It's Coming Along

Our new expansion is well under way and should be completed in time for our Grand Opening on Saturday 11/7/09. Here are some pics of the progress.

So - new doorway through the old classroom into the new! The stairs are built and the carpet will be installed on Thursday. Stop by to check on our progress! We'll have another post with all the details of the Grand Opening on 11/7.

Congratulations & MCQS News

Thankyou to everyone who participated in our fun market blog challenge. The lucky winner is DonnaCME (not sure who you are, so let me know...) and Donna won an autographed copy of Out of the Box by MaryLou Wiedman, a funny pin of MaryLou's artwork and 2 tickets to the Dash of Diva Girl's Night Out event in Portland on Thursday 10/29. Congratulations! Donna, please contact me to collect your prizes!

You can still purchase tickets for the Dash of Diva event by clicking on the link above. This is going to be a fun event with great vendors who cater to mostly women customers. We'll be there in a booth showing off our wares and educating people about quilting and our shop!

Our newest news is our expansion! We've begun remodeling the retail space next to our shop which used to be Pollyanna's Antiques. When Judy died in January we were left with a gaping hole in our little neighborhood and we miss her terribly. However, we believe that she's been following along from that great antique mall in the sky and has approved our move. We hope to have the new space open for the downtown Bath Early Bird Sales on Saturday 11/7. Our hours are still to be determined but we will feature an Open House/Grand Opening of our new space. The addition will be called Pollyanna's Parlor (in honor and memory of Judy) and will house our newly improved classroom, longarm studio, a gallery and my office. Sign up to receive our e-news and you'll get an automatic invitation to the event. Here are some pics:

Stay tuned for more photo updates and watch your email for an Early Bird invitation!

Market Photo Gallery

Thanks for following along - here's the photo gallery! We'll give you through tomorrow to make your comments and then on Thursday we'll announce the winner and give you details about another exciting event coming up at MCQS! Summary of photos below...

Photos in order:

Blue Moon quilt using the new Timeless batiks; Sexy Hexy quilt from Amy Butler's new LOVE fabrics; Magic Carpet quilt using new Australian prints; Amanda and Jayme Crow of Bella Nonna designs, the designer of the Down Under Wonder (still in stock at MCQS); Baby Chibi; our sample spree mother lode; Marcia enjoying a LOL moment after stealing Baby Chibi; the market floor compared with the earlier post photo; Amanda and Marcia toasting market at the 30th Anniversary cake and champagne party!

Thanks again for following. Check back on Thursday for an announcement of the winner and more fun happenings at the shop!

We made our list...

...and checked it twice and then headed for the final stretch. Marcia attended a fun class today on creating spiral log cabin blocks. Really a cool technique that you can be sure will be a future class. The Timeless Treasures rountable was really cool and we got to see fabric strikeoffs for possible future groups and gave our feedback on the color selection, pattern designs and whether or not we liked it. It's a very interesting process how the fabric is created from artwork done by someone who is an artist, not a quilter.
So - Amy Butler:ordered; M&S Australian prints:ordered; Timeless Blue Moon batiks: ordered. The Block of the Month search was successful and I'm really psyched abour our selection. More on the timetable for the BOM later. We stocked up on new patterns, bought fat quarters of fun juvenile-ish fabrics to make our fun new critters and (drumroll please)...WOOL. So many folks have been asking for wool lately that we've decided to give it another try. Now, this is wool in small manageable and affordable pieces intended for small and manageable projects. It should arrive in about 3 weeks. Our moda appointment was this morning and we ordered some fun new groups for spring 2010 deliveries. Moda told us that Wiscasset is due to start shipping this week, so no more hassling me folks! We made tentative calendar dates with McKenna Ryan for her visit to Maine next August (yippee!) and chatted with Heidi Kaisand about her return too.
We're ready to head home and as I scanned through the photos on the camera can't wait to show them all to you. Our shuttle arrives ar 4:05 AM for our 6:45 flight. We're looking foward to seeing our families and all of you! Thanks for following along!

This *#$!^*( Computer

So, here's the thing...evidently this little computer doesn't have enough memory to handle all the pictures I want to show you. This is my plan - I'll keep posting our finds in dialogue and then on Monday when we're home I'll do a completely photo post. And to sweeten the deal and keep you checking, comments to the photo post will count twice in our drawing. Stick with me, it's worth it I promise.
I attended a business class this morning hosted by a panel of other shop owners who are very successful and willing to share great tips. Marcia did a great bag class with Pat Sloan using her new fabric line from P&B Textiles, Georgia.
At 9:30 the exhibits and vendors opened and the long walk began. We saw lots of new things. I found more adorable stuffed creatures today that we just had to have. I envision the kid's tent in our shop full of them to play with! I'm on the hunt for a new Block of the Month pattern to begin at the shop as well as new bags and, of course, quilts. We mostly look this first day, evaluate all the literature we picked up tonight, and then complete purchases tomorrow.
I'm planning to write orders tomorrow for new Australian Aboriginal fabrics from M&S Textiles for a new pattern called Magic Carpet; the blue and white batiks from Timeless Treasures for Karen Montgomery's Blue Moon pattern as well as Amy Butler's new line LOVE to make her Sexy Hexy quilt.
I've been invited to attend a sales roundtable meeting tomorrow with the folks at Timeless Treasures - I'm one of 10 shop owners across the country to be invited. Not sure exactly what the meeting is about but I'm sure it will be informative and I'm honored to have been invited. We have a 10AM moda appointment and then the rest of the day will be spent gathering up all the goodies we looked at today.
We're tired after party hopping tonight! We started at the 30th Anniversary Reception at the convention center, moved to the Robert Kaufman party for dinner and on to the Timeless Party for dessert. Good times, good times.
Thanks for following - tomorrow a full run down of what we got. We'll be home soon!

