Sweet Home Quilt Co.

I am woefully neglectful when it comes to sharing the great projects our customers bring in to share with us…I’m sorry! I was cleaning up some photo files this afternoon and came across these really great customer projects that we’ve enjoyed over the last few months (in no particular order.)

Cathy brought these three projects in a while back to share with us.  The geometric squares are all doggy prints, and that tumbler quilt is to die for! I want one…I L-U-V scrappy quilts!

Gretchen shared this elongated 9-patch made for her Dad if my memory serves me correctly!

Mary Helen shared her Hunter’s Star made with French General’s Rouenneries collection…fabulous!

Jayne made TWO of these Zippity Do Dah quilts – one for herself and one for Elaine, who does the long-arm quilting on Jayne’s quilts!

June made this wonderfully feminine version of Fire Escape, and a vibrant Happy Holidays table topper (both designs from Atkinson Designs.) Great job!

Kathy shared this beautiful star quilt with us earlier this year….love the border treatment!

Robin made Fire Escape in all purples and greens, and a Hunter’s Star in varying shades of purple. Do you think Robin likes purple?

Last, but not least, is Miss Lydia who is nine years old. She picked out all the fabrics herself (with a little help from Mellie!), and I love how she chose a geometric squares border print that mimics the center squares layout! Terrific job, Lydia!

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

Shirley came to the Teddy Bears’ Picnic last weekend, and brought her family heirloom bear to share with us. She and her mother took apart a quilt that Shirley’s great-grandmother had made and found it was actually 3 different quilts — two older well-worn quilts had been used for batting. They took the usable sections of the 3 quilts and made bears for her aunts and ducks for her uncles so they’d all have a little memento of their mother’s quilts. Shirley is holding her bear, and a copy of Piecework magazine, which published her story, Toys from Great Grandmother Cindy’s Old Quilt, Nov/Dec 2003.

I just love family stories like this…thanks, Shirley, for sharing your bear and your story with us!

Do you have a family quilt story? I’d love to hear it…leave a comment or drop me an email!

Melisa

If this doesn’t make you want to sew something frilly and girly for your favorite little princess, I don’t know what will! Cute new patterns from Oliver & S, Whistlepig Creek, and Sew Baby are sure to get your creative juices flowing. Fabrics shown are Mezzanine and Whimsy from Michael Miller, and Luna by Maywood Studios.

Melisa

I thought you might enjoy a few pictures of the shop set up for the Teddy Bears’ Picnic…

Melisa

If you go down in the woods today you’re sure of a big surprise

If you go down in the woods today you’d better go in disguise;

For ev’ry Bear that ever there was will gather there for certain,

Because today’s the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic.

excerpt from The Teddy Bears’ Picnic by Jimmy Kennedy

Sweet Home was B-U-Z-Z-I-N-G with fun yesterday at our first Teddy Bears’ Picnic! Did you know there is an official Teddy Bears’ Picnic Day?  I didn’t either until last month, and I decided immediately that we had to celebrate at Sweet Home since I’ve collected teddy bears for years and years.

We had loads of fun complete with bear-themed decorations and a picnic – we enjoyed cookies, fruit, Gummy Bears and Bear Claw pastries – is it politically incorrect to serve Gummy Bears and Bear Claws at a Teddy Bears’ picnic???  We had a “bear hunt” and gave away a TON of great door prizes – there were bears all over the shop labeled with numbered tags that corresponded to a door prize, and everyone who came to play at our picnic chose a bear and won the corresponding door prize! Fabric, books, patterns, notions, giftie stuff – all sorts of goodies for our picnic buddies.

We also had a “Guess How Many Teddy Grahams in the Jar” game, which I forgot to check before I left the shop yesterday! I’ll check the entries and announce the winner of the $25 gift certificate tomorrow! I teased everyone that the Teddy Graham cookies in the jar were mine, mine, mine, all mine because I had touched every single cookie when I counted them – like I need to eat that many Teddy Grahams! They’ll end up with the Grandies…they won’t care that Grammy touched them!

A lot of people brought their personal bears to the picnic, and were invited to have their picture taken with Freddie, our giant bear, who was all decked out for the occasion. Let me apologize in advance for the blurry photos…I was mostly laughing so hard it was difficult not to shake the camera!

Me and Freddie all set for the fun! Notice the Christmas-y tie Freddie’s wearing? It was the only “fun” tie in Mike’s closet. A bear can’t wear a Sunday church tie to a picnic, now can he? So Christmas chili peppers it was! Freddie wasn’t really guarding the food table…I suspect he was snitching snacks in between photo ops!

Freddie came to live with us at Sweet Home a couple of years ago when we had an Alaskan Cruise Theme for Shop Hop. He lives upstairs in a closet bathroom when he’s not being pressed into service at some event!

Ardis brought “Winder” Bear to the picnic. The story with Winder is that Ardis had an elderly aunt who mentioned that she had never had a teddy bear in her life, so Ardis bought her a bear for Christmas in Winder, GA (thus his name!). When her aunt died, Winder came to live with Ardis. Winder was obviously a winter bear with his knitted scarf and toboggan, but he didn’t seem to be minding the hot weather too much!

Donna and John brought several members of their bear family to the picnic!

Elaine and “Blue Bear.”

Gretchen and “Beary Friendly” Bear…Gretch forgot to bring her bear so we loaned her one of ours for the photo op!

Gwen popped in for a minute on her way to a festival at Underground Atlanta.

Husband and wife team…he wasn’t shy at all about having his photo made! How’d she talk him into that? (Sorry the photo is soooo blurry!)

Janet brought her favorite bear with the most beautiful, touchable fur I’ve ever seen!

Karin brought Moda Man and “No Name” bear to the picnic. Doesn’t Moda Man remind you of a 60’s hippie? Look at all the “bling” around his neck!

Kathleen shared a beautiful black bear that she’d made herself!

Here’s Linda with her bear friend…sorry for the blur. I was laughing at Linda’s story of how she had been tempted to stop by her friend’s house (who is gone on vacation) to kidnap one of her bears and leave a ransom note…but chickened out at the last minute!

Liz and her Sunflower Bear friend – a perfect match for her sunny personality!

Sarah and her bear friend – again blurriness caused by extreme laughter! Sarah refuses to have her picture made with her glasses on so there are no spontaneous pictures with her!

Here’s Shirley with her bear friends. She had a special story to share and I’ll post about it separately…love the family stories!

More pictures to share…stay tuned for Part Two of The Teddy Bears’ Picnic!

Melisa

Long may she wave!

Wishing you a safe and happy 4th of July!