Quilting Show & Tell and Customer Spotlight: Craig and Carolyn

Every day, we see yards and yards of fabric make its way out our doors with no idea what the raw product will end up becoming. Every clerk can recount times when they have fallen in love with a combination of prints and colors a customer has picked out and has longed to know what the finish product would be or look like. You can believe we love it when customers bring in show and tell for us to see what their creativity and skills have made with our fabrics and quilting supplies.

We were lucky enough to have such an experience this past Friday with a quilting/sewing power couple we quickly fell in love talking with! Allow us to introduce you to Craig and Carolyn Shelton!

Craig and Carolyn have been married 27 years and have been no stranger to crafting, between the two of them they believe they have at least 50 years worth of sewing and crafting experience. Carolyn introduced counted cross stitch to Craig when he expressed interest in the hobby while they were dating. For years these two made beautiful counted cross stitch pieces, especially angel pieces which Craig has an affinity for, to decorate their home with as well as gifts for loved one. 

Carolyn had previously taken an interest in sewing but it wasn't until last year while watching episodes of Studio 5, which featured sewing and quilting projects, did her and Craig get really into quilting. They ended up taking all the sewing classes offered at a fabric sale/quilt retreat in Norther Utah over the summer, Carolyn took one half while Craig took the rest, and shared with each other the knowledge they had learned. 

They have been avidly quilting ever since and were generous enough to bring in a large collection of their quilts and projects to share with us: 

Bright Tulip Table Runner perfect for spring!

A pair of Valentine Heart Pillows. Look closely and you'll see they are made with long cabins! 

A beautiful, heavy flannel quilt with corduroy backing. This would be so cuddly and warm for winter! 

Absolutely adorable snowman quilt made by Craig with cuddle snowflake backing. All those coal eyes and mouths were made by hand sewing buttons on! 

We appreciated their attention to detail on all their projects. If you look closely at the photo below of the snowman quilt backing, you will see painstaking detail in the snowflake quilting done.

The clerks at the counter also commented how all their projects were geared toward the holidays and remarked how cute their house must look all year long with their cheerful quilt projects decorating their home month to month. 

A pair of Christmas table runners

Carolyn did a wonderful job with color, choosing a bright green bow to stand out. What a great addition!

This one was my personal favorite! Look at all the detail they have in just one adorable table runner: prairie point edging, rickrack, yo-yos, buttons, and a gingerbread house applique scene! 

A closer look at the gingerbread scene, yo-yos and prairie point edging. Yep, those are embroidered snowflakes falling!   

Snowman snowflake silhouette table runner set. 

A cute Christmas wall hanging!

More attention to detail: we couldn't help but point out how the tulle flowers at the end of this table runner gave a surprise pop of fun and whimsy. 

An adorable Witch Table Runner complete with ruffles. Carolyn is in the process of making this project again, but instead with an Easter flair: bunny feet and a fluffy white tail. We hope we are lucky enough to see it when it's finished!

Pair of Fall table runners. 

Once again, we have to highlight the attention to detail Carolyn has lovingly added to all her projects. This Valentine table runner has cute ribbon flowers and heart buttons on each end!

Pair of Spring Table Runners. This is one of the projects Carolyn learned from watching Studio 5. What a versatile project; love the brightly colored bows! 

A trio of Easter table runners that will soon be decorating the Shelton Home!

We want to give a HUGE thank you to Craig and Carolyn for being so generous and sharing their projects with us as well as a bit about their creative history. We absolutely love our customers for not only their kindness and cheerfulness but also because we learn so much creativity and skill from them as well; sometimes we wonder who helps who more! Please feel free to share your projects and quilts with us, we love seeing what becomes of the products that leave our doors. Send us a picture of what you've made or come in and share in person. See you soon!

Last Minute Gift Ideas

We have a bunch more gift ideas for those who are scrambling on the last Christmas shopping day! We have both large, big ticket ideas as well as smaller stocking stuffer ideas. We have gifts covering a wide range of price ranges, we sure hope we have helped you find the perfect gift to give your friends and family members who have a quilting and sewing passion like us!

Lara has a great idea with the Turn It All set -- you've never so easily turned straps and loops. It is truly a life saving tool! 

Both Orva and Peggy want an Olfa cutting mat! They come in three sizes, but let's be honest, any devout quilter will always want the largest to have the optimal amount of cutting space. 

Pay close attention to Tammy's list if you are looking for gifts for a applique quilter or for those who love needlework. All her items are designed to help make hand sewing easier and enjoyable.

We hope we helped you find the right gift for those on your list with this fun series! It was a lot of fun to discover what each of the employees would love to receive for Christmas -- it was an amusing look into each of our quilting/sewing personalities. 

So our customers are informed, we will be closing early on Christmas Eve at 5 pm and will be closed Christmas Day. Stay tuned on the day after Christmas for a big announcement! Merry Christmas from everyone at Fabric Center! 

