I won’t bore you with the five hours of training that followed, that is still not all the training involved.
Brian, our guide, was very patient with his trainees, even on only a couple of hours of sleep the night before. He and Stu had gotten up at 6am to drive an hour west to the freight warehouse. There was no forklift for our delivery that day. So they delivered it themselves, all 1100 pounds of it, pulling pieces of crating wood from its staples to uncover the welded steel beauty of our 14 foot frame, one piece at a time.
Brian is an assembly expert and in no time, it was standing, waiting for the mother ship to land. I can’t believe after a full day, he proceeded to return to Vermont, five hours away that evening. He left our heads spinning with instructions, which we are now unraveling at a steady pace. A hefty thank you to Julie Cowles who orchestrated this in record time from headquarters in Vermont. You’re the best!
The quilts have started to arrive and we are on it.
If you want hand guided artistry applied to your quilt top, the Quilter’s Alley is the place.
It seems like we’ve spent a lot of travel time in Texas this year with Husqvarna Viking Convention and all. But, going to Market transports me to the Land of Ideas. I’ve returned with order slips for over 150 new bolts of fabric from Westminster, Alexander Henry, Lecien, Kokka, Art Gallery Fabrics. These will make their debut after the New Year. Sample spree yielded little gems of Lecien, Kokka and Art Gallery Fabrics that will be tied into precious bundles of color and available for sale immediately.
I’ll take some tempting photos this week.
Still Construction but a Beautiful new park this year
The Brains & Brawn of Art Gallery Fabrics
We were focused this year on bright color, not that I don’t love it all the time. Our goal was to cheer the economic recession into submission. We went to the Quilt Exhibit, but I only partially covered the vast hall because of an issue with sore feet. I took names, so I could check them out online, but only one or two had websites. Boo Hoo 😦
We spotted Eleanor Burns, Kaffe and Liza, Jay McCarroll, (Project Runway winner), (missed a Marie Osmond sighting), Amy Butler, Trish & Davis from Attic Heirlooms.
Spoke to Liesl, from Oliver + S. We’ve been buying more and more of her classically adorable children’s patterns as our business turns toward the young crafty mom. Liesl is so beautiful and real- a Brooklyn girl. Also on the real track is Anna Maria Horner, who we had met in San Antonio in June. She and I spent quite a while chatting about being creative and business in general. We plan to stay in touch. We caught her doing her own photos of her gorgeous booth. So down to earth. And we may have her coming to the Quilter’s Alley for a book signing in the Spring. That would be so amazing!
Meanwhile at the Shop:
I promised to bring you the heirloom being quilted by hand. Go Cindy and Erin!
The T-Shirt quilts are done. Here are photos:
Molly’s Book is in its final revision, I think. It looks great! Thanks, Terrie.
I won’t bore you with the five hours of training that followed, that is still not all the training involved.
Ideas in Cloth 
