Pay it Forward

I often feel like I don't have anything 'profound' to say in this blog. Today I do. So sit back, grab a cup of coffee, cause I'm gonna be a bit longwinded!

This past weekend was the annual Creative Stitches show in Sherwood Park, AB. Both Jeanne and I and our office manager, Jo were there setting up and working the booth for the weekend.

We were staying at the hotel attached to the complex where the show was being held, and they offered a free breakfast, as many hotels do these days. The first day, Thursday Jo and I went down and had breakfast. It was the usual fare you'd find at one of these free hotel breakfast deals....bread for toast,  some bagels and muffins. There was yogurt and cereal and oranges and apples, as well as eggs and bacon. Not gourmet by any means, but all we really needed! The perfect start to the day ahead of us unloading the van, and setting up the show.

The second morning, we were up early, three of us needing to get through the bathroom of the hotel room, getting all ready for the first day of the show! So  by 8am we were down to the free breakfast room, and it was packed with people!! And....there was absolutely no food left!! None! It was kinda weird! I don't think the hotel was prepared for the amount of people they had staying there! People were walking in, and walking back out, not very happy! We decided we could grab a muffin or something later at the Second Cup coffee place that was right outside the area our booth was in.
Well, soon enough the show started, and it got so busy that we weren't able to leave the booth for that muffin. So early afternoon there was a slight break and I headed out to the Second Cup to grab muffins for us. OMG!!! The line up was really really long....and there was NO FOOD left!!! Apparently this facility also was not prepared for the a whole bunch of hungry women!! There was a place that sold fries and burgers, but the line up was even longer and I couldn't leave the booth that long!! (At this point imagine me wasting away to nothing....) I walked back to the booth, kinda cranky I might add!
I was breaking it to Jo that we wouldn't be eating today (usually we do go to a grocery store before a show and get some food to keep in the booth - but for some reason we just didn't this time!) and at this point I hadn't eaten breakfast, nor lunch. Now any of you that know me, know that I LIKE to eat! And if any of you know me really well .....you know I wouldn't be pleasant to be around on really empty belly!!
Now I also have to point out that although there were three of us in the booth, Jeanne was teaching classes on and off most of the day, which really only left two of us in  avery busy booth, so we couldn't leave the complex.
Now, I must have been my quiet typical self (hee hehe!) as a customer overheard me telling Jo our dilemma. She (Darcy Neufeld Mockford) asked if she could go pick something up for us! I thought that was just so sweet, but I could not ask her to do that for us! Here she was a young Mom away from her FIVE children for the day - her SIXTH child (a baby) with her, and her SEVENTH in her belly, enjoying her day off from family obligations at the show.
She absolutely insisted that she wanted to do this for us!! When we realized she absolutely wanted to do this, we finally relented and asked her if she would be so kind as to grab us sandwiches from Tim Hortons up the street.

She left with our orders rambling around in her head! (Mother of nearly 7, it's like she has super powers!) And came back with our sandwiches, coffees and even a box of muffins!!!

I dived into that sandwich like a starving person! (well I was, ok!?) I don't think I had even been so grateful for an egg salad sandwich ever!! It hit the spot. And it wasn't a greasy burger or fries which I was also very grateful for.
Now Darcy was such an angel for doing this for us - and to top it all off - she wouldn't even let us pay for our lunches!!! She insisted it was her treat and asked one thing of us in return. That we "pay it forward".

So not only is this blog about sharing Darcy's kindness to us when we really needed it, but also a lesson to everyone out there about human spirit. And Darcy's reminder that we all need to 'Pay it Forward' once in a while to make this world a better place!!

THANK YOU DARCY!!!
You are an inspiring young woman!
xoxo

Randomness!

Well I will be the first to admit that I am not very good at this whole blog thing. However in my defence, can I just say I always feel like I have nothing of real importance to say!!! So today you will get some randomness from me!
It's the first day of school and I officially have no one off to school this year! That's right - my youngest is done high school and taking this year off so....no one! (how I got to have children this age I will never know!)
How's this for random.....I sprained my ankle 6 weeks ago and it is still healing. Wow!! At my age (39) you'd think that something like that would heal just a little quicker. Below is a picture of what it looked like about one week into the sprain. And really, that picture totally does not do the bruising any justice!

