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

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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.