I am expanding the YLI Silk Thread line with eight new colors coming to the quilt shop!  Use YLI silk thread to create nearly invisible needle turn stitches.  Find the color that most closely matches your applique fabric, not the background.  Using a straw, or applique  needle, and possibly a needle threader, and enjoy the smooth stitches.  I love that its a natural fiber, like the cotton I use for my fabrics and Hobbs Wool or Hobbs Heirloom for my batting. For more information on applique see my Video on Hand Applique .

The Bohin Chalk Pencil is my new, very favorite quilting notion. It is completely non-permanent on my quilt tops and has the added bonus of creating a very thin line.  This is the dream tool I have always wanted.  It comes with replacable chalks in a different colors.  So far I have tested and used the white and grey.  With just a click of the pencil I have a new point for drawing my applique shapes or quilting lines on dark fabrics. 

It does have the ability to remove easily so for a more long lasting white line on dark fabrics I have adopted the White Water Erasable Fabric Pen - Bohin. or the Water Erasable White Pen - Clover. They both work the same way.  You draw the line and wait few seconds for it to appear.  I have found that  its easily removed with a heated iron rather than the water.  I had great succes using the Clover pen for my recent summer applique project.

 The weekend was a great success! We were so glad to talk with and meet, so many  friends, quilters and supporters of the quilting arts.  The days went by quickly as I helped our shoppers and my husband handled the sales.  The new venue for the show was great,  having quilts and vendors all in one room.

 From a recent e-mailI received, I began to re-realize the meaning behind "a common thread".  My e-commerce Quilt Shoppe gets visitors from all over the world.  Some of these include very far off places such as Taiwan, Japan, Lithuania, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. Some closer to home countries include Spain, France,  Great Britain, Turkey, Croatia, Romania, Brazil, Chili and  of course our Canadian friends.

 In fact you don't  have to go outside our borders to get the feeling that you are connecting with others through a common thread.  From one part of our nation to the other, people live following different cultures, philosophies and religions.  

Weather I am answering quilting questions from  my neighboring states to the south ,  the mid-west, Alaska or over seas I still find it fascinating that all across the world we have a  common thread of being  a part of a quilting culture.  

Quilters want to know how-to, which products, thimbles and threads work best.  We all know that's YLIand Aurifil!  Quilters  all over are hungry for classes and information at the basic level.  I imagine it must seem a bit difficult for non-quilters to understand why we want to cut up larger pieces of fabric only to sew them back together to make a quilt top.  Certainly it's easier to find a pre-fabricated quilt at the local discount mart, but the final product is not really the point in quilting culture,it's about the journey we take to get there.

I encourage everyone who has ever wanted to quilt to take the journey, find your path and define your own quilting culture.   

Quilting Culture (as I define it): The social(attending quilt shows,  bees), intellectual    ( attending lectures, classes workshops) and artistic( attempting to step out of your comfort zone through color and pattern and design) manifestations that characterize a society ( or a quilter). The refinement of taste as acquired by training. (Learning what you like by taking chances, classes, workshops).

Last January  I wrote about  how cats and quilts can live together.  As a person that works alot from home, I can tell you that we don't just live together, but also work together.  Of our three cats, Shadow is the most reliable.  He will let me know shipments have arrived by running to the door and sniffiing them out. Which probably also makes him my first level security watch-cat.  Although,  I think he would only make lots of noises to alert me  if the boxes were laced with tuna. Shadow is also responsible for our many server and computer "problems". Since he sleeps on my desk, which is home to  several  computers and our server's keyboard's, he inadvertently presses many keys and causes what we call the computer "kitty-virus".  I think its his way of  keeping our technology engineer on his toes.

I'm happy to have NEQ up and running one year later and the store will have its anniversary in April.  We are constantly improving our site and our products and plan to have more instructional videos out this year.

The picture is Kasih as she "helped" with my photo shoot of the quilts for the web-site. Shadow opted out as he must have had sleep to catch up with.

Thanks to everyone for their support!!

I am  very excited to announce that Nancy Ellen Quilts  will be a vendor at the March 20 -21, 2010 LIQS Show.  I will be stocking up with all my usual supplies and threads, batting, scissors and some extras I think everyone will enjoy.  including note cards, pads and handmade soaps. and more.  I am looking forward to seeing the new venue,  but I think I may not have the luxury of spending lots of time admiring the show quilts.  Please stop by and say "hi". 

Long Island Quilters Society Show   

Garden City Field House, 295 Stewart Ave

We spent another productive weekend setting up a beautiful Flash Slideshow Ad for the site.  The technology is amazing.  As usual I get to do all the creative work while my husband controls the technical portion, I think I get the better of the deal.   Selecting just the right photos took alot of time. And then we had to adjust the  "flash code" xml to make the fonts and copy express just what we wanted to say.  I think in all it came out pretty great. 

It's not a very warm summer, sort of like the summer of 03. I think that's the one where it rained all the time. So already I am thinking of fall projects. The world of quilting is no different than the fashion business. Fabric lines and colors are selected well in advance of the season to come. So as catalogs come to my home I am already getting warm inspiration to create a simple and cozy patchwork quilt. I think thats exactly what the industry had in mind. Sometimes I have to let the applique go for while. I can see myself creating a little snowman table runner. Or maybe a flannel lap quilt. I've never done that!

As of the last entry I dont think I have been able to add many more petals to my own personal project. I have been very busy updating the website and store. Lots of store administration. As the summer rolls on, although not very summer like weather, I need to complete the project for the fall Hand Quilting class as well as a charity project which will be raffled off. I was looking forward to a great break from this at the PNQE show this Sept. and I was registered for classes and hotel, but it seems I planned that one all wrong. The show falls on the exact weekend of the Holidays, and after all, I had to cancel. I should have looked ahead and planned my time better. I look forward to getting out to the Lancaster show next April, maybe?

I took a workshop last weekend in Lancaster at the QHC show. A teacher who specializes in Piping, shared with us how she has no time to quilt. I see what she means. I really try to fit in lots of time to work on my latest project. Even as I am writing this my son is asking me lots of questions and I am cooking dinner. I hope that later this evening I'll have a chance to applique a few more petals.