Flower Show Part 2

Also in the fashion display at the Philadelphia Flower Show were purses and dresses. These didn't have the people crowded around them like the shoes, but the were still amazing.

This was my favorite purse. I LOVE sunflowers. (who thinks these things up?)

Get a load of the hats!

And the dresses too!

This woman was having a very bad hair day.

This gown was made from hydrangeas and had silver butterflies fluttering in the hygrandea bunches. Very cool.

This display reminded me of fish nets and I'm sure that wasn't the designers intentions . . . .

Till next time.

Flowers in Fashion

Jim & I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show on Thurs. The oldest flower show in the nation, it's held the first week of March every year, perfect timing for those of us who need a perk in the middle of the winter blahs.

This year the show's theme was Italy and sections of the country were represented with different exhibits. As usual, all of the show was crowded by the most popular exhibit was by far the Milan display. Fashion was the theme and it was amazing! The shoes were amazing!




Moss insoles anyone? Or maybe petal cushions?

I immediately tried to picture my friend Sandy Brawner in these boots! She's from TX. But the later in a different display, I saw this pair - lime green, DEFINITELY Sandy boots!

Funky flip flops with faces!

And perfect for a hot summer night out - hot ORANGE flip flops!

Ok, I like high heels but I don't think I could walk in either of these even without the flowers!

These remind me of the phrase - "killer heels"! They look like they'd be worn by somone dangerous . . .

How long did it take someone to glue all that inside?

And these black heels? Definitely Madi Gras footwear!

I'll post more pics next time.

Debbie

Baking

One of my favorite things to do besides sewing & quilting is baking. I love to bake and I love to eat what I bake! I like to bake a heck of alot more than I like to cook. Cooking and baking are two totally different things I believe. When I cook, it's usually because I have to, but when I bake, it's usually because I want to. I like to bake most anything - having to do with bread or desserts that is! And if it involves chocolate - all the better.

I bake alot of yeast breads - white, oatmeal, whole wheat, I love it all. I have a recipe from my Nana's Hood's Cookbook dated 1949 that I use to make rolls and I've adjusted most of my older recipes for my bread maker. I can hear those GASPS coming from all over. Yup, I use my trusty, old Hitachi Bread Maker to knead the dough and go through the first rising. Then I take out the dough, shape it however I want it, let it rise again and then bake it in the oven.

I am sure the baker purists out there are horrified (much like the hand quilters are horrified at the machine quilters!) Let me just say that I used to knead by hand, just like I USED to hand quilt but tendonitis in the elbow puts a damper on the kneading & my hands just go numb - I'm sure that's the Carpal Tunnel . . . The spirit is willing but the body is having some problems!

Let me also say, that this is not actually my Hitachi, it's the same model but mine is about 20 years old and it hasn't looked this good in at least 18 of those years . . . It's a hardworker and it shows! Just like I won't show you my sewing room - I won't show you my breadmaker!

So my machine does the hard part and I do the easy part, knead a little before the second rising, shape the dough, bake it and then EAT IT. The eating part I have down pat!

One of our holiday traditions is homemade cinnamon rolls. The kids are now old enough that the rolls come BEFORE the presents and then if there's any left, they come after too! My cinnamon roll recipe is out of Nana's cookbook. Somehow I have to scheme how I am going to get that out of my Mom's kitchen and into mine . . . .

Until next time.

Fabric, Fabric - everywhere!

One of the best jobs in owning a quilt shop is buying the fabric - that's also the easiest. The hardest job is not buying everything you see! Well, there are some fabrics that I look at and think "WHY?" Why did the designer think that this would make a great quilt? Or a wallhanging or anything? Those I pass on!

This is Jim sitting with Larry in the Timeless Treasures booth at market one year. Each company shows you their current line & if you're not careful, you could spend most of your time over market's three days, just looking at fabric while missing out on all the pattern designers, notions, books, etc., etc, etc.

When fabric representatives come to the store, they don't represent just one company - they could rep four or five. So you look through each company's selection - all the while wondering if the next company will have something better and you sould have waited. Or will you wait only to discover the best was in the first bag?

It helps to have some kind of a plan. When I first started out, if I liked it, I bought it. No idea of what I would do with it when it arrived. That buying strategy (or lack thereof) drove one of my reps absolutely crazy. I'd told him that I bought fabric this way - if it didn't sell, I wouldn't mind taking the remaining fabric home with me. He shook his head and I am absolutely positive thought to himself "There is no way she is going to make it. She'll be out of business in two years." The strategy worked well for years - until this past year and it seemed I liked WAY too much fabric.

Now buying fabric has become the most challenging one of my jobs - ok, it's still the best but it's a little more organized. When I buy a line of fabric now, I decide what's to be done with it when it arrives - lap quilt, big quilt for the lobby bed, table runner, baby quilt, purse, wall hanging, jacket? Or just mix it into the color wall? And it all goes into a looseleaf notebook - the Fabric/Sample book - each line of ordered fabric is in there by month it's due and then what the plan is for it. We started doing this last fall, I organized it a little better in January and now have "THE BOOK". It should make life much easier & keep our samples under control. (I live in constant hope that until my butler arrives, I will find little ways to organize the craziness which owning a quilt shop has become the "norm")

This organization does however, come with a cost. It adds more to the worst part of owning a quilt shop - paperwork. Ugh.

