The Contrary Quilt Shop

10/24/2025

I'm excited to announce that "This Eagle Soars Upon the Winds of Adversity" has been accepted to the AQS Traveling Exhibit "Stars, Stripes & Stitches" that will be seen at all AQS shows in 2026 Celebrating our nation's 250th Anniversary!

09/16/2025

The morning light drapes across Jenny’s Room, glinting gently off the longarm rails, while The Needle and Nonsense sits perfectly still, as if holding its breath before the laughter and chatter of the day arrive.

Even Contrary Kat is curled up, tail tucked neatly, paws twitching in dreams of batting clouds. Nothing out of place. Just peace stitched into every corner.

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09/15/2025

Last Night’s Shenanigans (Act ??? — we’ve lost count!)

Contrary Kat, ever the ringleader, decided the bolts of 1930’s pastels needed “rehearsal costumes.” She draped them in selvage sashes and ordered them to twirl. The solids grumbled—they never get to twirl.

Meanwhile, the novelty fabrics staged a protest. The dragon prints wanted to breathe fire, but the kittens kept batting the flames into confetti. By midnight, the floor looked like a ticker-tape parade.

Over in Jenny’s Room, the longarm machine woke up with an itch to dance. The quilting frame clacked like castanets while the needle stitched zigzags that looked suspiciously like footprints. Kat swore it wasn’t her, but the paw-prints told another story.

And in The Needle and Nonsense, the classroom chairs pushed themselves into a perfect circle as if waiting for a midnight quilting bee. A stack of thimbles clinked together like teacups, insisting on refreshments.

By dawn, everything returned to order—except for one spool of thread dangling from the ceiling fan like a trapeze artist, still swinging lazily

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09/12/2025

When the shop went quiet last night, Contrary Kat still had that stray turquoise thread dangling from her whiskers. Deciding it was a treasure far too fine to waste, she paraded it through The Needle and Nonsense classroom like a royal banner.

The thread trailed behind her, catching on chair legs and looping itself around the feet of tables, until the whole room looked as if it had been wrapped for delivery. Kat inspected her work with a proud twitch of her tail, then carefully tucked the end of the thread into a pincushion — a signature flourish only she could devise.

When dawn crept in, the classroom stood transformed into a labyrinth of turquoise tripwires. Whoever enters first this morning will need a careful sidestep… or risk becoming part of Kat’s latest “installation art.”

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09/06/2025

Sneak Peak for "Jessica's Quilt" In the development phase! There might be a pattern for this one!

09/06/2025

So, We've found our building. And we'll be moving in on Nov. 9th. Right before the Holiday season. BUT... we need to sell 800 more yards of fabric to make it to our deadline before move in! YOU CAN HELP! We're having pop-ups around the Montgomery area. If your quilting group would like to have a pop-up fabric shop appear near you. Let me know!

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09/06/2025

Last night, Contrary Kat padded across the fabric bolts like a feline maestro testing a stage. She insisted the fat quarters rehearse their color harmonies under the moonlight—Civil War browns humming bass notes while 1930s pastels trilled in high soprano. Jenny’s Room echoed with the low rumble of a phantom longarm warm-up, the sound like distant thunder stitched with mischief.

By dawn, the bobbins were lined up in perfect formation on the cutting table, as if waiting for roll call. Kat sat smugly atop the notions display, one paw draped over a spool of thread, clearly pleased with the night’s rehearsal.

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08/29/2025

Contrary Kat, after last night’s rehearsal chaos with the bolts of fabric (they’re still complaining about their choreography), tiptoed into the Notions Corner. She eyed the rainbow wall of threads like a maestro studying her orchestra. With a whisk of her tail, she batted a spool of emerald green across the counter. Thud!

Immediately, the scissors clinked nervously, the seam rippers grumbled, and the thimbles rattled in chorus. “Oh no, not again,” sighed the measuring tape, stretching itself into a defensive coil.

But Kat had a plan. She leapt onto the cutting table and announced (with a very regal whisker twitch):
“Tonight’s performance will be Thread Ballet! The spools shall pirouette, the needles will leap, and the bobbins will roll dramatically across the stage!”

