Friends

It was so cold last evening that I decided to snuggle up on the sofa with my laptop, clean out some files, back up some long over due folders and catch up with the blogs that my friends write. I have some strange friends.

Take Karen Snyder for example. Karen is an absolutely delightful person. She is lots of fun to be around, has a wicked sense of humor, but not much of a singing voice (Don’t worry Karen, I won’t tell them about Delta Dawn. What happens in Mexico stays in Mexico). I also credit her with introducing me to Lemon Drop Martinis, for which I will be forever grateful.

Karen has just closed her retail quilting store in Washington (The state of Washington. Karen LOVES when you clarify where she lives by adding “state”) Now that she is no longer running a retail store and making fudge every day she has plenty of free time. Yep, her retail store sold quilting fabric and fudge. (If my store also sold fudge, you could lay money on the fact that I would weigh 300+ lbs – Karen doesn’t). Karen has decided to fill her leisurely retirement days by writing more quilting books for Krause Publishing, designing fabric for Timeless Treasures and acting as the national spokesperson for Elna sewing machines. If you ever have the chance to meet her you will probably never suspect that she is also a nut case.

I can prove my point.

These are photos of Karen’s sewing room. I snitched these photos directly from Karen’s blog, not some fancy schmancy glossy paged magazine. If you want to see more of her room, there is a link right over there on the right under “My Favorite Blogs”. You can scroll through Karen’s posts and take a virtual tour of her sewing room. Despite the fact that Karen obviously has an affinity for the color orange, can you honestly believe that any normal quilter is THAT organized? My friend Debbie, from New Jersey (also a state) has actually been in this very sewing room in person and claims that it really is that neat. As far as I can tell there are only 2 possible explanations.

1. Karen’s real last name is Stepford
2. There is a fake wall hiding the mess.

Both of us are named Karen. Both of us design our own line of fabric. Karen writes books, I publish patterns. This is Karen’s work area…….. I’m not going to show you mine.

Karen - the messy one.

Wasn’t that a great game????

I just love those Steelers. It is easy to love a group of down to earth, team players that never give up, love what they do and are very thankful for their fans. The Rooney family has lots to be proud of and the Steeler Nation is exceptionally proud of our home town family.

There was no Super Bowl big party for me. I like to actually watch the game and I can’t do that and socialize at the same time. Not to mention, if the party were at my house I would have to be the hostess-with-the-mostess and spend my time filling drinks and serving food. Nope. Dinner was served in front of the TV and then it was just my husband (whose comments during the game should not always be voiced in public) my daughter, who understands then need to “send good vibes”, me in my #7 jersey and these Steeler M&M’s! Aren’t they adorable? Lee Ann, taught a mystery class that included lunch in the shop on Saturday and I loved these M&M’s so much she gave me the leftovers.

The Mystery class was great fun. The students arrived with fabric rectangles cut from their stash and the first step in the mystery process was to run the rectangles through our AccuQuilt machine to cut the required squares. They certainly didn’t see that coming!

Looking over the past posts, I’ve pretty much kept what I am working on a secret. That isn’t intentional. I just haven’t had the time to photograph the finished pieces. I have 5 new quilts to create and 5 new patterns to publish. The projects are to compliment an “auto ship” of batik fabrics for Timeless Treasures. The requirements are that each quilt must use 10 of the “solid” fabrics from the Tonga batik line. There will be five quilts and each of the quilts must use 10 different fabrics. Ten, no more, no less. There must not be any overlap in color. Once I have used a color in one quilt, I can not use it again…. Talk about a Mystery!

One last thing, they must be beautiful, easy to make and finished as soon as possible…… no problem, I’m from The City of Champions!

Karen

More Advertising

I’m sensing a theme here.

I was up very early this morning and turned on the local news. A Pittsburgh woman is offering to sell advertising space on her body in exchange for tickets to the Super Bowl. Her reasoning is that advertising at the Super Bowl is extremely expensive and she is willing to wear your ad, emblazoned on her body (and car) before, during and after the game. Hmm. Nice try. The offer might be a bit more attractive if, well, the advertising space were a bit more attractive. She might want to contact NationWIDE insurance to see if they are interested......... Forget I said that… it’s just mean.

