Whimsy Cottage Blog

Re-blogging

After taking a year off, I think I'm ready to tackle this again.  It doesn't come easy to me - not the techy side nor the talking about myself/my store side - however, it's good for the store.  So, watch for new photos in all categories as I learn about my camera and about how to download pictures here.

Whimsy Cottage has a new look thanks to Dana, who's worked there since we opened, but is now the manager.  Her talent and drive have refreshed the store - new quilts, new displays.  And, with construction complete, you can once again park in front of the store AND use the sidewalk!  We really appreciate that all of you hung in with us during that mess!

Since I don't have a granddaughter (yet) to sew for, I found an excuse to make this skirt from BananaFana:  while visiting my daughter and grandson in Portland we were invited to a birthday party for a 3-year old girl so I offered to bring the gift.  Her mother's amazed at how many people stop her to ask where she got the skirt and the birthday girl loves it.

Birthday Sale Details

I promised info and here it is:

Whimsy Cottage is celebrating 3 years in business -
Join us for the party and sale!!
Friday, October 3 and Saturday, October 4
10 am - 5 pm

All fabrics currently $4/yd will be $3/yd (1-yd. min.)
AND
All fabrics currently 40% off will be 50% off (1-yd. min.)
AND
the entire rest of the store will be 25% off -
that includes books, patterns, notions, fabric and fats!!
AND
Select samples will be for sale
AND
from 2 - 4 on Saturday there'll be a demo of the Cut-Around tool-
grab a cookie, chat with Judy and check out her quilts

Demo Day/Birthday Party

I've forgotten to post a picture of the fabulous drunkard's path quilt we'll be demo-ing during our birthday sale.  We have kits, too!  My buddy, Judy Steenblik, loves the Cut-a-Round tool and used it to make this for us - she'll be bringing a second sample, too.  Come visit with her and try cutting circles and arcs from 2:00 - 4:00, Saturday, October 4, during our BIRTHDAY SALE!! 

Adventures with Blue Ribbons, New Fabulous First Friday progam, Birthday Sale

A couple years ago, I made a quilt for my friend in Wyoming - I designed it and made it from my stash - and I gave it to him last year for Christmas, after hanging it in the store and selling patterns first!  Without telling me, he entered it in the Yellowstone Quilt Fair in Cody, WY this past week-end. I didn't even want to begin to hope it would win anything, but, on the other hand, if it didn't, would he think it was a crummy quilt?   It won first prize in the large quilt division and judge's choice!  And I got two checks!  Had I known money was involved, I would've sent 10 or 20 entries.  Next year.

 

As noted on our website, we're starting a new program!  I'm doing this because, as a shop owner, I am supposed to come up with ideas for getting customers into the store on a regular basis, not just when they think of us, have a free hour, need fabric, etc.  So I tweaked a program I used years ago, found a book I loved, chose two color ways, and started sewing.  I actually did the sewing while I was in Wyoming waiting to see if I'd won a ribbon.  Here's what I came up with as a first block:

        

 

Here's the program:  I'm calling it FABULOUS FIRST FRIDAY.  Sign up by buying the book we'll use - it's $28.95 + tax and choosing which colorway you want.  Then, come to the store any time on the First Friday (or First Saturday) of each month, beginning in November (7th and 8th) to pick up your free kit for that month's block.  And, we'll be open until 7:00 pm those Fridays.  That's it.  I'll include a little cheat sheet each month, pointing out which block from the book we'll be doing and things to watch out for while constructing it.  Samples are at the store...come sign-up!

One more thing:

Birthday Sale October 3 & 4!!

I'll post details as the time gets closer, but you know I do good sales!

.

Summer Vacation

For 25 years, I've spent some part of each summer on Chebeague Island in Maine.  Sadly, I didn't get to go the last two years, so made it a priority to get there this year.  We have an island car, a '78 VW bus, that had been parked in the lot where I got off the boat when I arrived.  We've had this car a long time - I know it well - and I couldn't find it.  There were only 10 cars in the lot.  After dragging my bags around for a minute or two, I realized there WAS a VW bus there, looked inside and saw it was mine.  My family painted it two years ago and I hadn't remembered that.  Here's what she looks like now.  She used to be brown.

While I was there, I saw old friends, sat on the deck and read and sewed while listenting to books on tape.  I got through about 5 books!  Three years ago, my friend Lois and I shared polka dot fabrics to make a fabulous quilt by piece 'o cake - about 500 of them - which I stored in a giant shopping bag.  So I packed a suitcase with them (and paid United Airline $25 each way for it) and set up an assembly line in my kitchen.  Right now I'm appliqueing the borders, but here's a sampling of what I got done in Maine.

