Friday, December 20, 2019

2019 Quilters Dream Christmas Party


Every year right before Christmas, the staff here at Quilters Dream gathers together for a fun and festive holiday lunch. We grind all year long to make sure our customer's needs are met so this is a special day that each and every employee here looks forward to! 

This year we celebrated at the swanky Le Yaca restaurant in Virginia Beach which serves a delish French style cuisine. 



Happy and Hungry!! 




What's a Christmas party without games and gifts?? Not ours. That's for sure! The first game we played was the left right story game. One person reads the story out loud- in this case it was office gal Jennifer with her confident and boisterous voice we love! Any time throughout the story she read the words left or right you had to pass your gift. The shuffling of gifts and trying to concentrate was absolutely hilarious! After the story was done- you got to keep the gift you ended up with.  








The second game we played is a favorite! The saran wrap ball. Each ball is filled with fun little treats with the main prize in the center. When it's your turn, you try to unwrap as much as you can keeping whatever falls out along the way. Meanwhile, the player next to you is rolling dice trying to get doubles to take the ball from you. You'd be surprised how quickly you can roll doubles! With the amount of excitement and infectious laughter this game brought, we were lucky to have a private room!














In between the fun we dined on savory dishes and heavenly sweet desserts! And bread....lots and lots of bread.


Warning:
 Viewer discretion advised. May cause EXTREME hunger pangs. 








To burn off those calories we opened more gifts and did a raffle each scoring some pretty awesome goodies! 










   







And last but not least we shared our appreciation for Quilters Dream president, Kathy with a lovely gift basket. 









May your holidays be filled with moments of fun and laughter with the ones you love!

From the staff at Quilters Dream Batting,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!











Monday, November 11, 2019

Featured Battgirl // Julia Larina (Quiltoff)


Making a quilt is an art, dedication and therapy that requires lots of love, attention, patience
and inspiration. We spend hours looking for a good design, right fabrics and notions, we
think about quilting designs in detail and pay attention to colors, shapes and textures. That
all is a massive work, and it is very important not to miss one more significant detail: what is
inside of your quilt? Does this inner layer guarantee the perfect result? Will it help your quilt
live longer and survive laundries? Is it, finally, safe to be used by little ones or people with
allergies?

Today I am going to uncover the veil and show you the everyday choices I make as a
professional quilter.



Every single day a new quilt top (or two, or three) enters my studio to be turned into quilt.
Customers entrust me not the pieces of fabric sewn together, but pieces of true love. Every
time I hold a quilt top, I feel that energy poured into it, and I know I can’t fail the expectations
of a person who sent me it and of a person who is about to get this quilt as a meaningful gift
from someone who truly loves them. I pay attention to the thread I am going to use, to a
quilting design that may enhance the beauty of piecing, and of course, I choose the best
batting.



First of all, I want to be sure that the batting I am using for my customers’ quilts are safe, soft,
with minimal shrinkage and stable quality that lasts from roll to roll. I love that there are no
scrims, glues or other binders inside any type of batting I choose. High quality fibers used
for manufacturing mean great result for every quilt; and happy customers, too. I choose
Quilters’ Dream Batting because it is also available in a wide variety of lofts, products, and
sizes to meet all of my quilting needs.

For example, baby quilts are safe to use with natural breathable cotton or bamboo inside.
Quilts with this batting turn out lightweight, flexible and soft with beautiful silky drape. It is a
good idea to go with hypoallergenic high loft Puff. With this particular batting, you’ll get a puffy, cuddly, amazingly comfortable quilt that - as a bonus - dries within minutes after being laundered.

As an everyday regular option, 80/20 is my go-to batting. This batting is a perfect blend of
80% high quality cotton and 20% fine denier poly microfiber. This batting never fails me, and
the quilts come out soft, silky, drape beautifully and breathe well.

Making a quilt for winter and cooler temperatures? Let’s choose Wool - light, luxurious and
wonderfully warm batting that will not only keep you warm, but also beautifully fulfill the
quilt and show the beauty of quilting.
Wool is a must have on the shelf for custom quilts because only this combination of
two layers of batting: cotton/semi-cotton plus wool on top - helps me reach beautiful effect
of fullness and rich texture that highlights any quilt.
What else I love about wool is that it springs back to its original loft after being washed or
folded (which is a wonderful quality for a show quilt!), and it's exceptionally durable, rich
and resilient ensuring that your quilts will be treasured for generations.


Every custom quilt I finish leaves my studio with a layer of Quilter's Dream Wool inside.
I am known for my freemotion quilting, and when people choose my service for their
precious quilts from simple baby quilts to luxury show pieces, I need to be sure that I am
able to offer them sustainable high quality of my work. It's fantastic and really helpful
that I found my favorite batting brand that I trust, so all I need to concentrate on is my
quilting - because Quilter's Dream Batting does the rest.


Be sure to follow and like Quiltoff on:

Instagram: @julia_quiltoff

Thursday, November 7, 2019

2019 Hopes & Dreams Category Winners

Thanks to all the generous sponsors, we were able to award even more prizes this year than we anticipated! Congratulations, to all the winners, and a big THANK YOU to everyone who donated to our 2018-2019 Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS!