Happy Belated Holidays!

I hope yours was just as peaceful and wonderful as mine was!

I think my holiday kicked off nicely with our shop's party!  We had a great time playing bunco and "Dirty Santa" and I came away with a huge lot of stuff.  We were suppose to bring a white elephant gift wrapped.  In the bag I picked and ended up with I had 3 knick-nacks, a large-weird turtle cookie jar (which I'm going to put in my garden in the spring) and a small beautiful completed quilt that screams me :)  It's funny to see how many folks tossed in UFO's into their elephant bags - I thought better of doing that, but next year I might just get rid of a few that way :)

My husband drove from Maryland and brought with him our two sons and our youngest son's girlfriend of 4 years (and their adorable little weiner dog, Linguine - hey, they are both chefs, perfect name their puppy!).  We spent time with family here in Tennessee and spent Christmas day opening presents, chilling and bubbling with new excitement - - when my son proposed to his girlfriend!  It will be a long engagement at least 18 months, but there's a ring on her finger and everyone's a buzz.

We also took family portraits for the first time!  Kinda sad, but this time we made sure hubby and me were in them as well.  A very talented and nice gentleman, Ben who owns Studio Benjamin came over to my little apartment and we ended outside in brrrrrrr-ing light wind and a beautiful setting sun behind us. Hope to share a few of the images in a week or so!

This past two weeks have been a whirlwind of new friends, family and emotions.  It was most stress-less holiday ever and the most rewarding.

My daughters and I bowled in the New Year last night at our local bowling lanes.

I figure the best way to share my past few weeks is through this random slide show.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I have done a little bit of sewing here and there, so those images will be shared over the next few days.

Happy New Year to you!!

Vending

This past weekend I help Gina's Bernina Sewing Center vend at a local quilt show.  The Village Quilter's Guild in Telico Village, TN put on a very nice show with beautiful works of art.  It was fun meeting new customers (old to Gina's but new to me :) and bonding with other local shops. 

We were set up in the back end of a racketball court, so the first image is a pararamic view of the whole booth and then I went to the "view" deck and took a picture from above.

This was the in the welcoming area and just is a perfect example of the season:

Just a small sampling of my favorite quilts:

Whew....that was just one day of the weekend, more pictures to come.  4 days til the blog giveaway drawing. . .

Things for the shop....

I've been in a sewing mood, well I actually had time this past week to catch up on a few things and one thing that has been sitting on my sewing table was the challenge fabric from the shop.  We give out fat 16th's to our customers and then bring in a 12 1/2 unfinished block for a contest.  We then in turn make those blocks into soemthing for Project Linus.  The finished blocks are voted on by the customers and that part is currently going....I'm way behind.  So, I figured I would just whip up a few blocks using the most of the fabric and get them turn in:





Next thing I've done for the shop is our owner challenged the workers to make something with this fabric. 

This batik was designed and made especially for our Quilters Quest Shop Hop in November.  This color way is ONLY available at any of our 12 participating shops.  Our shop has about 5 bolts ---it's very unique to the DC area and it is a Timeless Treasure fabric.  I decided to make a bag with it.  The pattern is Wallet & Grommet, by Maple Island Quilts.



I know it's missing the grommets, but that will be fixed.  I have to get the grommets from work :)

Oh my head....

is still swimming with all the excitement of Quilt Market.  It was such a sensory overload!  It was soo exhausting and fun at the same time.  Learned a lot more on the challenges of a shop owner selecting the right product for their customers.



I enjoyed several classes from paper piecing, web designing, marketing, to post card making.  Met LOTS of icons I have followed for 15+ years.  I think one of the neatest persons I got to meet was Nancy Zieman.  She is very pleasant and a great teacher.  She has some new purse templates out by Clover she was promoting.  I got a picture with her thanks to Sandy(one of our traveling companions):



I also met Jennifer Chiaverini, author of the Elm Creek Quilts novels and Jinny Beyer whom I've met before but she is also an excellent instructor:





I also met Eleanor Burns, Amy Butler and Pat Sloan!!!!  Didn't get pictures, but enjoyed each encounter.  Pat is just soo personable in person she is a busy lady as well, but I was able to have her set a date for teaching at the shop---SQUEEE :)  I need to confirm that when I go back to work today.  Thank you Pat!

