It's Close!!

Yes, the wedding is almost here. I know you all can't believe I got the bridesmaid's bags done ahead of time, but I did. We went to St. Louis shopping last weekend for the bachelorette party. Now that is my type of a party. On the way home, my extremely organized sister, Kathy, helped me make a list of all I had to do this week. I'm getting the things crossed off little by little. - The shop hop was a success! Now we are just waiting for all of the passports to come in so we can draw the winners. How fun! - Remember, we still have room for our Crazy For Quilting Bus Hop on October 15th and 16th. If you want more information, just give us a call! - Believe it or not, it is time for us to be thinking about the Madison, WI quilt show. Our class room shows we have work in progress!! The dates for that show are September 9, 10 and 11th. Be sure and put it on your calendar. Well, must get back to work!!!

TTFN,
Carol

Summer is Here!!

I think summer is finally here! It is time for the M-P Fair, so it must be here in full force! We have our free-motion quilting class tomorrow. The class is full, but we will be scheduling another one soon. We all have so many quilt tops to finish and learning to free-motion quilt is a good beginning!--Remember, the shop hop is next week--Wednesday,July 14th-Saturday, July 17th. What a fun way to spend a few days! Get a carload of friends and aim your car towards Interstate 80. The passports are FREE! Yes, I said FREE! The grand prize is a Janome Gem Gold 3. What a great machine for classes. Speaking of classes, we just finished an apron class. A picture is included so you can see our accomplishments. Of course we get a little goofy by the end of the class, but some things will never change. - Our friends, Mary and Bill Fowler, have been frequenting Quilter's Garden a lot lately. (Well, actually more than lately and we love to see them come in. Bill says that we torture him, but for some reason he keeps coming back!) As you can tell, Mary keeps very busy quilting. She keeps her machine a hummin'. Mary is in the process of making a quilt for all of the members of her family. What a gift! - Thank you to all who took advantage of our quilt appraiser, Janette Dwyer. What a great 2 days we had! Janette taught us so much--label, label, label. Did I say you needed to label your quilts? I will really have to work at taking her advice, but learned how important it is. It is also sooooooooooo important to get your quilts appraised so you can list them on your insurance. Unfortunately, unless you have your quilts appraised, if something happens to them, the insurance companies compare them to those found at the "W" store. Ouch!!! I know I am going to have more appraised! Well, it is closing time and time to head to the Marshall-Putnam Fair. Oh darn, I will have to sit for 3 hours and stitch while "guarding" the food department. I may even have to try out a corn dog, elephant ear and lemonade shake-up. At times life is so hard!!

TTFN,
Carol

TGIF

Hey,
Thank goodness it is Friday! We have been so busy at Quilter's Garden. If you come in you are liable to get caught up in the fabric frenzy also! We just got in a HUGE shipment of Shannon fabrics. They are luscious! Beth has made up some pillowcases that are soooooooooooooo soft. You will definitely have to make one for your little someone. Did I say it is sooooooooooooo soft? We also have some free patterns if you purchase the fabric. Don't you just love that?
We have also picked out some kits to make some projects from Edyta Sitar's book, "Hop To It." You all know me and know I am not a batik person. But, I have to say after seeing her projects, she has me looking at things a whole different way. I have the applique block in the first project all done and now just need to sew the quilt together. Has anyone found some extra hours yet? I need a few! - Beth has chosen her colors for the second project and now we just need to get them appliqued. I have to say that applique is my new favorite quilting thing to do. I just love my sewing machine as when I stop sewing, it lifts the presser foot just a little so I can maneuver the fabric without having to lift the presser foot manually. It is awesome and saves a lot of time!
Well, Sarah's shower is tomorrow and I need to finish the binding on her gift. This has sure been a fun journey. Aren't weddings fun?
Oh my, I just looked out the back door and the storm clouds are coming in. I'm saying a prayer that it will pass over and everyone will be safe!!!

TTFN,
Carol

Antique quilts

I am "flying high" today. I stopped at my mother-in-law, Dorothy's, house last night and she gave me 6 quilts to bring to Garden Club and share. They are just treasures! My very favorite one is a Flower Garden Quilt that she embroidered when she was a freshman in high school. The pattern was in the Bloomington Pantagraph newspaper each week. Her sister copied off the pattern and then Dorothy stitched one block a week. Her mom then put the quilt together with a picket fence border around the outside. Dorothy's stem stitch is just BEAUTIFUL! The ladies in club were so interested in it that they thought they would like to do it for a block of the month. To my good fortune, a quilt appraiser came in the store from Iowa right after club and I showed her the quilt. She said the pattern was designed by Ruby Short McKim and I could go to her website and probably find the pattern. Of course I went and googled it immediately. I found it! I am going to order the book and get started. I'm hoping Dorothy will let me display the quilt for a little while. - Another quilt I have is a quilt made by her favorite aunt. The appraiser thought it was probably a purchased kit. I didn't even realize they had kits back in the 30's and 40's! - Dorothy said that most of the fabric was probably ordered from the Sear's Catalog. Her mom ordered scrap bags of fabric and the fabric would come in all shapes and sizes. The bags were probably like our scrap barrel! Some of the fabrics look just like our reproductions. It is awesome! - The double wedding ring quilt has a purchased bias binding on it. The appraiser said that she considered the binding to be a "hot gadget" at the time. Bias binding was something very new and the "gadget girls" were the ones who purchased it. - Dorothy's aunts would come to her house around 8-8:30 AM and would stay until it got too dark in the house to quilt. Just think--they didn't have Ott lights! - Dorothy's mom's stitches are soooooooo tiny. I don't know how she got them so small and even! Her mom never took any of her quilts to the church to have them quilted, she just quilted them with her sisters. Oh what fun they must have had!-

