NJ Batik Challenge!

Last year I worked with a designer from Hoffman to make a QP exclusive batik fabric.  This is the result - three NJ lighthouses, Barnegat Light, Absecon and Sandy Hook.  It came out better than I had ever dreamed and we are absolutely thrilled with it!  We still have some left and you can purchase it at the shop or on the web by clicking here.

When the fabric arrived in June, I challenged you all to design something with the fabric and while we only had seven entries turned in, they were really something!  Check out this video of the challenge hanging in our lobby.  Voting is over and the quilts are now gone BUT

The challenge winners are - drum roll please!

$100 QP Gift Card - Janet Perry's NY Beauty
$50 QP Gift Card - Taffy Spaloss' Lighthouse Trip Around the World
 $25 QP Gift Card - Mary Simpson's Mariner's Compass

And Barry, my Hoffman rep, chose Janet Perry's NY Beauty to receive a Hoffman batik FQ bundle!

The other entries will receive a $15 QP Gift Card!  Thanks for participating and showing off your gorgeous quilts!

Till next time.

Fall is coming!

One of the first signs of fall for me are the local guilds holding their quilt shows.  I love to drive out to the shows to the west, I pass the sod farms, the Mum farm, the pick your own veggie farms, apple orchards, horse farms, the blueberry farm and the wineries.  All within 45 minutes to an hour of the shore - I'm sure that's not the picture you get when you think of NJ!  But that's my NJ, I live 5 minutes from the ocean and 40 minutes from farmland and in between the two runs the Pinelands, the largest stretch of public owned land on the east coast.  How about that!  Certainly not the picture most non residents get of NJ.  I certainly didn't think so before I moved here.

No color in the trees here yet.  It's coming, I can see hints of yellow in some of the maples but because of the heat and the little bit of rain we had, I don't think it will be a banner year for fall color this year.  Bummer.  We had rain this weekend - lots of rain on Wed night, Thurs and Friday thanks to a tropical storm that blew up the east coast and drenched us.

The show I went to yesterday - Jim is there today - is on the Delaware River in an old mill from the late 1800s.  The ambiance is great - big old beams, wooden floors with cracks you can see the water through!  The Courthouse Quilters Guild does a great job of decorating with mums, cornstalks and pumpkins.  It's just a really nice weekend, if the weather cooperates!

Back view of the mill.  

We've always been downstairs in the mill where the wheel used to turn.  This year we moved to a new section and good thing, they had to move the vendors in the basement up and out because the Delaware River was overflowing and so was the Raritan Canal that runs right outside the mill.

Look at the size of that swan!

I stood on what I think was an old train trestle but is now a gorgeous walking/biking path and took these pictures about 5pm last night.












I also took a video.  Remember, I'm not a professional videotographer. It will give you an idea of just how much it rained.

Till next time.

Crazy, Crazy Weekend!

Why does it seem like you have nothing planned for weeks on end and then EVERYTHING happens the same weekend?  With really no family local except Sara, Brian and the baby, we don't really have family things we run to all the time so we enjoy them immensely when they do pop up but usually we have to travel somewhere.  Not this past weekend, everything happened here.

The start of the walk

Sara arranged for a family team to walk in the Memory Walk for Alzheimer's research in memory of my Dad on Sat.  She rounded up her brothers, the Steph(f)anies, Brian, my Mom, Nathan and Jim and I. Nine of us hit the Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk on Sat for a three mile hike on a beautiful fall day. It ended up Stefanie, James' Stefanie, had to work but she was there in spirit.










 

Waiting to begin

Jeremy pushed Grammy, Brian pushed Nathan, and the rest of pushed ourselves!

Starting out

My Dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease when he was 65 years old.  The hardest moment of that whole time besides the original diagnosis was the first time he looked at me and didn't know who I was.

We finished!

It was a gorgeous, fall day.  A little hot but the breeze was coming in off the water.  We were all happy to make it to the end!  Dad, we were thinking of you.

Sunday was Nathan's christening - a perfect cap to the weekend.  A smiling baby, who seemed a bit disappointed he wasn't going to get the usual head massage when his hair got wet, the kids all home, good food, good company - yup, it was a good day.

The kids.

Looking at these pictures, I'm now wondering why we didn't take a picture with all the kids and Jim and I?  Hmmm.

Brian, Sara, Nathan, Debbie & Jim

Nathan and his great grandparents.

Another wonderful family day. And a great weekend.  Nathan and Mom took multiple naps on Monday to recover and I admit, when I rocked Nathan to sleep in the late afternoon, I woke up about an hour later! 

Dragging Myself Into This Millenium = QPTV

I decided it was time to join this century and put videos of the shop up online. About a year ago, I put the cable ad we run up on YouTube, had great intentions of doing videos of the shop and then promptly forgot about it.  I took a couple of classes on social media last year at Baby Lock Tech in which all the 20somethings told us how we needed to get more interesting/interactive things on our websites.  I had the ad up there already so I thought, I'm ahead of the game.  I also watched Mark Lapinski doing little spots with this tiny little camera as he walked around chatting with people last year at Baby Lock Tech and he didn't look like he was doing anything complicated, I mean, I can point, shoot and talk right?  That seemed to be all that Mark was doing . . . .  HA!

