New Kits!

Hello Pieceful Quilters,



I know you all love kits - even if you just look at them sitting so pretty on the shelf. We have a bunch of new kits in the shop, so be sure to stop by and get them while they last!

Here are a few that we introduced at the FREE Seasonal Sampler Demo last week:


Diane Nieman's newest design - a cute scarecrow for Fall - All pieced, no applique - yippee!

Two new designs from Jeanne Mueller - Halloween Fun, and Apples, Apples, Apples. How great would these look in your home? Or how about a gift for a special friend?

This is the little quilt I designed for Jo Club. It is made from Jo's Crimson & Clover collection and Seneca Shirtings. I called it Fruit Fly because it is a little Shoo Fly. Isn't that just wonderfully corny? You love it, don't you?

See the pictures in my previous blog post of the Lincoln Bicentennial (Beyond Borders) quilt by Monique Dillard, and Beth Fuller's Jane's Journey quilt. I have put together kits for both of these quilts - both in Blue.

Be sure to come by soon to get the best selection!

Happy Quilting!
Carrie

New Pictures

Hi Pieceful Quilters -

Katie came in and we took some good pictures of the new quilts that I mentioned in my last post, so I thought I would share them with you:

Hallowe'en 1904 Quilt. As you can see, we cut it down by one row. We though three rows was plenty. Didn't Cathy do a wonderful jog on it? We don't have a lot of kits left, so don't wait too long to come and get one if you are interested.

This is what Monique Dillard from Open Gate Designs did with the Lincoln Bicentennial fabric. We have her quilt in the shop for a little while if you want to see it up close and personal. I think we will be doing kits in the red as shown, and blue. Or maybe a combination of the two.

Here is my most recent Stew - Shoo Fly Stew. You can purchase red, white and blue snippets, or cut some 10" squares out of your stash. I got so carried away that I used a bunch of my old patriotic fabric on the back, too. Check it out when you come in.

The bargain of the month - the Victorian Christmas Stocking kit. The kit includes pre-drawn foundation fabric, all the fabrics - including a velvet for the back, and all the embellishments - even the floss for doing the embroidery. All you have to do is sew it together. For $15.99 each, you will want to do one for every member of your family! Get them quick before someone else grabs them all.

Thats all for now. More pictures next week from our Seasonal Demo kits. I have seen a couple of them, and they are adorable!

Happy Stitching!

Carrie

NSQG Show Highlights

Hello Pieceful Quilters,


As you pr0bably know, we spent this weekend vending at the NSQG (Northwest Suburban Quilt Guild) Show. The show takes place every other year, and this year's show was really wonderful. I took a few pictures so that those of you that didn't make it could get a peek. You will have to pardon the quality. The lighting wasn't great for taking pictures, and a lot of the pictures I took didn't turn out well enough to post (including a picture of my quilt - oh well). I will start with a few of the quilt pictures that turned out. I am sorry, I forgot to go back and write down names on some of them, and the placards are too small to read. I will give you info I have:

This one is a first time entry by Julia Thomson. It is done in 30's fabrics and the quilting on it was exceptional.

This is Vonnie's "Tribute to Judy Garland" Quilt. Some of you may have seen it at our show. It is a great example of what to do with those panels and novelty fabrics we buy.

This is one of Mary Naumann's wonderful hexagon quilts. You know I am deeply obsessed with hexagons right now, so I had to take a picture of this one. Check out the wonderful colors - these are all reproduction fabrics - many of them from our shop. Gorgeous!

This one by Elizabeth Zwiener was Katie's favorite. It is wool applique and she fell in love with it. It really was adorable.

This house quilt by Gail Gregory was my favorite. From a distance it looked like hand dyed fabrics, but when you got up close, you could see that it was all done in wovens. The picture really doesn't do it justice. The fabric seemed to glow.

Here are a few pictures of our booth. Katie and Demi set it up on Thursday without any help from me! Needless to say, it turned out great!

Me with another happy customer. We like to keep 'em laughing. Holy Ned I look fat - I am going to the gym tomorrow morning for sure.

Vonnie and Katie - putting out some more of the ever-popular candlemat/tank-toppers. We are sold out of everything except the one you see in the picture - my personal favorite, but apparently not everybody shares my weird sense of humor.

One corner of our booth. The quilt on the left is our new Hallowe'en 1904 Kit. Cathy Banker finished it just in time for the show and it is really stunning. I knew it was going to turn out nicer than the one pictured on the pattern, but it turned out even prettier than I thought it would. We sold quite a few of our kits at the show, so if you want one, you will want to come in and pick one up right away! We will be happy to mail them out to our out-of-town customers. It probably won't make it to the website, so call the shop to place your order. Ours is not quite as big as the one in the pattern - which is huge!

