To all or our friends - - - -

My favorite gift - - - -

About a month ago, Gabe asked me to send him a picture of the Christmas Tree ornaments they made in elementary school. I had saved them for 35 years. I never know what he is up to so didn't give it any more thought.

He shared the pictures with his sisters and, for Christmas, they each made me a replica of their original ornament. 

Surely they don't think I will toss out these old ones now!

This one was made by Willow, age 4.

and here is her replica. 

and Gabe, age 5. 

and his replica.

And Brook, age 6. This was made with a flat for a jelly jar lid.

and her replica. She even double braided her pigtails for this picture.

Now through Friday - Perfect time to work on your Fabricology!

Annual year end fabric sale - 25% off!

Includes new selection of backings, lots of new blenders and fun new pieces.

Never too early - - -

Coach McLaughlin, AKA Uncle Gabe, is home from Texas for Christmas. He was giving the boys a few tips. Looks like Cal needed a time out.

Holiday Hours and Annual Sale:

We will be closed Saturday December 24 and we are always closed on Sundays. 

Shop now before those New Year's resolutions kick in!

We open again on Monday, December 26 with our annual pre-inventory-so-we-don't-have-to-count- sale. Sale ends Friday, December 30.

All regular price fabric cut from the bolt is 25% off with a minimum of 1 yard cuts.

Jenny's gift

Jenny O sent me these pictures of nesting microwave bowls. She said it was an afternoon job. Cute, aren't they?

As long as there's quilts - - -

A card I received - - - Let in snow!

Color of the year - 2017

Introducing the 2017 color of the year. They are calling it Greenery.

Letter to Santa

Willow found this printed in their local paper. #family

New Shop Samples

Lonnie tricked out this panel. Isn't this adorable? Deb S quilted it with stars and loops. Looks great. We have this in kit, of course.

Another new sample, this one for Valentines. I have also used this poem to print on labels for wedding quilt gifts.  Our sample is 12" square so hangs nicely from a desk top stand.

The kit comes with pattern, printable fabric sheet/instructions, as well as a pack of 2 1/2" charm squares and red for inner border and binding.

Show and Shae

Jenny O. sent me these two pics, results of her Sunday Sewing. These are holiday gifts she has made for a relative and for a co-worker.

Moda Block Challenge

 Starting in February of this year, we posted 3, 6" block patterns on the 15th of each month. If you have missed some, just scroll to the 15th of each month to snag your copies.

This is the final month and here are the instructions for the pieced border inner border.

Thank you for joining us in this fun adventure. Be sure to send us pictures of your blocks and/or quilt.

For a copy of the setting pattern, send us an email request and we will attach the pdf and return to you.

Memaw and the Hospital Man

After their trip to the hospital to visit Memaw, the twins have a new game they call "Memaw and the Hospital Man". Liv is the patient and Cal has out his doctor kit. Thinking today of how to be a better role model!

While posting family pics, have to share another "who's your daddy?" shot.

Holiday Open House Drawing!

Part of our Holiday Open House included a drawing for a holiday quilt kit! The winners are:

• Margaret Beal
• Goldie Lane
• Carol Washburn

Congratulations gals. Come in and pick up your kit and thanks to all that stopped by.

A little Christmas in the shop

I'm not sure I have formally introduced this quilt to you. Carol P. made it for us and I just love it. 

And we still have a few kits of this wreath, an afternoon project made even easier with pre-cut stabilizer. Kind of looks like it has a plaid center but that is actually towels on the shelf in the cabinet behind the wreath :)

Gifts

Thank you to all the sweet folks that brought in pillowcases full of gifts for our angel tree. The staff from Crisis Intervention and Advocacy Center stopped in today to pick them up, seen here with Lonnie and a couple customers who were dropping off gifts.

We had 15 angels adopted this year by:

Jackie Orton

Nancy Hagelberg (x 2)

Joyce Scott (x 2)

JoAnne Schnebly

Kari Durham

Lonnie Keeran (x 2)

Willow Hill

Brook McLaughlin

Judy Ticknor

Lindsay Beaman

Jenny Osler

Dian Wakefield

Sue Risius

We thank you from the bottom of our heart!

Still Catching Up!