I've discovered, through the taking of a couple videos, that it's not easy to walk, film and talk intelligently at the same time.  Pointing and shooting is easy - ok, there was that one video that I thought I was filming a new trunk show but the camera was off until I was "done" and then there was this gorgeous video of the side of my pant leg and the carpet as I walked back into the shop . . . but that's another story!  The hard part?  Talking intelligently about something while remembering to not move the camera fast, or talk too fast, or say "Ummmm" too many times while remembering the name of the book or pattern you're filming a sample of - all the while trying not to walk into or trip over anything.  Phew!  Mark made it look WAY too easy.

I'll admit it - the first couple of videos - including the one of my pant leg and shoes - were deleted.  I decided I needed to get my act together so I posted one a couple of weeks ago of a trunk show we have in the shop and received less than stellar reviews from my staff - too short, to jerky, too something else I've blocked from my mind. I can count on my staff to tell me the truth whether I want to hear it or not!  It couldn't have been too bad because some of you out there in cyberspace went to the website and ordered the book.  Thank you one and all for the encouragement!  :0)

I've posted a few more since then.  Visit QPTV to see them click here .  Be gentle with your reviews, I'm thinking anyone who does really nice videos has been at it awhile, was born with a video gene I'm lacking or took a class somewhere!

Till next time.  Enjoy!

Life is interesting isn't it?

Just when you think, ok, I can take a breath and sit back just a little -WHAM - life just smacks you upside the head.  We had pretty much gotten in a kind of routine with the shop, Sara back to work and us having Nathan three days a week - who by the way is still THE cutest office assistant in the world, even with his frequent sleeping on the job, one on one mentoring requirements, bottle breaks and wardrobe malfunctions - and all the other requirements of life, when the call from FL came, you have to come get Mom. 

I woke up Sat morning and had all these plans of things to get done in the shop, breakfast with the middle son & his Stephanie, maybe a quick trip to PA to see the oldest son & his Stefanie - was that God laughing I heard?  Probably because the day found me scrambling to find a flight and then watching the sunset somewhere over northern FL. 

I've found out just how many changes of clothing you can get into a bag that will fit under the seat and still get the laptop in - that number would be three with the knowledge that you are going to a house with a washing machine!  To be totally on a different subject - really SpiritAir?  $25 per carryon?  $15 per bag checked?  I only paid $135 for the flight!  Obviously, this is not as cheap as it used to be, Continental isn't much more and my bag is free . . .  but Atlantic City was closer so I booked on Spirit. 

So Mom is coming home with me tomorrow.  I'm moving classes and clubs around as much as possible for the next two weeks.  This is why the calendar is ALWAYS done in pencil.  Who knows what life is going to serve up at any given moment?

And in the end, I thank the heavens above I have a career/job/lifestyle whatever you want to call it, that allows me to drop just about everything at a moments notice and go. 

Baby Lock Tech 2010

Baby Lock Tech - the dealer's convention - is held in St Louis (closest big city to the home of Tacony, owners of Baby Lock) every August.  It used to be held in Union Station in St Louis, but outgrew that hotel space two years ago and moved across the street from the arch.  This picture was taken out the window of one of the classrooms.  You can't see it but the Missouri River flows just past the arch.  Jim and I actually rode in tiny little cars up to the top of the arch a few years ago.  The view was gorgeous but it's one of those things if you don't like heights - Jim - or are slightly claustrophobic - me - done it once, probably not going to do it again!  The car that takes you up holds 5 people with no personal space.  Interesting, glad I did it, but the other four people were sucking all my oxygen!

Play music really loud, get people clapping and pass out the balloons!  It's opening session!

We get a peek at what's coming. . . . . 

Updates us on what the spokeswomen are doing . . . 

El showed us what her sewing studio REALLY looks like and had us roaring as she shared the start of her sewing room makeover.  Look for the final pictures in Koala ads coming soon.  She promised me a copy of the video so I could share with you.

Nancy shared a new program that QP will participate in.  Look for details coming soon!  It's going to be exciting!  Did you know Nancy can crack a blonde joke at the drop of a hat?  

And opening session also entertains us so we laugh till we cry.  That's my rep Tano on the drums, the president of Baby Lock on the left and the VP of Sales on the right.  Tano told us three years ago there was no way he was getting up on stage - HA! How they get Ray Queen to do half the stuff he does is beyond me, Steve Jeffrey has a really good voice!  


And that's just opening night!


I'll share more photos next time.

Hello from St. Louis!

Jim and I are at the base of the arch, literally across the street, for Baby Lock Tech, the dealer's convention.  We're taking classes to learn new products and new techniques, seeing old friends and making some new ones. 

Going to a convention is not all fun, days are long - classes from 8:30 to 5:30 - and they're trying to jam quite a bit of information into your head in a short amount of time.  What I enjoy most is networking with other dealers - finding out how they do something, or getting an idea for a new twist on something you're already doing.  Sometimes you think they're crazy, and sometimes they probably think I am!

I've found ideas for new classes, a good idea for a new event, set up a two tentative dates for a national teacher & magazine editor to come, and had a host of ideas that I hope I remember by the time I get home!

I'd post pictures but the camera and the computer are not currently speaking to each other (computers were supposed to simplify our lives????- so the pictures will have to wait till Thursday.  I'm on Nathan duty and for all that I have planned while he naps - he's going to be sleeping all day!

I'll post pictures Thurs or Friday.

Till next time.