Good news. You can now order as much as you want from Suppose online and just pay $5 for Priority Mail shipping! It’s a total steal considering those heavy yards can easily add up to costing $10-25 to get to you. Just choose the $5 Flat Rate option at check-out and you’re good to go.

We hope this makes it easier to get what you need without worrying about those pesky pounds. Now about those other pesky pounds…

Quilt Sampler Release Party

Tuesday May 8 9am-9pm

There’s tons going on that day, so here’s the nitty gritty.

• 15% off store-wide sale (even clearance!)
• 10am-4pm – complimentary chair massages by Heaven & Health from SLC
• giveaways all day
• see the famous Colored Pencils Quilt in person

Then from 5-9 the festivities really get serious…

• 5pm – Free Paper Piecing Mini Class (so you can make the pencil points in the Colored Pencils quilt without fear)
• Tons of yummy food provided by the NY Deli
• Larger-than-life game of Pictionary
• Insanely awesome prizes to give away, from charm packs to big bundles of fabric

You won’t want to miss these prizes. Lots of loot to go to many winners, from our favorite brands including Andover, Clothworks, Moda, Shannon, Quilters Dream Batting, Quilting Treasures, Timeless Treasures, and more.

We’ve got some adorable party favors too. That’s probably uncouth to brag about the party favors before a party, but they just make me smile and I can’t wait to give them out (starting at 5, be there early in case we run out!).

See you Tuesday at Suppose in Preston!

It’s the 10th of April, and we are still celebrating being named a Top 10 shop in North America. We’ve been counting down with a free pattern or tutorial each month on the 10th until the official release of our feature in Quilt Sampler magazine on May 8. Just wait till you see the quilt we designed for them. I can’t wait to show you!

But back to the free pattern. One of my favorite classes to teach here at Suppose is hand embroidery.  In planning the first class, I wanted the students to be able to practice a bunch of stitches but also end up with something they didn’t just want to throw away, so I designed this simple sampler of concentric circles.

It reminded me of the mandalas I learned about in high school, so that’s what I named it.  It’s very simple, but we’ve had so many requests for the pattern so I wanted to share it. Just go here to view the full Mandala Embroidery Pattern or to download your own copy.

Now we have an Anna Maria Horner pillow for our Anna Maria Horner chair. Thanks, Rosie!

All the outer pattern pieces got fussy cut.


Didn’t know such a thing could be so cute.

As we await the release of our feature in Quilt Sample Magazine (since you asked–it’s out May 8), we are marking our countdown on the 10th of each month and celebrating being named a top 10 quilt shop by sharing a tutorial or pattern. Last month it was our heart bunting, and this month it’s my beloved On Parade Mini Quilt, featuring Sarah Jane’s On Parade embroidery.

We’ve even got kits with everything you’ll need, right down to the floss and the batting. This quilt has made me smile more than most quilts I’ve ever made, and I hope you enjoy it too! View the instructions here.

I’m keeping more photos of my quilting in this Flickr set, btw. Many customer quilts and a few for display in the shop. (Thanks, everyone who’ve let quilt your quilts!)

Throughout this process I’m learning a lot. And since we get lots of questions about this sort of thing, I thought I’d share some tips for getting the most awesome quilt possible when sending it to a longarm quilter.  And for more info on our longarm services, check out this info sheet. Here we go.

• Use high quality fabric. Budget fabrics can have a brittle texture. What does that mean for quilting? The needle may break the fibers rather than pass between them, creating tiny holes, and the batting can beard through on the back.
• Square up as you go–each block, each border. You don’t want to have to trim any of that quilt off before the binding goes on!
• Don’t force the borders. When using a pattern’s border measurements, you may end up with a wavy border, or one that’s pulled to tight.  This doesn’t mean you did something wrong, but everyone’s seam allowances can vary by a hair, and those hairs can add up to a measurable difference. Your actual quilt dimensions may not be exactly like the pattern, so you’d be forcing the wrong size of border to fit your quilt. Cut your border big, then trim it off/square it up after sewing it on.
• Press from the front, not just the back. Press as you’re piecing, and press the entire quilt again when it’s all finished. You can spot folds in seams from the front that you might not see on the back. You’ll avoid tucks and misshapen-ness in your finished quilt.
• Stay-stitch finished quilt tops by sewing around the entire quilt top with a regular stitch length and 1/8″ seam allowance. This will keep things from stretching and prevent seams from coming unraveled between now and when the quilting is done.
• Trim threads on both the front and back. Don’t pull–you don’t want any seams coming undone! Stray threads showing through your quilt can be distracting. This is more easily done before the quilting catches all those strays.
• Check for loose or undone seams.  Sometimes we miss these things, and it’s always easier to re-sew it before it’s quilted than try to repair it after.
• Make quilt backs big and square them up. The quilt back should be at least 4″ larger on each side than the quilt top. This allows for proper loading on the longarm, and gives enough room for the way everything is taken up in the quilting. The sides of the back should also be exactly perpendicular to each other–a lopsided backing will be lopsided when it attaches to the quilt on a longarm. We don’t want any puckering or stretching! Don’t be afraid to use minky, interlock knits, or to mix and match different fabrics for the back. Pieced backs and different textures make for the opposite of boring.

These are also not bad to follow if you’re quilting yourself on a domestic machine or by hand. I do have to mention that for those times when I’m not using the longarm for the quilting,  505 Spray & Fix temporary adhesive is by far my favorite way to baste these days. It’s faster and more reliable than pinning or thread basting, and it washes out. It’s re-positionable so you can adjust and smooth out your quilt as needed, yet it holds strong enough that I can tote around a project and not worry about it shifting.

There you have it. Do you have any of your own tips?

We’ve got kits either with or without the book (for those who already own Quilts, Baby!), and it even includes everything for the pieced back.
We’ve already had requests for the giraffe version as seen in the book, and a pig version. We’ll have to see about that!

And this is who you would find inside: my new niece, Milly! (Cue: Awww.)