Threads from Common Threads

My New Favorite Quilt

As I've said before The Kansas City Star has the absolute best books ever--and Jan Patek does a great job designing quilts.  Her latest book is called Flags of the American Revolution. 

When you love history the way I do, you're immediately drawn to a book with this name. 

Since I also love homespuns, this book was perfect. 

We've already planned our Block of the Month around this quilt which can be seen on the website .  My friend Trudy is hard at work on the blocks.  She should have the eagle block done this week...and of course we'll get a picture up as soon as we see it.

Here's what the quilt looks like:

 

It measures 76" by 76".  That's quite appropriate, I think.  Wonder if she did it on purpose???

In the bottom right hand corner, Jan placed her name.  You, of course, can do anything you want on your quilt.  Trudy plans to applique "In God We Trust" on hers and will provide the letters for anyone else who wants to do the same. 

These are big pieces..which makes them fast and easy to do.  We're also providing a button pack that has tiny star buttons (since no one will want to make those tiny little stars around the "76"). 

The fabric for Folk Art Blooms arrived on Friday.  We still have some slots left if you find you can't resist this quilt.  I've said before that black is my favorite color...so this quilt is perfect as far as I'm concerned.

So--which is my new favorite quilt--Flags of the American Revolution or Folk Art Blooms?  Who knows...both, I guess!

Pieceful Blessngs 

Curiosity Almost Killed The Cat

We have two calico cats that share their lives with us.  Millie eats to live, and Berta lives to eat.  This week, Berta's curiosity almost got the best of her. 

We have workmen in the house still..right now they're building me a closet (you don't want to see my bedroom with all my clothes hanging on a rod suspended by two ladders).  The hall closet is being converted to a bedroom closet.  It seems that the trap door to get under the house is in that space..and some of the workmen had to go under for some reason--and left the door open.  It took me a while to realize that Berta was missing.  I was sitting quietly doing applique when I suddenly realized that Berta had not been begging for dinner and between meal snacks like she usually does.  I searched all over the house..and was really worried that she might have gotten outside since the workmen also left doors open a lot (she has no claws so it would be impossible for her to defend herself--besides the fact that she waddles like a raccoon and couldn't get away from anything in a hurry).  As we were walking down the hall, Kirk heard a faint meow.  By this time, the trap door was closed--and not too easy to open.  We were amazed that she was able to stay near the opening.  It's pretty dark under there--and it's a big house.  Thankfully, Kirk was able to rescue her--and she promptly ran to the kitchen to make up for lost meals.  We're grateful to have her safe and sound.  I kept thinking that she must have had flashbacks--because we found her under the house when she was about four weeks old. 

All's well that ends well.

Pieceful Blessings

I Found The Quilt Police!

Haven't you heard the saying that "there are no Quilt Police"?  Maybe it was when a quilt didn't exactly come out the way you wanted.  Well, I think I actually found the Quilt Police...see below:

My friend, Deborah, helped us out Saturday for the Bob Phillips Festival in downtown Waxahachie.  It seems that every year about 40,000 people come to downtown to shop at vendor booths set up on every street.  It has typically been a time of high stress for our employees...so stressful that I've had to hire a guard to make sure things go smoothly. 

This year I was fortunate to be able to hire one of our customers who is also a Dallas County Sheriff.   Isn't it great that our guard is also a quilter! 

Everything went very smoothly even though we must have had at least 300 people wandering through the shop on Saturday. 

So, she's not REALLY  the Quilt Police..but I just couldn't resist the temptation to call her that! 

I'm excited because she's also agreed to work as a regular Common Threads employee on Saturdays!  Next time you're visiting I'm sure you'll get to meet her if you come on a Saturday.

Pieceful Blessings

I'm Crazy About These Ladies!

Barb and Alma have done it again.  I love their newest pattern called Wild Pomegranate!  Here's what the picture of the quilt looks like:

Just think...it's only 16 blocks--and they're big!  That's the same number of blocks as in Halloween 1904 (and I only have four more to do!). 

We're kitting it, of course, but we decided to leave out the ruffle.  First of all, as someone said to me today, I'm not a ruffle kind of girl.  Second, it takes a LOT of fabric so it would really drive the cost of the kit up..so we're leaving it out. 

We've chosen some beautiful dark reds, greens, and browns with several different background fabrics for our quilt.  Four of my employees, Patricia, Dana, Susan, and Peggy are hard at work on blocks so you can see what they will look like.  Patricia is the winner since she finished hers first:

We're trying really hard to get you fabric as close to what you see in our pictures as possible.  As you probably realize, all quilting fabric is "limited edition" so we'll have to substitute--but it will still be very close to the original (and sometimes even better!). 

If you think you might want to order this kit, don't wait too long.  They're flying out the door as quickly as we can make them---and I'm begging my Moda Rep to search the warehouse high and low for as much fabric as she can find! 

Pieceful Blessings

Quilt Market Wrap-Up

We're home..very tired, but very excited about all we've found.  I know you're waiting for this, so I want to show you the item that was voted "Our Best Fine" by all that attended:

This quilt is called Folk Art Blooms and was designed by Buggy Barn.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but the backgrounds are several black small prints with both regular prints and homespuns making up the different blocks.  We will be offering it as a Block of the Month beginning in January.  I will have the specifics on our website in the next few days.  Since we want to use the exact fabrics that are used in the picture, we will be limiting the number of people who can participate.  If you want your name on the list ahead of time, you'll need to email us soon to let us know..or sign up as soon as you see it on the website. 

I jokingly say that my favorite color is black..and it seems I've influenced all my staff because they were so excited about this quilt that they practically dragged me to the booth!  It didn't take must to convince me, I have to admit.

So what did we do the last couple of days?  On Sunday, we went back through the showroom to make sure we didn't miss anything before we headed home?

