Minkee, Oh So Soft, Snuggle, Flurr, by whatever name you call it, it's super soft and super popular! We carry the Minkee style fabrics in a variety of colors and brands that will enhance your next project! It can be a little tricky to work with, so here are so helpful hints. *Use a walking foot to keep the fabric from slipping. *Use a slightly larger seam allowance such as 1/2". *Don't over stretch your Minkee as it really does have stretch to it; try to keep it as flat as possible not pulling too hard! *Use Minkee with other fabrics for added texture for baby quilts such as cottons, flannels and chenilles. *You do not have to use a high loft batting, infact the manufactureers' tell us batting isnt even necessary when Minkee is used as backing. When you do use batting, be sure it is low loft. *Minkee isn't just for quilts, but also other projects such as teddy bears, layettes, jackets, pillows, christmas stockings, etc. *Try using the reversable fabrics such as Fluer (available at Shoo Fly Quilts) which has a longer nap on one side and shorter on the other giving you the opportunity to really enhance your project. Stop in and see our selection of products and feel how soft they are!

September is the start of school, beginning of fall and the perfect time to view beautiful quilts that will be shown at the Northwest Suburban Quilters Guild Quilt Show: "Hands to Quilt-Hearts to Piece". Friday, September 9, 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. and Saturday, September 10, 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Admission is $5/adults, $1/children 3 - 12 years old. Featuring 2004 Hoffman Challenge, Raffle Quilt, Quilt Appraisals, Merchant Mall, Silent Auction and more! Prairie Stone Sports & Wellness Center, 5050 Sedge Blvd, Hoffman Estates, Il. for directions go to: www.nsqg.com

The quilting of any quilt project is a very important aspect of the quilt and the right type of quilting can really make an impact on the overall quilt. Shoo Fly Quilts is proud to represent 3 long arm quilters who provide quilting services for our shop and customers. We thought you might enjoy getting to know them and hearing what they have to say about long arm quilting. Linda Carroll of LHC Quilting has been quilting for 4 years. She currently owns a Gammill quilting frame that can quilt up to a king size quilt. Her specialty is over all patterns and pantographs. Linda's hint for long arm quilting is to make sure that your quilt is square. Cut your backing straight and square, don't leave the pieces you sew together at unequal lengths, this makes it very difficult to put on the machine. Joni Baumli of Threadplay owns a Gammill Long Arm machine with a Statler Stitcher computerized long arm quilting system. The Statler Stitcher allows for almost perfect stitches and a variety of all over designs that be enlarged or shrunk down with the touch of a button. Joni suggests that when you have seams that meet in the middle of a block (such as pinwheels) press the seams open to allow for less bulk. The "little mountains" that appear cause problems with the quilting by catching the hopper foot on the excess bulk. Be sure to iron these flat. Also, do not use too much steam when working with blocks on point since you are working with bias seams and they do have a tendency to stretch out. Borders need to be measured accurately and NOT stretched to fit, this throws off the quilt being square. Jill Koczwara of Lofty Pursuits also owns a Gammill Quilting Machine that is painted purple and is our custom quilter who does a lot of heirloom type quilting. She has over 20 years experience and can do anything from stitch in the ditch to medallion designs. Her suggestion is...make sure the backing is atleast 4" all around and "when buying the backing try to match the thread unless you want green stars and feathers on your purple back!" You can view all of the quilters' work at our shop. They will treat your quilt as if it were their own! Turn around times vary depending upon the volume of quilts and the difficulty of the patterns requested but usually run between 6 and 8 weeks for all over designs and longer for custom quilts.