Spring Quilt Market 2011 - Our favorite things!

Hello Pieceful Quilters!

My mom and I just got back from Salt Lake City where we spent four days looking at all of the newest fabric, patterns and notions.  We had a great time in a beautiful city and our heads are spinning with all kind of new information and ideas.  Our market review demo isn't for a couple of weeks, but we just couldn't wait to share with you some of our favorite things.  So here they are, Carrie and Katie's top three Market finds:

Carrie's #1 - My THREE fabric lines!  (Obviously)

Cynthia's Scrapbag

Carrie's Madders

The Captain Phillips Collection

Katie's #1 - Generals' Wives B.O.M.

This is a new BOM by Windham that's going to be starting in October.  We got to see the actual quilt and it is gorgeous!  Each month, in addition to the pattern and fabric, you'll also get a little bit of history on a Generals' wife. We manages to snatch up a fabric bundle of this fabric at Sample Spree so you'll want to come and see it at our Market review demo. 

General's Wives Block-of-the-Month

Carrie's #2 - The Accucut Studio Fabric Cutter




Accucut Studio Fabric Cutter

 You all know what a gadget gal I am, so you will understand why this caught my eye.  I have been thinking about getting one of these for awhile, but the show special sucked me in.  I can't wait to get it so that I can start playing!  
 
Katie's #2 - Goodnight Moon Fabric by Quilting Treasures

We didn't get to the Quilting Treasures booth until the end of the day on Saturday.  By this point I was really missing my little Sam and I just couldn't resist this fabric.  This is one of my absolute favorite children's books.  It's been around forever and I'm sure that all of you have either been read this book or read it to someone special.  The fabric doesn't seem to be up on their website yet but I can tell you that there is a panel of "the great green room" along with a handful of great accompanying pieces.  They did a wonderful job on the colors, they really are exactly like the book.  This fabric will be arriving in September and we plan to do some baby quilt kits. 

My Favorite Childhood Book, EVER!

Carrie's #3 - Cool Gadgets from Guidelines 4 Quilting

These are the folks that make that nifty ruler we have been carrying with the fabric guide:

So - at this market we picked up this nifty add-on thing that takes the math out of cutting squares, half-square triangles and quarter-square triangles:

Quilt Ruler Additions

I think a lot of you will get into this neat little tool that you can use to trim your points for more accurate piecing:


Guidelines Prep-Tool


The guy that sells this stuff is like the Sham-WOW guy, if you have ever seen him (I think he died - RIP), but the tools he has are so cool!  We ordered some other new gadgets that aren't even out yet - you will have to wait for the details on those!

Katie's #3 - Sew many patterns!

We found so many great new patterns, I couldn't pick just one to share with you.  I found a couple of new and different wool patterns.  One that I thought was especially cool from "Heart to Hand" used yarn to add some embellishment which looks really neat!  Here is a cotton and wool project from one of my favorite companies "The Quilted Crow" in Australia.  They always have cute stuff.

We also got some great new patterns from Lori Smith, Carol Hopkins and many more (probably too many!).  Come to our Market Review Demo on Saturday May 28th at 10:30 to see them all. 

Happy Quilting!

Carrie & Katie



Alice's Washday Blues has Arrived!

Hello Pieceful Quilters!

I am happy to announce that my fabric line with Blue Hill Fabrics has finally arrived in the shop! Pictures of the fabrics are shown below. We are busy cutting fat quarter and snippet bundles, and we will be starting on the kits for the quilt I designed in the next couple of days.

Call the shop for more information or to place your order!

Thanks for all of your support and encouragement!

Carrie

New Quilt Kits & Vending at NSQG

Hello Pieceful Quilters,

I can't believe how long it has been since I wrote in the blog. I was trying to update at least once a week, but you know how that goes.....

Since I last wrote, we had a staff retreat at the lovely Homestead Retreat Center in Hillpoint, Wisconsin. Patsy, our hostess, always makes it a relaxing and carefree weekend. I suggested that she turn it into an Old Quilter's Home in 15 or 20 years when I retire. What a fab idea!

Part of our staff retreat included working on shop projects - mainly, I had to finish the top of a large Karen Witt quilt, Friendship Album, so that Vonnie could quilt it on Tuesday, and we could have it ready for vending at NSQG (Northwest Suburban Quilt Guild) on Thursday night! Crazy! Everyone pitched in and helped me finish the blocks and then I stayed up most of the night putting it together. I may be getting too old to do this - nah - I refuse to succumb!

The rest of the weekend was spent working on some other shop projects and a few things of our own. I worked on my Mystery Quilt, which I hope to have finished (at least partially) by our next meeting, and I finished part of my Sew Simple Pinapple quilt - which I LOVE!

Other people worked on some new samples for our beginner classes, and projects for new classes that we have starting next session. Deb worked on our next project for Sarah's Club - Wow! It is really going to be pretty.

The retreat was a lot of fun, and the Friendship Album quilt got quilted and mostly bound just in time for the meeting, where our friend Karen Witt was speaking. Her talk was fascinating and very informative. I didn't fall asleep even once! I usually have to struggle to stay awake if I sit down at all in the evening!

Here are a few pictures of our vending station:

And some up close pictures of our two new quilt kits - Solitude and Friendship Album:

Solitude Quilt

Karen Witt's Friendship Album Quilt

That's it for now - stop in soon to see these quilts in person and get your kits while they last!

Happy Quilting - Carrie

Rebecca's Madders

Hello Pieceful Quilters!

What an exciting week we have had here at Pieceful Gathering. Tuesday morning, Katie and Demi called me down on some pretext and handed me a large mailer to open. I knew something was up - especially when Demi started snapping pictures:


What the.... Well, I'll be darned!


The "Boards" (Representative's Sales Folder) with my fabric line from Blue Hill Fabrics had arrived in the mail. I hadn't really known what to expect, but the line turned out even nicer than I had anticipated! I think you will all agree!

So, without further ado, here are

Rebecca's Madders:

If you want to see bigger pictures, they are already on the Blue Hill Website! Wow - they have my name and everything! I am famous - Woo Hoo! Don't worry, I haven't turned into a Diva, yet! I don't see it happening any time soon, either.

While you are on the Blue Hill Website, be sure to check out Grace's Dowry Shirtings by another local designer, Beth Fuller. We are just surrounded by fame in the Chicago area - at least in our own little quilting circles.

Anyway, the company told me that the fabric would be in stores in the Fall, but our rep told me June. Who knows? We will be putting together fat quarter and snippet bundles as soon as they come in. If you would like us to save you a bundle, please let us know. It would be helpful to know if we need to order more right away.

Thanks for all your support - you are the ones that make this worth doing!

Carrie