Summer has come to an end and the kiddos are back in school. Only a few more days of Row by Row and it too will end for the year. We are so appreciative of every customer that walks through our door, follows us on social media or visits our website. Without each of you we would not be here! We hope to be here a very long time!
NEW HOURS – Effective September 7th our new hours will be:
Monday – Saturday 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Sunday 1:00 – 3 4:00 pm
If you are traveling and think you might not make it prior to closing – just give us a call and if we are able to stay open we will! You don’t know; if you don’t ask!
To stay up to date with our goings ons – we encourage you to follow our blog -or- follow us on Facebook -or- follow us on Instagram.
We have doubled our fabric since we opened and we have more arriving almost daily!
Some of our favorite collections……
Looking for some quick Christmas gifts? We have a variety of panels to choose from…..
And we have kits galore! Here are just a few……
Classes and Events!
Below is a list of our upcoming classes and events…..
Retreats
I hope you enjoy all of this information. Your feedback is appreciated!
Going to Pieces here in Luling TX!
Denise, Lindsey, Corey and Holly (and sometimes Aunt Tara!)
I may have mentioned in an earlier post that my word for the year is “ACTUALIZE”. I wanted something that would inspire me to do the things I really want to do and not procrastinate. Life is short, make the most of it.
Back in 1995 I started quilting, I think the seed was planted then that I wanted to own a quilt shop and share my new passion with everyone I came in touch with. A few years later while taking a workshop from Mary Lou Weidman she asked each of us what our favorite part of quilting was; I replied sharing what I know with other quilters. Time Warp to 2011 I became a certified instructor for Judy Niemeyer Quilting aka Quiltworx and I have had a blast. Traveling around Texas and even outside of Texas to teach and vend at shows has been so much fun; but I want to be more productive in my own community.
As you recall in 2014 we made the BIG move to the SMALL town of Luling, TX. There is just something about this town that calls upon me to make an impact! While we are not residents of Luling; we live just past the county line; I consider Luling my new hometown!
So begins the next chapter, and I am so excited about it! I have found a perfect little building right on the main drag. The owners have just completed a fabulous renovation and I must say it is full of charm and excitement. I can’t wait to share the inside with you – but for now you will have to whet your appetite with a few photos of the outside and the town.
For you to really appreciate the work that has been done I will start with a before photo from google.
The before photo!The address! 405 E DavisThe building, original brick, new awning, new doors and windows.Looking forward to seeing what my sign bidders come up with!Two doors down from the shop! It’s all happening here the last weekend in June! Two doors down in the other direction is a cute little shop that sells “beverages”
This one can be found at the Luling Oil Museum, however, there are many around town and that have been “decorated” and you can take a self-guided tour!
The Luling Oil Museum is a great place to learn more about the history of our town.
Stay tuned as I will be sharing photos from the inside soon. You will also get a sneak peek at the fabrics that will be lining our shelves!
Having been a very active member of my local quilt guild since 1997 I knew I would need to find a group to play with in our new location. There is a very small group that meets once a month at the Luling Art League and members take turns presenting something new. I like the idea that it is Fiber Arts – that will help get me out of my box!
Kelly is the organizer and she had recently attended the local SAQA meeting and was ready willing and able to share what they learned there. It was called mono print – we used a bray (a tool for rolling paint smooth) Glass and plexiglass but a jelly (sp) plate works better Kelly said.
Please note – while we used glass because it was what we had, care should be used if using glass not to press to hard as the glass will break. We also were using acrylic paint for our demonstration and playing, if you are using on fabric that will be laundered you should use appropriate fabric paints.
Here are the photos from our evening of getting messy.
The blank glassSome of the items we will use for texture
Kelly gave us lots of ideas for adding texture to the paint, such as a comb for lines, leaves, crumpled paper – the ideas really are limitless. Just say “what if?” and go for it!
Squirt the paint on the plexiglasuse the bray to roll the paint smoothHere Kelly pressed paper to the rolled out paint to show us how the transfer worksThe is the paper after pressing it to the paintPress this stamp into the rolled out paint – it will remove paintAdd lines of texture – then transfer to paperVanese gets in the Valentines spiritbut once she rolls the pair the red is no longer dominate – she drew a heart – the is fabric after transferHere is another Valentine sample from Vanese – this is the paint on the glassKelly has some really old paint but she just rolled it out and blobs of paint just added textureHere is the transfer – how weird is it that all of the red disappeared?Fun with finger painted designs – these are on paper – the front one is the first impression, then the back one is lighter as there is less paint on the glass.Vanese added some finger painting to her rolled out paint and the texture on fabric was really cool!More finger painted designsRemember the stamp at the beginning of the post? This turned out fantastic!
