To Market, to Market!

We are almost at the big day! Leaving for International Quilt Market!! This year it is being held in Portland, Oregon! We've been to this location before, and it's a wonderful city to visit! I love Quilt Market, but I usually come home feeling like I've been run over by a truck!!! It's a very busy week, and we do try to sneak in as much as we possibly can, and sometimes that means late nights, early mornings and no naps!!

So Monday morning we'll be flying into Seattle, renting a car and driving over to the Martingale offices. We're pretty excited to see the offices (I'll take pics for you!!) And put some faces to some of the people who work on our books!! We already many of them from Quilt Market - but some we only speak with via email or phone, so it will be really fun!
We'll be spending the night at Mary's place!  If you open your copy of Tis the Season ( our first book) and have a look at the house and photos in that book .....that's the house we are staying at!!! And we'll be meeting the dog in the book for the very first time!

The next morning we will make our way down to Portland, maybe get a wee little bit of shopping in along the way! I'm hoping to find some really great shoes along the way! I was telling some of the ladies who were doing a class at our shop yesterday the criteria I have for the shoes I want to wear to market....must be flat, but not super flat, cause thats hard on my back. Not heels, cause, thats hard to be in heels on the cement floor for 12 hours a day. They could be a little heel, but they have to be comfortable. And open toed, cause my feet get really hot. And they need to be slip on preferably. and I don't want old lady shoes. and they need to be able to match all the things I brought to wear, and they can't be runners, cause I'm not wearing runners, I don't care how much my feet ache. and they told me...with that much criteria...I am an old lady! Hmmmmm....ok....half way to old lady maybe.....

Once we get to Portland we will have to set up our booth, teach two schoolhouse presentations, one featuring our book that releases June 4th, Tis the Autumn Season and one that features our fabric that is shipping out to stores now!!
We will also have parties and get togethers and sample spree, and dinners, and maybe more shopping. We will have three days working the show, walking the show floor, meeting and greeting, book signings, and seeing familiar faces!

I promise to take pictures for you and blog when we return!
Until then....happy quilting!!
xox
S

Wallflowers!!!

Guess what arrived in the mail the other day???

Oh ya, that's right, the very first taste of our completed Wallflowers fabric collection!!! 

So here's a little bit of trivia for you. Our fabric is printed in a plant in Korea. Once the yardage is all printed and ready, we  (as the designers) are air shipped some fabric directly from the plant. It arrives to us about 6 weeks before the rest of the fabric arrives at the Clothworks warehouse in Seattle. As we speak, the fabric is in a container, on a ship, crossing the ocean.
Once it arrives to to the Clothworks warehouse, it must be folded and rolled onto bolts, labeled and prepared for sale to the quilt shops around the world that have ordered it!!

In the meantime, we get to whip up a few things to take with us to Quilt Market, so other shop owners can be inspired by our collection!

Here is the very first quilt we whipped up using Wallflowers:

This is the FREE pattern that you will be able to download from the Clothworks website just as soon as the fabric is released and available! And if you are a store owner and going to Portland, Oregon for Spring Quilt Market, you will have a chance to WIN this quilt!! Thats right - visit the Clothworks booth, or our booth (1419) for more details!!

As well, we chose two of our very favourite simple patterns and made them up using more of the Wallflowers fabric!

Hopscotch is our best selling, most popular pattern. It uses 12 fat quarters and 1 m of fabric! Easy to make, everything is cut the same and sewn the same! It finishes at that perfect lap sized, 56" x 65". 
It's a great way to showcase a collection or use up fat quarters!

The next quilt we whipped up is called Strip Joint. Again a great way to showcase fabrics!

We are very excited about this collection!! We think it's rich and delicious!! We adore the reds, Love the browns!! Think that the tone on tone fabrics are going to be a great addition to everyone stash (we ordered extra for our store!!) The large prints make amazing borders and backings and the small prints are perfect anywhere! We hope you love it as much as we do!!!

Quilt Patch Party debriefing!

Wow!! Did we have an eventful weekend or what?!!
The Moose Jaw Prairie Hearts Quilters guild put on an amazing show and deserve a huge round of applause!! Their show was amazing, and I think everyone enjoyed the selection that the different merchants had to offer.
But The Quilt Patch Party....not THAT was something!!!! For those of you who braved the event, kudos to you! You ladies know a great deal opportunity when you see it and aren't afraid to use your elbows to get it! For those of you who missed it.....mark it on your calendar for 2015, cause that will be the next time this event will happen.
And thank goodness the weather held out!! Yay!! We started with a Tailgate party that included FREE hotdogs (yummy ones!!) and bottled water available to anyone who chose to wait for the doors to open at 7pm!