I had the privilege of getting my picture taken with two women whom I consider to be the top "Movie Stars" of quilting..Barb Adams and Alma Allen of Blackbird Designs. 

If you look closely on the bed, you will see their newest quilt.  I fell in love with it the minute I saw it.  We will be kitting it using the Blessings line from Moda just as soon as we can get the kits cut.  We will, as always, post blocks on the website so you can see what you'll be receiving when you order the kit.

I love their designs..and they are very sweet people too!

We also had a little fun:

Can you guess who is who????

I'm sure the Moda folks wish we hadn't covered up their name....but we really do "wish you were here"!

It was lots of work..but also lots of fun.  We have tons of new ideas and new projects to introduce over the next few weeks...

so Stay Tuned!

Pieceful Blessings

Quilt Market - Day 2

As you can see from the title, I managed to miss blogging about Day 1. Our "highspeed internet access" in the room is neither highspeed, nor very accessible, since it keeps crashing before I can even get logged in.

We were really busy running around Schoolhouse on Friday and we all came back to the hotel with fantastic new ideas and suggestions. By the time we had shared everything we'd learned in our classes, we all just collapsed in bed.

Yesterday we dived right into the thick of Market, head first! We got a number of ideas lined up for the coming months.

Blackbird Designs, authors of the Halloween 1904 pattern that has been so popular in the shop, have designed a new applique quilt that we think you're just going to love. And we've ordered some gorgeous new fabric lines that we know will have you just as excited as we are.

We also have a big surprise that we should be ready to announce tomorrow. You're definitely going to want to see what we have in store for you in the coming months.

After spending nine hours on the floor, we enjoyed a lovely dinner sponsored by Moda Fabrics. Here is everyone but me, at our table.

 

We're now about to head back over to the floor to get a second look at a few things we saw yesterday, and then we'll be packing up to head home. It's been a very productive trip, and we're very excited to share what we've found.

Pieceful Blessings.

Quilt Market - Day 0

We are in Houston! The trip started early this morning, and after a few side-journeys to quilt shows and quilt shops (we couldn't just skip them!) we finally arrived at our hotel. We've checked in, eaten a nice dinner, and are now prepared for our last night of relaxation for a while. We don't expect to get much rest before Sunday night.

  Here they are looking down on the showroom floor. The vendors are just beginning to set up the booths, and probably have a very long night ahead of them, as well as all day tomorrow, because Market officially opens at 9:30 on Saturday morning.

 

And below they are looking bedraggled from a long ride and the half-mile walk in the sweltering Houston heat from the hotel to the convention center.

More tomorrow night, when we'll have some really fun things for you.

Pieceful Blessings 

We're Off to Market!

We leave tomorrow morning for Houston and Market.  There will be six of us in the van:  Laura, Susan, Dana, Peggy, Patricia, and me.  We usually leave about 4:00PM..which gets us into Houston after dark.  I really don't like driving in Houston in the daytime..but especially at night--so we've decided to leave at 10:00AM then stop and have a late lunch at the Cracker Barrel in Conroe.  That should get us to Houston just about 3:00PM..check in time at the hotel.  Keep your fingers crossed that I don't have to drive in a lot of rain.  I've done that once and it's not fun.

I'll try to keep you up to date on all the great new things we find.

Pieceful Blessings

The Farmer's Wife Sampler

I'm so excited to share with you the new book we found.  It's called The Farmer's Wife  and was written by Laurie Aaron Hird.  Check it out:

In 1922, The Farmer's Wife magazine posed this question to their readers:  "If you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you, in light of your own experience, have her marry a farmer?"  The magazine at that time received over 7,000 letters.  The best answers to this question are included in this book, along with the traditional quilt blocks they inspired. 

 Those of you who love history as much as I do will love this book.  The pictures are great...and reading the letters is even better.  There are 111 six inch blocks and the book includes a CD with easy to print, full sized templates. 

Beginning in January, we will be offering the queen sized quilt as a Block of the Month.   Each month we will be sending you the fabric to make 10 blocks as well as tips on making the blocks.  Instead of waiting until the end to get your sashing, setting triangles, and border, we're going to send them to you scattered through the 11 months (there's a method to my madness..this way I don't have to store all that fabric!).  Here's the the quilt:

 We're going to be using 19th Century reproduction fabrics as close to the fabrics in the pictures as we can get.   As everyone knows, by the time a book is published, the fabric used in the sample is long gone.  The good news is that there are always similar fabrics in the reproduction world. 

I can't wait to start choosing the fabrics!  My friend Mary Jo will be making the blocks and we'll post them on the website as soon as she gets them done.  She is also considering setting up a class to meet twice a month in the shop--sort of a support group for making the quilt.  There will be more news about that later. 

On another note:  I have a kitchen!!  No more cooking on a hot plate..or refrigerator in the formal dining room!  It's wonderful.  Now if I could just finish getting all the dust off all the dishes and find a new home for everything.  You should see me searching for things (now where on earth did I put the dish towels??). 

Pieceful Blessings

Halloween 1904

I love this quilt!  Check out a couple of the blocks I've finished:

I'm always drawn to stripes.  This one works so well for the pumpkin.

Here's that stripe again. 

I had some help with making the blocks.  My friend Pam is a sample maker for the shop and whipped these up over a weekend.  Then they were all mine to do the applique.

I've got all the pumpkin blocks done as well as the moon and star you see.  Now I only have star blocks to finish.

My friend Rebecca has hers finished.  You can see it on her blog 

Check it out!  It looks wonderful on her bed.  That's certainly an encouragement to work harder on my own!

We're offering it as a kit on our website

Susan had to come in on her day off to cut kits because they're flying out the door so fast she can't keep up!   

Pieceful Blessings