Everything is now known to me as BTF and ATF (before and after the fall). Here are a few of my favorite holiday events, missed this year but sweet friends and relatives sent me pictures:

Adel hosted a holiday open house last Fri eve and we were so happy to have my brother, Bill Beaman, in house to sign his brand new murder book, 4th in his series. It literally was hot off the press, having arrived only 2 days before the event.

 Customers lined up to get their signed copy.

My family came and decorated and hosted our guests. I always love the luminaries.

And bless her sweet heart, Lonnie made the meatballs we served and manned the counter. Peanoach Winery also provided warm apple wine for us to serve.

 Thank you to everyone that stopped in and special thanks to all who helped make the evening happen.

Then Sunday there was the annual quilt show in the sanctuary of Adel's Christian Church. This year, they featured vintage and hand quilted quilts and it looks like they had a great turn out of quilts!

Each quilt is labeled with it's own hi"stories" which are fun to peruse and read.

Angel Reminder

Thank you for the quick response to help with our Angel Tree. All of the angels were almost instantly adopted and most are already back

Just a reminder, the folks from the local Domestic Violence Shelter will be here Friday, December 9 at 10 am to pick up.

Including gifts for 15 angels, they will also pickup a check from us for $250 for the fund raiser we conducted this year via Row by Row quilt kit sales.

Time to catch up - - -

Here are a few of the quilts coming together at our November Open Sew.

 Jean was just finishing up this Ocean Waves quilt for a grandchild's wedding gift. The colors they requested are blue and orange. Aren't they going to love this?

Sarah finished a block of the month. Nice

Sarah also worked on this quilt made using striped fabric. You cut squares and quarter cut each square.

Then you sort pieces so all the horizontal stripes go in one block and the parallel stripes go in the other block. See a closeup below.

I tried doing it with a layer cake of striped fabrics.

It will make a pretty quilt but not net the same design - - -  because, before you cut the squares, you refold the width of fabric and match the repeat in the stripes.

The next day was our November Sisters of the Cloth Class:

We had two speakers at our November Sisters class. I was so happy to have my cousin Joy bring this quilt to show. It is an heirloom from her husband's side of the family. Labeled and dated for the mid 1800's, it is just in pristine shape and of excellent craftsmanship. She is considering a permanent home in a museum, for it, maybe at ISU.

Here is a better picture of the quilt plus Joy also brought her Periwinkle quilt to show. Another family heirloom, this one was not so well made. The background fabric was too heavy to hand quilt and was puckered (you know - seams with attitude). So, she took the whole quilt top apart, replaced the background fabric and trimmed up the colored pieces. Then she put it all back together again and hand quilted it. Really lovely.

Other members shared hand made items they are working on for holiday gift giving.

 

This is cool. Trish shared the quilt she made from the 9-patch block exchange we did in our 2015 series of Sisters of the Cloth. I really like what the clam shell machine quilting does to this square block pattern.

This year, instead of a block exchange, we exchanged packets of
3 1/2" squares each month to make a very scrappy selection of fabrics for these six-pointed stars.

This year, we also included a block pattern to follow our monthly program, "Pioneer Quilts, A Comfort through Hardship" by Judy Ann Johnson Breneman·       

Above is the runner I made with my 3 blocks. The center block features a verse and can be turned, of course, depending on how you plan to display it. I think it will be pretty laying across the pillows at the bed top.

After a break for refreshments, Helen Lewis from the Iowa Speaker's Bureau closed our program with an informative and inspiring reenactment of Jane Aadams and her work with the Chicago Hull House in the 1800s.

This has been another really fun series of classes with our Sisters of the Cloth, maybe my favorite so far. I think we are all looking forward to the 2017 series (3rd Saturdays in July, September and November).

Thank you to all who participated. I really cherish my Sisters of the Cloth!

It's Giving Season - -

Have you heard about Amazon Smile?  If you're shopping on the Amazon website (not the phone app), you can type in "smile.amazon.com" and designate a charity to receive a portion of your sales. 

It's the exact same Amazon that you'd be shopping at anyway.  

Willow is Board President for NAMI Central Iowa so I would be remiss if I did not point out that it is one of the options :)

Of course you can choose whichever charity suits you. What an easy way to gift others during this giving season.

We have a winner!

The first of each month, Lonnie draws us a winner from our Purple Bag Club members. December's winner is - - - - - Carol Hoover from Dallas Center. She wins a kit for a large holiday wall hanging. Congratulations, Carol!