Off the Bolt
Stories, stitches, and the little wins between seams ~ pull up a chair.
Off the Bolt
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Overheard in the Quilt Show Lunch Line: My Hometown Is the Best One
Stand in any lunch line at any big quilt show and you will hear it within five minutes. Somebody asks where you are from, and suddenly everyone is bragging about home: the view, the music, the barbecue, the traffic they secretly love. Stitchin' In Your City is the Chic Quilter collection that lets a quilter wear her bragging rights, with each city drawn in a bright, stitched-together scene and its name written underneath in pretty script. -
Pages From a Quilter's Road Trip Scrapbook, Captioned in Canyonlight
Some of us come home from a big trip with a camera roll. Quilters come home with a scrapbook, of course, every page trimmed, layered and captioned by hand. Stitchin In Beauty National Parks reads like the prettiest scrapbook we have ever flipped through: each design pairs a park name arched across the top with a soft pencil sketch of the animal who lives there, a spray of wildflowers at its feet, the year the park was founded and a little handwritten line about stitching underneath. Turn the pag -
A Message in a Bottle, Drifting From the High Peaks Down to the Delta
Picture a little glass bottle with a note rolled up inside, tossed into a mountain stream and set loose to see where the water takes it. Stitchin' Along the River is the Chic Quilter collection that follows that bottle. In every design a blue river winds through the scene like a length of thread laid across the fabric, and each place is drawn in soft, stitched-looking layers of color. Fair warning: this bottle does not follow any route a geography teacher would approve. -
Piecing a Sampler Quilt From the Badlands to Kauai
A sampler quilt is a little bit of everything, one block at a time, each one a small experiment in color. Stitched Across the Land is the Chic Quilter collection that treats the whole map that way. Every design looks as if it were cut from fabric scraps and pieced into a landscape, with hills in patchwork greens, rivers in rippled blues and rock in every warm shade from rust to rose. The pattern for the whole thing is SewJourner, a compass rose with a sewing machine at its heart and a winding ro -
Pajamas On, Kettle Warm, and the Machine Humming by Seven
Some days ask for nothing more than a quilt across your lap and the heat turned up in the sewing room. Snuggle Up and Stitch is the Chic Quilter collection for exactly those days, when the whole plan is to stay home, stay cozy and let the machine do the talking from sunup to lights out. Sound familiar? -
Meet the Muses Who Hang Around the Sewing Machine
The ancient Greeks believed a muse would drift into the room and whisper in an artist's ear. The sewing-room muse keeps different hours. She does not drift. She sits right beside the sewing machine, usually on the one clean chair, and she has opinions. Sewing Machine Muses gathers the whole company of them, from the artsy to the outdoorsy to the ones with a smart remark ready, and every design keeps the beloved machine at its center. -
Say Cheese: The Resting Stitch Face Guild Sits for Its Official Photo
Once a year the guild hires a photographer. She sets up her lights in the church hall, arranges the folding chairs in three neat rows and asks, very sweetly, for everyone to smile. This is where things go sideways. The Resting Stitch Face Guild is our gathering of famous faces, patchwork faces and a few cats, all of whom share one expression: the calm, unbothered look of a quilter thinking about her next seam. The photographer tried. Here is how the rows came out. -
Open the Closet and Pick Your Mood: Sweet, Sassy or Gone Till Sunday
Every quilter wakes up knowing what kind of day it is going to be before her feet hit the floor. Some mornings are gentle and full of good intentions. Some mornings, frankly, somebody had better stay out of the way. Quilting Dreams Wardrobe is the Chic Quilter collection that lets you say which one it is without saying a word, in sayings washed in rainbow and sherbet colors that look like a fat quarter bundle turned into lettering. -
Birds Gonna Fly, Bakers Gonna Bake, and You Already Know the Rest
Some things in this world are simply laws of nature. The sun comes up, the cat sits on the fabric you just pressed, and a quilter with a free afternoon heads straight for her machine. Quilters Gonna Quilt is the Chic Quilter collection built around that one unshakable truth, written out in a handful of different hands so everyone can pick the version that sounds most like her own voice. -
Wrap It in a Fat Quarter: Gift Notes for Every Kind of Sewing Soul
Here is a secret the guild will never tell you out loud. When you give a quilter a present, the wrapping matters almost as much as the gift. Skip the paper and fold it in a fat quarter, tie it with a strip of selvage, and she will be delighted twice. Gifts for the Sewing Soul gathers the designs we reach for when it is time to celebrate a quilter, so we have paired each kind of sewing soul with the fabric we would wrap her gift in. -
A Fox, a Falcon and One Marmot Who Will Not Be Rushed
Every quilter has a little attitude tucked in her sewing basket, right next to the good scissors nobody else is allowed to touch. Embroidery with Attitude is the Chic Quilter collection that finds that same spirit out in the world: in wild animals drawn with a fine, sketchy hand, in hometowns stitched in bright color, and in two short sayings that get the last word. -