While discussing my sock rant, my daughter reminded me that a year or two ago someone was trying to sell ad space on eggs. Not Easter eggs, just the good ole everyday white chicken eggs that you probably have in the fridge right now. The idea was that as you cooked breakfast the eggs could have cute little pictures and clips like “Wake up with Eyewitness News”. Not a bad idea. I would especially enjoy this campaign if they had actual photos of news anchors right on the eggs. Who wouldn’t enjoy cracking open Katie Couric’s head and scrambling her brains over a high heat? ….. That comment is probably a bit over the top too, huh?

Perhaps I’m a bit cranky today. Well what do you expect? The weather genius on every local station has predicted snow and freezing rain for today and a probable 3-5 inches tonight into tomorrow. Meanwhile I’m praying for a mere 40 degrees. I want winter to be OVER and if it can’t end, then keep the white stuff on the ski slopes. How on earth do those people in Minnesota do it?

Now I think Ill go finish my coffee and remind my husband to site in his shot gun. That pesky varmint in Punxsutawney will be sticking his head out of his hole next week and I want to be ready.

Advertising

A shop owner from the Phoenix area called the other day to order patterns and naturally the conversation turned to the fact that we are facing each other in the Super Bowl this weekend. Coming from the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have the worlds most dedicated fans, I was a bit surprised when she said that the game wasn’t a really big deal in Arizona. She was of the opinion that most people only watch the game for the commercials. That made me a bit sad. The Phoenix coach, Ken Wiesenhunt (better known around here as The Whiz) was on the Steelers staff on their last trip to the Super Bowl and it must feel strange to him to NOT have fans the caliber of Steeler Nation backing him up.

Watching the game to see the commercials seems a bit weird to me. We are bombarded with advertising every waking minute of every day. Take my socks for instance. Why on earth do my socks say “NO NONSENSE” across the toes? Is that a command or reminder to behave? Why did they give that name to my socks anyway? I’ve tried to imagine the corporate meeting when a bunch of “suits” were sitting around a conference table trying to choose a name for their new hosiery line. Exactly how do you think that conversation developed to the point where they thought “NO NONSENSE” expressed the finer points of their product? Then you might want to consider why they decided that the expense of developing a machine that would knit those words directly into the toe of each of my little footie socks was absolutely necessary. While my socks are a veritable advertising beacon, most of you tuck yours inside your shoes and the message is lost. Exactly how much mileage were they hoping to get out of applying text to my tootsies?

A friend (with as sick of a sense of humor as mine) wrote me asking if I had seen the ad for “Aciphex” a new pharmaceutical. (don’t get me started on ads for things that you can’t really buy) This is a new drug that reduces acid reflux. Aciphex is pronounced “ass-effects” according to the commercial. How on earth the announcer got through the recording of that ad without dying of laughter is beyond me. It reminds me of the TV Quilting personality that spent one entire episode referring to a Tri-Rex ruler as a “rec-tool ruler”. I know… I have a demented sense of humor.

If you are one of those people that are only watching the big game this weekend to see the commercials, I would like to suggest that instead of suffering through play after play of the actual game, you might want to cheer the Steelers on to Victory! It is easy to join the Steeler Nation!

Here are a few tips to looking and sounding like a professional: Dress yourself in anything you own that is black and gold. Refer to our quarterback as “Big Ben”. At any point in the conversation you can say “Don’t you just love Hines Ward” or “Let’s see some Fast Willie Parker”. Under no circumstances should you question the length of Troy Polamalu's hair. One more point, keep in mind that if anyone mentions a “six pack” they are not necessarily suggesting that you go for beer.

Go Steelers!

Body Parts

Those of you that are "regular" customers that shop in our store or any of you that place orders on our internet site are very familiar with Debby, my store manager. Deb is a wonderfully plesant, efficient, multi-tasker that is part elf and part energizer bunny. I often feel like she is also the other half of my brain.