It was awful! And I don't even have a good story!!! I was walking and then I wasn't. Sad but true. I just stepped wrong and went down. AND had to hobble home!! So not only have I had a swollen painful ankle all summer, but I haven't been able to wear any of the fabulous wedge heels I own!!

So the next random thing I want to talk about is the Little Black Dress collection by Basic Grey for Moda. O. M. G! This stuff is literally flying off the shelves here!!!

You can see what we've whipped up with it, we call it A Night Out. It finishes at
54" x 60" and the kit is $79.95.






















And how about this for random....meet my  newest family member.........

His name is Charlie and he belongs to my daughter! Isn't he just the cutest grand kitty ever????!

Ok, so my real excuse for not blogging...I have been away! Like on holidays?! Not something I usually indulge in, but it was a family get away (minus my youngest son....whose girlfriend was more important than hanging with his family!) and we rented a condo in Canmore, Alberta and had a very fun time!








If you have never been out that way,
Canmore, Banff, etc. I beg you to add
that to your bucket list!!
It's so amazing to see this area!
I won't bore you with all 489 pics I have!

But I will tell you that I'd be happy to show you a few more if you just drop me an email! Lol!
My daughter was the 'official' photographer on this trip and she gave me a ton of fabulous photos!











So my family, minus me of course, cause I took this one!
My daughter Sarah, my husband holding the most beautiful granddaughter in the world, my oldest son Brian standing beside his wife Raesean, who has her arm around my grandson Aiden.
Missing of course is my youngest son Jared!

Missing son ------------->









So check out these fun pics, I'd say that my grandchildren are a chip off the old block quite frankly....

Now my daughter and I have this thing we like to do when we are together....let me show you what it is!

Are you getting a pretty good sense of what it is?? And if you notice...we have the same cheesy smile!

And here is one of my favourite pics...I have no idea why it appeals to me so much......heck, I don;t even know what they were looking at!

Orange Night!

So all you blog followers, we can safely establish that I am a crappy blogger!! I know this will come as a complete and utter shock to lots of you (especially those who know me well....) but I just had nothing to say. I know, I know.....shocking.

So Orange Night. First of all, as you know (or not so I'm going to tell you!) Jeanne and I have our fingers in a lot of pies! (I love pie......) We own and operate The Quilt Patch. We write books for Martingale and Co. We design and publish our own line of patterns under the Quilt Patch Pattern Co. label. We have a wholesale division for our pattern company. We create a new collection of quilts and patterns each spring and each fall. We do a TON of shows, both retail and wholesale. And we design fabric. Oh ya....and we try to maintain a normal life while doing all this.

Soooooo.....what's the real secret behind our juggling ability.....are you ready for this big secret??

OUR STAFF!!

Yep. That's it. That's our secret weapon. That's how we can accomplish as much as we do. And so while we pay like crap, (but we're a lot of fun!) we do try to make sure we throw in a few perks for them along the way! Cause well, we know that to keep them with us, they must be happy!!

Which brings me to Orange Night.

And I don't mean Orange, like the fruit. I mean......

Orange....like the fabric.....

Jeanne bought and scrounged and saved and stashed a HUGE amount of Orange fabrics during the spring show season! Enough to make 8 quilts!!! Thats 8 quilts x 15 fat quarters per quilt!!

AND.....she took the time to precut all this fabric for our staff!! (I want you to know that I ordered the pizza, and that was incredibly hard work!!!) 

So we picked a night and our staff brought their sewing machines in, we ordered pizza for dinner, drank orange drinks (the adult kind!) and had a sew in!

Jeanne, Edna (Jeanne's Mom!) Jo and Yvonne

Flo - teacher extrordinare!

Jo - our office manager and resident 'know what's going on' girl!