Learn the Flock by Ear: A Birdsong Guide to the Sewing Room
Serious birders will tell you the real skill is not spotting a bird. It is knowing one by its call before you ever see a feather. Birds of a Feather Stitch Together is our flock of quilt hair birds, and after enough sew days in their company we can name every one of them from the next room. Close your eyes, put the kettle on and listen. -
Rarely Filmed in the Wild: Big Cats, Bears and Whales at the Sewing Machine
Picture the hushed voice of a nature film narrator, the camera hidden behind a bush, the crew holding its breath. And there, in the clearing, a bear is laying out quilt blocks on a table. Arcs of Silk Thread is our collection of painterly wild animals caught mid project, each one wrapped in fine, glinting arcs of thread that loop through the air around them like the path of a needle. Settle in. Tonight's footage is extraordinary. -
Please Return Your Seam Ripper to Its Upright Position
The seatbelt light just chimed off, the cart is rattling down the aisle with pretzels, and the quilter in the window seat has already pulled a hand project out of her carry-on. Below the wing, the country rolls past one skyline at a time. Stitchin' In Skylines is the view from that window, a city for every stop on the flight path, each one built from the things its locals love most. -
Tug Any Loose Thread in Her Life and It Leads Back to Quilting
Loose threads get a bad name. Tailors snip them, mothers pluck them off your sleeve before church, and the dryer collects them by the handful. A quilter knows better. Follow one far enough and it always leads somewhere worth going. Sew Many Threads is the collection of those somewheres: the dog at her feet, the cat in the bobbin basket, the friends at retreat and the towns she has stitched her way through. -
The Merit Badges Real Quilters Earn Without Leaving the Sewing Room
Somewhere in a closet there is probably still a sash, green or tan, covered in little round badges for knot tying, first aid and selling a truly impressive number of cookies. Quilters never stopped earning them. We just switched to fabric and started stitching the badges on ourselves. The Sew It Yourself Club is where those badges live, one design for each skill a maker picks up between the first cut and the final binding. -
Today's Forecast for the Quilting Heart: Breezy, Bright and Scattered Scraps
Here is the weather for the week, read straight off the radar in the sewing room. A warm front of good ideas is rolling in, the winds are picking up color, and conditions are ideal for pressing seams flat. Gifts for the Quilting Heart is the collection built from that forecast: sewing machines caught in gusts, tides and sunrises, plus a handful of sayings the quilter you love would gladly repeat to anyone within earshot. -
A Yard of Sunrise and Half a Yard of Sea, Cut Straight Off the Bolt
There is a small, happy ceremony at the fabric store counter. You set the bolt down, it thumps over and over as it unrolls, the shears glide along the line, and someone asks the only question that matters: how much? Fine Fabric Favorites is the collection we would carry up to that counter if our designs came on bolts. Sunrises, seas, mountains and a few sayings worth repeating, each one deserving a generous cut. -
Estate Sale Finds That Still Have Plenty of Sass Left in Them
Every quilter has felt the thrill of an estate sale. You walk past the china and the lamps, head straight up the stairs, and there it is: a sewing room left just as its owner liked it, with a vintage machine under the window and a basket of blocks nobody ever finished. Vintage Stitch & Sass is our walk through that house, where every old machine still hums and every room has a personality. Mind the creaky step. There is a lot to see. -
A Brief History of Quilting, Told One Retro Icon at a Time
Historians will tell you that every age had its great leaders, inventors and artists. Here is the truth: every age also had a woman in the corner with a needle, quietly making something beautiful and wearing a very particular expression. Retro Stitch Icons is our collection of those women, and of the vintage looks they inspired, from royal portraits to arcade screens. Take your seat, class is in session. -
Crack Open a Fortune: Sewing Room Wisdom by the Sipperful
The best part of takeout night is the fortune cookie. You crack it open, read the little slip out loud and decide whether it applies to you. Quilters have their own fortunes, and they are far more accurate: your bobbin will run out mid-seam, a new fabric line will call your name, and someone will ask you to hem their pants. Quilter's Wine Sippers collects our favorite fortunes in bright rainbow lettering on stemless wine sippers with lids. Pick one, read it aloud and see if it comes true. -
Good Morning, Quilters: Here Are Today's Announcements
Remember the crackle of the morning announcements at school, the lunch menu, the lost mittens, the reminder about picture day? Every quilter runs her own version before the first cup of coffee is finished, and the message is always the same: the machine is waiting. Wake Up and Quilt is the collection for that first bright moment of the day, bold words in rainbow lettering and sunny scenes that make it very hard to go back to bed. Please rise for today's announcements. -
Mother Nature Has Been Strip Piecing for Millions of Years
