Winter Newsletter

The newsletter is printed and should be on the way to your house just in time for you to sit down and enjoy it. Hopefully all your holiday preparations are winding down and it's time for you to enjoy all of your hard work and planning. I am still wrapping and have just a couple of gifts to buy. One of our Christmas celebrations with family isn't until January 22 so I have some time to kill yet!

Kathy and I have tried to once again think up some new and different classes to teach. Also, we have added more sessions of "Keep Cutting" which was the Fall's most popular class. If you got closed out, notice that we have started over in January with Class #1 during both the day and the evening.

We have heard a lot of you moaning about all the unfinished projects you have (so do we!). So Pam and Lois have decided to host a "Monday Minimizer" two times per month. They'll be there to help. The shop will be closed to all but the participants, so attention will be easier to give! We do require a fee of $5 and preregistration so we can cover the additional heat and electric cost. Also, so we know someone wants to be there!! I am summarizing Pat Sloan's fabulous ideas of how to overcome and deal with all of our UFO's. That summary will be available at our Open House on January 8th. Maybe we can ALL get our UFO's under control and give ourselves a wonderful feeling of completion during 2011.

Happy New Year! See you soon.

If you come in the shop, you will see a patterns with yellow covers from a company called "Vine Designs". That's us!! Kathy and I have been designing quilts, tablerunners and so on for about 2 years and finally have used our newsletter printing company to create a pattern line. In 2009, I wrote "Bits n Pieces" patterns to use up our scraps and leftovers fabrics. Now, they are an official pattern with professional graphics and directions. Lots better than my hand-drawn and photocopied originals.

Watch for more of these patterns to come out in the future. Every day we are working on getting some more out in the shelf and into distribution.

Traveling in alaska

Dan and I are having a wonderful time seeing the vast wilderness of
Alaska. Haven't visited in any quilt shops yet--think that will happen when we get on the boat. I certainly have found much to inspire me here. The wildflowers and scenery just make me want to create a quilt. Lake Forest block of the month looked just like the Byers Lake area and I can't wait to finish mine. Embroidery and applique beckon to let me design a quilt. Alaska is quite beautiful and certainly a mostly untouched wilderness. Now if I can just see a moose somewhat close up...but not too close!!

Traveling in

Tr

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Art Quilt Class

Last Saturday was the art quilt class with Lenore Crawford. 17 of us piled into our old storefront and listened attentively as Lenore told us how to proceed with her techniques of Misty Fuse and fabric. Then we began to cut out and fuse our fabrics. Poppies and coneflowers began to come to life. There wasn't much conversation because we were all concentrating so hard! Music would have been nice, but we didn't think of that beforehand. Towards the end of the class, Lenore demonstrated her techniques with fabric paint that added a 3-D effect to the art quilt. Some used her paints and brushes to try it out. Everybody had a fabulous time and could hardly wait to finish what they had started. Lenore had her patterns to sell....they are also available at her website: http://www.lenorecrawford.com/ If you have never seen her work, check it out! She is a resident of Midland, Michigan but travels all around teaching her techniques.

Fabric, Fabric and more Fabric

Hi ladies - and gents too! This is Amy I am going to try to get on here now and then. Lately Cathy and Kathy have been bringing in more and more beautiful fabrics. I told them the other day to stop it, I want it all!!!!! As I sit here and look out the grass is getting greener by the day. I can see little green sprouts starting to show in my flower bed. I am getting inspired to want to work with light and bright colors again. Winter and bog us down and perhaps that helps make spring time even better, it is a time of renewal. Did anyone else make a quilty lent promise this year? I did, I gave up the piecing process. The result, I have quilted 6 lap quilts in 6 weeks. I actually have one more king sized one to go that has to get done by the end of the month. Another idea I heard about was making charity quilts only. Let us know if you made a quilting promise this year and how it went.

SPRING!

Has spring really arrived? Saturday is the 1st day of spring...snow is gone, at least for now, and warmer weather has been felt. This past weekend I saw crocuses beginning to bloom up in Petoskey, Michigan!!

Spring brings in lots of new fabrics. We've received shipments of this really neat new Jinny Beyer fabric and Pam Kujawa stitched up a great new pattern with the fabric. 2010 Christmas fabric will begin to arrive within the next 6 weeks. Hard to believe, isn't it? Every day UPS arrives with a box of beautiful designs. Our fingers itch to stitch!

March also brings the planning for our next newsletter. What classes do you want to take? We'd love to hear from you. We try to guess what might interest our customers, so any ideas are well received!

Have you had enough snow? This weekend is the OH-MI shop hop and we quilters sure are a hardy lot. It started snowing Friday--only 1-3 inches expected.NOT! At last count we have 7" on the ground. Did that stop the hoppers?? Not on your life. One hopper was heard to say we should call it the "Shop Slide"! It is so much fun to meet all kinds of quilters. We share so many ideas and there are so many fabric collections out there that no shop can carry it all. The variety is a spark to our creativity.

We've begun designing our Cross Wall hangings of the month. The patterns and kits will be available soon for purchase and mail order. I've included a picture of the first one-"FAITH".

Fall, Christmas and the Superbowl have come and gone.....I'm just getting back to blogging. My knee is great, the shop is warm and cozy. Are you quilting? I organized my sewing area over the past two weeks. It's still not the way I want it but it is SO much better! I can actually find things!

We've begun the pillowcase challenge sponsored by American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. Today I logged in 106 pillowcases donated. I have been hitting my stash of fabrics for pillowcase kits to share with those who have time but no fabric. I've got fabric that needs a home and what better way to share!!!

We finished our 2009 Bible Study Block of the Month and are starting the 2010 one. We had to cancel Tuesday's class due to the snow. Look at the quilt we made in 2009 . We are making a cross wallhanging each month this year. Watch for a picture of it too!