Aftermath of the show

Well the show is over for this year. We had such a great time!! I was a little disappointed in the turn out but guess that is how the cookie crumbles. It is a busy time of year and the weather was fantastic! We had several people who came upon the show by driving by and stopped in. And some who have been planning for months to come. We sure got people talking tho! This little town put on a great show something we can be very proud of! First class! I think some of the people that came will make an effort to come again in two years. By then maybe I will be more savvy when it comes to marketing. One can hope. It was good for the local people that choose to show their quilts.
Most things I will do the same for the next time 'cause it is hard to improve on something so good! I am still dreaming about the show after close to two weeks and the dreams are all happy. It is such a holy place when you have all those quilts hanging in one gigantic room the colors and the patterns all mingling to make a wonderful picture. Lovely! Ahhh

Country Register Advertising

I have discovered the Country Register. It is a free publication for people and when you advertise in the publication you get 200 to distribute where you think would best benefit you and what you are advertising. It is a really neat paper with fun sayings and great recipes. My big problem is they are a state wide paper and since we are in the Northeast corner of Iowa there is one for every state that we are close to. That makes 3 papers to advertise in! It is not terribly expensive to advertise for the reach you have, but it does add up. I am weighing the decision right now. I have already advertised in the Iowa paper. They come out every two months. Look them up on the internet. If you are a quilter you will enjoy looking at the paper and it can be viewed right on the web site.
I am off to work at the Way Station. Our towns thrift store. It is a favorite day for me.

Another vendor signed up!

Well on Friday I received an email from a gal interested in being a vendor at the show. She is from West Union and she has a shop called "Moonlight Stitching Studio & Sisters Retreat". It sounds neat. As I understand she has taken an old building in town and gutted it and has a long arm there and space for quilters to set up and sew for a whole weekend! She also has a full time job, thus the Moonlight Stitching name. Those quilters just love their hobby and will do it when they can!! 
I am toying with the idea of having quilts that have been done by Dorthy Van Brocklin come back to the show with her to be the feature artist this year. She has hand quilted hundreds of quilts for other people she is in her late 80's or early 90's and has such a lovely spirit. She has many other talents too if you were at the show two years ago she was crocheting rugs from scrap material. Very interesting.
I'm liking the idea more as I talk about it. 
I'll will work to keep everyone posted :-) 

The t-shirt quilts!

I am not quite done with the t-shirt quilt, I only have the binding left (if I can figure out that last miter) but it is turning out great!!! Actually I have done 3 "tops" of t-shirt material. But one of the quilts has two tops. My neighbor, Karen, was very worried the long arm wouldn't work with that much t-shirt to go through, but it did!!! I was so happy. So one side is football shirts and one side is baseball shirts. I hope the kid I give it to likes it! The exciting thing is I am learning the long arm for quilting. I like it because it goes sooooo fast. We just do the meandering stitch but it looks great. Hand quilting is beautiful but takes such a long time, and by the time you are done with the quilt you are getting tired of looking at it. humm not sure I like that idea. Oh I won't give up all hand quilting but I think I will do some combination on the next two tops I have ready to go. Oh and the other t-shirt quilt top I have is a graduation gift for my son and it has a combination of football, band, speech and drama on it. I love it and I'm so excited how it has turned out. I have the binding left but I started thinking I am going to bind in flannel to match the back but I am not so sure I like working with flannel it has so much give to it. I am going to ponder this for a while!!
Oh I should say, I have been doing some more advertising for the show, but I feel really inadequate for this job!! I am having a tough time staying focused on it. I think I need help but who to call??? I am working on that. I have a few ideas.
Well all for now. Hope I can get back soon.
Lisa

Getting more info out

Well Monday I was able go shopping again, oh and I took more posters with me. I went to Shudron Fabrics in Monona, Iowa. What a store. It was the old fashioned clerk with the stale jokes. "I better cut it right or my wife will fire me, she fired me four times in one day once".  It was a fun experience. Lots of fabric to choose from, three floors full. Some not of this era but...
I have several projects to finish up. So I got myself some finish fabrics. The flannel there was really reasonable. I think it will go well on the back of the t-shirt quilt I'm trying to get done for Jay's graduation. I may only have the top done for the party. I am still waiting on a shirt. Those t-shirt quilts are fun to do, there are so many ideas and they go fast when all the prep work is done.
Until next time, meanwhile I am abusing my body by working outside. It is wonderful!!

Real life interferes

This post is sad for me, I need to start working at my real job so I won't have as much time to sew or even post. My real job is dog grooming and with the cold weather it has been slow. Leaving me time to sew and post. Now the weather is getting warmer and the dogs have loooong hair and nails. They need my attention. I will continue to think about how to make this a great show. I am working on feature artists from the area. I have two in mind one doesn't have many quilts but the work she does is wonderful! The other has quality work and she is prolific with many quilts to share. I just need to puzzle out in my head where to display her. I will ask her soon. Until I blog again....

Thanks for the snow day

Well just my luck, Sunday was an ice/snow day. Well you know what that means for a quilter with a new found passion for putting little pieces of fabric together to make a large piece of fabric. I almost put together two tops. One would be considered a wall hanging or a table topper. but the other was the one I was searching for more fabric. As it turns out I had plenty to do what I wanted. The table topper has bright spring colors! I used those dreaded charms and really enjoyed them this time. I cut them in half to make the boarder. It was slick! I will get a picture up sometime. Now I am going to post dates on the internet. It looks like there are several web sites that will post quilt show information.

Fabric shopping in Prairie du Chien

Well, I went yesterday to "The Pickett Fence" in Prairie du Chien for more fabric shopping. I had a specific material in mind and I thought I had gotten the fat quarter there but no luck in finding a match. They thought it was Moda fabric but I came home and looked on the internet at all their samples and no luck there either! I will have to go to a plan B on the quilt I am trying to make. I think it will work out ok anyway. It has a lot of color so I will go with more plain material in some areas.
I forgot to bring the quilt show information along so I guess I will have to visit them again at a later date. It is a good stop and everyone is very friendly in the store.

Getting posters and information out

Yesterday I had time to get some posters out to the different quilt shops in Allamakee county. Of course I needed to purchase some fabric while I was at the shops!! I finally got the binding for my lap quilt/wall hanging. And just in the nick of time! There wasn't much fabric left on the bolt. Then I have another project I am making for Betsy's German roommate. This project has been a tough one since I have gone from using a pattern to improvising. I do think the outcome will be good. I was using charms and I vowed never to use them again, but they had such nice ones at Forest Mills Quilt Shop I had to buy some more....Hope this batch goes better than the last. None-the-last there are some posters out and some bookmarks too. And the raffle tickets have been cut and stapled. Soon to be on the market!!

Preparing for the quilt show

Plans for quilt show hosted by the New Albin Public Library have started. I know the show isn't until October 7-9, 2011, but now is the time to start some of these things.
We have gotten the raffle quilt in and I am tempted to buy several raffle tickets myself because the colors will go perfectly in my house!! I have been told it only takes one to win it, but..... I will post a picture soon so every one can see how beautiful it is!
In the mean time be sure to stay busy piecing those quilts together and get ready to display them for all to see!