Pieceful News: Happy New Year!

Hello Pieceful Quilters!

I can hardly believe that 2009 is over - it seems like just last year we were all worried about the Y2K computer disaster (that didn't happen - phew!). What happened to all those years in between? It is also hard to believe that we have been here for over three years. I guess time really does fly when you are having fun. I know that my years in the law firm didn't fly like that.

I hope you are all ready to get back into quilting. The winter months are a great time to stay home and quilt. I have been busy doing bindings now that it is colder in the house. It is nice to wrap up in a big quilt and stitch away. I have finished four bindings in the last few weeks. Of course, some of them were partially done. We seem to have a habit of hanging our samples with the bindings pinned in parts. We changed the shop around last week, and I ended up with a couple of quilts to take home and finish. The Williamsburg quilt must have had 50 pins in it! It was all good, though, since I apparently threw away the thread catcher/pin cushion in my sewing room. It has been M.I.A. since the last time I cleaned in there. I have been using some "antique" pins from a box of my grandmothers sewing junk. I am sure I will end up with some rust spots if I leave them in too long. Of course, that will make my quilts look more authentic. There is always a silver lining, isn't there?

Newly Reorgnized Shop Pix

We decided to open things up a little in the back by moving out one of the big ugly fabric shelf thingers. The quilt over the fireplace (yes, there is a fireplace behind that pile of snippet bundles) is Beyond Borders - A Monique Dillard/Open Gate pattern using the Lincoln Bicentennial Line from Windham Fabrics. The blue and white one in the back corner is Janes Journey - a Bethany Fuller/Grace's Dowry Quilts pattern. Both are bound - with labels! Aren't you impressed? We do have kits for both of them, which which we would be happy to mail out to those of you that are reading my babbling from far away. Just give us a call - 847-516-7911 or 866-433-7911 (Toll Free). Katie has Beyond Borders on our website, too. Feel free to email me if you have any questions - carrie@piecefulgathering.com.

We moved the big cabinet out of the corner, and I really like it where it is, now. Funny to think it was in my parent's basement the whole time I was growing up. I think my Dad would have been just as happy to leave it there when he broke up the house a few years ago, but I made my (sainted) husband drag it out of there for me. It is all one piece and it weighs a ton! I am sure glad I did - it looks great in the shop! The quilt you see hanging from the shelf thing is Calico Comfort from Kathleen Tracy's book, Remembering Adelia. We still have some kits for that great scrappy quilt. It is on the website, too.

If any of you have time, you should bop over to Kathy Tracy's blog, http://sentimentalquilter.blogspot.com/2009/12/quilt-shop-tours.html

She has a review of some of the quilt shops around here, including your favorite and mine :)

Take a few minutes to read through some of her other entries, too. She is really a wonderful writer. That reminds me, we finally did up a sample of Kathy's Broken Dishes quilt in Pink and Brown from Prairie Children and Their Quilts. We have had the kits for awhile, but our sample was in the originial Red, White and Blue that Kathy used in her book. Don't you love the Pink and Brown:

I had a call this morning from a new customer that wanted to know about our quilt service. It seems that she had taken an applique quilt somewhere else to be quilted, and the quilter went right over her applique work! I would have been sick (assuming I would ever do applique). Anyway, it made me think of this great quilt that Vonnie did recently on a quilt that Jan Griffith made in our Quiltsmart Club. The group did a Lonestar last session, and Vonnie did these amazing feathers free hand! Both Vonnie and Cathy are turning out such beautiful work. They have really mastered the Gammil!