Alas, I missed Mark Lipinski.  He was floating around the floor meeting new artists, he swing into Zebra Patterns booth to meet Debra, but I didn't even get a glance.  Debra was very successful with her first time at market.  Debra has some awsome patterns and is just highly talented. I was able to get a nice photo of her and Eleanor Burns:



And I have a wonderful picture of "us".  Carolyn, Jackie (boss lady) and me at market.



I have tons of pictures (like that surprises you) to share.  Working on them now into an album to post later today.  Also, trying to update my work blog, one thing I learned about was how important blogging can be to a business.

I have done some sewing---shocking---and done some hand work---more shocking--and picked up some wool applique kits---SHOCKING...again I blame my coworker Carolyn and Betsy for their strong influence in these new endeavors.

I did spend a pretty penny or two on fabrics as well.  Now to pack them up into my suitcase and prepare for next weekend's retreat!!!!  I can't believe its right around the corner!  We've been planning for so long!  Next retreat will be in October.

Need to head to work, so many ideas and follow up phone calls/emails to make.  I only got through a third of my list on Monday.

Lots of rambling thoughts....

this post might ramble a bit....mind is wondering a wee bit too much and felt the need to share....you can skip through this post and look at all the cool pictures if you prefer :)

Well, I think I'm coming out of it. It's weird how my body/brain work. After long trips away from home I get post-trip depression. Like clock work it hits hard the full day after I arrive home and lingers about a week. I know this about myself and try to keep busy with things and learn something new about myself and depression every time. This time I noticed how difficult it was for me to focus on stuff. I start doing something and within 5 minutes I'm plopped down in front of my computer playing mindless computer games. I did also noticed how I was able to "snap" out of it more or less....I craved some solid attention from my hubby-got it last night and I woke up today all happy. I made coffee, did some laundry and have been working on 5 or so projects. Still having issues with staying focus, but definitely more productive and less on the computer doing mind numbing things. Depression sucks, but I have learned so much about my inner workings I can recongonize it and work to get out of it a lot quicker than in the past.

Again, I have tired to keep busy and with the lack of focus, I have ended up with adding yet another UFO to my list. So, where to start?

Let's go back to last week when Cheryl came over to sew and I had to pull out my hand dyes I got from my last quilt show and play with them. In the process ended up finding more fabric out of my stash and using a pattern. I'm excited and it is going together rather quickly (whew--so, I don't feel too bad or behind on other things). I cut it on Saturday and started sewing it together in between things today and here's 2 blocks. There will be 7 more colors for the chains:



This actually falls into my Strip Challenge for the Summer.  I'm using 2 1/2" strips to make this quilt along with all items from my stash :)

Then a lady was clearing out her storage rentals full of fabric....I mean FULL of fabric on bolts and in bins. Here's just one side:



She was trying to raise money to pay for her rentals...craziness! Anywho, Cheryl and I went shopping on Sunday at this lady's storage units --with $3/yard sale, who was I to say no?! So, after 26 yards later (that was a total of $78, I walked away confused, tickled and excited. I purchased the first 3 pictures in yardage, the oriental one I got 6 yards for a backing, the remainder 1 yard each:





Came home took pictures and put the fabric away. It was fun to see familar faces at the storage units from the guild and from blogland.

Monday, I took the youngest to her annual summer camp and worked the rest of the day. Then spent Tuesday all day at work setting up the machines and trying out the Q-Bot on the mega-quilter...very cool.

I finished up hand quilting my ALQS yesterday and almost done with the binding. It's going in the mail tomorrow...unfortunately I don't feel comfortable sharing a picture yet, because I followed my partners likes to the "T". Hopefully by Tuesday I can share it!

Then I received my Round Robin from Texas and whipped up a border around it. I plan to share it with my class tomorrow, where we are going to start our own round robin. I also received my RR Bloggers piece and know what I'm going to add to that. Being I can't show either of those round robins, here's my 12" block for my next round robin adventure:


Today, I have been sewing and sewing and sewing. I finished one set of blocks (finally) from my Orange Crush and almost done with the others--at least I have them fixed.