The March meeting of the Luling Fiber arts will be the 2nd Tuesday in March. I will be demonstrating paper-piecing (guess I didn’t get to far out of the box yet!). Join our Facebook group!
Stay tuned for more posts – I have a Mariners Compass to share next!
Tuesday I ventured out to the home site. This included dropping Corey off at work around 6:30 am and then heading west. I arrived at the site just before 9:00 am. Our driveway had been poured on Monday so it was very exciting to see that!
Yippee! We have a driveway! The team from Keystone Concrete did an awesome job with the design and installation!
Then I noticed our front door had been put in place!
A little bit of stain and some trim paint and it will be very inviting. You should see the doorbell – it is a Texas star too!
My reason for the trip was our appliances were to be delivered. A received a call from the builder that we were the last stop on the delivery list but I was already in route so I continued. I had brought along some errands to run. I mailed a package to my niece from the Luling Post Office. Then I headed to Lockhart to ship a box and check out the little quilt store there. As I was returning to my car from walking the Lockhart town square the builder called and the appliance truck was 20-30 minutes from our home, so I headed back to the site.
At the front gate I escorted a trade to a new neighbors future home site – he is their pool builder and I was able to meet Penny. We had met her husband a couple of weeks ago. Lots happening in the Settlement.
By the time I arrived at our home the appliances had been unloaded and the installers were having a couple of issues. The propane line for the stove was too high. The drain for the ice maker was to far forward. Luckily the plumbers showed up at that point and they were able to get to work. Unfortunately the appliance installation will continue another day as we do not have power to the house yet. The good news is – all the appliances were correct and they look GREAT!
Oven and Microwave!The wine chiller!The ice maker!Where the ice maker will eventually go – once the floor drain is moved!
The plumbers also installed the fixtures for the bathtub. I hope that faucet reaches the tub – Corey asked that question when I showed him the photo – I need to check that next time I am out there. (Hopefully the plumber confirmed this!)
The ceiling is all in place in the great room, all they need to do is stain it now. A little back story here – the painters came out an pre-stained the ceiling so only minor touch ups would need to be done – BUT they stained the wrong side! DUH!!! So our ceiling will now be stained in place!
The center beam has been covered in cedar – love!
And to finish it off…….
ALWAYS take time out to enjoy the little things! This beautiful little flower bush is blooming the middle of our sand pile!
About 10 miles into my long ride home I encountered a major rain storm. I finally pulled over in Schulenburg for about 20 minutes before I could see to get back on the road. Still had rain but everyone on the I-10 was playing nice and being considerate so we were able to continue. THEN…I hit Katy – my gosh the traffic was horrendous; between the weather and it being 5:30 pm it was a mess! I finally got to Corey’s work about 7:00 pm, about 2 hours later than anticipated. But safe and sound and that is what is important!
May your day be filled with lots of little things that make you smile!
These seem to be my least popular posts – so I apologize in advance for boring you yet again! There are a few of you out there that do enjoy them, so for you, I will keep on posting. For the rest of you – you can help me picture in my mind all these fabulous walls and surfaces with QUILTS on them!
Enjoy the update!
This sunrise is from back in March – in no time at all I will be able to walk to the end of the drive each morning and enjoy this view!This country road leads to sunrise hill (as I am now going to call it!) I am standing near David and Lilli’s driveway looking east, our home is on the right.
This past weekend we cruised the neighborhood and found the neighbor directly behind us is staking out the corners for their new home site. A couple of roads over we also met Mr. Fletcher, he and his wife hope to break ground in the next few weeks.
David and Lilli’s new house is coming along nicely. I am so so so excited for them! It is so much fun to watch the dream of others come to be! We are blessed to have them as neighbors!
A little bit of update on our home…..
One friend asked Corey when will he quit calling it “the property” I told him to tell Mark – “when we can flush!”
We almost have indoor plumbing!
We met with the builder and the flatwork supervisor yesterday and mapped out the driveway – Brian the concrete supervisor had some great ideas and I am really excited about what he has suggested! The framing should be in place when we head out this weekend and so we can see the footprint before it is poured on Monday!
One of the favorite features of our new home is the beautiful Austin stone and we incorporated this into our porches on the columns….
