The Quilted Windmill in Pella Iowa

Marny and Jill here…We had a fun road trip yesterday!  

A couple weeks ago we got an email from Kelly Van Vliet.  She had recently purchased VandeLune Fabrics in Pella, Iowa and was going to reopen as The Quilted Windmill (the name of her existing long arm quilting business). 

We enjoyed communicating by email about a trunk show and one thing led to another and we decided it would be fun to see her store "under construction", deliver quilts and patterns in person, and get to know Kelly a bit better. 

Kelly Van Vliet of the brand new "the Quilted Windmill".  She opens for business on Thursday, February 6.  701 Main Street, Pella, Iowa.

View from the front door

Fun signs, kits, new fabrics…

Eager to see what she is going to do with these doors…

Nice new fabric shelves and display units made from wood and metal…and the requisite tulip fabric for this wonderful predominantly Dutch community.

A wide range of fabrics…

The store is going to be great!  We'll be going back for sure.

Fabrics she had that we thought would be perfect in a child size Supper Club. It is always fun to choose new fabrics for favorite patterns!  The lions and tigers for the large rectangles, the brown with dots for the verticals and the yellow for the horizontals.  There was a really cute alternative orange choice too, but somehow it didn't get in the picture.  I think it got buried in quilts.

Supper Club pattern MQR 107

All three fabrics are Robert Kaufman, the yellow is a Spot On
and the brown based dot and green with animals are both
from their Jungle Creatures, Bermuda line. 

Till Tuesday…

Seeing things to completion!

Marny here,
We are tying up some loose ends around the Modern Quilt Relish studios.

First, remember when we told you about this Market Values quilt we stitched up for Heidi Kaisand and her store Hen and Chicks Studio.  April was kind enough to send a pick when she visited and saw it up on the wall.  Doesn't it look wonderful quilted and bound!  (The quilter did a wonderful job, wish we could credit her but we do not know her name.)  (Just found out her name is Kelly Van Vliet.  Thanks April for the info.)   The fabrics were all at Heidi's so if you want to explore the possibility of a kit give them a call!

We also get to wrap up the Jennifer Moore's Monaluna Taali version of Supper Club and send it on its way to California.  Her fabric designs are so special.  Perfect for a Modern Baby.   Enjoy looking at her blog and her website.

Here it is all spread out.  Sorry about the fold lines.  The binding has been on for a couple of weeks but the quilt has been folded on a shelf patiently waiting for a label.

Close up of the quilting lines.

Label just about ready to be sewn to the back of the quilt.  We use Printed Treasures fabric sheets.    They work great and we can print straight from the computer using a regular printer.  The labels are simple and functional.

Enjoy February!  Valentine's is just around the corner.  I hope to put together some homemade gifts before the next post.  Uh oh!  Now I've done it.  An audience and a deadline.  Yikes...

Till Tuesday...

Monaluna Taali Makes Up Two Child Supper Club Modern Quilts

Marny here...
Hope all of your New Year's are off to good starts.  We are off and running because we completed two new quilt tops New Year's Day, but more on that a bit later.

One of the great perks of having Modern Quilt Relish is meeting interesting, creative people you've admired and establishing relationships with them.

I had ordered this incredibly cute Scooter fabric from Monaluna awhile back.  The owner's personal touch and attention to my order really struck me.
It is Scooters from her Monaco collection.  I also ordered Circles and Double Dots in both Teal and Green.

We actually got to meet the talented designer, Jennifer Moore, briefly at the Salt Lake Quilt Market.  Her vehicle was parked near ours as we attempted to load all our booth belongings into the car in a 40 mph wind.  It was rather comical.  We each had our challenges, but we all saw the humor in it.  It was such fun to meet a designer we'd admired up close and personal.  Yes, I still get a bit star struck.

In Houston we spent a bit of time in her Monaluna booth and fell in love with Taali.  (Along with all her fabrics I might add.)  We pounced on the idea of using the line in our Supper Club Pattern.  Jill approached Jennifer with the idea, and she kindly supplied her wonderful fabric.  So when Spring Market arrives in Kansas City, we each will have a sample for our booths!