Stand at the edge of the Painted Desert and look at those hills, banded in rose, cream and rust, one careful stripe after another, and any quilter will say the same thing: somebody has been strip piecing. Traveling Stitches is our collection for quilters who see fabric in every landscape. The designs travel through beloved states and, best of all, through our national parks, each one rendered in stitched texture as if the whole scene had been appliquรฉd by hand. -
The Patchwork Flock Seating Chart, and Why Chaos Finch Sits Nearest the Door
Anyone who has organized a sew day knows the hardest job is not the potluck sign-up. It is the seating chart. Put the wrong two quilters side by side and nobody finishes a block all afternoon. The Patchwork Flock is our gathering of quilt hair birds, each with a wild crest, a big personality and a quilt hair don't care attitude, and after careful thought we have worked out exactly where everyone sits. -
From the First Cut to the Final Stitch, a Few Good Words for Every Step
A quilt is a long conversation. It starts with a stack of fabric and a big idea, wanders through a few rough patches in the middle and ends, eventually, wrapped around someone you love. The Good Stuff ~ Pieced Together is our collection of quiet, clean line drawings, star blocks, spools, folded quilts and winding roads, each paired with a few words that fit one moment in that conversation. Here they are, in the order a quilt usually happens. -
Gather Round the Campfire for Tonight's Ranger Talk
At dusk in the national parks, visitors carry their camp chairs down to the little amphitheater, the fire gets going, and a ranger in a flat hat tells everyone who lives nearby. Quilters always sit in the front row, usually with a hand project in their laps. Stitchin' Through the Parks is that evening program in design form, a tour of the parks and the animals who call them home, each one drawn with a quilter's eye for detail. Settle in. The ranger is about to begin. -
If the Park Animals Took Up Quilting, Here Is the Block Each One Would Pick
Quilters have always borrowed from the wild. We have Bear's Paw, Flying Geese, Fox and Geese and Ocean Waves, all named by women who looked out the window and saw a pattern. Stitchin' In The Parks turns the idea around. Each design is one of our Stitchin In Beauty national park badges, a finely drawn animal set among wildflowers under the park's name, and we could not help wondering which block every one of these animals would reach for first. -
The Great City Shop Hop, With Jazz, Pizza and One Rocket Launch
Every quilter remembers her first shop hop: the map on the dashboard, the tote bag filling up, the friend in the passenger seat reading out directions to the next quilt shop. Stitchin' In the City imagines the grandest shop hop of all, through towns and cities drawn in bright, storybook detail, each scene lettered with the place where you will be stitchin'. Buckle up. We are making a few stops for snacks along the way. -
Pack the Sewing Kit, Your Stitch Away Itinerary Is Ready
Good news from the travel desk. Your bags are packed, your hand project is in the tote and somebody else has agreed to water the plants. Stitch Away Vacation is our collection of getaway scenes drawn like fabric collage, each one lettered with the place where you will be stitchin', plus a few retreat designs for the friends coming along. Here is the itinerary. Please keep your seam ripper in your carry-on at all times. -
Raise Your Sipper: A Round of Toasts for the Sassiest Quilter at the Table
At the end of every good sew day there comes a moment when someone taps a glass and says, "I'd like to propose a toast." Sip Sassy Quilter Wine Sippers is the collection made for that moment, stemless wine sippers lettered in bright rainbow gradients, each one carrying a toast with a little attitude. Fill yours up, find your spot at the table and join in. -
You Drew Her Name in the Guild Gift Exchange. Here Is Your Plan.
It happens every year. The basket goes around the guild meeting, you unfold your slip of paper, and there is a name you know only a little: the friend from the far end of the table who always brings lemon bars. Now you have a few weeks to find something that feels made for her. This collection exists for exactly that moment, a collection of Chic Quilter designs sorted by the kind of quilter they suit. Find her type below and your planning is done. -
Every Friend at Sew Night Says It in Her Own Handwriting
Pass a signature block around the table at sew night and something lovely happens. Everyone writes the same thing, usually her name and the date, and no two look alike. One friend loops every letter, another prints in tidy capitals, and somebody always adds a little heart. Sew Night Wine Sippers works the same way. The sayings are the ones we all agree on, and each one comes in its own hand, lettered in rainbow color on stemless wine sippers with lids. Pick the handwriting that looks like the fr -
Quilt Retreat Bingo, and How to Win It Before Lunch on Day One
Every quilt retreat plays a game of bingo, whether anyone prints the cards or not. Somebody forgot her foot pedal. Somebody brought a project she started in a different decade. Somebody's extension cord reaches exactly nowhere. Retreat Yourself Tees gives you a head start on the card, with tees for the whole crew and the faces everyone makes somewhere between the first cup of coffee and the last block at midnight. Dab your squares as you go.
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