Howell's Sewing & Vacuum, Auburn CA

Last weekend I got to teach ruler classes at Howell's Sewing & Vacuum. There were 11 ladies split between two classrooms.

Eight of them fit quite nicely into the main classroom...

...and the other three were in the "annex". I think the annex ladies got the better deal; it was in the 100's and the annex was much cooler than the classroom. Air was on, fans were whirling, but....did I say it was in the 100's?

That didn't stop them from totally excelling in the whole feathers thing:

I thought what they come up with during playtime was awesome!

One lady made what she said was a mistake, but that I can see could easily be turned into a feather in the shape of a heart, so I sat down with my rulers and played with that a little. Need to practice, but will look forward to adding that to my demonstrations on feather days.

Howell's is a Babylock, Janome and HandiQuilter dealer and will beat any competitor's price! 

Barbara was my most able helper and that's Marylynn, the owner of Howell's, photobombing the pic. Speaking of Marylynn, if you are in Auburn around the end of July, she is having a super Birthday Sale to celebrate, well, of course, her birthday! Sale will be July 28-29 and everything in the store will be on sale. Her website promises drastic price cuts and floor model clearance for machines, new fabric on sale and.....mimosas, brunch and treats! Auburn is scenic and fun and end of July would be a great time to take a weekend trip and find some great bargains.

Howell's is located at 13555 Bowman Road, Auburn CA (ph: 530-885-9624).

Marylynn is one of the most energetic people I have ever met -- when there wasn't a customer in the store, she was madly at work on a couple of quilts loaded on her longarm:

I was excited to see that Howell's is a Mettler dealer and she carries almost all of the line. It seems that 60 weight (fine) cotton thread is hard to find in a lot of areas, but Marylynn loves it as much as I do and carries quite a few of the colors. I use 60 weight for piecing all of the time, in both the top of the machine and the bobbin; it is just as durable as the 50 weight, but since it is finer, there is less thread in the seam, your piecing is less bulky and presses flatter.

Now that I'm home, I'm back working on the Wishing Tree quilt.

I think I may be done with the background. I'm starting on borders today; once I get those done, I can go back to the panel and decide if I need more quilting. Will probably do a little bit of texturing on the tree, but haven't quite decided yet.

What do you think?