Three Sisters Blog

I promised these pictures a while ago and then I realized that I better not post them until after the wedding lest a family member log in and see the quilt before the Big Day. Wouldn’t want to spoil their gift.

We really did enjoy working on this quilt. It had been a while since we put “our all” into one of our very own quilts. Since we started our quilt shop all of the quilts we make are usually shop related… Fabric that needs to be displayed, new patterns that have to be demoed, or quilts for other people. This time it was for a family member and for Jacquie so we made exactly what we wanted. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

For those of you interested in the patterns used on the quilt… The border is Abundant Feathers and the block was Emily’s Feather – Square. All patterns can be found here: Three Sisters Fabric Digital Quilting Patterns – Feathers

Here are the pictures of Carol Honderich’s quilts. They are wall hanging size and were a pleasure to work on.

Good morning! I sent this picture over to Accomplish Quilting this week because they are updating their sales rep information. It’s not the greatest picture because we don’t seem to have photography talent in the lighting department! But that’s OK, I guess. I figured you may still want to see a picture of me at my machine.

I really do enjoy longarm quilting! I took a quilt from a wonderful customer yesterday. I always feel honored when someone trusts me with their quilt. It is a scary thing to hand your top over to someone who has the potential, with a high-speed commercial machine, to RUIN your quilt in minutes! This dear lady, Carol Honderich, is a special part of the history of Three Sisters Fabric. She is a very talented designer of quilts. She and her friends found us while they were vacationing in Onekama, MI before our Michigan quilt shop was open to the public. They begged to come in anyway, and were so encouraging when we felt so small and unworthy. Eventually, our business grew and we enjoyed their annual visits to our store. As change sometimes happens, we needed to sell our store in Michigan and moved – of all places – to the very area these ladies are from! We were so thrilled to know we’d be moving near quilting friends.

Now, here we are in New Paris, Indiana and we are enjoying the privilege of building new relationships and also continuing to develop old ones from the past. Can you see why this quilt is so special to me? Why I feel like it is such an honor to work on?

Check back soon for pictures of the finished quilt…. Smiles, Allison

We are wiped out, but it feels sooo good! Thanks to a lot of help from our good friend, Ruth, we’re done with the first stage of the demolition project.

First we had to clean out all the stuff that was in the building from our move. That wasn’t too hard. We loaded the back of our Malibu Maxx (It’s a hatchback.) full of stuff and then drove it over to our garage where we picked a nice, empty corner and stacked it all there neatly. Of course, it took a few trips, but it got done rather fast.

Tammy – AKA Drillcilla

Then we dove into the unknown. Could we do it? It looked almost like fun, but would we girls be able to tear into all these shelves and oddly constructed cabinets and tear them down and burn them? Well, we did! We renamed ourselves Drillcilla, Pryanna, and Sludge after our tools of preference. It was rather funny to see how each of us were more comfortable with certain tools and were less adept with others.

Tammy and Ruth – with their less preferred tools

It took us two full days, but we are done. And it feels so good! Now, the walls have to be torn out and we are going to let the guys from church do that for us…. We’re worn out! When they’re done we are going to wire and insulate. We’ve insulated before and think it’s rather fun. Michael (my brother-in-law) said he’d teach us how to wire. I imagine that will be rather fun too. I’m looking forward to learning it.

We are very anxious to move in…. I suppose I need to remember that nothing gets done over night and prepare myself for a new lesson in patience! But really – I’m very, very happy to be making progress on our new longarm quilting studio!

Smiles,
Allison

Good news! We’ve begun the remodel process and will (hopefully) be in a new studio soon. Of course, we’re just in the very early stages. We’ve done a walk through with our contractor (who happens to be my brother-in-law) and now Tammy and I will start the clean up in preparation for him to begin the “tear apart”.  Yes… Most of the inside needs to be torn down and put back properly.

Here are some pictures of the building as it is now.  It was used by the former owner as a woodworking shop.  That has been cleared out and we’ve been using it for storage lately.  We are looking forward to the finished project, landscaping included!