THE QUILTER'S ALLEY

I have some beautiful photos from our trip to Lancaster on Wednesday, due to a missed exit and back-roads alternative root.   The farms and open space inspire me.  I will share them when I get back to the store. 

There are so many people here. Walls of people.   We have stood for 10 hours today.  We ate lunch standing.  Stu demonstrated how he can stand on the metal base of the curtain divider bars, while leaning on the vertical support so he can rest his feet and legs and whole tired body. 

I am taking lots of notes.  Two days to go.

The day has arrived as quickly as time flies.  We’re picking up the van and loading  this afternoon, to be ready to leave bright and early Wednesday. At this point, we’re excited and hopeful that the thousands of visitors to Lancaster for this event will make it worthwhile.   The physical labor is somewhat daunting for two 50+ folks, although I’m thankful that I can still do such things.  I’ve been imagining the layout of our booth for months already, but it looked different in last night’s dream.  I have my hand sewing project to work on during the car ride and I always bring my camera. The scenery is so beautiful and maybe I’ll start the Quilt quilt I thought about doing last year, with pictures of the millions of quilt signs you see all along the way to Lancaster. Maybe you’ll visit us there if you’re in the neighborhood.

What did I do before it? The same thing I do when the battery is charging.  I am looking forward to loading a couple of project photos.  Oliver + S Bubble Dress and other recently finished handwork.  For today, a peek at my latest pattern, now a kit and soon to be available as a pattern only on Etsy and at the store. 

This is my version of preparing.  Days before we leave, I have started to pack – it feels like – a million bins and boxes with fabric to sell and sample projects.  The piles get higher and I sit in their shadows, continuing to sew sample projects.  We are tweaking some pattern instructions for the blossoming line.  (One will be showing up on Etsy soon.)   More ideas are being noted in the cache of my sketchbook, then more sewing of sample projects.  I do love this cycle, as stressful as it can be at times.  Sitting at the sewing machine is my tonic. Jessica’s Quilt from the Mod Birds class.    Beautiful job! Nina’s Quilt.  Nina finished, yea! And I made a curtain from vintage chenille in my spare time. (term used loosely)

We have been working feverishly to ready ourselves for the Lancaster, PA show next week.  I’ll spare you the details  But, the new Amy Butler has arrived in the midst of the frenzy.  The sample images aren’t all available yet, but a sneak peek of how beautiful they are. 

We have plans at the Quilter’s Alley, to run a Reverse Retreat.  Instead of the usual quilt retreat, where we take our customers and our store to another location, we are offering a weekend getaway to our store for folks who are not small town residents in their real lives.  We are planning a Saturday, Sunday overnight, with a stay at one of the beautiful B & B’s in Ridgefield, CT.    We will host 3-   3 hour workshops at the shop during the weekend, which will feature a variety of techniques to learn at a very relaxed pace. Lunches and snacks will be included to keep our guests focused on the sewing.  They will have time to explore the town on Saturday evening, with recommendations for dining and other activities.   More to follow…

 I’ve started a project.  I’ve been reviewing  my oldwork, trying to put my finger on the root of the idea, (why?) but it keeps going back farther and farther to when I was painting and collage-ing times and fabric was used incidentally. 

I wasn’t planning to add anything today, but was inevitably inspired by my blog searching. Everywhere I look are beautiful images of ordinary things made important by a closer view. Here is my contribution.  When people view my word houses they generally glance, but better to peek inside.  This is good advice for everything. The image is a close-up  of the one I made for my friend Pam. 

I have been on a diet, oh, no, a lifestyle, for long enough to get nauseous when I eat something heavier than salad it seems. Tonight, after two grueling sale days at the store,  too preoccupied to defrost something, we ate out. We both had the same shrimp and sausage over linguini, that we both modified by eliminating the Alfredo,  and I didn’t even eat it all.  The whole event has kept me up for a couple of hours already, drinking water and blog surfing my favorites sites for solace and inspiration.I spend every day of my life is what many would consider a “dream job.”  Actually it probably would be if I were sleeping.  I do a lot of business stuff, but mostly I make ideas and make fabric stuff to inspire customers to buy the beautiful fabrics that I pick out for the shop.  Sometimes, but not as often as I like, I even make my own projects.  To relax, I visit my so-far-discovered, favorite cyber-friends.It started with WhipUp and Molly Chicken but I really appreciate the less-news-magazine style of the folks who seem like they work from a small desk in the kitchen, in between their kids’ naps and garden digging.  And by the way, they make the most beautiful things. Simple Sparrow, Wee Wonderfuls, six and a half stitches.  Take a look.Also: Great, original  quilt by Nancy G.

It took a couple of days to find out that I hadn’t pushed the “finish” button.  I finally got an email back from Etsy help!!!  And sure enough, operator error, which is usually the case when things go wrong.  Even though we have a real store, I want to encourage far-away folks to take part in the shopping.  So as I figure it out, I will post some things on Etsy for sale that I have made.  As it turns out, I make lots of things, but  right now, I’m being selective about what goes up there. Like little snips from the studio.   I’m also curious about the whole idea of selling like this.