Jo & Cat's Sew Shack, LLC

09/03/2026

🎉🎉We have our winner! 🎉🎉
Thank you to everyone who sent in quilts during August! What a great celebration month we had! We spun the wheel, and Laura C from Alaska is our winner! Laura will receive $50 off her next quilt fees!🥰

09/02/2026

What’s Up Quilting Friends!
It is Wednesday, Hump/Camel Day.

My favorite is Wacky Wednesday! Dr Seuss, definitely read it a few times. A shoe on the wall? Shouldn’t be there at all. What are some funny things you have found in your fabric/craft rooms that shouldn’t be there?

09/01/2026

Tutorial Tuesday
Having just finished celebrating Jo’s birthday month, sharing this Maple Leaf quilt block tutorial seems apropos! 🍁 And Autumn is right around the corner!

https://www.diaryofaquilter.com/classic-maple-leaf-quilt-block-tutorial/

Top US quilitng blog, Diary of a Quilter, shares a classic Maple Leaf Quilt Block Tutorial in three different sizes. Click now for more details!

08/31/2026

It's Jo again and it's my last Meet and Greet Monday. Just a quick reminder that today is your last day to get us those quilts to be entered into my $50 birthday drawing!! If you're local give us a call to schedule a pickup or dropoff, if you're mailing make sure you send us the tracking so you can be counted.

Family is the center of my life. It's why I took a job close to home, it's why I pushed to buy a longarm, it's why I started quilting, it's why I continue to quilt and grow. My daughter (16) helps me keep the area around the longarm clean and helps me choose thread colour when I can't decide. My son (11) is frequently keeping me company, asking questions and watching because he wants to be helpful (though frequently he comes out to ask for a sandwich or two). My husband is incredibly supportive and talented in too many areas to list (though he is a self-professed "bobbin winder"), and there's no way I could do all this without him. My extended family is amazing, helpful and supportive in all their own ways as well.

We have a couple of fur babies as well. We do our absolute best to make sure you don't fur from our house onto your quilts! The dogs are not allowed into the "Sew Shack", but I'd be remiss in not mentioning them. Duke is our goofy old man (and yes it is a bird hanging out of his mouth 😳). Princess Peach is our latest addition, though somehow she is already 4. She is our exuberant and loving crazy girl who likes to play soccer with her tennis balls.

Most of my fabric stash is quilts for family all planned out in my head. 😅 Some of it is from years ago when the kids were smaller, so I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with it now, but I have ideas (so many ideas).

Next week we'll be sharing us as a business so make sure you check back!

08/29/2026

Weekend Wishes
I wish you more Memories than Missed Moments…

What do you have for weekend plans? Picnic? Stitching? Hiking? Berry/fruit picking? This is one of the last weekends before school starts for us here in Oregon. Still time to make memories! 🥰 Here are some local events. Have fun! ♥️

08/28/2026

Welcome to the latest edition of
🫶Fun Friday!🫶

Today is National Thoughtful Day!
(It was a hard choice between this and Red Wine 🍷 Day!)

If you need a gentle reminder to think of others, or do something nice for a stranger, here it is. We may never know the results of the gentle nudge from our conscience when we are kind without provocation or expectation of acknowledgement. Sometimes a kindness is the one thing in a person’s day that gets them through a rough time, gives them pause to consider that they matter. A kindness doesn’t have to cost anything, it could be a friendly face or smile when passing by another person.

Please share with us your Thoughtful Deed/Idea for today…🌹🥰 Or if you have something you do for others when nobody is looking. 👀 We would love to hear your ideas.

08/27/2026

🌹Thankful Thursday

Share with us something you are thankful for today…

I am thankful for a job that I enjoy, and a boss/friend who knows the worth of good employees. Because of the job I have, I am able to spend my evenings and weekends working on Sew Shack business, for all of my quilting community friends. ♥️

08/26/2026

🎉Giveaway alert!!🎉

6 more days! The drawing for the $50 gift certificate is less than a week away! If you haven’t sent in your quilt yet, now is a great time. You have very good odds at being drawn to receive a $50 gift certificate off your next quilt service!

I still have the two batik scrappy disappearing nine patch quilts I made last time I was in Maine. I would much rather be busy working on yours! Send us an email or give us a call to add your quilt to the queue. 🫶

08/25/2026

Terminology Tuesday!
HST! Half-Square Triangle!
I really enjoy the versatility of this block!!
From pinwheels, chevrons, flying geese, sawtooth stars, to diamond chains.

What is one of your favorite blocks to work with when creating your quilts?♥️

Top US quilting blog, Diary of a Quilter, features her fast method using Quilt in a Day Square-Up ruler for Half Square Triangle Quilt blocks.

08/24/2026

Hello quilting friends! Welcome back to Meet and Greet Monday. This time I (Jo) am taking on my own intro. I wanted to briefly talk about how I got to this exciting time in my life of being able to start a business with one of my best friends.

As Catrina mentioned, I am Canadian. I moved to the states about 20 years ago when I got married to one of my other best friends. If you're interested in how that all happened let me know. It's an interesting story.

I have always been an artist. I was recently reminiscing with my oldest friend Mary about when we would trace horse pictures back when we were in elementary school. Nowadays I paint (watercolor and acrylic), draw (pencil & pen), play music (flute, piano and vocal), dabble with photography and quilt. I love playing with color especially and so quilting, both piecing and longarming has come quite naturally. I'm also a perfectionist when it comes to art projects, though I have learned to let go of that a little and enjoy the process.

I have a BA in Archaeology and did a short stint doing some survey work in northern Alberta. I've had such a variety of jobs in my life including being a personal assistant, equestrian farm hand, data entry for a water exploration company, photographic housing survey of a historic district, several church secretary positions, a gluten free bakery, a typest, an illustrator and of course Bear Creek Quilting Company. That's where the quilting bug hit and where I made another best friend (there's room in the heart for many).

I feel incredibly blessed that I was able to find my current job with the City of Millersburg which allows me to be home with my kiddos in the mornings, and be closer to their schools when they need me. That part time position opened up the possibility of purchasing a longarm with Catrina and I haven't looked back.

Here's a handful of my art pieces, some more recent than others. One of the books I illustrated was written by my cousin for her daughter. It's called "I'm Just Small, That's All". You can find them on Facebook if you're interested!