I also found out a friend's baby is going to be a boy and now need to crack down and get those quilts (I have another baby quilt for a girl to work on as well) done up by August time frame.

Well, I have a few hours before I have to go into work to help host the embroidery club, so I think I'll do some more sewing.

Where to start?

Well, there's soo many things to say and stories from the past week I don't know what to say and I'm sure I'll forget something.

I throughly enjoyed spending last weekend with Anjea and having her come to San Antonio and bring me lots of honey jars and a big ole bottle of Volka from Austin.....ya know how hard it is to pack in your luggage all that glass and pray it didn't go over 50 lbs?? LOL It was at 42lbs....whew!! Needless to say, it was worth it! Thank you again Anjea! LOVE the new favors :)

Then the big kick off of the convention was Sunday night with the revealing of the new machine. It was pretty cool and I meet the youngest participate at the convention, Leah who is 12 and very bright and talented. Somehow amoungst 1600 people we continually ran into each other over the next 3 days! I started to tease her of being my stalker! :) She is from California and won a prize in the Sew Gallery Show. Again, great gal and she is lucky to have a great mom to show her along.

I learned how to use the new Designer Diamond and the Q-Bot piece that goes on a Mega-Quilter to automatically quilt for you (IT'S TOO COOL). Not to mention learning 2 new softwares, that I really enjoy!

There was a big closing dinner on Wednesday with free alcohol and dancing (but if you wanted a soda it was $3.50 for 10 oz bottle...yah, crazy!).

I'm still coming down from the input overload and meeting so many new faces/people. I went into work today to show off the new machine----that arrived on Thursday----and looks like folks are ready to purchase it....we have 4 in the shop, but I think we will need more by next week. :)

I spent the day sewing....well, cutting I think mostly. I'm kinda in a fog really not focusing on any one project--not good--just need to rest I guess.

Here's my pictures from my week away. I think it's bed time.

I'm HOME!

and I didn't realize how much I truely was out of it until I was talking to Cheryl about not having any of my vices (aka hobbies) for the past 6 days.....and playing and learning new software and machines does not count! :)

I'm ready to unpack and hit the hay and just chill the next few days.  I have lots of pictures to share and a few stories, but all details will have to wait til tomorrow.  I'm beat.

So it's Wednesday....

what is your week like?  Mine, not too bad.  I've been working on getting the online shopping feature for our local shop up.  It's a ton of work, from setting up the online shop, taking pictures of items, making descriptions of items, moving items from one database in the shop's inventory to another one......lots of work.  But there is a light at the end of the tunnel...I forsee it up and running by early next week.

I did start making 9 patches for my sunflower quilt.  Easy to do a few every morning, here's a teaser of what I'm doing:



This will be a queen size quilt for my own bed.  I hope to have the top done by June - that's my goal.

I do have some projects to work on for next week's meetings at work - Civil War Love Club and Stars Around the Garden.

I'm off of work today and plan to finish up the matching of swap partners for the Booty Swap and do laundry for my weekend trip....ya know it's HOT in Florida?!  Time to dig out some capris and t-shirts for the weekend!

Just for Mark. . .

I have a lot to share in photos, but wanted to post this one just for Mark Lipinski. Mark, I hope your little wonderful computer program, hears your name....Mark Lipinski :) It was actually suggested from a customer to share this and I said you are so right---Mark would love to see this!

Alexander Henry makes some awsome cowboy fabric called Wranglers, we at the shop lovingly call it "Hunky Men"fabric.



Well, of course it's been a shop source of humor and jokes....and within 4 weeks the entire bolt has been sold. The first lady to purchase from the bolt got 3 yards to make a body pillow case for her 17 year old daughter...what a cool mom! Well, our youngest sales gal (aka my coworker) is highly talented and creative and fell in love with these hunky men and designed a pattern using the fabric -- with the intend for a kit, unfortunately we have to wait til mid-April to get another bolt, hopefully.

Her quilt is finished and she is working up the pattern for sale, but here's the finish project:



Sharon (aka co-worker extrodinaire), took one of her own cowboy boots and created a feathery design (from the stitching on the boots) to be use as the quilting design in the log cabins area and then drew a boot to be quilted in each of the corners. The flying geese quilt design she created as well. Did I mention how talented this gal is!? Not to mention she is the princess of color in our shop (there is already a queen bee of color). She has name the "hunky man" in the center of her quilt - Josh.

