My “Wordless Wednesday” post appears today (Tuesday!!!) by mistake. Thanks to everyone who kindly pointed out that I obviously don’t know the difference between Tuesday & Wednesday! I suppose I should keep a calendar handy when I’m post-dating things, huh?
Melisa
We love seeing what our customers are making, and we had some great projects brought to the shop this weekend!
Laura brought this sweet little quilt to share…we had helped her pick out the fabrics for it not too long ago. She machine appliqued the vines and leaves with invisible thread, a first attempt, and it looked fantastic! I never seem to have much luck with invisible thread in my machine…
Brenda and Marty came for a visit from Macon, and Brenda shared a terrific Halloween quilt with us…oh, the variety of Halloween fabrics was amazing! And she had also included machine embroidered blocks of Halloween motifs throughout the quilt…here are a few (sorry for the blurry photos!)
After we ooh’d and ahh’d over the quilt, Brenda shyly mentioned that since we liked the quilt so much we’d probably love the witch that went with it…seems she had left it in the car. We made her GO GET IT! One word…A-W-E-S-O-M-E!
The detail on this Witch Doll was simply amazing…click the pictures to enlarge! Look at her striped legs and boots! And the black lace garter….be still my heart!
This was Brenda’s first dollmaking experience and she did a simply amazing job!
We love show & tell at Sweet Home…please bring your projects to share with us!
Melisa
Once again the much-anticipated annual Party on the Porch is history. This was our fourth year kicking off our Birthday Bash Weekend with the Party on the Porch, and amazingly it just gets better and better! Granted, the end of August is not the ideal time to have a porch party because of the inevitable heat and mosquitoes, but with plenty of water, mosquito repellant, and lots of fun and laughter everyone seemed to cope pretty well. If you missed out this year, make a note right now for next year…Party on the Porch is always the last weekend of August!
Ready to party!
(Sorry for the blurry photo…Mike can do a lot of things, but a photographer he’s not!)
Early arrivals staking out their places on the porch!
Carol and Susan explore their goodie bags. Mellie made 50 (!!) of the small treat totes featured in the latest Quilts and More magazine, and filled them with little gifts for our Party on the Porch participants! (Quilts and More magazine is available at SHQC, too.)
Gotta make sure my tickets get put into the prize drawing!
Let’s get this party started! Gearing up for the Scavenger Hunt…I admitted to going through my purse for ideas (and I have some w-e-i-r-d stuff in there!) plus I had some friends give me ideas, too. I’ll admit some were a little off the wall…
I know there’s a twist tie in here somewhere!!!
Oh yea! We’ve got chapstick!!!
Everything but the kitchen sink! Gwen even had a power strip and an orange safety vest in this bag!!! And they said I had weird stuff…
Enough with the Scavenger Hunt…time for the Thimble Relay Race!
Team One – Leiann, Mary Helen and Nancy
Team Two – Sarah, Gretchen and Karin
Team Three – Marie, Barbara and Gwen
(Team Three were the ultimate winners!!!)
We ran the relay out on the sidewalk…we got some strange looks from passing cars…what, you’ve never seen quilters racing up and down the sidewalk carrying a thimble in a spoon???
Go, go, go…run fast!
Such concentration! I was praying Karin wouldn’t stumble and bite her tongue off!
Careful! Balance is key…
Faster, faster…
Faster than a speeding bullet…
The view from the porch must have been pretty funny…go ahead and laugh, we’ll drag you out here next!
Finally! A cool place…let the shopping begin!
Let’s make a quilt!
It is really hard for me to believe that Sweet Home Quilt Co. is FIVE years old already! Lots of hard work, a few tears, and many, many laughs during these last five years…but nothing compares to our fantastic customers who have been through it all with us! We appreciate your support so much, and we love you all!
There’s no place like this place, so this must be the place!
Melisa
Many of you have called looking for the Fall issue of Quilt sampler magazine, and we finally received our copies Friday. The bad news is that we have only a few copies left…seems everyone in the shop this weekend wanted one!
You especially want to grab a copy of this issue since a favorite local shop, Tiny Stitches in Marietta, is featured! Congratulations, Maetha and staff! There are lots of other great-looking quilt shops featured, too, so don’t wait…stop by and grab your copy before they’re all gone!
Melisa
…but occasionally surprises can be fun and exciting. Earlier this week Roseann asked if I planned to be at the shop Friday. My first thought was that she was coming down for a visit, but no such luck as she’s vending at the Minnesota State Fair for two weeks. She said some people she knew were going to be in the area and she’d asked them to check out Sweet Home Quilt Co. and she wanted to be sure I would be there when they came. She didn’t offer any other explanation and so I just assumed it was probably some of her customers. Luckily, we were really sprucing up the shop all week long in preparation for the Party on the Porch and our Birthday Bash Weekend…you know the drill…heavy duty cleaning, rearranging, new displays, etc.
So who were the mystery guests? Imagine my surprise when I looked out my office window Friday afternoon to see a very familiar face getting out of the car…
It was Terry Atkinson and her husband, Kirk! They had been on vacation to Tybee Island and were spending the night in Atlanta before flying back home to Minnesota on Saturday. It never crossed my mind that they might be our mystery visitors! And the funny thing is, Terry and I had exchanged emails earlier in the week and she had mentioned that they were on vacation, but she didn’t say where and I didn’t ask…I can just see her giggling to herself about her plans and knowing that I didn’t know! I know Roseann was reveling in the secret!
It was so great having them visit and getting the chance to share Sweet Home Quilt Co. with them! Terry is my absolute favorite pattern designer (there’s a surprise for ya!) and she has become a good friend over the past couple of years since I’ve been going to her shop owner’s retreat in Wisconsin.
I’m still not a lover of surprises so nobody get any big ideas, ok… but in this case it was probably a really good thing that I didn’t know Terry was dropping by…I would have driven everyone crazy for sure! As it was, not knowing meant I could really enjoy having Terry in the house!!!
Melisa
Head over to Jackie’s blog…she’s having a GO Cutter giveaway and you just might win! Tell her I sent you!
Melisa
As a child, Dr. Seuss books were always one of my favorites. I loved the bright colors, the funny-looking characters and the rhyming stories. Robert Kaufman Fabrics has printed a delightful novelty fabric collection featuring some favorite Dr. Seuss books and characters, including Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2, and Red Fish Blue Fish. I am anxiously awaiting the entire collection, which is scheduled to ship in September. I can see pajama pants, tote bags, toddler outfits, baby quilts…all sorts of projects come to mind, and I can’t wait to get my hands on this fabric to play!
Here are a few of the fun prints – there are 21 prints and a panel in the complete collection.
Kaufman Fabrics has also provided a free pattern for this collection – a fun quilt for sure! Download the pattern here.
We are accepting pre-orders for this fun group because I fully expect it to sell out quickly. View the complete collection on our website, and place your order soon. Pre-orders will be filled on a first come basis, while supplies last. The fabric will remain on backorder status until it is received from Kaufman. The collection is expected to ship in September, and I’ll update the ship date as we get more information from Kaufman. Your credit card will not be charged until your order is shipped. If this collection is as popular as it is rumored to be, hopefully we’ll be able to re-order when we sell out, but you never know. Why take the chance?
Melisa