And, lest you feel sorry for me because I had to work on my vacation (yes, I get to call quilting my job), here's the view from my deck and kitchen - it's an amazing place.

Website!!

While I was vacationing in Maine, one of the ladies who works for me, Lisa, started working on a website for the store.  I've been having BIG problems sending out newsletters by email and those will be solved with the new site.  She's done a wonderful job - go see for yourself - many photos of the store for those of you who aren't local and can't visit in person.  www.whimsycottage.net

Finished it

I ran into a few snags - what quilt would be complete without them?  I spent a long while at the UPS Store nearest me...the guys who work there are about 25 years old maybe - they're awesome - helpful and informed.  One of them dedicated himself to my project - reducing photos and making color copies for 30 minutes until I had a nice stack to work with.  I cut pictures apart and laid them out allowing for seam allowances and copied them onto my EQ Premium Cotton Satin Inkjet Fabric Sheet and it was a disaster.  The photos were barely recognizable - all washed out.  I freaked.  Then I paid attention:  the package said, "INKJET" .  So I came home and ran another sheet and it was fine, except my printer was dying and there were white lines everywhere...so I ran to Staples and got a new printer.  It's much faster and the colors are great, so I'm pleased.  The only other snag was not having enough pictures of the bride - so I had to wait several days for more to be mailed.  But, I finished it and mailed it to Kathy Barlow to be quilted. 
I wish I'd done the bride's pictures in dark blue instead of yellow, to match the waves, but hindsight is 20/20.

New yesterday!  Heather Bailey's new line, Pop Garden, arrived - brighter than I'd expected and very happy.  I also ordered the "go with" line, Bijou, and am anxiously awaiting it.

Anatomy of an Ocean Wave

The border for this wedding quilt is done...providing all the pictures I want to include will fit inside it!  My goal is to put groom's pictures in the blue 4-patches and the bride's in the yellow ones...about 50 of each.  Here's the border block, which is  called snail's trail.  Not being fond of snails and what they do in my garden, tho', I'm calling it ocean waves.
And here's the whole border -

Today I'm sorting and choosing pictures.  I made an actual size 4-patch (5" finished) to help me decide.  This is way harder than sewing!
One more picture - this is my grandson four days ago - I know the camera angle makes his head look big, but I love his face, so I don't care how big it looks.  He'll be 3 months old this week.

Construction of a Wedding Quilt w/Photos...really, really fast

Nine days ago, in a creative, optimistic fever, I offered to make a wedding/photo quilt for a couple getting married August 9.  Even though this blog is supposed to be about my store, somebody suggested I journal this effort, which is totally personal.  So, I'd been on a 4th of July motorcycle excursion to Montana for a wedding and you know how weddings are...well, good weddings, anyway...and I got fired up to do something special for this August wedding.  And I came home with a design in mind and pictures, scrapbooks, etc. from the groom's father.  By Wed., I'd spoken with the bride's mother and she was moving file cabinets away from the wall where they'd been moved to have carpet installed in order to look through albums for similar memorabilia from the bride's childhood.  I'm hoping to avoid soliciting photos from the engaged couple because, duh, it's a gift and therefore, a surprise.

Having visited the couple in their apartment overlooking Navy Pier in Chicago, I remember lots of blue, lots of ocean and tropical decor. I consider renigging on making this new  quilt and giving them Whimsy's 2007 Shop Hop quilt, which had a Carribbean theme with a giant palm tree on it.  So, the quilt will have ocean waves as a border and the interior will be some sort of intertwining thing going on, depicting the lives of the bride and groom before they met - they're very sentimental and have scrap booked every memorable moment since they did meet so they don't need me to do the same.  I'm hoping for school pictures, high school yearbook autographs and compromising, naked, baby photos. For now, here's the design. 

I'm off to Kinko's tomorrow to download the CD from the bride's mom and make prints I can copy onto fabric for all those 4-patches.

Shop Hop 2008

This year's Hop was great - we love seeing everyone!  The theme was fairy tales and we were 12 Dancing Princesses, so making the quilt was a no-brainer:  crowns, gowns and shoes!

New this week are 23 bolts of gorgeous batiks from Robert Kaufman, including several light but patterned backgrounds that seem to disappear overnight when we get them in.