Till next time!

Spring!

Well ok, it was only for one evening but it was sure nice to SMELL spring! Jim and I spent Valentine's evening at the NJ Flower Show in Edison. Much smaller than the Philadelphia Flower show, it nevertheless gets us in the mood for spring.

I love the smell of hyacinths! The ones in my garden don't look anything like the ones in the pots in the garden centers or like these did but they smell wonderful. Mine always look like something ate half the flowers or they're diseased.

This was an exhibit for water conservation with the rain barrel and the soaker hose. We have the rain barrel that leaks since we lost the plug (gum does NOT work).

I just liked the daffodils. Nothing says spring to me more than the daffodils poking up through the soil. They're up about 3" on the south side of the shop but not peeking through at home at all.

This is Jim checking out the huge Koi in the pond.

Garden shows let you dream of spring and of what your garden could be - if you had a team of professional gardeners!

Till next time.

The best of intentions

Our $5 quilt club starts in March so in December I decided to get my act together & actually design the quilt for 2009. This project was going to be a bit of a challenge for me since I wanted to do it in EQ6 and hadn't even taken the wrapping off the EQ6 box yet. I also wanted to use our Accucut machine that I've had collecting dust for more years than I am ever going to admit to!

So I sat myself down and forced myself to learn EQ6 and designed a queen sized quilt! I was EXTREMELY proud of myself.

I figured out how to send the EQ6 images over to Corel Draw where I wrote up all the instructions, had EQ6 figure out yardage requirements (then checked them myself because I didn't trust it) and was generally thrilled that I was actually finished and WAY ahead of time too.

I should have known that my being organized and ready months ahead was too good to be true. I swore that the AccuQuilt dies I had were for a 12" block so I designed the quilt around 12" blocks. WRONG. Lori made up the first block and told me it only came out to 8 1/2". Of course I was trying to figure out how the heck she screwed it up since all the pieces are die cut . . . . she didn't screw up, I did.

I'd already shown the graphic to some of the 2008 participants and told them it would be queen sized. Some had already bought their background fabrics. Now what?

Back to the drawing board. I went back into EQ6 an tried to make those 8" blocks work. Nope. I finally gave up, went online and ordered the 12" dies. Then I called Lori and told her to stop making the 8" blocks.

Since I have TWO of the 8" block sets - don't ask - one will be going on Ebay very shortly! (Update - I sold the second set to a friend who has a shop in CA.)

Look for our $5 Quilt Club to start the second Friday and Saturday of March in two colorways - 1800 reproductions and batiks. There's a $10 cost to join, you will purchase your background fabric & setting triangle fabric and then if you finish your block, show up to one of the meeting on time each month - you get the next block free. If you miss or are late, your block is $5. A finishing kit will be available in April & will include the 13th block, sashing, borders, binding & the finishing pattern. Call the shop to sign up.

This will be offered as a mailed block of the month for $25.00 the first month and $13.95 for the next eleven months after & will include everything needed to make a queen sized top & binding. See the details on our website under block of the months.

Warm Weather, Fair Skies

This is where I was LAST Thursday.

This is where I am this Thursday.

May I just say BRRRRR!

Jim & I went to the FL Keyes last week with my older brother & sister-in-law to surprise my Mom for her 75th birthday. We went a little early, stayed a little late and managed to spend 6 days in the warmer weather! A VERY nice break from the cold we've been having here at the Jersey Shore. We left Atlantic City airport in a snowstorm and came home again in a snowstorm.

While in Key West on Saturday, I stopped into the Seam Shoppe to visit. They sell one of my patterns & I had a nice chat with Cindy who owns the shop. This is Cindy standing under a sample of my Pinwheels at the Beach pattern.

After hiking the "1/2 mile" my younger brother told me it was to get back to the shop from where we parked - yeah right, it was more like THREE MILES David - I nearly missed them as they close at 2pm on Saturdays but luckily - for David - they were still waiting on a customer.

Nice shop with some great tropical prints and exciting to see my patterns somewhere other than my shop!

We spent the week just below Key Largo and enjoyed ourselves immensely by snorkeling the first day, Key West another day and then basically laying around the pool the rest of the time. It was lovely.

My Mom was more than a little stunned to find my older brother, sister-in-law, Jim and I in the restaurant they'd stopped to eat in. My two nephews have been having a really good time playing mind games with their grandmother for the past few weeks. She thought Jim & I were arriving a week after we actually did and didn't think my older brother was coming at all. We ate at the Fish House in Key Largo and they stuck a candle in a fish as her birthday cake.

All in all I'm glad to be home, but boy do I wish the weather here was 70 degrees and sunny instead of the 19 we have today!