It's a Stampede Y'all

Howdy quiltingfolk.
So, here's the bogus deal - our little computer apparently has a little brain and is taking forever to upload the pics from today's fun and games. So, just a brief summary for y'all and then pics tomorrow (or much later tonight when maybe not so many folk are surfing the WiFi).
We attended some great Schoolhouse Sessions including many that will probably result in a class or MCQS-U session. We met the designer of the Down Under Wonder, the Australian quilt that we kitted for Quilt magazine. If you scroll back through our blog posts, you'll see an image of it. Kits ARE available for this quilt. We saw Amy Butler's new line of fabric LOVE and heard Ricky Tims talk about the new kits available using his fabulous fabrics. I went to a session sponsored by Free Spirit that focused on a new line of fabric based on the paintings by a blind artist. Amazing. Marcia is loving a new book available later this fall for 3D designs. And I got to hear my favorite business man Jim Salinas.
After Marcia sat in line for 3 hours holding out spots while I was in class, it was finally time at 8PM for Sample Spree. We opted to not rush the moda booth and instead found awesome other things. I'm in love with my new Baby Chibi doll and patterns and some other adorable stuffed critter patterns that we found. We picked up FQ bundles of many groups we've already ordered and will be shipping soon, so now we can make our samples ahead of delivery. I even bought fabrics for Christmas 2010. AH!
So, it's late and we must rest before classes tomorrow at 8AM. Pics to follow, I promise. This new fangled technology is sometimes more trouble than it's worth! Thanks for the comments. We walk the floor tomorrow, we'll report back. Y'all come back now, ya hear?

It Begins...Market that is!

So, we're here after a very uneventful flight with a connection in Philly. We caught up with Evelyn and her gang from The Cotton Cupboard in Bangor at the Philly airport and took the same flight the rest of the way. It's 85 degrees and WINDY! The landing was a bit rocky but I was sucked into a good book and didn't really notice. We checked in to the Holiday Inn Express (about a football field away from the convention center) and then went out to pick up our buyer's guides. This booklet is a listing off all the exhibitors and what they'll be showing. Tonight's job is to read through and make a plan of what we want to see when the show opens. Tomorrow is Schoolhouse - a grown-up version of Step-Up Day from elementary school. We attend mini-sessions lasting anywhere from 15-30 minutes, all day, with 15 to choose from in each time frame. This is when Market Mush Brain begins.

When we were last in Houston (2007) the land directly across from the convention center was a big old construction mess which has been turned into the Discovery Green featuring sculptures, colorful artwork, an entertainment stage, restaurants, a pond and underground parking beneath it all. The pics are some of the items that caught our eye.

After Schoolhouse I'll attend a business class and Marcia will sit in line for Sample Spree, the quilting version of Cabbage Patch Kids meets Macy's $99 Wedding Dress Sale. I have yet to decide if we'll tackle the moda booth or bypass it altogether and see everything else...

Some exhibitors began setting up their booths today but the only shot I could get of the action was as I was going up the escalator. It was an interesting task - here's the photo. I'll try and take the same one tomorrow to show progress.

So - don't forget the rules. Make a comment for each post to be entered to win a market prize, complete rules are on yesterday's post. Our post tomorrow night will be LATE because Sample Spree is from 8-10PM (it's only 6:19PM central time right now and we're already in our pj's here)!

Thanks to all the new followers. I'm flattered that you're interested enough in the goings-on of my shop to follow along!

Houston Quilt Market Contest

So folks, it's that time of year when every shop owner congragates in the great city of Houston, Texas for the fall edition of International Quilt Market. Imagine it like a quilt show for quilt shop owners. We get to see all the latest and greatest products and fabrics plus take classes with awesome quilt folk!

Our contest is easy - we'll bring back a fun give-away that you can qualify to win, just by following us on the blog! We will make a post with photos of our trip each night after we've trudged through the aisles and listened to more than our brains can absorb. Simply make a comment to the post and you're automatically entered to win the prize. There may be more than one prize (depends what we find) and every post counts as an entry. You may comment on each post we make, but please only comment once per post. When we return, we'll put all the posts in a basket and Connor will draw out the winner!

Our first market post will be tomorrow night (Thursday 10/8) after we arrive in Houston and check in. In the meantime, go to www.visithoustontexas.com for a fun preview of this great city! Click on VIDEO at the top of the homepage and then EXPERIENCE HOUSTON to see a two minute summary video of what Houston has to offer.

Our flight leaves bright and early Thursday morning and we are scheduled to arrive in Houston at 1PM Central time. We'll post tomorrow night - we hope you'll follow along!

Oh, and, PS...there are fun things happening at MCQS in the next few weeks that are very exciting. If you haven't heard the news, we'll just say that we'll be EXPANDING our horizons!