Again, we should have a pattern for this quilt ready to sell by end of this week under $10. This pattern is actually good for any panel style fabric - asians, floral, kids, etc.

So Mark Lipinski, this post is just for you (and any other folk out there that love that hunky man fabric, but kinda clueless what to do with it).

oh another thing....

my LQS is about to go live with online shopping. We plan to start off small, but I have done a lot of work redoing the site to look more "online shopping friendly". Even added a new way cool calendar feature.

While I'm still in the process of fine tuning it - any suggestions would be appreciated.

http://www.patchesquilting.com

Thanks!

Strange week . . .

there was a fire in downtown Mt. Airy, Maryland Sunday morning that just kinda set the mood for the whole week. It was in the 200 block of Main Street....which is one block next door to where my LQS is located...the one I work at.

I heard the information on the news at 7:30 am and by 9 I had called the owner making sure she was aware. It was a 4 alarm fire with 100 firemen getting it under control after 7 hours. 5 families were displayed and 6 businesses closed. It's very tragic for this little town, but the hearts of the people will rebuild quickly.

So, when I went to work on Tuesday (we were closed Monday) went down to look at what was left....it's human curiosity ya know, to see destruction to feel the reality of it all.

All day customers were calling to be sure Patches was ok and if there was something we can do for the businesses and families displaced.

So, the past few days are hazing and kinda just makes you aware again how quickly life can change.

"the key"

I am a proud owner of a key. Not just any key, but a very special key that allows me to enter a place of fabric at any time. . . even at 2 am if I so desire.....

not like I would, but the fact my boss trusts me to give me a key to the whole place is pretty cool and amazing!!!

I get to open and close tomorrow at the shop---I'm in charge....**giggles like a silly school girl**

Now if I could get some quilting done, I would giggle more.

OOooo….

my title works here--and I wasn't expecting that and so my title is a wee bit non-creative! Didn't in my other blog, just 2 minutes ago....shhhhh...don't want to jinx it!

Well, yesterday was wonderfully crazy!! Our shop is having a 25% of ALL fabric in the store (min of 1 yard cuts) and folks were taking advantage of it!! If you are in the MD area, it's worth the drive out to meet me and see the shop!!

And bonus for me, I got to meet a wonderful online friend (whom I met in livejournal.com land)! Carrie and her adorable son came to get in on the fabric sale (I'm a bad influence) and she was very impressed and promises to visit more often! WOO HOO! :D

I took a few quickie pictures of the baby while he assisted me in fabric selection:


Isn't he a cutie! Carrie came in with 2 missions and left with 3 :D All complete projects though! It was such a pleasure to meet her.

I also finished the shop's newsletter and will be updating more of the website today at work. I have a lot of ideas for the website, just finding the time to get them in, is always the hard part!

I'm still working on the clearing out my sewing area. Was disappointed that Walmart didn't have a book shelf unit I wanted and don't feel like trucking to IKEA - so I need to rethink and be creative. I haven't started too deeply into the project being I'm working, but tomorrow and Thursday I plan to be very focused on this process.

I'm going to spend an hour time now before work and finish the binding on my Doll Quilt Swap - want that in the mail by end of week!

Days off!!

And my focus over the next 2 days is to finish a baby quilt to present to my friend's son during his baptism this weekend. I think I can do it. Just need to quilt the blocks and bind and label....should be able to finish it! But if I get bored, I also have started a quickie in between project for a table runner - using some of my civil war prints!

If you are in the Maryland, Mt Airy area tomorrow through Saturday, all our FQs are $1. We have a huge table stocked full! All our batik/flannel/oriental FQs are $1.25. Once they are gone, they are gone (and they go!). We normally cut FQs but during these kinds of sales we don't. We only do this $1 sale twice a year!! What a way to start summer off!


You can find directions at: www.patchesquilting.com

Oh and there is still HOPE! I discovered yesterday that one of my settings for my mega quilter (machine on the quilting frame) was VERY OFF. And I think it might just have solved my thread breaking problem....so I'm going to test it out one more time today. crosses fingers

Off to start my sewing machine!