Spring Quilt Market debriefing - Part 3!!

I know, I know, you can all hardly believe that I have blogged three days in a row now can you!??
It's just that I have soooo much to tell you about Market and there is no way I can fit it all in one blog posting!!

So after set day, we decided to take a cab over the a shopping area about 5 miles from the hotel. Nice and close, just a wee bit of shoe shopping, a bite to eat, then back for a good nights sleep....or so we thought!!

The evening started out fabulous - a lovely bit of shoe shopping at DSW! Yay! Who doesn't love shoe shopping?!!!

We all treated ourselves to some fabulous new shoes, then walked over to a retsuarant. We enjoyed our meal and a drink, then asked the server to please call us a cab. Well. She looked at us like we had grown two heads!!! She said...cabs don't come out here. Ummmm....excuse me? One dropped us off here....
She then informed us that we were too far from the city....seriously? We were FIVE MILES!! We could almost walk back!! ( not that we wanted to!!) She called a cab company and they reluctantly agreed to send someone out there, but it would be about an hour. Well...ok. We settled in for the wait, and soon the call came that the cab was close. We gathered our shoes (heehehe) and headed out to the front step of the restuarant. After waiting a few more minutes, a cab slowly drove by the side of the restuarant. We all started waving and calling (so excited to go back to the hotel after such a long day!)
and.....he drove away.....!! Can you believe that?!! Neither could we!!! What happened there??
We went back into the restaurant, and discovered that the cab driver had apparently stopped the car along the SIDE of the restaurant and went into the restaurant through the patio / lounge area and asked if anyone had called a cab. To which everyone answered no. He then drove away!
Sad story I know. But wait! It gets better!
So the server felt terrible - not her fault - and called the cab company again. Again with the hour wait. Sheesh!! By this time it's getting to be 10pm and we are tired, and a little nervous about getting the heck back to the hotel!
The server girl came back out and told us that one of the guys working there was just getting off work and had offered to drive us back to the hotel! Some people would be appalled at being driven somewhere in a strange city by a strange man - but not us!! He pulled his little car around and we hopped right in! He was a very sweet young man who then told us about the cab shortage in Pittsburgh! (great story - a little too late!) He wouldn't even take any money from us!! (but we made him! Told him to take his girlfriend out to dinner on us!) And he even gave us his card in case it happened again while we were in town!! What a great guy!!

Sweet guy who drove us home! 

Watch for more adventures.....coming soon!
xoxox
S

Spring Quilt Market debriefing - Part 2!!

So day one in Pittsburgh and it's booth set up time!! It's always wonderful to find our booth space and see our skid waiting for us!! This whole shipping thing is a huge leap of faith!

We decided that because we would be promoting our new book Here Comes Winter at this Market, we wanted our booth to reflect a wintery feel.

We featured our latest Block of the Month - Snow Friends - and WOW! did it ever receive a ton of attention!

We love it, but it was pretty exciting to have other shop owners love it as well!!

This year our booth location was right next to the Martingale booth! We really enjoyed that! Not only to be able to visit the all the amazing people who work at Martingale, but just to be able to meet with people who were interested in our book, direct them where to buy it, and also to mingle with the other Martingale authors!!

Martingale staff ready for the weekend!

Keep watching.....Part 3 will be coming soon!!
xoxS

Quilt Market debriefing 2014!! Part 1

Whew! I think I've just finally had a chance to catch my breath! Spring Quilt Market was absolutely amazing! There were four of us sharing a room in Pittsburgh. Jeanne and myself, Colleen (who came along to work in our booth as Jo was away in Europe!) and Wendy, who owns Fabriculous, a neat shop based in an old church, in Swan River, MB.

Jeanne, Colleen, Wendy and Me!

This picture is BEFORE we got on the plane - so we are all fresh and perky!
We stayed at The Omni William Penn is downtown Pittsburgh. It was soooooo gorgeous and amazing!! If ever you get the chance - stay there!!

Lobby

Look at these amazing chandeliers!

Omni William Penn Hotel

More Lobby

And not only was the hotel amazing, but the downtown core itself was a beautiful array of old building that they seem to have preserved in an all their glory. Pittsburgh is truly a gorgeous city - and if you get the chance - visit!

There is so much to say about our week in Pittsburgh!! Keep watching for more posts!! I am going to make up for my poor blogging by telling you all about Spring Quilt Market in the days to come!!

I promise.....keep watching!! xoxS

Our Customers Rock!!

We love it here when a customer brings something in to share with us! ESPECIALLY when they bring something in that they have added their own stamp to!
Such was the case the other day when Darlene brought in her Live Love Laugh quilt!
Now we had just revamped this popular pattern with new and fresh colors. Brought it back to life from the pastel colouring it once sported! And we were pretty happy with the results...that is until Darlene brought in her version to show us!!!