 It was so fun to go out and offer the ladies waiting FREE fabric and coupons for them to choose a free Quilt Patch pattern! We handed out mini chocolate bars to wash down those hot dogs with!!

We had most of our staff on, we couldn't work everyone 12 hours or more, we had to give them some time off!! So we actually had to hire some temporary staff for the event!! What good sports these ladies were! And we were soooon grateful to them for pitching in!!! Here's a pic of our team for the Quilt Patch Party:

From left to right, Jo, Jenny (imported staff!) Yvonne, Flo...and thats me with my ass stuck out to Yvonne. but we couldn't see Flo!! Jeanne with her arm around her Mom Edna (who is a real trooper when it comes to us needing extra help!!) behind Jeanne is Charlene (another import) behind Edna is Colleen, then Rebecca. Randi and Jeri on the end. These are the ladies who made sure everything went as smoothly as it could go with so many hot menopausal women in one location elbowing their way to even hotter fabric deals!!

Here are some of the hot deals we had going on.....

We had others, but I wasn't able to get as many pics as I had planned on taking!! I am hoping that in the next few days I can get a few more pics from our staff and show you!! And yes, every single hot deal we had sold out!! And yes, some people missed out on the deals. It's always sad for us that we can't bring in enough for everyone, but, we never know what kind of turnout we will get, and we can't predict how many items people will take, or if we've chosen wisely enough to appeal to our customers! Oh, and one more thing.....if we COULD predict exactly what our customers wanted every time, we'd be rich women and we would be laying on a beach somewhere in Mexico and there would be no Quilt Patch.....sooooo it's good that we don't always know isn't it?!

Thank you to everyone who braved the crowds to participate in our biennial Quilt Patch party! We hope it will be even bigger and better next time!! We hope you had a blast! Keep watching for more pics from that evening!!

xox
S

Quilt Patch Party weekend!

I feel like I have to start each blog with a confession....yes, I am a crappy blogger! Ok. There. Done. Now lets move on!
I always feel like I don't have a lot to say (if anyone shows this to my husband, i will deny, deny, deny that I wrote this!!) so once again, struggling to find a topic that might be of some interest, and around here the hot topic has been....The Quilt Patch Party!! If you've not attended or even HEARD  of it....I don't know where you've been!! It's the hottest (and good lord I do mean HOT!! Like really...a store full of menopausal women...whew!!) sale we host. And we only do it every second year. We started doing it in conjunction with the Moose Jaw Quilters guild biennial quilt show, (which is another fabulous reason to be in Moose Jaw April 27th!) and it's just been an absolute blast!
So this is the plan for this year (cause every year, we like to add or subtract things, based on our customers reactions!)

First of all - weekend specials. And I do mean SPECIAL with a capital S!! Truly. I've convinced Jeanne that for this weekend (April 26th, 27th and 28th) we will move all of sale closet (those of you who love shopping our sale closet will appreciate this!!) upstairs to our second floor and ADD tons and lots more goodies for you to enjoy throughout the weekend!! We will be going through our current fabrics, moving lots of them upstairs and they will be 60% off!!!
Heres just a little wee hint:

Ok, whatever you do....DO NOT tell Jeanne I gave you that hint!!! This weekend is about super top secret secrecy!! And HOT deals!! Ok, here's a few more things I do know...thread, some notions....some kits!! Patterns, and even some books. Those are just the weekend specials.
THEN....we move onto the QUILT PATCH PARTY SPECIALS.......

So to kick off the QP party - we are hosting a (get this!!) TAIL GATE PARTY! oh ya! FREE hot dogs, good looking men cooking them (ok, alright, bear with us - our husbands were the other ones who would work for free) and while you are enjoying those free hot dogs, standing in line (cause goodness knows - you DO want to be the first in the door to ensure you get some of these hot deals (more on those in a minute!!) we will periodically popping out between 6pm and 7pm and treating you!!! Thats right, we have giveaways and treats planned! You are gonna have sooooo much fun!!

