Sweet Home Quilt Co.

Don’t know why, but the shadow-y photo on the right is one of my favorites from all that I took! This was Day One, about 8AM, and the beautiful sunshine and mild temperatures promised a great day ahead!

As soon as it warms up just a bit more, I’ll be planting flowers with the old bicycle…right now it is covered in grapevines!

I know, I know…it’s a “gender-neutral” mannequin…but it was the illusion I was after! This was a Popsicle Sticks (Atkinson Designs) quilt made with Tonga Treats, and we had no more wall space to hang it! I added a zipper flower “belt” and a little bling around the neck to complete the look! So I wouldn’t make the cut on Project Runway…I haven’t quit my day job…yet!

Cathy did a great job with our Quilt Book Library…that’s Melville Dewey you see up there…as in Dewey Decimal System! He had all sorts of quotable things to say to our hoppers!

A couple of our free-standing demo boards – I loved watching customers’ faces for the “Aha” moment!

…we had a “fierce” teacher in the classroom…Gwen was stern but helpful to all our shop hop friends, making sure they followed the “Rules of our School!” Her biggest thing was #9…Don’t Spit! You can see our big chalkboard on the front porch, welcoming hoppers with our demo/lecture schedule.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my little shop hop picture tour of Sweet Home! I’ve still got pictures of all the shops’ quilts and they are wonderful…stay tuned, more to come!

Melisa

We’ve closed the books on the 2011 Greater Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop, and from all indications it was a huge success. Our numbers indicate more than 1100 people participated, and everyone agreed a fun time was had by all! The shop owners met this morning to select the prize winners, and I know everyone is anxious to hear who won our great prizes:

Shari Parris of Grovetown, GA was our Grand Prize Winner. Shari won a $100 gift certificate to each of the 11 shops – an $1,100 value.

Bettye Stilley of Jacksonville, FL was the winner of our Second Prize – a Baby Lock “Grace” sewing machine with attachments and Sew Steady Table – a $500 value.

Nancy Shipp of Covington, GA won the Third Prize – a basket of fabric and quilting notions valued at $250.

Each shop also had a Fourth Prize drawing, and the winner of Sweet Home’s drawing was Maria Figueroa of Lawrenceville, GA. Maria won a quilt kit valued at $100.

Congratulations to all of the winners! It is always so much fun when we call each of them and hear their excitement (and in some cases disbelief!) when told they’ve won! It is the highlight of our wrap-up meeting, for sure!

We always put up new displays and samples and spiff up the shop to reflect our theme each year, and this year was no exception. I think we had more new samples than ever before! So I’ll leave you with pictures of our 2011 Shop Hop adventure, and invite you to join us in 2012 for more fun!

          Dr. Seuss was a big hit with shoppers, young and old alike!

Our Special Edition “Georgia” fabric was used as the border on this “Name Game” quilt spelling out GEORGIA, from Fat Quarter Fonts by Atkinson Designs.

Our school lunch trays were fun…we had an apple and a strawberry, corn on the cobb, potatoes and a pepper/cheese sandwich…with milk!

I’ll post more shop hop pictures in a bit as this post is getting a bit picture-heavy…stay tuned!

Melisa

We make a ton of pillowcases at Sweet Home, both for donation to ConKerr Cancer and for samples of the pillowcase kits we have available for purchase.  I found this nice demo showing the method we use so I thought I’d share it with you. Once you’ve made a couple of pillowcases using this method, you can sew one up in about 15 minutes. I like finishing with a French seam, but if you have a serger it is even quicker!

We just got in some really cute, summery novelty prints of ice cream cones and cupcakes, and made samples right away…don’t you love them?  Kits are available here.

Melisa

One of the most fun new gadgets I found at Spring Quilt Market was the Twister Tool. It comes in two sizes – 5 inch and 10 inch – and is designed for use with 5” charms or 10” layer cakes. The Twister tools are extremely easy to use, and the results are sooooo worth it!

This little sample was make using the Lil’ Twister and a package of 5” charms from our 30’s reproductions. Actually, I only used 16 charm squares and a 3” outside border fabric…the finished project is about 15” square.

Here’s a sample Mellie whipped up using a layer cake of Moda’s Collection for a Cause Legacy with a 6” brown border. Notice the play of dark, light, medium fabrics and the blue “accent” in the middle. The squares were sewn together in a Trip Around the World arrangement first, and then using the 10” Twister Tool cut for pinwheels. Any 3 dark, medium, light fabrics paired with an accent would work great in this layout with a contrasting border. I didn’t measure the sample (and as you can see we already have it hanging!) but I’d guess it finished at about 60×60.

We are having loads of fun just playing with the possibilities these tools offer, but there is also a companion book available with a dozen projects ranging from aprons to table runners to quilts using both sizes of the Twister tool.

