Welcome Fall Quilting!

WOW! I let the whole entire summer get by me with the intent to blog and no time to do it. So.....here goes.

I am hoping that you have received your newsletter. It is packed with all the new events, classes, clubs, shop hours and upcoming challenges and events.

Class registration days will be Saturday, Sept. 18Th for the October classes and Saturday Oct. 16Th for the November and December classes. Early sign-up rewards you with a 10% discount on class registration fee and a free fat-quarter.

2010-2011 Block of the Month kicks off in November. We will be doing "Quilt Blocks on American Barns" by Eleanor Burns. I have been looking forward to this since first seeing the book. As you can see in the photos, my personal quilting space is a barn. This project(my barn) my husband and my Dad worked most of the summer getting ready for me. I am so grateful.

"Groovy Girls" sewing club begins Monday, October 25Th. Join us for laughter, learning, sewing and exclusive patterns and ideas, new techniques etc. all from Atkinson Designs. Fee is $6.00 per session plus materials and supplies.

If school has started, and it has, it is time for the "Beginners Sewing Series." Join instructor Chris George as she guides you through the steps towards accurate and precise piecing techniques.

September classes include "A bag for Andrea", Sept. 23rd and "Patchwork Ironing Board covers", Sept. 30Th.

The "Quilters Yard Sale" has come and gone and it was a huge success. The tent photo shows our vendors setting up. The wind was our worst enemy, but the "tent crew" got it set up and the wind helped Marty, Melissa and I take it down. Mark your day planner for next August, this event has become much anticipated and our vendor numbers keep growing. This year the tent filled up, so early sign-up is key.

The photo of my grand-daughters shows their first project in Nannie's new sewing studio AKA "The Quilt Shack". They both made pillowcases with fabric they picked, on their very own Janome sewing machine. Fun day!

The final photo shows Poppa and Nolan taking Labor day very seriously. When the John Deere breaks down, the tools come out.

Well gotta sign off and sew.

Questions?? Call us here at the shop.

Till next time.

Quilters' Yard Sale

Join us for the 5th Annual Quilters' Yard Sale

this Saturday, August 28th from 9am-1pm

at Seams Like Home Quilt Shop in Sturgeon Lake!

Under the big tent outside you will find all kinds of great deals on fabrics,

notions, patterns, books, UFOs, etc.

Inside the shop we will be having specials too.

Come join the fun!

Lots to tell you!

OK so I have posted what amounts to a photo album but there is so much that I want to tell you about. The summer is so busy for all of us and as the saying goes..."the livin" is easy".

Here at Seams Like Home Quilt Shop we have been sewing,arranging and preparing for the shops biggest summer event, "The Quilt Minnesota 2010 Shop-Hop". This event kicks off this Friday the 30th and for the next two weeks and weekends ending August 15th you will know exactly where to find both of us. The shop is open for this event 7 days a week. We have a store display that features a dog sled, cross-country skis, skates, snowshoes and all things winter. In the other corner of the shop is a Christmas tree, stockings and all things Christmas. With the air-conditioning running sometimes I need to look out the window and remind myself it's high summer.

The next event of late summer is the "Quilter's Yard-sale" on August 28. This will be our biggest sale yet and we hope you will make plans to attend. If you are interested there is still space available but I believe we are out of tables, so you would need to provide your own. There will be deep discounts in the shop and clearance fabric outside with the yard-sale's. The event kicks off at 9am sharp and will continue until 1pm.
I want to tell you about some of the posted photos. The children sitting together are some of my grand-children and my niece. We enjoyed a family camping weekend together at our place in the Grand Rapids area. We kayaked, swam, rode 4-wheelers, stayed up too late and ate too much. We tried to pack as much as we could into 3 days and the photo of Boomer my youngest daughters dog probably speaks for all of us when I say we were tired by the weekends end. No one does vacations better than a dog. They spend most of the time napping, they might just be on to something.
The scenery photos are shot from the patio of a hotel I stayed in when I traveled to Park City Utah with my sister. My sister travels extensively for business and occasionally she brings along a guest. I was the lucky traveler on this trip and what a treat it was. We stayed in a 5 star resort, Park City's newest, we were wined, we were dined, we were pampered and gifted. We enjoyed an under the stars acoustic performance by John Oates of the band Hall and Oates. We rode chair lifts to 9500 feet. We drank wine from a wine list that had prices like mortgage payments and I tried very hard to use the right forks and my best manners. I talked to wonderful people, heard alot of good stories, left some cash at the shops downtown and loved every minute of a chance to spend time with one of the top women in my life. I was so proud to watch her in the role that has earned her many achievements and awards. She is a business women of the highest caliber. Of course would it be a vacation without flight snafus and a side trip to urgent care? I don't think so. That is a story for another time.

The photo of the runners are my youngest daughter Heidi and two( and one little friend) of her friends. They have just finished running the five mile race that is an event for our local Willow River Days. This race is community sponsored and extremely well run, there is a corresponding walking event and every year they pull good numbers of local runners and visitors in town for one of the states friendliest and fun small town fairs.

Finally, lets talk quilting. The fall fabrics are here and they are fabulous. Fall is my favorite season to sew for. There is just something about those rich oranges, deep golds and browns, hints of metallic with some black thrown in that just makes me want to plan a new project. The shop sample is a "five-yard quilt" called "Race Track" by Mary Danielson of Easy Quilter.Com pattern comes in wall and twin size. If you haven't done a five yard quilt, you must. I went alittle crazy last winter and cracked off several. They were addicting once I got started. The two small quilts hanging one over the other are from the "Villa Rosa Designs" pattern company. We brought these patterns back from Quilt Market this spring and we just keep re-ordering. Most are either fat sixth friendly or fat-quarter friendly and we all know how much fun it is to choose those. The final photo shows our "Wine Country" fabric by South Sea Imports. Beautiful shades of plum, forest green and tan/browns.

And then there's this: My grandson Nolan has entered the season of "why". He uses it as a verb, a noun, an adjective, virtually every grammatical way you can. Every comment is answered with why, every question is answered why, it has taken the place of yes and no in his vocabulary and he accompanies it with a facial expression where his head is tipped sideways, his eyes are slightly closed and he is looking at you for answers. There is no end to conversations that have why in them and he can continue to ask with a patience that amazes me.

This is what I know: When you are two the world is big... many things surprise you, many things shock you. Nolan is just now trying to find answers to things he may have never questioned before. When you turn 50, the same is true. The world is big....many things surprise me, many things shock me and I spend much of my time trying to find answers to things I never questioned before. I'm gonna hang tight with Nolan and follow his line of reasoning. I'll turn my head sideways, slightly close my eyes and ask "why" as often as I can.

Till next time!

It's a wrap!

Well, team "Dashing Diva's" put another one in the record book finishing the Garry Bjorkland Half-Marathon in 2:33:34. Everyone looked fantastic!

We traveled up the back-roads around Jay Cooke State Park hoping to avoid the worst of the traffic.

The photos are of Nolan waiting for Aunt Missy, and then running for the finish with her for the 2nd time in his life. (First time was with his Mom, he was not yet born).

The "Dashing Diva's" rightfully proud. Melissa and Jen(back row) Julie and Deb(front row).

We are proud of you all!!

Till next time.

Summertime, Summertime

OK so we went to "Quilt Market" in mid-May and then a month got by us, just like that....

Quilt Market was exciting and frantic, as always. Melissa and I feel compelled to participate in Sample Spree, probably the craziest event ever. It makes Black Friday shopping look calm. I have to say for two girls that try very hard not to be aggressive and always be polite, we have learned that this event requires you to bring out the "fighten" side". Really tho, it's more that we know what to expect and we have a game plan. We stay focused and as hard as it is, we stand our ground.

Melissa and I both took classes. Melissa generally hits the marketing classes and this year I took the classes related to landscape quilting, photo quilting and memory quilting. I learned alot and this is an area I am going to explore. Ideally I should get experienced enough that at some point we will offer some classes to pass on what we know. We attended "schoolhouse" which are small quick sessions to introduce, new product, new authors, new pattern designers etc. Then we hit the market and put on more miles than you can imagine. Everyone from the quilting world is there and it is fun to see them as regular people and not faces in a magazine or on the television. We met alot of new people from some of our favorite states, Idaho, Utah and Nevada. We were wined and dined courtesy of the United Notions Company, more commonly referred to as Moda and when the weekend finally took it's toll, we loaded up and went out to the edge of the city and had dinner with the grand-parents.

June is half-way over and if that's the case then it means Melissa is running. Tomorrow she will again participate in the Gary Bjorkland Half-Marathon. This is the event she trains the hardest for and this year along with Deb and Jen, they will be joined by Melissa's mother-in-law, Julie. We will all be up there to cheer the ladies on but the big arguement is what time do we leave? If you have been to Duluth you know that the interstate is completely under construction. It is not pretty. Last year we also ran, not by choice. We barely made it to the finish line before the girls did. I don't want a repeat of that.

The photos show some of the projects we have going on here at Seams Like Home. The one that is just a note with web-addresses refers to my previous post. I put up a picture of those cute little dresses and then neglected to tell you about the project. The dresses are made from pillowcases and sent to countires where there is a need. Stop at the shop if you are close and we can give you a free pattern or look up the web addresses for information on what, when and where.

The "Circle of Life" wall-hanging is quick, simple and a great educational tool. I made one for my grand-daughter to give her teacher on the last day of school as a thank-you for a great year. My only wish is we had the fabric so I could have sent it the 1st day of school. So for those teachers in your life, that daycare that you trust with the best of your life or for your sewing room wall, stop in and pick up a kit. The fabric line is "Circle of Life" by South Sea Imports.

The super-cute flowers and crosses quilt is titled "Blossoms in the Breeze" by designer Linda Lum Debono. It is featured in the Feb. 2010 edition of American Patchwork and Quilting. We have kits here at the shop.

Final picture is from one of our new winter lines(yes, I know, I said winter). The fabric line is called Shivers and Company by Pearl Krush/Pearl Louis Designs.

June 25th marks the unveiling of what we have ordered for "Christmas in July". If you have been in recently you have seen the fabric case gift wrapped in the middle of the shop.

Upcoming is the "Sisters of Summer Sale" July 10th.

Quilt Minnesota July 30th through August15th.

Quilter's Yard Sale August 28th.

And then there's this: June 5th was the 33rd birthday of my son Mike. It is a hard day. At 9am I was in the chair of a Tattoo parlor. I made this appointment two months in advance and although they could have gotten me in earlier, it had to be that day. If you had asked my children the least likely person they knew that would ever get a tattoo, they would have said me. It was never about the pain for me it was more if you intend to mark yourself permanently the reason should be pure.

This is what I know: There is physical pain and there is pain of the heart, the head, the soul. The first does not remotely compare to the other. In the early days I remember my sister saying that in this country we don't mark ourselves to indicate we are grieving. She said there should be some outward sign. Something that when we looked at someone it would be apparent that their heart is broken. The buffalo and full moon that I had permanently etched into my hand represents Mike, his dreams, his courage. It also represents me, the broken me that needs this daily reminder that courage is a verb. It must be lived.

This is my sign.

Till next time!