Now, onto the doors opening for the QUILT PATCH PARTY at 7pm.....you will be handed a flyer listing all the specials - and they are amazing - I mean, hold onto your hat amazing!!! Like start the car, you might feel like you are stealing amazing!!! And don't worry - this is not going to be stuff you just paid full price for 3 hours ago - oh no....we wouldn't do that to you! This is fresh product that we brought in and packaged beautifully just for you! Oh ya and that b*&^% racing you to the specials, so you'd best get your game face on and get your butt to them!!
Ok here's a hint......

And honest to pete - if I hear that even ONE of you has told Jeanne I was dropping hints.....I'm gonna be in some big trouble.....and I'll be forced to take you down with me!

Ok...so...there will be fabric bundles, maybe a notion or two. The quilt we will be unveiling for an amazingly awesome price for 2 hours only...and wine!! The wine will be the trophy after you've fought off all those other crazy, deal loving quilting ladies!

And no worries, we will once again have 2 till stations opened to help alleviate the traffic congestion.

Oh yaaaaaa, and the draw.......cant forget THAT!! You can put your name in for our draw ( one entry per person please) and at 8:30 that evening we will make the draw. The basket is usually worth a $500 value, but 2 years ago - Jo forgot to stop and the basket ended up having a $600 value!!! AND the best part is - you don't have to be in attendance to win, but if you are......we will toss in  a $100 gift certificate!!

So.....plan to attend. Try to remember that it REALLY WILL be wall to wall women. and depending on the weather, it might be hot! But, we will try and make it fun and the deals so fabulous that none of that other stuff matters! See you soon!

Quilt Police

So how many of you are scared the quilt police are going to come and get you? Call you out for some quilting infraction? Point out your 'mistakes'? Or haul you off and throw you in some jail where you are fed three square meals a day that you don't have to cook? (now that does not sound so bad!)

Well people, let me tell you something......there are no quilt police, so alas, you and I are both cooking our three square meals today.

Of course there are the self appointed quilt poice. You know the type...."Gee look Mabel....her seams don't match. and looky here, she has a pucker where she tried quilting this herself. And gosh those colors, what was she thinking? tsk tsk"
Recently we had an incident where someone dissected a quilt Jeanne and I designed, literally picked it apart - right down to the name! I'm not sure who appointed her head of the quilting police, but there she was, letting us know what an abysmal job we had done with that particular design. At first we were offended, but quickly recovered and were able to laugh about it. I mean really, we are not going to be to everyones' taste....THAT is why there are so many styles of quilt shops, so may different fabrics and patterns out there!

Quilting is our hobby. It's what we, as women (and men) do for pleasure. And unless you are into perfection, or strictly making quilts to be entered in elaborately judged competitions, no one has any right to judge your work. So don't let them. You finished a quilt. Finished is sometimes better then perfect. A finished quilt will be used, a quilt top you never finished because you were frustrated that your seams weren't 'perfect' by someone else's standard of perfect...well...that's a sad waste of money isn't it?

Are you the type of person who says...."oh don't look too close" or "I really messed up here, look, right here...look at my mistake....."

Todays quilter has no business demeaning herself. Why do that? That's just inviting the quilting police into your life! Don't let them in!! You rock, you made a quilt! Yay you!! Celebrate that!! 

I often hear people say to me, "golly, I'm not nearly as good a quilter as you are"Are you freaking kidding me??? I'm a sloppy quilter and I would be the first person to admit it!! (and Jeanne right behind me!) I'm into speed and very often my seams don't align perfectly, I have threads everywhere, and sometimes.....my quilts don't lay flat. There. I said it. Out loud. And I'm still here. No one has hauled me off. (although those meals are sounding better and better!) So just because i own a quilt store and have written a book or two, you think I'm a fabulous quilter? HA! I just don't point out my mistakes....cause truly.....if you don't point them out....people won't notice.

Stretched a border to make it fit? Yes I have! And I'm still here!
Left a seam that didn't line up even though I could have MADE it line up by ripping and resewing? Yes I have! Still here!!!
Used a thread that didn't match....oh yes i sure did!
Got a pucker in the back of a quilt I quilted myself...you bet I have.
Didn't read the instructions, just looked at the pictures? Why yes, yes, I've done that!
Wavered in my 1/4 seam? I'm the queen of that!
Have my borders waved - your darn right they have!

And I'm still here. The quilt police haven't come for me yet.
Nor will they, cause I will kick their ass!
Now about those meals though........

Shelley

To prewash or not to prewash....

