of just 5,000. The shop carries a line of paper-piecing patterns by a regional designer. The samples just make you want to knock out a couple wall hangings. Heartland Cottons also carries a […]

Stephanie Soebbing

16 October, 2012

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