Week?

Where did this week go? It’s been 7 days since I arrived home from our weekend retreat and I haven’t even found the time to unpack my sewing supplies. I had paperwork to deal with, classes to teach, instructions to write, newsletter to organize and corporate taxes that need to be filed by the 15th; I guess that’s why they call it “work”.

This weekend my store staff was on retreat. It is their annual gift from me (yep, I’m a pretty nice boss, but then again I couldn’t do what I do if I didn’t have them). They leave around noon on Friday and I stay home and cover the store. The threat of snow kept business to a minimum, but it certainly didn’t stop UPS and FedEx from their appointed rounds!

30 bolts of bright contemporary fabrics from Rowan (the home of Kaffe, Martha Negley, etc) arrived along with 20 bolts of baby flannels! I had Georgette, my customer-turned-employee for the weekend work the Rowan bolts into a new display before she became a fat quarter cutting expert. Georgette says working with me is fun. She doesn’t understand why the girls are always whining about cutting kits…… me neither.

Most of the baby flannels are going to be cut into chenille kits for baby quilts. I convinced Timeless to print zig-zag lines on flannel to make the chenille process even easier! One look at the printed flannel and your first thought will be “big deal”. But once you see the finished project and the light bulb goes off!!! Chenille quilts are nothing but layers of fabric that are stitched together on the bias. Once they are washed, they “bloom”. The most difficult part is marking all the stitching lines…… not anymore!

That's the bolt of flannel in the bottom corner of the photo. The lines are printed in blue, but they are only the width of a thread, so you can stitch over them in any color you like. As you can see, our sample is pink.

This week we will be preparing to vend at the North Pittsburgh Quilt Guild show. We don’t take the store on the road very often. It takes a lot of work to prep for a show if you want your booth to feature unique projects, not to mention the 4 days of extra work setting up and covering the show. My plan for the week also includes getting those kaleidoscope blocks for Timeless out of the project box, assembled and off to the quilter by the end of the week….

Ill keep you posted.

Karen