For many quilters this is a confusing issue, mainly because ask 10 quilters and you may get 10 different answers and opinions! So I'm here to give you my expert advise (opinion!!!)

In both our Tis the Season and Urban Country Quilts books, we discuss this exact topic. You will see the very same topic in our book Tis the Autumn Season that releases in June 2013 as well. And in each book we say basically the same thing, only in a different manner in each one!

So.....do we prewash? Or don't we?

drumroll please.......and the answer is........

NO!!!

That's right we don't prewash our fabrics. (as i look over my shoulder looking to see if the quilt police are on their way......)
We all have a lot of laundry to do already so why add to the load? Pardon the pun! 

The fabric that is being manufactured in this day and age doesn't have the shrink rate it did even 20 years ago. The dye is much more stable, so unless you are using a hand dyed fabric, this shouldn't be an issue. (Having said that, let a quilt sit somewhere soaking wet and you will almost always have trouble!) 
The sizing that is in the fabric cut directly off the bolt makes for a crisp hand and are definitely easier to work with this way.

                                                                                   

In todays fabric market, we have access to all varieties of precuts, 5" squares,  10" squares, 2-1/2" strips, and much more. These items are not meant to be pre-washed, to do so is asking for trouble! These items will simply fray too much to be manageable. And besides, who wants to iron those little bitty squares into submission?

The other thing you most certainly do not want to do is prewash a finished quilt top. That is a recipe for disaster. You will end up with frayed seams, threads hanging everywhere, and depending on the type of fabric, maybe some very frayed edges. And you most certainly will have to iron it before you could even think about basting and quilting it. 
We don't prewash our quilt batting, or our backing fabric. If you really feel the need to wash the quilt top, be sure to do it after the quilt is put together, quilted and bound. This way, all the fabrics will do whatever shrinking they might do (minimal!) and you will end up with a beautiful quilt with an overall scrunchiness that says....use me!

Sailing, sailing......

WE'RE BAAAAACKKKKK!
Oh my, what an adventure! For Jeanne and I this was the first time either of us has been on a cruise, and the ginormitty (probably not a real word!!) of these ships are unbelievable!!!
Our ship held close to 4000 passengers and just over 1000 crew! Thats a ton of people!!

 It was difficult to get a picture that really and truly shows the enormous size of these cruise ships!!
The quilting class was held on the first day at sea, which may not have been the best idea! I'm not sure about everyone else, but it took me awhile to get my 'sea legs'! I was surprised at how much you could feel the movement of being on a ship! I wasn't expecting that. I wasn't sick or nauseous, but kinda dizzy and out of sorts. As was Jeanne.
But we did alright, and so did the ladies who came to sew!

 

The ports we stopped at were St Thomas, which was fun to wander around in for the first few hours. We had a catamaran tour booked that took us out snorkelling. Everyone (even Jeanne) seemed to get the hang on the whole snorkelling thing, except for me!!! I certainly didn't expect to be as panicky and fearful as I was!! The water in my eyes, nose and down my throat didn't help though! But in the end i did manage to get the hang of it....somewhat, and enjoyed the few minutes I had left in the beautiful water!

If you look closely, the guy in the centre is Jock - Pauline's, husband (Hamels Fabrics)

Antigua was the next stop. I was surprised at how aggressive the people where in port, trying to sell stuff!!
We had a tour booked for that port as well, a Jeep Safari! That was avery fun! We drove in an open aired Jeep that seated 8 people. The driver (who drives on the right side by the way!!) Had a microphone and told us all sorts of interesting facts about the island. I learned it take a pineapple 16 months to grow to full size!! We then had a chance to swim at a beach, our first opportunity to swim in the ocean so far!!

Our next port was Tortola. Now if you are like me - you maybe hadn't even heard of this island before! It's a part of the British Virgin Islands, and it was beautiful! I wish we had more time in each port, but such is the way when you are cruising! At this port we had a tour booked that took us to on a beautiful book ride to see the scenery, dropped us off at an amazing beach for a few hours, complete with a burgers and drinks! This my friends is where I really and truly burned!

Our last port was Nassua, Bahamas. At this port we nothing planned, just a little poking around, maybe a little shopping!

It was a fabulous trip! We all had a ton of fun! There's so much more I could say, but I don't want to bore you with the details! I'll leave you with a few more pics!

If you want to see even more pics - check out our Facebook page!