Of course, chaos followed. Half the spools rolled under the shelves, the seam rippers tried fencing instead of dancing, and a rogue rotary cutter zoomed across the floor like a wayward skateboard. The bobbins? They refused to roll at all, claiming stage fright.

Just when the performance seemed doomed, Kat twirled herself into the spotlight, ribboning the emerald thread around her tail, and with a most dramatic leap, she transformed the whole mess into a dazzling “cat’s cradle” of glowing lines. The notions, begrudging but dazzled, applauded.

And thus, Act 3 ended with a bow, a tangle, and a proud tuxedo cat purring atop her masterpiece.

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08/28/2025

The clock in Jenny’s Room chimed three soft dings, and all the fabrics that had been rehearsing politely in Act 2 decided subtlety was overrated.

Civil War repro prints began stomping like a regiment on parade, boots of indigo and madder red pounding in rhythm. The 1930s feedsacks, always the pranksters, blew bubbles of laughter across the bolts and tied bows in each other’s selvages. Florals—never to be outdone—flounced their roses and daisies into the aisles, swirling into makeshift bouquets that tried to trip the solid bolts marching past.

In the middle of the mayhem, Contrary Kat pounced onto a towering stack of novelty fabrics (donuts, llamas, glow-in-the-dark aliens) and declared herself Director Extraordinaire of the Midnight Stage! With a regal swish of her tail, she insisted the quilts rehearse in harmony. But of course, no one listened.

The spools of thread had rolled themselves into the orchestra pit, their metallics humming high notes while the cottons kept steady percussion by bumping into one another. The rotary cutters tried to slice in with sharp commentary, but the thimbles chased them offstage, clanging like cymbals.

Then—silence. A single jelly roll unfurled itself from the Notions Corner and whispered dramatically:
“Tomorrow… the curtain rises.”

Contrary Kat’s whiskers twitched. She had no idea what the jelly roll meant—but it sounded very important.

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08/26/2025

Last night at The Contrary Quilt Shop, the fabrics staged a midnight dress rehearsal that went completely sideways.

Contrary Kat had declared herself director, perched dramatically atop a stack of Civil War repro bolts. She demanded more drama from the 1930s feedsack florals, who obligingly wilted into tragic poses across the cutting table. Meanwhile, the novelty prints tried to upstage everyone with neon polka dots and a spontaneous kazoo section.

In the back, “Jenny’s Room” hummed with longarm gossip—Jenny herself stretching her rails like a prima ballerina warming up. But the real chaos began when a spool of thread rolled center stage and announced it was now the leading role. The audience (mostly notions, quietly jingling in the corner) gasped.

Kat leapt into the fray, batting the spool like a spotlight, and suddenly every fabric wanted a solo. By dawn, the rehearsal had devolved into a full-on caper: bobbins tangled, scraps strewn like confetti, and one very smug tuxedo cat napping in the middle of it all—director’s crown (a thimble) firmly in place.

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08/23/2025

When last we left them, the jelly rolls had pirouetted across the cutting tables and the fat quarters were arguing over who had the best selvedge edge. But sometime after 2 a.m., the real drama began…

The rotary cutters, tired of being mere supporting props, declared themselves The Blades of Destiny and formed a marching band. They clattered down the aisles in a metallic clink-clink rhythm while the seam rippers booed from the gallery, shouting, “You’ll never keep in step!”

Meanwhile, in Jenny’s Room, the longarm machine (who fancies herself a diva) began singing operatic arias while stitching mock-dramatic swoops into a very serious log cabin quilt. The log cabins protested:

“We are TRADITIONAL, madam, not avant-garde!”

But Jenny only twirled her bobbin with disdain.

Back in The Needle and Nonsense, Contrary Kat (still wearing last night’s feathered mask from the costume trunk) had organized a shadowy cabal of buttons. Their plot? To roll under every chair leg at dawn, ensuring chaos at the first morning class.

And just as the curtains threatened to tangle themselves into makeshift hammocks, the iron—who had dozed through most of Act One—woke with a huff of steam and proclaimed,

“Order! Order in this shop! Or I’ll scorch the lot of you!”

The stage goes dark on that cliffhanger… leaving us to wonder: will the iron succeed in restoring peace, or will the bobbins unravel Act Three?

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