ConKerr Cancer Sew-In at Tiny Stitches

Thanks to all who participated in our Conkerr Cancer Sew-In on Tuesday, Sept. 20.  Our participants sewed most of the day and together produced about 100 pillow cases to donate.  As always, we had a great time and the food that everyone brought in was wonderful.

Here's a few photos of our event.

We just finished our first week of Kid's Camp.  What a great time we had making Bug Jar Quilts!

Here's the picture worth a thousand words:

Who's behind those Bug Jars?

If your young person missed this great camp, there's still time to sign up for our July camp.







News from Spring Quilt Market

Robin Gallagher, Melinda's sister, hosted a booth at Spring Quilt Market in Salt Lake to introduce her patterns and quilts. We carry many of her patterns at the shop and were excited to see her vending at the show. Melinda helped her set up her cute booth, sell and greet customers during the event. See the cute robin for Robin Quilts?

Precious!

Many thanks to all of you who donned your hats and tiaras to help us celebrate the Royal Wedding. We had so much fun and hope you did too.

Through all of the celebrating I couldn't help but feel a lingering sadness over the devastation brought on by the tornadoes the South experienced this past week. My niece teaches in Tuscaloosa and though she and her husband are fine, her school was badly damaged and they fear some of the children are still missing. We began receiving the images of the school via email on Thursday. We are scrambling at the shop trying to think of ways we can help.

I was just processing this awful news when we began receiving information about the devastation experienced by Sew Bee It quilt shop in Ringgold, Ga. By Saturday the images and videos were coming through on our email. There are clearly no words to express the reaction we felt. The images of the quilts scattered about the debris - unbelievable.

Please join us in keeping all of these folks in your thoughts and prayers.

Get Sewing at Tiny Stitches!

The gurus of the quilting industry have long been predicting the trend toward garment sewing using the quilt fabric we have in our shop. They've been insisting that our shops are truly creative sewing centers - perfect for making clothing.
A few of our staff members were forward thinking enough to get the ball rolling in the shop by making clothing samples for children using some of our current lines. We've been watching to see where this trend will go with our customers and have tried to seek out new patterns and fabrics to facilitate it. Slowly we've noticed noticed some of the most adorable clothing projects for children being brought into the shop for "show and tell". These are being created using everything from Cat in the Hat fabric to our newest organic collection for little boys by Robert Kaufman. I have to admit that my favorite creations are those actually being worn by the little ones who visit us at the shop!
Many of us admit that we sewed before we quilted and that is certainly the case with me. I fashioned Barbie clothes from the time I was 5 and as one of nine children, made most of my own clothes by the time I reached high school. The quality of the fabric in the shop is just perfect for sewing. (In fact I saw a stylish skirt on a young person who was attending the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra made from Cat in the Hat coordinates just last week!) How exciting!
Here are just a few samples to inspire you!

An Amazing Shop Hop!

Well...Shop Hop, A Quilter's Tour of Homes, was absolutely wonderful! We had about 1,100 people through the shop (castle) from Thursday until Sunday and about 100 completed passports to turn in.

I love having the shop filled with people having a good time, enjoying the fabric, friends and fun of this event. I have to admit though, that I am always a little sad when we say goodbye to that final customer and the event ends for the year. The shop seems strangely quiet after everybody leaves and we're left with our memories.

I thought you might enjoy this picture of a customer at Sarah's shop who selected the winners this year during our wrap up meeting from all of our completed passports. I got to send Betty Stilley's sewing machine to her and when I got delivery notification today, I thought about all our happy memories all over again!

Saturday Sampler Show and Tell

I just love hosting our Saturday Sampler event. I get to see and visit with so many of you. We always reserve a portion of our block of time together for customer "show and tell". I always love to see what our customers have created and this past Saturday I was particularly excited about the quilts that were displayed. Ann Prince had completed her top for the beautiful batik quilt, Celtic Wave, by Judy Niemeyer. It was just incredible. This quilt was followed by many others, all of them great accomplishments, but I was also impressed with Priscilla Ordway's beautiful patriotic quilt. We've included pictures so that you can enjoy them too!