Employee Trunk Show

We have some fun things to share with our customers, mostly things that you have not seen before because they are from our own private collections!  From different times in our lives, for different reasons, these are some of our favorite things!

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Our Retreat in Review

As explained in our last post, we had a wonderful employee retreat to attend, and lots of stitchin' was accomplished!  Even knitty stitchin'!  Here's a fun group picture--

From the top left:  Anne, Diane, Pam, Eileen, Kristina, Karen,
Jeanne, Tammy, Nancy, Linda E., Linda P., Sue, Sharon and Barb

Missing from that photo are Debbie and Laurel (hiding behind the lens!) and Beth and Marlene, both out of state in warm climates!  

Some pictures of our works-in-progress--

Modern Logs by Christa Quilts.  This is Debbie's quilt for the next Easy As Pie class.
It's way outside her box!

During our fat quarter game, we were very focused!  

Karen learned how to use the serger, thanks to Jeanne's help.
Receiving blankets, which means the Karen will soon be receiving the title of grandma!
And possibly dreaming of owning a serger?!

This is a quilt that Linda E. was making, it uses flannels that look "suedeish", probably not a real word, but it is a really cool quilt!  We have coordinated packs of the flannels for purchase, and I will find out where her pattern came from.

This little doll reigned over the sewing room, staring down anyone within range!  And Jeanne, who is hiding behind the machine, made a fabulous little backpack for her!  She also made a little ruffly skirt for her granddaughter and one to match for the doll.

Sharon showed us her embroidered quilt top, a pattern by Crabapple Hill.
 Sharon is a pro at embroidery, and teaches our classes.
There are a lot of ladies who love embroidery!

Laurel worked and worked and worked on these blocks!  And the result is fabulous!  Soon to be a class, I am told!

Barb worked on some beading, look at that neat and tiny little chain she made!

Feelin' Good!

I love the beginning of a vacation.  I always like the feeling when you realize you have some free time stretching out in front of you, maybe going somewhere, maybe having guests, maybe just a blank slate.  That's what I'm feeling this morning!

This special feeling is made possible by the generosity of the owners of Bear Patch Quilting Co., Debbie and Laurel.  It's actually a Christmas gift to the store employees, about 16 of us.  The gift is 5 days of time.  How rare is that!?  The store is closed for 5 days (February 24-28) while we gather ourselves at a retreat house, Bridge Creek Cottage, in Augusta, WI.  How cool is that!

Closing the doors of the store for that many days and hosting the whole group really means a lot.  It is a real investment of time and money.  The lost revenue, the rental of the house, the time spent in planning, all add up to a significant amount.  We have never done an employee event like this before.  It was never possible, because on any given day, there are  5 or more employees scheduled to work, depending on the day it can be even 8.  We have had employee sew days at the store after hours, but that's pretty limited when the event starts at 4 or 5 PM.

We have a really good group of employees, probably one of the most compatible and enjoyable groups that I have known since starting to work at the store 15 years ago.  We are using this opportunity as another way to build the strengths of our team, plus some learning through sharing ideas.  And doing what we love to do, quilting and sewing!  There will also be some knitting, reading, movie watching, walking, eating, talking, laughing and goofing off!

I know there are going to be some customers who won't get the word that we are closed, in spite of trying to get the information out there in any way possible.  And I know they are not going to be happy about that no matter what.  We feel badly that we can't be in 2 places at one time.  We will be doing our best to become an even better quilt shop for all of you!

We all have our own favorite projects to work on during retreat, and here's one that we are bringing along for "show and tell".  We have been loving the Sweetpea Pod pattern by Lazy Girl.  Here's one I made in January--

And here's another one that I made from some faux leather we had in the store--

Sweetpea Pod by Lazy Girl

I have to say, it turned out pretty cool!  For anyone wanting to experiment with this, I used the leatherish fabric for both the outer and lining layers, plus a layer of SF101 lightweight woven fusible interfacing on the wrong side of the outer layer.  I blinged up the zipper just a little with a beaded pull, and I'm bringing along the supplies to show everyone how to make one of those.

Oh, and don't you just love that old tabletop, too!  It's from probably the 50's, but I'm not sure of the history of this table.  It looks like the surface of the moon, or a muskmelon!