Debby had foot surgery on Friday. Elective surgery and she is doing very well, but doctors orders are that she spend an entire week with her foot "up" and an additional 2 weeks "non-weight bearing". Deb is receiving excellent medical care. I on the other hand feel as if my right arm has been chopped off and I'm having a bit of a hard time stemming the bleeding! Being me on a daily basis is enough to handle, but being me AND being Debby is just too much to ask. Deb on the other hand is "sitting" at home wondering what we are screwing up in her absense. She also has plenty of time to keep an eye on my blogging and my e-updates, so if you would like to send Deb get well wishes, feel free to post a comment here on the blog, I KNOW she will read it.

In the mean time I've managed to figure out how to make the background of the blog white for easier reading. We've been busy in the shop packing new kits, filling orders and I've been catching up on my instruction writing. We have also been cutting every piece of black and gold fabric up to make Steeler Quilts! We need ALL of you to root for a Pittsburgh Steeler victory on Sunday for several reasons. First, this city LOVES their football team. A Steeler win means everyone in town will be in a great mood for a solid 2 weeks. Then we have a shot at the Super Bowl. Second, my son is a bartender in Baltimore where he takes a lot of heat for being a Steeler fan. Those silly purple bird fans have to learn to show some respect for the Steeler Nation!

We had a great weekend this past weekend! The shop was busy both Friday and Saturday with customers that were happy that the holidays were over and things were getting back to normal, including time to sew. Although we are not normally open on Sunday, every 3 months we open for a few hours on Sunday afternoon for our “meet the teacher” event to kick off the new class schedule. This time we offered 20% off the class fee if you brought us a container of liquid laundry detergent. As you can see, this was a win-win situation for both our customers and the local food bank! We thank you – and the food bank will too!

I was happy to finally ease back into my normal routine today and turn my sewing machine on for the first time this year. Too much paperwork makes me a grumpy person. I stitched these pillow tops that are the new additions to our button pillow series just before the holiday. Today I finished them off by adding the zippers and backing. The Valentine pillow comes complete with pre-cut, pre-fused hearts and buttons for embellishing. The St. Pat pillow includes the decorative buttons and the pot-of-gold is really a pocket that is the perfect size for tucking a treat inside – like a lottery ticket! The Valentine pillow pattern and kits are packed and ready to go. I plan to have the St. Pat's pillow ready sometime next week - but first I want to do a little more sewing!

There are Valentine table runners to stitch, new batiks quilts on the drawing board, and a St. Pat's table runner that features skippy the Christmas elf's Irish cousin! ... I better get busy!

Karen

Whoopie!!!

Happy New Year to EVERYONE
and Happy New Web Site to US!

Lots of new changes for 2009! Including this new look on the blog and a new look for our website! Our web goddess - guru - mastermind (person with more technical knowledge in her little finger than I am willing to learn in this lifetime) and otherwise known as Amy Novak, launched our new website just before midnight on New Years eve. It's beautiful!

Take a look around www.thequiltcompany.com and let us know what you think! (If you are a frequent visitor to the site and it looks the same, click on your "refresh" button to bring up the new version.) There are still a few bugs to work out and a correction here and there to be made. After all, in some areas Amy is only as good as the information I give her and as I've explained, I don't speak "tec". Keep checking back, because the improvements will keep coming! We plan to add photos to the "blackboard" on the class page so that you can see the project or pattern . The box on the front page (where you see the Tide!) will keep you up-to-date with the latest events. You can sign-up for our e-updates right from the home page.....

Here on the blog I've made a few changes too! The new header features a photo of some of the fabrics I've designed. The more colorful page is bright and cheery and have you noticed that I've enlarged the text? Is all of that a good or bad thing?

Let us know what you think of our new look and the new features on the website. Many of the changes were made because of customer suggestions, we welcome your comments too!

While you are on the site, why not click on the shop hop bunny on the home page and join the January Internet Hop? You can find our "you found it" bunny on our fabric page and get started. The more sites you visit, the better opportunity you have to win prizes. No weather to contend with, you don't even have to get dressed, you can do it in your jammies!

Enjoy!
Happy New Year!
Karen