All I Want for Christmas...

We are back with our employee Wish Lists and today we have Deb and Karen. Deb's Wish List is a good idea to look at if you know someone who loves hand needlework and applique quilting; her items are designed to make needlework and applique easier and enjoyable. Karen reveals with her list how much she loves receiving fabric by the yard: this isn't that bad of an idea. With just even half a yard of a hand full of fabrics from a beautiful designer line, any sewer is bound to excitedly think of a dozen projects she/he could make with those pieces!

Don't wait too long to grab up these fantastic gift ideas, Christmas is next week with only one more shopping Saturday left! Even more important, that means only one more week to get all these items 15% off! Hope to see you soon! 

Christmas Gift Ideas

We are continuing on with our employee Christmas Wish List today, featuring Debby and Cyndi! Take a good look at Debby's Wish List: she has wonderful little items that would be perfect stocking stuffers! Cyndi isn't without some good tips too: knits are extremely popular right now as are chevron prints. Score double points with chevron jersey knit for maxi skirts, or even better considering our weather, for infinity scarves!

We sure hope this fun countdown gives you inspiration for what to gift your sewer/quilter on your list. For more ideas, stay tuned for the rest of our employees' wish lists or make a trip in to see us; you can fill out your own Christmas Wish list to pass on to your significant others so they know exactly what to get you this Christmas. Make your Christmas dollars stretch farther: shop with us for 15% off all regularly priced items until December 23rd! 

Our Christmas Wish List

As promised, we wanted to do something special to help you come up with great gift ideas for the sewer/quilter in your life (or better yet, give you ideas on what to ask Santa for) as well as get us all excited on the days leading up to Christmas. What we have come up with is Christmas Wish Lists from each of our employees featuring what they would ask Santa for from items that can be found at Fabric Center! In the next couple weeks leading up to Christmas, we will unveil a few lists each unique to the clerk who made it. This week we have Katie and Marilyn:

Keep checking back as we reveal more clerk Christmas wish lists and more gift ideas! Come on in and make your own Christmas Wish List, we have them sitting on the table next to the Christmas tree as you first walk in.

Take a stroll around the store and write down what you'd like to see under your tree Christmas morning and give it to your family and friends so they know exactly what to give you. We look forward to seeing you!
     

Our Customers Inspire Us!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are so thankful for you our customers, as well as inspired by you! We love when we have show and tell in the store and we'd like to keep sharing how talented our customers are!

A couple months back we had a Block of the Week class in which students made adorable quilts from Kimberbell Patterns titled "Home is Where the Haunt Is" and once Halloween was over and the quilts were no longer needed for display, their owners were happy to share their success with us!

Janet Stringham did such an amazing job on her "Home is Where the Haunt Is" quilt!  

You can get an up close look at what goes into these quilts, this one loving done by Lorri Nordgren.

Another class that just got finished was the QuiltSmart Club Lonestar Class. We had such a great turn out and response for the class, we are looking at teaching it again along with the rest of the QuiltSmart Club classes. If you like what you see here, done by Heather Willden, check out our information on this fun club on our website.

Way to go Heather, you did a beautiful job! 

Lara was quick thinking and took pictures of Richelle Seawright's hard work last week when she shared these Christmas presents she had made with cuddle!

Her Christmas version of a cuddle strip quilt

Cuddle Strip Quilt with a cuddle stocking, complete with embroidered name! 

Thank you for constantly inspiring us with your creativity and skill. We love show and tell, so if there is something special you made with materials and/or advice from Fabric Center, please send us an email at info@fabriccenter.net with pictures and background information or come in and share with everyone behind the counter!

Time to Celebrate!

We are so excited to be celebrating our 30th Anniversary this month! In 1984, Ken and Joan Cahoon set up a tiny fabric shop in a strip mall just off 90th South where they featured flatfold cottons and assorted trims. It was a small family run operation with their children helping out on the floor. They moved here and there occasionally throughout West Jordan until they were finally able to find a building they could own and would allow them to grow their inventory. It's been 30 years, and now Ken and Joan's daughter and son-in-law, Lisa and Jon, are proud to carry on Fabric Center's tradition of offering the best customer service and a large, varied selection all at reasonable and competitive prices.  We decided to bring this milestone in with a bang: we launched our newly redesigned website as well as opened an online shop on Etsy! All our customers, especially those out of state, can now shop from us online and order hemstitch burps and blankets here. Depending on how we do with online sales, we may increase our online listings to tricot, baby panels, and more.

Additionally, we have started our 30th Anniversary sale! Everything in store is on sale, big time! Come in sooner rather than later to pick up what you need for Halloween, Christmas or even just a fun shopping spree. This sale will be going all month long, but don't expect to see what you love stay on the shelves for long. With a sale this big, things are gonna be flying outta here!