There are quite a few of these projects calling my name, too! Plus the book gives you some great suggestions for experimenting with the tools beyond just the basic pinwheel…oh to have 20 more hours in my day just to play!!!

Melisa

Let’s Twist Book

 (click photo to enlarge)

This sample model has disappeared from the shop, along with a small Humbug Bag model made with a green ladybug print (no picture, but this is the pattern). Please keep your eyes open for these samples, and let me know if you see them and where. We have notified the authorities to watch for these items also.

Melisa

on another successful shop hop weekend! The weather was terrific (except for rainy Sunday!) and we had over 1000 visitors in the shop during the weekend! That’s a LOT of shop hoppers! We were so busy I didn’t have much opportunity to take many pictures, but several customers have published their “Shop Hop Reports” on their blogs. Ride along with Karin and her mom on Day 1, and hop with Karmen here. I’m sure there are other reports out in blogland, too, but I haven’t had a chance to get caught up yet…if you find any, let me know, would you?

I did take some time Sunday afternoon when it slowed down a little to get some pictures of new samples and displays in the shop. If you didn’t make it to Shop Hop, you need to come in soon and see all the changes we’ve made…I think you’ll like it! (Click on the pictures to enlarge)

Can you believe he was still smiling after four days??? And Kris, Mellie and Cathy still had big smiles, too! Or maybe they were smiling because they knew it was almost over? Hmmmm….

Elaine doesn’t look quite so thrilled…she was stamping passports…but I think she just didn’t want her picture taken! That’s also our giveaway, a big apple-themed decorative box filled with books, patterns, kits and apple-themed fabrics. Look at all those entries stuffed in that jar! Wonder who the lucky winner will be?

New pincushion displays…looks good enough to eat!

Scenes from the Front Cutting Room

Reproduction Room

Kid’s Room

Hope you’ve enjoyed the tour. We’ve changed things around so much, we’re having to stop and think where we moved things! We’re ready for new spring shipments, and then we’ll have to rearrange again! It’s never ending, but oh so much fun!

Melisa

We’re vending at the Heart of Georgia Quilt Guild “Silver Anniversary Celebration” quilt show in Macon, GA this weekend, and we’ll have many of our new samples and kits in our booth. While packing up this afternoon, I snapped a few sneak peeks to share with you.

I’ve gone pincushion and bag crazy, and we’ve got lots of new samples of all sorts to prove it. Strawberries and Cream, anyone? We’ve got the patterns for all of these, but they aren’t loaded to the website yet. If you need to know, just shoot me an email.

This is the Grommet Grab Bag by Indygo Junction. We’ll be making more things with grommets…have you tried them? Easy peasy…

New versions of my favorite table runner pattern, Waffle Time by Atkinson Designs. Notice the quilting on the red/black? It’s forks and spoons! How fun is that???

A cutie patootie panel quilt made with RJR’s Caterwauling fabric line…fun and funky!

The shop will be stripped bare tomorrow morning so we can take a lot of these samples with us to hang in the booth in Macon, but we’ll be re-hanging everything come Monday, just in time for the Greater Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop next weekend. I hope you’ve made your shop hopping plans already because we pull out all the stops and you won’t want to miss it! Don’t worry, if you can’t do the hop, I’ll post lots of pictures of our theme decor and all the new samples. Plus I’ll be posting from Macon, too, so come back here for scenes from the show, too.

Melisa

Just thought I’d give you a sneek peak of a little something we’ve been working on lately. These are the beginnings of a new block-of-the-month that will begin in January. And here’s another hint:  think Christmas! That’s all you get …

What could be better than new flannel pj’s? How about a flannel rag quilt to go with?

Made with the Jingles Christmas flannel collection by Minick and Simpson for Moda, we have pre-cut rag quilt kits for $74.99, and pre-cut batting squares, too, for $18.99 – all you have to do is SEW!  Easily made in an afternoon since we’ve done all the cutting for you. Quilt measures approximately 47×68, a perfect snuggle size for the sofa! Quick to make for Christmas gifts, too!

Notice the little boy’s flannel pj’s in the picture? I do not sew garments, so I asked my mom to sew up a sample of the little boy’s and little girl’s pajamas from Indygo Junction’s Jack and Jill Jammies pattern.  Also made with the Jingles Christmas flannel, they are sized just right for my grandies, Hayden and Haylee, so they’ll get them for Christmas! While not as quick to make as the rag quilt kit, these pj’s would be fun gifts for any kid at Christmas! (click the photo at right to see an enlarged image of the pattern.) Pattern is $14.99 and includes boys and girls sizes 4 thru 12.

It’s not too early to be making those Christmas gifts. Visit the shop soon to see more gift ideas and Christmas fabrics for inspiration!