Notes from the Patch

Spring Market 2013 - It's a wrap

I always have big plans to blog and tweet and post on Facebook while I'm working the show but I always seam to come up short. I get totally caught up in the ordering and catching up with old friends and before I know it the day has gotten away from me. It's not that I don't think about you all, because I do. After all, you  are the reason I come to Market. I think about what I think you wil want to buy in the colors you will love. I always want to surprise an delight you each and every time you walk through those big double doors. I want you to come in for thread and walk out with a big red bag full of happiness. I know you expect to find the newest fabrics and the latest trends at Strawberry Patches and I never want you to leave disapointed. So I shop...

  

 

Today Bill and I are taking a day trip to some local quilt shops. The countryside is so lush and beautiful here and the weatherman says it will be warm and dry, a great day for a drive!

Encourage one another,

Saturday Night Fever

I made this outfit in 1977 - out of hot pink something or other. Wore it dancing on  Saturday nights. I thought I was hot.

Encourage one another,

Lots going on here and it's ALL good!

I thought I might brighten up your Monday a bit with some fun new fabric.

Don't forget Bernina Club is this Wednesday and Thursday where we'll be celebrating summer and I must say, it's a doozy! Quilt Market is Friday, Saturday and Sunday and you can tag along with me on Facebook. Hopefully I'll be blogging each night as well so stay tuned.

Have a great week everyone!

Encourage one another,

The Great British Sewing Bee

Today I want to inspire you and encourage you to watch this video. It's really a series of four videos so it will take some time, but I think you will agree it will be worth it. The program, from the BBC, searches for Great Britain's best home sewers. Unlike our drama filled Project Runway, The Sewing Bee features regular people who just love to sew. I appreciate that it offers good technical tips and some sewing history along with a most delightful use of music.  I also love the What are they doing now? at the end. Without giving anything away, let me just say it's never too late to follow your passion and find time to do what you love no matter what your age. The Sewing Bee celebrates the love of sewing.

I encourage you to watch The Great British Sewing Bee.

 

 

Never a dull moment

Here it is Thursday and I'm just now beginning to feel slightly caught up after our crazy shop hop weekend. My house is still a disaster and the storeroom at the store looks like a bomb went off in there, but today I cleaned my office, filed a months worth of paper work, ordered a bunch of fun buttons and cool do dads and took a long deep breath. As fun as it is to put on a party of that size, it sure is good to get back to my "normal"!

 

Tonight I'm playing with surprises for Bernina Club on Wednesday and Thursday and making a final decision on what new recipe to try for refreshments. Oh, and packing my suitcase for Portland. Quilt Market is next week!

Encourage one another,

The party's over but the love continues

Just one more video - this one for me, so I won't forget. So I won't forget that it takes a village to put on a party of this size. From the ideas to the execution; it takes a lot of hands, and hearts and love. We have it here in spades.

We made 561 goody baskets and it was EXACTLY enough - we didn't have one extra and no one went home without one! How did we end up with the perfect number? I have my theory. = ) There are no coincidences.

 

Yes, the store is technically mine, but it belongs to everyone who gives so freely to make Strawberry Patches one of the happiest places on earth. Without the love this store would be just a building full of fabric. It's so much more than that!

To all who came and shopped and laughed (and snorted) and ate. Thank you.

To my friends who helped bring our ideas to reality, thank you. I love each and every one of you. I couldn't and wouldn't have wanted to do it without you.

See you all next year!

Encourage one another,

 

Neat and Pretty

Well, it's finally here. Our big shop hop weekend. We've worked hard to get everything neat and pretty for our guests. We're ready and look forward to welcoming you.

I wanted to post this slide show for those of you who can't be with us.

We'll miss you.

Encourage one another,

Chalk Talk

I've been wanting to try some fancy chalkboard printing for a while now, but since I hadn't planned ahead, when I pulled out my box of chalk, all I had was colored chalk. 

Dang.

Before making a trip to Office Depot I took one more look around hoping to find a stray white stick hiding somewhere. What I  found was this.

After all, I do work in a fabric store and this IS chalk. kinda. So what the hay. Thought I'd give it a go.

Oh, my gosh - my printing isn't the best but it totally worked!

The two things I hate about trying to print with chalk sticks is that my hand gets tired and crampy holding those short stubby little pieces and because chalk sticks are fat and blunt it's hard to get any detail. And if I can be totally honest here, there is a third thing that I hate about writing with chalk - it's when kids come along and run their fingers through my hard work to see if it will smear. Duh...it's chalk... OF COURSE IT SMEARS! (Look with your eyes little people)! Sorry but it ticks me off when they do that!

Anyway. These pencils are harder than regular chalk so they don't smear at all, but they are soft enough to get that "chalkboard look" I was after. I may never be able to erase it completely - that is definitely a possibility, but I'm thinking if you were to do a wall or a decorative board that might be just fine since it can be a bit time consuming.

I'm sharing this with you today because I accidentally stumbled upon something that I am totally thrilled about and just wanted to share. All my chalkboard printing will be done with fabric markers from now on.

This weekend is our big Heart of the Valley Shop Hop and we have been prepping for weeks. My team has been so supportive and giving of their time. They each share my vision and are proud and excited  to show you what we have planned. We have some wonderful home grown surprises in store for you (all 100% organic of course) and we sure hope you'll come!

Encourage one another,

Grieving

Tonight as I pulled into the garage Bill asked if I was okay. He could tell by looking at me that I wasn't.

I lied and said I was fine as I headed inside.  

Today my long time friend and Moda sales rep drove to Bakersfield to tell me he was leaving the company. Today I feel like I lost a friend.

Norbert and I always joked that we would retire at the same time. When things got tough he'd look at me and say you can't retire. I'd look at him and say I'll stay as long as you do. Today he broke his promise along with my heart. 

After eighteen years of working together Norbert knew me like a book. He knew what fabric I'd buy before he ever pulled a sample from his case. He was fair, professional, honest and always the perfect gentleman, but above all, Norbert was my friend. When Jeff died he secretly worked with my team to get together fabric for two ALS quilts then insisted on paying for them to be quilted.   

Today as Norbert gathered his samples and pulled away from the store Becky said she pitied the new salesman who would be filling his shoes.  Mark Dunn, you can hire another salesman but no one will never fill Norbert's shoes. Today the quilting industry lost a very special man.

Encourage one another,

Dots nice

So Sunday I was back at the store fluffing and puffing away for our upcoming shop hop  (everything must be neat and tidy for the massive amount of company we are expecting) when I thought, hey, I should count the polka dot bolts, just to see how many we have. I've always been curious to know how many we have but I honestly think I was just putting off climbing up that ladder one. more. time.

So, I counted them.

Care to wager a guess?

384.

384 bolts of polka dot fabric!

Does that seem like a lot to you?

No, me neither. One can never have too many dots - that's my philosophy.

Anyway today we got just one box of fabric from our handsome man in brown and guess what was in it?

Um hum. DOTS. Just dots! Glorious dots in three new shades of grey, two greens we really, really needed and that perfect shade of aqua and red.

So make that 391 bolts of dots.

Sweet.

If you're looking for a particular shade of dot, chances are, we have it.

Life is good!

Encourage one another,