It's Official...

This week we found out the quilt shop that mom and I work at, Quilt Corral Too, will be closing October 11. It was made official during Strip Club on Sat. at the shop. It was so hard to say good-bye to all the amazing and wonderful customers I have met over the past year and a half I've worked there. The shop will be moving back to Mistletoe Ranch, but because of the 60+ mile drive, it's not feesible to drive there to work. I don't know what the future holds, but I've enjoyed working in the quilting industry and I'll find another niche to fill somewhere. I absolutely love teaching classes and helping beginners get into quilting. It has been my dream part-time job.
I have been getting behind on my quilting projects, so I should have plenty of stash stocked up to keep me busy while I decide if I want another part time job. I have two projects I know of that I hadn't bought fabric for, so on Sat. I got the fabric for both. When I decided to do the One Block Wonder I was too chicken to try it with full priced fabric, so I used sale fabric. Since I have the blocks done, I saw how easy it was to do, and I want to do it with the fabric I originally wanted to use. When we first got the cowgirls in, I fell in love with them. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but with all the colors I figured they would make an awesome One Block Wonder. I picked up 5 yards on Sat, so I should be able to get a nice sized quilt out of it.

I'm also planning to make a wedding quilt for a very special cousin. She's getting married next year and I know what I want to do, but just hadn't gotten the fabric. I picked up this cool spiral fabric that I'll use as it's in colors I know she loves.

This weekend I have been busy making a professional tote for my trip to Disney World. I am using the purple/teal/navy batik that I used for my star quilt. The contrast is teal and the lining is purple. I have the front, back, and sides done. I was ready to sew it together tonight when our electricity went out. The whole neighborhood was out for almost 2 hours. I hope to be able to finish the professional tote this week. So far I haven't had any problems with it.
Front:

Back:





100 Blocks 100 Days ~ 110 Blocks/ Day 21

Happy Blogoversary to Me! & Blizzard Day #5

Happy Blogoversary to me! I started this blog in April of 2005 when I was teaching in the middle of nowhere. I had gone to the state English teachers conference and blogging was a new and upcoming thing at that time. I blogged through the end of the year and I had several of my favorite students who also blogged. They all quit when they went to college as far as I know. I moved over to the quilt blogging site, but moved back here when that site was going downhill. I can't believe how much I enjoy blogging and the great friends I have made. In just 2.5 weeks I'll be meeting my closest blogging friends for the first time. I'm so excited!
Today I was scheduled to work at the shop. The first Sat. of the month is Strip Club and a very busy day. I was also going to do the presentation with M... So we were doing an M & M theme. This morning we got another blizzard, the 5th day I haven't worked in two weeks! So it was postponed until next weekend.
I had gotten up at 6:30AM to finish the quilting on the quilt I was working on. I really wanted to show it at strip club, so I finished it, took it off the frame, and promptly found 2 rows where the quilting tension was bad. So I took them out, put it back on the frame and re-quilted. I cut out the binding tonight, but am too tired to put it on, so I think I'll work on that tomorrow. So I relaxed, watched movies, and enjoyed the day.
Paul went out and plowed for a good 2.5 hours tonight and got it so he can get out in the morning to go plow snow.

PJ Day at The Quilt Corral Too!

Saturday was PJ day at the Quilt Corral Too! All the employees got to wear PJ pants for strip club. It was the way that we were introducing our Pajama Party on November 8, 2008. The big sale of the day was buy 2 yards for PJ's and get the 3rd one free. Rox didn't have a pair, so I went next door to the Sewing Center and whipped up a pair that morning in 1/2 hour so she would have a pair to wear. She loves Halloween, so hers had bats on them. Some made the Alexander Henry shirtless guys pants... firemen or carpenters. Joan, the owner did two different legs and Lu made hers out of Laurel Birch. This is about 2/3 of our staff, the other 4 or 5 had gone home or were not working that day. This is in front of our color wall. Any cotton quilting fabric works great for PJ bottoms.


This is the strip club quilt that Rox made. It's very simple, but the quilting on it is amazing. Click on it to enlarge and look at the blocks. Especially the bottom black one that has a free hand skeleton on it and the orange one above it that has a spider. Laurie T. did the quilting and it's stunning. She just got her machine at Christmas last year and quit her job in June to quilt full time. Her quilting is absolutely stunning! She even wrote Trick or Treat in one of the blocks.

I spent Sat. and Sun. working at the quilt shop, so didn't do a lot of sewing at home, but I had a great time. We have strip club the first Sat. of Every month at 10 and 2 and it's always a great time.

Strip Club Saturday

The first Saturday of every month is Strip Club at The Quilt Corral Too. While it's a fun club focused on a different quilt made from strips each month, we also get to see the newest projects and patterns available in the store as well as a discount on certain lines each month. This month we got a special treat... there were two construction workers out fronth and Joan convinced them to model the naked construction worker fabric and dance with the boas! It was so cool and really put everyone in the mood for strip club.

I just happened to have my camera out and took a few pictures. In the back ground you can see the quilt my friend Darlene made and has the pattern available. Her patterns are quick and simple.

In the picture below you can see at the top a woven pillow my mom made. It takes 8 fat quarters and you weave strips of 6 of them together and you have a fat for top and bottom. It turned out way cool. My mom made two of these. There is also a halloween quilt and a quilt made from a border print on the right. In the picture below you can see Joan thanking the guys for being such good sports. Luckily the new Quilters Home had just arrived, so I was able to pick up my copy and checked out all the new articles.