The two quilt tops are ready to be quilted.  Supper Club works up very quickly in the child version using a single focus fabric in the large rectangle.  Here is cover of the Supper Club Pattern.

We will show you the completed projects when we get them back from April.  They are cute!!!

But here are my pictures of the Taali collection to satisfy your curiosity until that time.  Please visit Monaluna for more information about her fabric and we encourage you to order some for yourself.

Her fabrics are all 100% Organic cotton printed with AZO-free dyes.  The fabric itself is a medium weight poplin that is easy to sew and press and looks great in completed projects.

The fabric we chose as the focus fabric in the large rectangles of Supper Club.

So cute!  A medium value so great to use as the horizontal stripe in the pattern. 

Vertical stripe in a darker value.  Because it is a directional print we cut it out thoughtfully.

Fun stripe to be used as binding we think!  (also used on one back)

Dot we used as the background in our Supper Clubs and on a back in one.

Taali, Such a happy collection!
More on these quilts and Monaluna in later posts.
Till Tuesday.
Check out Jennifer's photos of Taali!
There are more pieces in the collection on her site.

Quilts for Kids...and Fun Too!

jill here......Last year we blogged about my traditional  holiday sewing party...twelve years of projects.  This  year, after sorting fabrics, I decided that some of my great kids fabrics would make some cute quilts!   Of course, I'm a great collector of fabric but of course, I never have enough of the appropriate backgrounds.  I had to shop for just a few yards!  I thought about planning 4 quilts with two different patterns but then I remembered to keep it simple! So the charity quilts would all be sewn from our pattern Supper Club!  The hope was for eight sewers to piece 4 quilt tops within 5-6  hours.  BUT,  there would be time out for lunch and lots of laughter.

We divided into two groups of four:  2 sewers, 1 presser, 1 cutter acting as the coordinator.  Each group had 2 quilt tops to construct.  I had cut the fabric earlier and we had 4 sewing machines set up, two in the kitchen and two in the studio.  It really wasn't a competition but there was a sense of friendly rivalry.   Could we succeed?

Warm cider gets us going!

Marianne at the iron, close to her kitchen duties.

Gale and Leona sewing in sunshine, still smiling.

There was division of labor and Laura handled the iron like a pro.

Marny managed the studio group and made the cuts!

Time out for a wonderful lunch prepared by Marianne.

Two quilt tops nearly finished (the other two as well).
Most of all, it was a great time with great memories!

Four quilt tops in a row!

Kid and Puppies.

I'm thinking I may just try my machine hand at the quilting but don't hold your breath!  Enjoy the season,

'Till next Tuesday...

Hot Today - Modern Quilts are too!

Marny here...

The forecast in this morning's paper says it all.  "Be prepared to deal with hot temperatures again today.  Our highs will be in the middle 90's.  There will be a gusty south wind that may feel like a blowtorch."  For some reason that description seemed very apt to me!

So down to the sewing room I go.  The temperature is better and there is fabric to play with.  The scraps sorted on my cutting table are calling to me.  One pile in particular seems to be all about "cool."  It happens to be made up of the analogous colors:  green to blue-green to sort of blue.  There are three values of each.

They happen to be the leftovers from one of our new patterns called Supper Club.  I have a variety of little pieced units remaining.  I love the cool colors of the ocean, grass and sky.  Slicing and dicing will commence.

The little strip sets get cut into unequal portions.

Another scrap gets cut into 1 1/2" strips.  Not sure at this point why, except that it seems it might be useful down the line.

The little units are stitched to a background strip.

Cut apart and pressed.  Then sewn to another, wider strip of  background.  

Cut apart and pressed to reveal "blocks".

Playing with layout 1.

Layout 2.

Layout 3.

Lots of playing and decisions to be made.  The blocks purposefully have unequal amounts of background on either side.  I may add some to the top and/or bottom of the blocks as well.  Then they will be trimmed down.  At this point, a really asymmetric result with more negative space is what I have in mind.  But there is a lot of flexibility built into the process.  It will also need a something unexpected to add visual interest.

This process would be great for many of the pieces we are left with after finishing a quilt.  The little center "stripes" don't have to be pieced leftovers, they could be any fabric.  Just think of the baby quilts and table runners that could result.  Give it a try!

See you next Tuesday.