Darlene's version

The Quilt Patch version

Darlene made hers using the new Little Black Dress 2 fabric! Isn't it just stunning?! She also added and extra border to make it slightly larger! Now why didn't we think of that?! Makes me want to whip up her elegant version for my very own!  Thanks for sharing with us Darlene!

Babies!!

I thought I was going to blog about how we got water in the basement of the shop, and it ended up being a cracked pipe and we now have a hole in a wall in the front of our shop and we just covered it with a quilt....but....Jo said, NAH, that's boring - blog about whats new!! Our Babies!!
So here I am!! Blogging about our babies!

Katie Gray

Grandma Jo

So Jo has a new grandbaby!! She is the cutest little pipsqueek ever!  This is Jo's first grandbaby and she's head over heels!

Now if you recall my last blog post (yes, yes, I am quite aware it's been a long time.....!!) I posted a pic of Jo's fur baby, Tinsel. Sadly, Tinsel got sick and unfortunately the vets did everything they could for her but she had to be put down.

Jo and Tinsel

It was a very sad time, but Jo went back to the Humane Society and rescued Tinsels brother, Claus!! And is now the proud owner of fur baby number 2!!

Claus aka Kinzl

Now....not to be undone...I recently had to put my cat down after 18 years.  He was old, his body was shutting down and he was suffering. It's still a hard thing to do.
But after a little subtle hinting from my son... we went to the Humane Society..."just to look"...heehehe!

Meet Oli!! He's four  months old. A boy. And is super cuddly and loveable! I've had him less than 24 hours now, and I think I've received more love from him in that time than I did in all the 18 years we owned our last cat! So now that you've met our fur babies, let me know if you still want to know about the cracked pipe!!

What's new and exciting at The Quilt Patch!

So much happening here this month! Little Black Dress 2 hit our doorstep the other day! It's so amazingly gorgeous! We haven't made anything using it just yet, but we are thinking about a Variety Show! A great way to showcase the fabric!

Little Black Dress by Basic Grey for Moda

It's been flying out of here without any inspiration, but no worries, we do have another full collection slated to arrive sometime in February or March!

But don't wait too long - cause already we can't re order certain pieces! Sold out and discontinued! That's the fabric industry for you! 

Love it? Buy it now or its gone! Very little goes into reprint now a days.

So Jeanne and I are busy planning for the Spring show season and Spring Quilt Market all at the same time! Spring show season - springy and fresh - Spring Quilt Market - Wintery and snowy!

Heres a sneak peek at some of the new items you will see in our booth at shows this spring:

Berrylicious is a nice large quilt - 68" x 80". Very simple, but delicious! It's a limited edition kit - once the fabric is gone - the kit is gone.
$129.95

Forever Red is also a limited edition kit - and we only have a  smaller amount than we normally would - so if you really really like this quilt - do not wait!! It's very fast, those small squares....all presewn fabric!! Doesn't get much simpler then that!
This quilt finishes at 56" x 67"
$82.95

Live Laugh Love is a pattern we have many years back, some of you may remember it done in pastel colors. We decided to revisit this quilt as it was always a favourite! We changed it up a bit, freshened the colours, revamped the pattern.

This quilt finishes at 56" x 68"

I don't have a price on this kit yet - but Jeanne will bring that to me very soon so I can make labels for the kits!

A Charming Chevron Quilt is something we whipped up so you could have another idea of how to use all those delicious charm packs you may be hoarding! We used three charm packs and 2.7 of contrast fabric. That will give you a quilt 59" x 75"

This pattern also has the yardage requirements for a queen size quilt.

The best part....this pattern is only $3!

Here's a quick peek at a new quilt that you won't likely see until the Fall of 2014 - but we will be wholesaling the pattern at Spring Quilt Market:

This quilt is called Snowball Fight!!

It's the perfect lap size for winter - 52" x 64"!

OK.....now for the very best NEW thing at The Quilt Patch...........

Meet Tinsel. Jo's new kitten! A rescue cat from the Humane Society! Isn't she just a beauty! 

Happy New Year!

Happy 2014!! I hope everyone had an amazing holiday season!! In case you didn't know - I celebrated New Years in the Mayan Riviera!! Ok, alright, truth be known, I babysat my grandchildren while my kids went out...cause quite frankly - Im just too old to stay out until 4am!!
So if you look closely, you will be able to see that I'm wearing the red bikini under that coverup!!!
Oh yes I am!

We had a fabulous holiday and I would love to do it again one day! My grandchildren enjoyed themselves immensely! So did the adults, and I think I may have turned on my daughters 'travelling switch'!



So Martingale complied their list of their top 10 books for 2013 and Tis the Autumn Season was number 4 on that list!!! Yay!!

Our next book - Here Comes Winter will be released in June!! Keep checking our blog, Facebook page and website for the book cover to be shown soon!! It s spectacular if I do say so myself!!