Another part of our booth. We have some really cute kits for the holidays still available including the Victorian Crazy Stocking - a real deal at $15.99! It includes pre-drawn fabric and all the fabric and embellishments needed to complete the stocking. Stop by to pick one up while they last!

Another shot of our booth. Note the Blue & Red Sawtooth Star quilt in the background. That is the larger size kit. You can just barely see the corner of the small size behind the lady in blue.

More views of our booth. Some great fall projects! Come to the Seasonal Samplings FREE Demo this week to see these and more!

Snippet Stew quilts - the one in front is my newest pattern, Shoo Fly Stew. I finished the quilt just in time for the show. It still needs binding, but that will happen eventually - or not.....

Some other parts of the show:

The Make and Take Booth, which was right next to ours. They had some cute pincushions, coasters and other stuff.

Sue Glorch & her daughter in the Bundles & Bolts booth she has with Monique Dillard. We will be using the pattern in the background with the Lincoln Bicentennial fabric.

Good friends Docia & Jim Fuller of The Quilt Merchant. Jim is so proud of his Vendor necklace! It's amazing they are still awake and smiling after spending the last few months traveling and vending all over the country.

Patti Dockus and Beth sit down to chat for a moment in the Quilter's Destination booth.

Kathy Dayon from Quilt in Joy in her BRIGHT booth. She will be in the upcoming Holiday Shop Hop with us for those of you that haven't made it all the way to the dark side.

Debbie Best from Woodstock Quilts - another participant in the Holiday Hop.

And - Last but not least - my nomination for the show's Mr. & Mrs. Congeniality, Diane and Lowell Kuck, of Details by Diane. We had a great time talking with them. How cute are they with the Crown & Jester's hat?

All in all, it was really a great show. We can't wait for it to happen again in two years!

Have a great week and be sure to stop by and see us!

Carrie

Vonnie Marie's Wedding Ring

Hello Pieceful Quilters,

I just wanted to quickly share one of our new kits with you. It is called Vonnie Marie's Wedding Ring. Some of you may remember it from our show. It is an antique top from around 1870. I purchased it from Mary Koval before I opened the shop. I knew I would never finish it if I quilted it myself, so I asked Vonnie to quilt it - knowing that her quilting was very good. She surprised me by having it hanging in our show, all finished and bound. Isn't it a beauty?

We have put together kits for the quilt using our reproduction fabrics, and I am working on a sample, but in the meantime - the antique quit works fine! Because Vonnie has put so much time and love into it, we have called it Vonnie Marie's Wedding Ring. The block is often called "Rolling Stone," but it is also known as "Wedding Ring." I copied the original maker's blocks exactly, leaving the corner square-in-a-square patches floating a little. This means you don't have to worry about matching up the points - hoo hah!

We didn't make up a lot of these kits, so come by soon or call if you want one.

Happy Quilting!

Carrie

Madison Show

Hello Pieceful Quilters,

I just wanted to share a small piece of the fun we had at the Madison Quilt Expo. If you weren't able to go this year, you will want to pencil it in for next year! It was a really nice show. Here is a picture of Katie and Vonnie before the show - our booth was almost ready - and we were pooped!

Anne Lullie had this interesting piece in the show. It is probably hard to believe that it is fabric - looking at the picture. This is her fusible applique method. Pretty neat, huh?

Our customer, Jodi Miller, had this beautiful Folk Art Applique quilt in the show. A closer inspection would reveal that almost all the fabrics were Pieceful Gathering fabrics!
Nice Work Jodi!
I don't have permission to display this quilt, but I don't think the maker would mind if I showed you a little piece of it. This is a closeup of a small section of a quilt made entirely out of Selvedges! How cool is that? Of course, my dream is that people will come into the shop and buy yardage of fabrics so that they can get the cool selvedge edges. Ha-ha! I won't hold my breath.

That's all for now - I have to write this week's newsletter.

Come in and see us!

Carrie

Candlemats a.k.a. Tank Toppers

Hello Pieceful Quilters,

Just wanted to give you a quick look-see at Debbie's newest Candlemat designs. We will be taking these to Madison with us, but anything that is left will be available in the shop next week.

Witch Hat Candlemat

Naughty Girl Candlemat

(Me Naughty? Puleeeze!)

Gingerbread Men Candlemat

Get 'em while they're hot!

Carrie