Sweet Home Quilt Co.

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass

It’s about learning to dance in the rain.

The Greater Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop 2009 is just a memory now – memories of mud and drenching downpours and thunder and lightning,  and even a little hail at times! This event was proof positive that quilters are an intrepid lot. Record numbers of shop hoppers braved the horrid weather to make the trek to the nine Atlanta area quilt shops participating in this year’s shop hop event.  We had a terrific time visiting with old friends that we only get to see infrequently, and meeting lots of new friends whom we look forward to seeing again soon.

 Here’s a photo of our back parking lot after 3 days of non-stop rain

We’re expecting more rain starting today and after that I’ll have to get back there with a rake or something to try to smooth out some of the ruts! YUCK!

Many thanks to my wonderful employees and a couple of brave friends who volunteered to help out this year! They all put up with my “vision” for Grandma’s closet and cheerfully dressed in the 40s style aprons and vintage hats and jewelry I had amassed over the last couple of months.

I realized too late that I never did get a photo of my dressed in my Grandma’s finery. But Becky (who started laughing the minute she saw me – what’s up with that?) did take a great picture that she shared on her blog.  Thanks Becky!

I am really thrilled with our Shop Hop Quilt this year. One thing I have always done is incorporate black and white into our Shop Hop Quilt each year (last year it was just black with brights, though). While working on this design in EQ6, I started playing around with adding a little color to the black and white prints. And as luck would have it, I’d been collecting black and white and green fabrics for a couple of years with the intention of making a quilt one day. This seemed the perfect design, so I brought my stash to the shop and Mellie, Becky and Pam set about making the quilt. Funny story, the initial design had 870 two-inch half-square triangles. The looks on their faces when they first realized that were priceless – wish I’d had my camera! Lucky for them, sanity prevailed and I re-worked the design to eliminate most of the HSTs. They did a super, super job of piecing the top, and Judy Lockhart applied her longarm quilting magic to it with the most beautiful freehand quilting. We received many kind compliments about the quilt during Shop Hop, and everyone deserves a big pat on the back for their part in making it happen. It was difficult to photograph because I couldn’t get a good angle, but hopefully you can see it ok. Oh, and I named the quilt “Everything’s Not Always Black & White!”

I tried to re-create a real Grandma’s Closet feeling in the shop foyer with antique furniture and vintage accessories. I had one customer walk in who exclaimed “Oh, I’ve just been transported back in time to my grandmother’s house!” So apparently, I hit the mark. It was fun collecting all this stuff – a lot of it came from my antique collection at home (which now has to be moved back!!!) and some I picked up over the last couple of months at area antique stores.

Here are a couple of photo collages of Shop Hop activity and a couple of shots of the shop in general showing the many new samples.

Now that Shop Hop is over, I’m hopeful I will be able to get back on track and get caught up soon. I’ve got a list of blog posts half a mile long that I want to get to, so keep checking back over the next few days as I work through the backlog.

Melisa

There is a reason I live in the South.  I don’t “do” snow or ice or any type of precipitation other than rain. And generally, living near Atlanta as we do, I can pretty much count on the weather folks to get it wrong whenever they predict snow or sleet or ice for our area. And not just the local TV meteorologists either; for heaven’s sake, Atlanta is home to the Weather Channel and even the “experts” ususally get it wrong! But not this time.

I think I jinxed myself when I left the shop Saturday afternoon because I didn’t take any work home with me, even though the weather forecast was for snow on Sunday. I pooh-poohed the forecast, and stuck with my plan to come into the shop on Sunday to get caught up on paperwork and work on a shop sample that I need by mid-month.  Luckily, I was smart enough to take a couple of samples home with me that needed binding.

Now, if you know my husband very well, you know that he is a wanna-be weatherman (!) who keeps up a running commentary on the weather, especially if something out of the ordinary is forecast. I get the forecasts for the entire country on a daily basis and I don’t even have to watch TV or listen to the radio! All he talked about on Saturday was the snow being forecast for Sunday, and I just ignored his warnings (as I usually do!)

By the time I’d finished reading the Sunday paper yesterday morning, it was alternately raining, sleeting and snowing at our house. It didn’t take me long to cry “UNCLE” and nix my plans to go into the shop to work. Granted, we only got maybe two inches of snow, but in this neck of the woods that might as well be 10 inches! Like I said, I don’t do snow or ice, period. So I curled up in front of the fireplace and stitched the binding on the two quilt samples I’d brought home, took a nap, finished reading the Friday Night Knitting Club (great read, by the way!), and played with Photoshop and EQ6 a while (I’m on a sharp learning curve with both of these programs.) All in all, a great way to spend a snowbound Sunday (all of you who live with snow measured in feet can stop laughing now!)

Here are a few pictures I took from our front porch about mid-afternoon Sunday; it snowed steadily until about 10PM but it was too cold this morning to get out and take more pictures. Just try to picture this much snow times two…

Driving to work this morning was a little dicey in places, though the roads were mostly clear and dry. The worst part is that I’m starting off the week even farther behind than I ended last week because of the snow day that was forced upon me! Thanks a lot, Mother Nature!

I hope you had a quilty weekend, with or without snow!

Melisa

We’re kicking off March in a big way with lots of travel this week. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I’ll be vending at the Oconee Quilt Guild in Eatonton. They meet at the Lake Oconee Lutheran Church at 1089 Lake Oconee Parkway, and I’m sure they’d love to have you visit!

Thursday Pam and I will be heading to Watkinsville to set up for the Cotton Patch Quilters 2009 Quilt Show being held at the Oconee County Civic Center, 2661 Hog Mountain Road, Watkinsville, GA. Get all the details about the show at the official show website.  This will be our first time at this show, but I have heard that it is always a great show with beautiful quilts on display and a wide array of vendors. I hope you’ll check it out this weekend if you’re in the area, and be sure to stop by our booth and say hello. We’ll be unveiling lots of new samples and kits at the show so come on by and get first choice!

If you can’t make it to the show, how about stopping by the shop to check up on Mike and the girls to make sure they’re holding down the fort! I know they’ll be glad to see you (just don’t tell them I sent you to spy for me!)

And if you pass us on the road this week, honk and wave, would ya?!?

Melisa