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Completed quilts are within reach at Sew That! studio

  • Quilter Ana Blickenderfer's new studio is open for business starting this Saturday, with an open house. Press photos by Kate Hayden

  • Blickenderfer's studio displays some of her completed Quiltworx projects and holds nine quilters comfortably, giving each a six-foot table space.

  • Blickenderfer will carry fabric kits for a limited number of Quiltworx designs, available to quilters uncertain about picking their own color swatches.

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

Just off of Highway 18, on “Sew That! Lane,” Ana Blickenderfer’s new quilting studio is open for business.

Sew That! is having an open house this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., complete with door prizes, class sign-ups and other specials. Blickenderfer is offering a 10 percent off discount on total purchases to quilters who bring in her ad from this week’s Shopper, or Thursday’s edition of the Charles City Press.

Sew That! will be open 5-8 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. The studio may be closed when Blickenderfer has to travel to teach quilting classes; those announcements will be made on her Facebook page, @SewThat.

It took Blickenderfer nine months, beginning with the design, to see her new studio and shop space come to life. Blickenderfer and her husband did most of the work themselves on the home addition, finishing it in September.

In between that project, Blickenderfer traveled to Montana for continued training as a Quiltworx certified instructor; continued her private Sew That! business projects; sewed full-sized sample Quiltworx projects; and continued her full-time job at Zoetis.

“It’s been a long summer,” Blickenderfer said, half-joking. “It’s really fun to finally see it finished, and to have started classes again.”

Blickenderfer has already started teaching classes in the new studio space, which offers room for nine quilters to spread work out on six-foot tables and design boards hanging from the wall. LED lighting hangs in the studio to brightly light quilter’s projects.

Her beginners’ workshops guide new quilters through two projects in four sessions — the next workshop will start after Jan. 1, 2018. All of her classes are at least two sessions; announcements, schedules and sign-ups are all available on the Sew That! Facebook page.

“I want to get more people into quilting, so I’m trying to do some easier projects and some smaller projects that don’t necessarily take up as much time or resources,” she said. “Quilting is expensive. Material is not 97 cents a yard like it was when my grandma was. There’s definitely a huge change there.”

Quilts are an investment and the skills are invaluable, Blickenderfer said.

“If you do it right, they’ll last you much longer than something you buy in the store,” she added.

Paper piecing takes up space — and her new studio offers every inch available for workshop attendees to pin their projects to a wall, or to spread out on a flat table. The design walls are made with batting to help projects stick well while quilters are working.

“Seeing your project up on a wall is much different than seeing it lay on a table,” Blickenderfer said. “I think it is really beneficial for the students, and it also helps me see their progress as they’re working on things.”

Blickenderfer is still offering her long-arming services to quilters who have pieced together a design. She also keeps a small selection of Judy Neimeyer’s Quiltworx fabrics and tools, which haven’t been available to customers within a 75-mile radius.

“My intention is not to become a big quilt shop. I just really want to teach,” she said. “I’m just trying to bring some of (Neimeyer’s) stuff closer.”

Blickenderfer plans to offer kids’ camps sometime next year in the new space, which would be available to students ages 11 or older.

“Sewing’s a skill that not everybody has and not everybody has the patience for,” Blickenderfer said. “I think if you start kids younger and give them the opportunity, maybe they’ll carry it throughout life.”

Blickenderfer has already spent time helping one beginning quilter — her daughter, who “happened to choose one of the hardest placemat patterns, because it has curves in it,” Blickenderfer said. They’re working through it, she joked.

In January, Blickenderfer will receive certification to become the first Quiltworx instructor in Iowa. Blickenderfer has been working on the certification process since July 2016, and has to complete five full-size quilts and four technique-of-the-month quilts.

“I’m still trying to get the Quiltworx information out there, because it’s very new to Iowa,” she said.

Through her shop, Blickenderfer will offer fabric kits for a limited number of Quiltworx designs to customers who don’t enjoy matching colors on a project. The kits are matched through Neimeyer’s app Quiltster, which helps quilters color quilts online ahead of time. Blickenderfer then assembles a kit that includes fabric yardage and the Quiltster print-off.

“They would prefer somebody else would do it for them. When you think about it, some of the patterns take 32 colors or more. Some people get overwhelmed,” she said. “Anything that I can do to help people along is what I’m trying to do.”

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