Happy New Year!

Happy 2010 to you and yours!

Kay cleaned out one of her closets, so lots of fun fat quarters are being cut!! We are also creating a fat eighth area for the appliquers of the world! It has been wonderful to touch and feel the fabrics! I got to cut some yesterday from a project we did a year ago from 3 Sisters of Moda....oh...to touch these lovely pastels!









And as usual in my ADD --- I have decided ADD means Adding Duties Disorder! I start a project which means I see things that lead me to other idea (ok, another word for project!) and then I have the entire shop trashed and no energy to put it back together! Besides the computer project I had to work on these past 2 days...here is what else I have gotten into!

Linen! I love it! I want to make something out of it, wool and cotton...but I am not there yet --- so it is time to let the world know we need to sell it! We have a beautiful selection of cross stitch linen that is on sale for 50% off! We will cut you any size you need! We will keep it on sale for you during January - this is for the linen we have in stock only - sorry!

Cutting this fat eights made us realize we need to plan our Super Bowl Sale! We are going to see a 10 cent increase and more in most of our fabrics, so before we go up we must have a fun event for you! We are doing Super Bowl on Saturday the 16th (yes we know we are off 2 weeks!)! We will have Darlene teaching binding techniques, Amanda teaching how to make a cooooool wool flower pin! And our fat quarters will be on sale for $2.25 and when you purchase 3 you get 1 free! So, you could think of it as a sale on fabric at $6.75 a yard! We will have lots of door prizes and we are ready to spoil each one of you!

Re-doing the ribbon display and seeing what colors we needed!

Working on this great pig quilt! Bev Garside redrew the pigs and made them into razorbacks and has graciously allowed us to put those templates in with this pattern! So, I have been playing in homespun land (which I love and cant find nearly enough of them to satisfy me)! It is a wonderfully fun quilt to try and find the right 20 fat quarters!!

Just when I think it is safe to begin working on the computer system again - Kathleen comes in and starts taking care of one of our wonderful customers! While she is taking care of this customer she starts creating the next girl gang from one of the wonderful Red Wagon Books! By the time Kathleen leaves I have a long list of homespuns that are needed!

Have you met Rheba? If you have not, you are missing one talented lady -- look at this piece! Her first rug hooking class from Kathleen! Now, my first class and all pieces afterwards have not been finished nor were they worthy of finishing! I love it when a beginner makes a better sample then the one we use! If you love wool, this is a great class!

Lynette Anderson's trunk show has arrived and others are coming in! We working with Indygo Junction, Pacific Patchwork, Sue Spargo, and others to have trunk shows come in every other month to inspire you!

January will be a fun month! Beginning Quilting, Sewing, Rug Hooking, Applique.... and so much more all kick off this month again! We are also taking names for Jo's Little Women club! Jo is busy and will only have certain times she can mail us the patterns, so call us and let us know!

In case you have not heard it lately, you are wonderful and we do appreciate you!

Please let your friends and family know we are here!

Only Because of His Grace,

Mary E.

Christmas is gone and 2010 is way too close!

December 29th, 2009

You will see by the dates, that I have started and stopped writing just a few too many times this month! I have to admit, I forgot my password and had to have my friend Emily come and help me get back onto our blog! So here I am again!

What is happening in 2010 you ask? Well, let me share with you!!

We are kicking 2010 off with...

A wonderful bag class - the Big or Bitty Bag! It is a rockingly cool bag!

Julie Kiffin will be here to teach back basting applique and hand piecing using Cindy Blackberg's stamps! (and yes, we are working to book Julie all year round!)

Threads that Bind will be here! Yippee! Shawn is a delightful teacher and woman! February 16th & 17th!

Janice Johnson of Wooly Woolens will be here March 11- 13th for a 3 day Rug Hooking Camp!

We are working with Helen Jeffery to come in April and teach how to braid rugs! Oh, I cant wait!

And Lynette Anderson will be here May 14th and 15th! She is an Australian designer, we will be the first to have her in the US! She will be on her way to Spring Market, so we will get to see and learn on her new patterns before anyone else!

All the details are on the website!!

Thank you all so much for your support, friendship and business!!

Only Becuase of His Grace,

Mary E.

P.S.

Update on The Gathering event in 2010, we have had an incredible response from the teachers, it has been very humbling! In fact, it really made us realized we had better let the world know we exist! We are going to hold off on The Gathering for 2010 and spend our time and dollars on advertising the shop and make sure that in 2011 we are ready to go for it!

December 25th!

Wow! Christmas is here! And it is a white Christmas here in NWA! My daughter has been up most of the last 2 nights asking me if it is time! This is her first year of really understanding that Santa brings gift for good girls and boys! She woke me up at 1:30 to ask if she could see if Santa had been here, I said yes and there were loud thumbs down the stairs and then a squeal of joy! To my surprise Bill had just finished getting it all under the tree!! (you can see how soundly I sleep!!)

The past couple of weeks I have gotten to ask many customers what their traditions are and have learned so much about so many of you! We do not have our own traditions set in our family! I tend to plan it by ear, find out who is going to be in town, who is in need of a home to come too,.... but we do keep one tradition at this point! I have not cooked! This year we ordered from my friend Don DeSpain and are planning on feeding my dad and Linda, and whoever comes by!

I know you are suppose to get wiser as you get older, but I am wondering when my wise-ness will come? What a great year this has been, but what a hard year this has been! Being in the fabric business is much harder than is appears from the outside!! I am kicking off 2010 by giving the program at Pieces and Patches (a local guild here in Rogers) and they asked me to speak on the topic of "behind the scenes of a quilt shop"! Whew, they are about to learn how little I know!!

December 18th -

This month of December has been a month of finalizing plans for 2010, get the calendars updated, the computer programs upgraded, reviewing the lessons learn in 2009...and yes, some dreaming of what we can do with some patterns and fabric and wool oh my!

My step father and his wife are coming this weekend to spend Christmas with us, and yes, there will be food in our refrigerator (thanks to Bread and Butter restaurant) and yes, we will even have presents wrapped under the tree soon! It has been an exhilarating this week watching all the beautiful quilts and projects you all have shared with us that are going away to be someones gift!