I was so pleased to discover that the local quilt shop Krazy Cow has a weekly stitching day. This lovely shop is in the old Railway Station, south end of Levin. I attended my first stitching day there yesterday, joining two other ladies. The numbers vary week by week, I was told, so I was happy to pick a quiet day for my introduction.
Krazy Cow quilt shop
Luchelle was on duty to help with anything the ladies needed, and she was kept busy offering help and friendly advice. Jenny (not me, a new quilter), was planning to make an appliquéd elephant cot quilt and wasn’t quite sure of colour choices, and what went with what. Jenny and Luchelle spent quite some time perusing the shelves, pulling various bolts of fabrics out and laying them on the table. Luchelle explained to Jenny that a little contrast was needed to make the quilt “pop”. The final choice was a selection of blues and greens with a white background, and red for the accent colour. This will be an original design, so it will be interesting to watch Jenny’s progress.
Fabrics for elephant quilt
Ann was also working on cot quilts, and had two pieced tops with her. One of them was laid out and safety pinned up ready for machine quilting. Luchelle then helped Ann set her machine up ready for free motion quilting. I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation. “Drop the feed dogs”, Ann was instructed. “Feed dogs? I didn’t know I had any”, was her reply. It wasn’t too long before Ann was trying her new skills on a practice piece so that she could get the hang of it, before she attempted her first lot of machine quilting on her cot quilt.
Ann’s teddy bear cot quilt
I wasn’t too sure what the day entailed, so just took some hand stitching along, plus my knitting bag. First I got a mending job out of the way, and pinned up the hem on my blouse ready to re-stitch. The blouse had elastic stitched into the hem, but I didn’t feel that was particularly flattering so I chopped it off. Then I did some more work on my “Red Brolly” design Christmas stitchery.
Some more stitching added to this
Krazy Cow offers a commercial machine quilting service, and the owner was busy quilting a customer’s quilt, serving customers and making hot coffee as required.
Machine quilter in action
In between times I had a good look around the shop, there is a great selection of fabrics, notions and patterns on display. I purchased some thread so I can get cracking and make new cushion covers for our new house. And bought a lovely hot freshly brewed coffee to enjoy with my sandwiches for lunch.
The shop advertising says, “Take your time, enjoy your stay, have a chat, an espresso or hot chocolate and come back as often as you like. You will always be made to feel welcome”. I can confirm that I was made very welcome indeed, and will certainly be returning regularly.
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