TTFN,
Carol

Sunday - Sew Day

Sometimes I wonder if I should be sewing on Sunday, but I came to church in Princeton this morning and then decided to stop by the store for a few hours to put some borders on some new quilts. You will have to stop in the store to see them. I think they are so neat. We have already sold one kit for "Hannah's Joy" before the quilt is even done! Hannah's Joy is a tumbler quilt and Beth's daughter, Hannah Joy, has designed the applique to go in the corner. Remember the new fabric we purchased, Petal Pushers? This quilt is made in this fabric and yes, it screams freshness and spring. The other quilt is made from my favorite, Kansas Troubles, and is an applique quilt I have been working on for..........well, a long time!
Have you been thinking about the cruise? The balconies are almost booked! Bunny was in yesterday and said 100 people are already signed up. We are so excited. It is going to be tons of fun and Bunny has lots of neat surprises too!!! If you have any questions, call the store and if we can't answer them, Bunny will. Remember, Bunny is also putting a package together that will include airfare, hotel accommodations the night before the cruise and transfers from the airport to the hotel, hotel to the ship and ship back to the airport! We are looking to take a flight out of Bloomington, Peoria, or Moline so don't stress about having to get to Chicago! What a vacation - cruising and quilting!
Well, better get to those borders. I told my family I would be home to cook dinner.

TTFN,
Carol

Rainy day - quilting day

Wow, what a rainy day! Wow, what a day to quilt.! Actually, my husband was hoping for a little rain and hoping we aren't going to get the storms as predicted. I spent Monday in the tractor "helping" my husband. He told me what I did looked good from the road. Of course I laughed to myself and thought of us quilters as we say our quilts look good from a galloping horse! My mother-in-law asked me if I enjoyed being out in the open air. Truthfully, I told her, "No, I don't really enjoy it." I am really an indoors kind of gal. I appreciate looking at beautiful gardens, but I don't really want to have one. Isn't it wonderful that God made us all different? I LOVE to do applique, some don't like it at all! I love the "h" word - "hand-work" - and Beth prefers to do everything with her machine. I love to look at diamond quilts with all of the set in seams, but have no desire to try one. Some like a challenging quilt, others like to do simple quilts. I prefer the simple quilts. I like the mindless-brainless ones that I can talk to my friends while making them. Imagine that!!! And, I especially love giving them to people who don't quilt. They are impressed with anything! And if you love giving things, don't forget about our pillowcase challenge. The girls who stayed in our retreat center last weekend made us a boatload of pillowcases to take to Freedom House! They were so inspiring for us. They found if they purchased a yard each of two different fabrics in the clearance section, they could get two pillowcases. You should see the beautiful pillowcases they came up with. Marianne (the lady who takes the pillowcases to Freedom House) told me the kids get so excited when they see a cool pillowcase on their bed. She said it is even more exciting when she tells them they get to take it with them when they leave! Well, just in case you have nothing to do on this rainy day, think about making a donation of a pillowcase for someone who would really appreciate it!

TTFN,
Carol

We're Back!

Yes, we're back and have hit the ground running! Dallas, Texas was WONDERFUL! We got the red carpet treatment while we were at Moda/United Notions. Our minds are spinning from all we learned. We spent the airplane ride making a big list of everything we wanted to do. We took 2 classes from Joanna from Fig Tree Quilts. She taught the most adorable pin cushion. Beth and I were able to get them cut out while in class and hope to get them together this week. We also liked one of her dresden plate patterns. Another lady we took classes from was RoseAnn Kermes. She did lots of demos for us and gave us some super ideas. Susan Fuquay from American Quilt Retailer presented 2 classes also. Boy, is that lady organized. Very inspirational!!! We flew back into Chicago on Saturday evening, stayed at a hotel, and went to Troy's Fabriganza on Sunday. We came home with a van load of material. Our biggest "find" was Petal Pusher's fabric by Pearl Louise. It screams SPRING! The colors are red, white, green, blue and yellow! Stop in and see this new line. We have lots of projects planned for it. - Our purchases from Moda should be arriving any day. Moda is the king for jelly rolls so we couldn't leave Texas without a new grouping! Well, we have Garden Club this evening so I better get back to work! In case you were wondering, my April Fool's joke backfired! AARGH! Beth carries a Miche bag. (I'm sure you all know what these are and if you don't, just ask us and we will show you.) She has three openings for pictures on the front of the bag. Of course she has two of the openings with pictures of her grandsons in them. The third opening has been empty for weeks! So, I put a silly picture of myself in the third opening and thought she would carry it for weeks without noticing. It just so happened that she noticed it within 2 hours! Of course her son-in-law took it a step farther and put a mustache and beard on my picture! What kind of family does that Beth have anyway?!!!