Little House on the Prairie from Andover Fabrics

We have a great new trunk show on display, featuring the beautiful line of fabrics portraying the Little House on the Prairie.  We have these quilts on loan for only 2 weeks, so I sure do hope you are able to come in and see them for yourselves.  They come from various designers around the country, and I have tried to include the name of the pattern and designer in the picture.

We have a nice cabinet holding bolts, jelly rolls, charm squares and fat quarters.  We will continue to carry the fabrics as long as they are available.  I think Ma Ingalls would have loved this cabinet!

Tuscan Tote by Pink Sand Beach

This small quilt makes a good tablecovering.

The Logs and Ladders Quilt is available for free on the Andover website.

An applique border combined with blocks.

Dresden plates with a yo-yo and button center!

Fractions On A Roll by Mountainpeek.

Another good bag by Pink Sand.

This small quilt is called Corn and Beans, and is another free download from Andover.  The sunshine really highlights the quilting on this one, and what a good way to quilt that center square with random wavy lines.

Windmill Quilt-- how many windmills do you see?

A large sampler quilt, we also have a smaller version on display.

 We have a good supply of pre-cuts to choose from, in the 3 different groups included in the fabric line:  Scenics and Icons, Walnut Grove, and Prairie Flowers.  

We have bolts of most of them on hand, and will try to replenish whatever Andover has available.  This is a specialty fabric group and will not be reprinted by Andover.

Please call us at 651-429-1039 if you have any questions!

Our Winter Classes

We have been working hard to make many new samples to inspire you to take one of our great classes this winter.  It's the perfect time to sit down at your machine or pick up needle and thread.  This doesn't show all of them, but you can see the entire list on the website.
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Got Zippers? Yes!

 We have recently expanded our supply of zippers, so we have many colors and lengths to choose from now.  Why so many zips in the quilt shop, you might ask?  Well, we have a whole lot of bag making goin' on these days, in case you haven't noticed!  So many styles and sizes and designs and uses for all sorts of bags!  We are constantly amazed at the skill and creativity of the sewists who walk in our doors with the most wonderful handmade creations.  Sewing a 3-dimensional item is a bit different than our usual quilts, but the fabric is what bridges the gap!  Fabulous prints and a rainbow of colors to personalize your bags, whether for everyday, little gadgets, toys, diapers, lunch or a night out.  Give it a try if you haven't already caught the bag bug!

Below is the new rack for our 24" zippers from ByAnnie.  These and the 30" zips in the next picture are really crafted with bagmaking in mind, because they have a little wider cloth tape and larger pull tab.  They work great with Soft & Stable for bag support.  The longer size comes with 2 pulls in place, in case you need that feature.

Also, we have the standard 14" and new 22" zippers from Atkinson Designs, perfect for anything that needs a little zip!  The beauty of all of our zippers is that they have polyester teeth, making it easy to tailor them to the length you need, and easier to insert without danger of breaking a needle on those metal teeth.  I hate when that happens!  These are the zippers that we have been using for the newest Lazy Girl bag patterns (Fobio, Sweet Pea and Becca), samples are on display and on her website.  On Lazy Girl and ByAnnie websites there are tips and instructions on making better bags, too.

And just in time for the fun, we have just received 3 new patterns from ByAnnie.  These are Open Wide, Just in Case, and All Aboard.  I can't wait to see these sewn up in some of our gorgeous new fabric that has been busting out of the storeroom!

New Ideas For You

The geometrics in this quilt are simpler to handle if you use the Corner Beam tool from Deb Tucker.  We aim to get a sample made and a class scheduled ASAP!

Diamonds In The Sky by Modern 180/ Deb Tucker

 Machine embroiderers take notice!  This blocky alphabet design was part of a quilt design, but can be separated and used to create signs and banners.

Alphabet Fiesta by Smith Street Designs

We have been interested in some new fabric designs from Cotton + Steel, a division of RJR Fabrics aimed at a younger audience.  But that doesn't mean I can't like it, too!  We selected some pieces to come to Bear Patch soon.

 Elizabeth Hartman has become recognized for her cute little animal quilts.  I shared a picture last week showing one of her most popular quilts.  But now Bigfoot gets in on the action, too!

Legendary by Oh Fransson

I will be making a Bigfoot pillow cover for son, Dan, because he lives in places that are home to Bigfoot.  We've already discussed the colors to use, I thought it should be more gray than brown, and Dan swears that all the Bigfoots that he has seen are dirty gray!