Some things I forgot to tell you!

I'm adding a second post this week before we head to Quilt Market. I got to the shop today and realized there are some things I forgot to tell you.

First, Summer Block of the Month. This is the second summer we have offered a BOM and the spots are filling fast. The pattern is called "Sea Glass" and will be featured in the "color of the year" turquoise and also "grown-up pink". This 3 month BOM runs June through August. You will be able to pick up your kit for each month anytime during that month. Kits are $14.oo ea. mo. and the combination of the kits will include all of the fabric for the quilt top including the binding. Finished size is 43 1/2" square. Kits are cut and limited. Call the shop to see if a kit is available in the color-way of your choice.

"Turtle Pageant" featuring "Tommy the Turtle". Each summer we feature a new beauty pageant. This year it is Tommy. Drop-off date is July 29th. Call the shop or refer to the newsletter for all the official rules.

Bag Challenge: Make a bag, tote, hand-bag...the choice is yours. Drop-off day is July 15th. Voting is done by our customers and of course yourself by dropping a quarter into your favorite. The bag with the most quarters...Wins! All proceeds are donated to local charities.

Quilter's Yard Sale, our fifth year and this event just keeps getting bigger. Fee is $10 to rent space. Tables can be provided for an extra $5.00. Sell blocks, fabric, quilt tops, patterns, notions anything quilting that you are tired of or no longer have a use for. You provide table, chair and your own cash box. Sales will be going on from Seams Like Home both outside and inside the shop.

Upcoming sales:

Flag Day Salelag, June 14th from noon-6pm. 20% off all patriotic prints.

Sisters of Summer Sale. Friday July 9th and Saturday the 10th.

And then there's this:Yesterday I stopped over at my Grand-daughters house to drop off some fabric scraps for a school project. Alongside the drive on your way in stands a grand old Willow tree. This tree is the kind of tree that just begs to be climbed and this is the year that Monica is old enough and tall enough to reach the lowest V. She has claimed this tree as her own.

She has her favorite things hanging from the branches complete with clothesline that has camis and t's blowing in the breeze. You can tell she spends much time in the branches of this tree, she can see the farm, she can see her sisters, she can get out of the reach of Rex(the dog) and Butterscotch the cat can visit whenever she likes. It is her "home". The first that she has decorated, she will be the queen of this castle until Laura is old enough and tall enough to climb up.

This is what I know: When you learn to ride a bike and climb your first tree, you understand freedom for the first time in your life. It is a little bit of taking charge of your own destiny. I have watched Monica learn to ride her bike, standing on the pedals, wind in her hair, nowhere to go but forward and also grip a tree branch and just know, she is strong enough to climb... as high as she wants to go. She is learning independence is a feeling and a good one. It is my belief there will be no stopping her but if her "homes" are always this hard to access. I might need to remember I once knew how to climb too!

Till next time!

Bags packed and ready to go!

Well, after two busy weekends of sales at Seams Like Home it's time for Melissa to head to Quilt Market and find new product for the shop. She will meet with fabric representatives, walk endless isles of new product, new patterns, new fabric and new ideas.
I am the lucky one that gets to walk along side of her, offering occasional opinions and oohing and aahing over pretty much everything. Together we will attend "Schoolhouse" demonstrations, we will take classes and we will make an aggressive push through "Sample Spree" along with 300 or so of our closest friends and competitors. It is a whirlwind working vacation and I am looking forward to it. Remember our "open house" on Monday evening the 24th. I have heard rumors of a new logging line of fabric from the designer "Holly Taylor" and quite simply, I want some!

Here at the shop everything 4th of July is front and center. Stop in and see a table runner runner that could grace your picnic table for this holiday and a quick throw for over the Adirondack chair next to the fire pit for cool evenings. We have bunting on a roll for sale by the yard, you can decorate that porch railing in honor of this wonderful country we all live in. Don't forget flag day in June, a day that my Grand-parents always remembered by putting out the flag on the corner of the cabin facing the lake.

The photo of Nolan is his approval of the fabric that Heidi is putting in a new throw for herself. The top is fabric from Amy Butler but it is the backing that Nolan most approves of. It is the extremely soft(Minkee, Cuddle etc.) that everyone likes. Nolan is not put off by the color one bit. All he cares about is how it feels against his skin. So it's a throw for Mom that I think Nolan will steal to cover-up with.

The Christmas fabric is beginning to arrive. Soon the tree will be up and "Christmas in July" will be here. The first shipment of the new "Quilt Minnesota" arrived at the shop last week and as I knew it would be it is so beautiful in the actual fabric. I encourage you to stop in and pre-buy. It is going to go fast and if you wait for the hop to start in August you may run short of some of your favorites.

And then there's this: Two weeks ago Marty and I went to Little Falls for the 2 cylinder show. This event is held at the fair grounds in Little Falls, it's an auction, flea market, outdoor and indoor vendors and all things farm related. The main event is John Deere but International and Case, Ford etc. were all well represented. For years now my youngest brother and his childhood best friend have gone, this year they invited Marty and I and my Dad to go with. The photo of my 81 year old Dad shows him doing what has always been "his" job when the guys get together. He makes breakfast and after 50 years of doing it he has become somewhat of a perfectionist. No yogurt, omelets or sweet rolls here. We ate smoky fired bacon, eggs over easy, pancakes and drank pots of coffee. We stayed at "The Compound", it's a weekend get-away owned by the family of my brothers friend. A man's playground of 4-wheeler trails, deer stands, ponds stocked with fish and a pole barn turned kitchen/hang-out where you can do no harm.

This is what I know: The women in my family gather frequently for "Girls events", we shop, travel, eat fancy and drink wine. The men in the family gather too. They ride 4-wheelers, fish, have campfires and drink beer. Generally the two groups don't intersect. In the past few years I have had the fortune of "hanging with the guys" on several occasions. The rules have been broken because we need each other. I need the time to remain grounded to the maleness of life and my Dad and brothers know of no other way to help me hang on except to just be there, along side of me. They have welcomed me in to their time. The final photo is a shot of my Dad, my brother and his friend. It reminds me of a line from the commencement address "Anna Quindlin" gave when invited to speak at a College. She talks about the humbleness of life. Of what you think you know and what you really know. One of the final lines is when she interviews a homeless man that spends everyday sitting at the end of a pier, staring out at the ocean. When she asks him why he does this day in and day out, he replies, "Look at the view".

Sometimes, it's just that simple.

till next time!
.