Road to California Quilt Show 2016 - Here We Come!

Remember the boxes we had ready to ship to California?

It's show time!! 

It's a wonderful break from the Iowa winter here in Ontario, CA for the 2016 Road to California Quilter's Conference & Showcase.

As you walk in, it is quite a sight to see many beautiful quilts hanging up in this grand hallway of the Ontario Convention Center.

Remember the boxes we packed from a few entries ago?  Well, here they are!  They made it safe and sound.  And now we're getting ready to set up our booth.

The backdrop is ready and there's quite a bit to do to get the rest of the booth set up.  We are able to bring quite a variety of fabrics, notions and kits to sell.  

 And.... here it is!  Our full booth set up.  We're ready to talk to shoppers and help you any way that we can.  It will be a fun 4 days in sunny California!  Hope to see you there!

To see a VIDEO of our booth, go to our facebook page.
 
And if you can't make it to California to the show, or if you don't live close to us in Iowa, you can shop for all of our hand-printed fabrics on our website at blockpartystudios.com.  Happy quilting!

 

www.BlockPartyStudios.com

When the Fabric Comes In

We'll go into more detail about the printing of our Fabric Panels another time, but we wanted to show you what it looks like when we get out fabric in and some of the steps to make it ready for you to use.

First, we receive a shipment of 100% Kona Cotton from Robert Kaufman.  We primarily print on white and natural colored fabric.

Not very interesting yet, I know.  But this is the foundation for our original hand-printed panels.

Before they are printed, they are cut to size.  We print our panels on fat quarter size (18" x 22") pieces of fabric.  

The lovely Maddie is hand cutting each panel one-by-one on a long table.

 Next, the panels are printed.  Now, this is just the fabric side of the process.  We aren't even getting into the panel design on the computer, film printing and screen making process.  As you can probably tell, there's quite a few steps to making our hand-printed panels.

An old school photo of silk screening at our shop

Our Dear Daughter panel design.

  After the ink is applied by silk screening and has gone through a dryer, the fabric is ready to be folded and packaged.

Maddie folding fabric panels one-by-one

 And now they're ready for you to use!

 

On the "Road" Again...

What show are we going to next?

It's a place we SHIP our products to before we arrive...

It's sunny and warm.... and it's half way across the country from us.  

Not to be confused with Ontario, Canada...

It's the Road to California Show!  January 21st - 24th in Ontario, California!

It is quite the show to see...

 

This is the FUN and MADNESS we love at the Road to California Show!

 

One of our Block Party patrons wearing our AVALANCHE! Tee

We love seeing old friends and new!

"Therapy" is "In Session" with another one of our friends.

 So if you're planning on going, stop by and see us. 
Ask us any questions you have in the comments below!

 www.blockpartystudios.com

Block of the Month 2016 - THANGLES

Once again we are doing a block-of-the-month program at Block Party Studios!  Let me introduce you to....

Fat Quarter Pot Pie!

 

Our monthly block program is using the THANGLES product again! We have chosen one of their project packs to use this year.  The pattern is called Fat Quarter Pot Pie. This is a quick and easy block that uses 3" THANGLES and 2 Fat Quarters - a light and a dark. Each set of Fat Quarters will make 2 -13" square finished blocks, one negative colorway and the other positive colorway.

We will be running our program from January through October with 2 options.

Option #1 - Large Lap Quilt size 52" x 65". (10 Light/10 dark)  Each month you will pick up 2 Fat Quarters - 1 light and  dark for $5.00

Option #2 - Twin Size Quilt size 65" x 91". (18 Light/18 Dark) January through September you will pick up 4 Fat Quarters - 2 light and 2 dark for $10.00.

Enrollment Fees:
January Enrollment Fee for Option #1 - $20.00
- includes the Fat Quarter Pot Pie Project Pack with 3” Thangles, Pattern and 2 Fat Quarters.
January Enrollment Fee for Option #2 - $25.00
- includes the Fat Quarter Pot Pie Project Pack with 3” Thangles, Pattern and 4 Fat Quarters.

*Remember, you are making 2 – 13” square finished blocks from each set of 2 Fat Quarters. 
And there is enough extra for you to use as the binding for your quilt.
*If you would like to make a larger quilt, the pattern has directions for a Queen size, and extra Fat Quarters will be available from our Fat Quarter bin, for the regular price of 2 for $5.98.

We are offering two color ways:  Blacks and Whites and Brights with Creams

For more details call us at 1-800-419-2812, email patti@blockpartystudios.com or stop in at the store.

 

www.blockpartystudios.com

Focusing on the Four "F's"

When Jeanne Coverdale (pronounced "genie") created Block Party Studios she focused on these four categories:

Faith

 

 Family

 Friendship

and FUN!

 Now we have hundreds of panels to choose from these 4 categories, with patterns and kits too.  We think you'll love our fabric panels as much as we do!  We'll show you more of these hand printed panels in the coming weeks.

www.BlockPartyStudios.com

A little bit about Block Party Studios

 Block Party Studios has been serving the Nevada, Iowa, community for over 20 years, offering a full line of unique hand printed quilting fabrics, quilt patterns and fabric panels, along with an exclusive selection of gift items for quilters.  We now offer our unique products to the world online.  We can't wait to introduce many of them to you and for you get to know us a little better.  So grab a cup of coffee or tea and pull up a chair in the coming weeks and months.  We hope you enjoy!

www.blockpartystudios.com

As a locally owned and operated business, we're proud to produce our hand printed items right here in Central Iowa, following strict standards of excellence to ensure customer satisfaction.  Our products for quilters are produced right here, one-by-one. 

 

Our shop was founded by Jeanne Coverdale, who passed away from cancer in 2011, and is still missed.  I'm sure we'll go into more detail about the history of our shop at a later time.  We take pride in carrying on the entity that Jeanne started over 20 years ago!

 Jeanne Coverdale, Founder, 1951 - 2011