Our mason’s do fabulous work – but these little guys just needed something a little bit more. A call to our builder resulted in…..This – I love the cut stone caps! Yes, our masons ROCK!
We also love the cedar accents on the porch columns/ceilings and will soon see…..
This ceiling covered with……these beautiful cedar planks
Neither one of us take “baths” – we prefer showers, so we found a bathtub that will look great! Even if we don’t use it!
I picture a beautiful fern in this tub – what about you? (PS – the sheetrock behind the tub has now been repaired and is waiting for touch-up paint! I will post a new photo when the fixtures are in place!
And a photo of the man of my dreams and the man that I choose everyday to build my dreams with! He is amazing and a hard worker and I love him to the moon and back!
Foundations can mean a lot. In quilting I like to foundation piece, i.e. I paper-piece. There are the foundations of life. This foundation is for hubby’s barn. No we won’t have animals in the barn, I just like calling it a barn instead of a workshop. He also calls it the batting storage facility, as a longarm quilter I have a lot of batting.
Friday morning we stopped by the property prior to lunch and saw a cement truck – and we wondered who is getting concrete? We thought our foundation was already poured and that is what we were going to see. Well as we arrived at our lot and we saw that we were getting concrete. The first truck was just finishing up and we had passed the 2nd truck on the way in. There would also be a 3rd truck showing up to finish off the job. 22 yards of concrete are now the foundation for hubby’s barn.
The end of the 1st truckSHE was our driver for the the first truck!!!gloppy concreteOh – so that is how they get it levelMuch smootherCan you hear the slurp of the boots?After leveling with the board, then they tamp with thisAfter they tamp they use this to smooth it off againUnloading the 2nd truckFoundations for the pillars for the canopyOne of the trees that will shade and disguise the barnThis little gas powered unit has large fan blades that very slowly rotated and added a “brushed” finish.Now that is a pretty slab!Looking up from a small clearing to the left of the driveway – I think a table and chairs will need to go here so I can enjoy this view!Lots of critters …..I was fascinated watching these ants build their bed. They go down in the hole and then each come up with a grain of sand on their back – I have more photos of these industrious little home builders!I had to walk to the top of the hill to see the sunset – a very pretty sky!A view of the road from the top of the hill. Our property starts at the top of the hill at the first utility pole, our property goes past the bottom of the hill to the 2nd utility pole (which you cannot see in this photo)A view from the road, to the left is the barn slab, to the right is where they are marking the envelope for the house. The little wild flowers were not here a week ago!
The rest of the barn arrives in a week, which means we should have a structure built by mid-December. I think we shall put a bow on it and let it be Mr. Green’s Christmas present! (Although, I think he asked Santa for a tractor!)
This past weekend was Houston’s International Quilt Festival – always an inspiring time of year. I love seeing friends that I haven’t seen in a while and taking a couple of minutes to catch up. The quilts juried into this show and the best of the best and several members of our guild had quilts juried in this year – I am a member of an amazing guild – Lakeview Quilters Guild of Houston, TX.
One of our members just published her second book – “Picture Piecing Traditional Quilts” by Cynthia England – I was honored to quilt a few of the quilts for her new book. Check out her work at http://www.englanddesign.com
I also had a big birthday on Saturday – you know one of those that ends in a 0. We celebrated with friends and family most of the weekend. Now I get to start over at 29!
The last 50 years have been amazing – my husband and I have been married 25 of those years and we had always talked about building a home together. We purchased property a few years back and now we are embarking on a very scary adventure – YIKES! I relate building in the country to the children’s story “If You Give A Pig a Pancake”. When you build in the country, you need a well, before you can get a well you need power, before you can get power you need an address, before you can get an address you need an entrance (road) to your property, before you can get a road you have to figure out where you want your structures. At the beginning of the year we started designing our new home, once you have that design then you can figure out about where you want it on your 6+ acres, then you can orient the barn aka workshop, then you can design the road. Good news is – we have the beginnings of a road, we have a “barn” on order and it should be completed by the end of this month! We hope to break ground on our home the end of March 2014! Life is good!
The hydro mulched that will be clearing our land – no burn pile when he is done – it is all mulched!This large head can chop down trees and then grind them into mulch!See how dense the undergrowth is in the backgroundAfter mulching – it is very park like!
And now I would like you to meat a few of our neighbors!
This one was from spring – I loved the setting with the spring bloomsHave you seen my horn?Across the street from our propertyPeek A Boo! They were just around the corner from our propertyNo hunting – we will live in a gated wildlife preserve
