Spring Quilt Market debriefing - Number 6!!!

I am just rocking out these blog post aren't i??!!! For those of you who usually tell me i don't blog very often.....Im making up for lost time!!

The Market floor opens on the Friday - and it's hard to explain how large it is. The scope of it is overwhelming if you have never been there before.
I will show you some pics - but it certainly doesn't do it justice.

Now you realize that each photo is just a small portion of the show floor right?! I read a statistic once, that I am inclined to believe is true. It said that if you walked up and down every single aisle from beginning to end - you will have covered 4 miles!! 

Walking the show floor, seeing new fabric, patterns, notions, etc. is all very fun and exciting, but my favourite part of quilt market is seeing all our old friends and making new ones!!

John Q Adams aka Quilt Dad with Karen Burns from Martingale

Check out John's book Beyond Neutral! 

John was a real inspiration to me. I know what it takes to write a book - but Jeanne and I do it together. John is a single Dad raising 3 young kids, works full time, makes quilts, and still managed to squeeze out an amazing book! Check him out! http://www.quiltdad.com/

Terri from Whimsicals in her booth!

Terri having her picture taken with Colleen for Jo!

Taking selfies with Karen's camera!
A little surprise for the morning after!
Conner, Ramona and Colleen

Working so closely with the Martingale people is always so very fun! The opportunity to make new friends and meet other authors is always amazing!

Gail Pan and her crew were a ton of fun! These ladies flew over from Australia for Quilt Market. Gail's friends, Sandra and Ramona helped her work her booth while Gail was busy with book signings! Gail's book Patchwork Loves Embroidery, has been a huge hit! And thats no surprise - it's a lovely book and Gails handwork is impeccable!

Gail, Shelley, Jeanne, Sandra, Colleen, Ramona and Wendy!
Last meal in Pittsburgh!

And just so you know, I am always on my utmost best behaviour at Quilt Market........

Unless Karen is around....then all bets are off!! Hehehehee!
Until next time my friends!!
xox
S

Quilt Market debriefing - Part 4!!

I know right!! FOUR Blogs in a row!! With no "Months" between them!! And no one had to nag!

So let's see....where are we in the Market saga...schoolhouse day!
Jeanne and I did a schoolhouse for Martingale to promote our new book - Here Comes Winter, which releases on June 3rd! We gave everyone who attended a sneak peek of the projects in the upcoming book, and discussed how these projects can work in their stores.

I'm going to give you sneak peek when we get to the end of this post, but for now, lets back up a little bit....this is also the day I got to meet my very very good friend BILL LOCKE, face to face!!

Bill is currently living in Newfoundland, Canada and operates not one, but two quilt shops!! You really do need to check out Bill's shop, which is primarily based on Facebook.  He has an amazing selection of hand dyed wools and projects to go along with it! Oh and not to brag or anything, but Bill sells a LOT of our patterns! Heehehe! And that is how Bill and I met! via email! And we've become amazing buddies! I love him to pieces! But....really...so do a lot of people!

Colleen loves Bill

Gail Pan loves Bill

Wendy and Ramona love Bill

Wendy loves Bill

Gail and I both love Bill!

Bill arrived in time to help Jeanne and I with our schoolhouse! He was the official quilt holder upper! Nothing like jumping in to Quilt Market with both feet!

So here is your little sneak peek for sticking out this blog post to the end!!

These are just a few of the quilts you will see in Here Comes Winter! We are very excited that this book is larger than our previous 3, so you will see many many more projects!!

Believe it or not - Part 5 is coming soon!!
ox
S

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!!