Yvonne - second in command to Jo!

Everyone was pretty darn thrilled! We opened our packages and got down to business! Most of us completed a quilt top that evening. Some of us... (me and Yvonne) just didn't make it all the way!

Young Jeri! We'll be sorry to see her head off the University!

Jeri's ironing

Colleen - she headed up the Outdoor Quilt Festival!!

Jeanne had saved up sooooo incredibly many oranges - everything from bright orange to cheddar to pale yellowy orange and everything in between! Everyone left with an orange but different and unique quilt top!

It was a great evening! A little thank you to our hard working staff! 

I wish I had a picture of the finished quilts - but the ones that did complete theirs, whipped them away to be long arm quilted! I guess they were scared we'd change our minds......

But this is the quilt we all made:

Oversized Hopscotch

But Orange!

So the next time you are in the store, or call the store, or pick up a beautifully packaged kit....take a moment to thank our staff for doing an amazing job...they would really appreciate that. And so would we, cause we know we couldn't keep doing what we do without them!!

Big Weekend!!

Our Crescent Park Quilt Festival has been growing with every year that passes, and this year is no exception!! We have been planning and getting ready for weeks! Our staff have been cutting kits and packing the goody bags for the surprise party class!

Jo getting Goody Bag stuff ready!

Goody Bags for the Surprise Party class!

Not sure what Yvonne is doing but it looks important!!

Jeri cutting kits

Jeanne's packing area!

Jeanne has been packing lots of great stuff for display over at the park on Sunday! We have new quilts and kits, which is always exciting!

Our newest!!

Little Hoot

Close up! So cute!

We have stacks and stacks of quilts just waiting to be hung in the park on Sunday! Thank you to everyone who brought quilts!! It wouldn't be a quilts show in the park without your quilts to display!!

Stacks of quilts ready to be hung!!

Thank you Nikki!

And lots of red and white quilts!!

Our Red and White section should look pretty darn impressive! Be sure to look for the Where's Waldo quilt that will be on display!! It's pretty fun!
So remember - Sunday, July 22, 2012 - 10am - 4pm - in beautiful downtown Moose Jaw, SK. come and see the quilts hung in Crescent Park, among the trees, shop the merchant mall. A wonderful day!
And for those of you who can't make it....no worries! I will take spectacular pics and post them here!

Deadlines!!

Holy crap!! This deadline didn't sneak up on us....it ran after us, dragged us down kicking and screaming!! I'm talking about book number 3. The manuscript is due into the Martingale offices Tuesday! We are scrambling here!

I'm not as much of a last minute person as Jeanne is, so I think I may be feeling the pressure just a bit more than her at the moment! Jeanne works best under pressure, and I fall completely apart! So, after she's picked me up off the floor the last few days, lived with my crankiness, and assured me numerous times we can do this, we are sailing into the final moments! Jeanne is now furiously editing my writings and illustrations. The projects are all done...well...ok...maybe not quite all.....
Our amazing staff has graciously stepped in and hand sewn many many bindings in the last few days so that we can meet this deadline. Thank you Flo and Yvonne!!

Wendy, who has long arm quilted a large portion of the quilts in this book, has graciously put our quilts ahead of her other customers in order for this deadline to be met! Thank you Wendy!

Now, while I can't show you the quilts in the book (you gotta wait!) I think I can give you a few hints!
First off....let me just say, that if you liked Tis the Season and you enjoyed Urban Country Quilts, then you will love this book!! I can't say if the name will remain the same, but it has been tentatively titled, A Bumper Crop of Quilts. It will have a fall flavour with the easy projects, warm earthy tones and chunky applique that you've come to recognize from us!

And surprise, surprise....flowers! And that beige, brown, red, green combo we love so much!!

And when we proposed this book, we said we wouldn't be putting in any pumpkins! Can you believe WE said that!! So it might just come as a surprise when we send everything to Martingale........

and there ARE pumpkins!
So watch for book number 3 coming out in the Spring of 2013! We promise.....it's a good one!