Quilt Market Post #1

Here's my report from Houston Quilt Market (Blogger is having issues right now so I can't change the order of the pictures or edit them...I'm hoping you don't mind). On Friday we spotted this VW Van....shades of Arcata!

Cute booth: Easy Peazy Patterns!At school house Jean Wells of The Stitchin' Post shared what she's been working on....she totally works in solids now. We're buying a bunch of solids!We enjoyed our time with Georgeann Bender & Rich Kizer...the business gurus. We had another consultation with them thanks to Susan Fuquay and American Quilt Retailer.I'll try to post more pictures later. Perhaps Blogger will cooperate. Liz and I found some wonderful embroidery & wool kits, patterns, clothing patterns, new books...and for those who know how wonderful the Quilt Smart printed interfacings are now making bottle bags in addition to Smart Tote & Cell Phone Tote! Watch also for our Hunter's Star from them too.

For Buck-a-Block fans we bought the 2011 program...and.....TA DA! Guess what's new? We know that most things have gone up in price lately but now you get an even bigger value for your Buck: TWO BLOCKS! That's right, each month you'll be able to make two blocks from your kit. We are really excited about the 2011 program.

We've seen lots of our friends we only see at Market: Ricky Timms, Amy Butler, Jo Morton, Eleanor Burns, Jackie Clark, Pat Sloan, Alex Anderson and more....more pics and info tomorrow!

Miniature Golf

We went miniature golfing today! Beka showed me that my camera could record videos. So she made this little one. Here's Jakob golfing:





I'm off to Houston Quilt Market tomorrow!

My Grandkids are cuter than your Grandkids!

Tonight my son-in-law Jason posted some pictures on FaceBook of my Minnesota Grandchildren. They were great pictures. I made a comment on his pictures: My Grandkids are cuter than your grandkids! And it's true! At least to me and that's all that counts.

Here's some of the latest pictures and you can judge for yourself.

Sydney, age 5 1/2

Pumpkin Patch, October 2010

Jakob, age 4 1/2

School Picture, October 2010

Mercedes age 2 1/3

modeling at home, October 2010

(I included this one so you could see her face)

Mercedes, I LOVE this photo

Indian Summer fun day, October 2010 Shiloh 8 months

October 2010

Now...don't you agree that I have the cutest grandkids ever?

What's with the weather?

On Tuesday I fly back to MN. Their weather forecast is rain mixed with snow for Wednesday night. Thursday I fly to Houston for Quilt Market. The forecast there is for 85+ & humid. So I'm going to need another suitcase just for clothes for all seasons!

We've been to "school"

On Tuesday our fabulous Pfaff educator, Vanessa came to town and spent a day and a half training us and our staff on how to demonstrate and sell our sewing machines. She took our motley staff (note that I'm including Liz and I in this group) and taught us so much about our Pfaff sewing machines that I'm surprised our heads did not explode! She taught us a few things about selling too.

Number 1: SMILE.

Geri and Liz demonstrate this. (Be sure to notice that our Quilt Expression models all have this fabulous 9 1/2" neck for quilting!)

Judy and Katie listen attentively to Vanessa's instruction. We learned how to use lots of different feet for our machines, wonderful stitches and lots of extras...how to make cording for example.

Or sew hems on jeans....you'd be so surprised how easily these machines could put new hems in your jeans...easy as pie.Oh and how to do a blind hem (need a skirt or pants hemmed?) in a nano second (or there-abouts...perhaps I exaggerate just a tad).
Here Geri is making a rolled hem.

Look at Liz smile...."Look Ma, I made a buttonhole!" These are the first buttonholes she's ever made. She's ready to tackle a garment now!

We all got a turn on the Grand Quilter. That stitch regulator certainly helps everyone to be a pro at free motion!

Thanks again, Vanessa for coming to Redwood Sewing Center. See you at Quilt Market next week.

I'm so Excited!

We had a fabulous weekend here at Redwood Sewing Center. Our Scottie Dog Mystery Quilting Retreat was a rousing success. The food was wonderful, the quilt pattern (Criss Cross Applesauce) was very well received and we got to sew the entire weekend with amazingly wonderful quilting women!

Today is Monday and somehow the Monday after Retreat can be kind of a "let down" day. But today I am so excited there is absolutely no let down. A friend had her baby boy early this morning (it's not been officially announced so I can't say another word just yet) AND.....ta da! Tomorrow our Pfaff educator is coming to do a special training just for our staff. I can hardly wait. We became dealers in late August and I began to sew on my Pfaff Quilt Expressions 4.0 machine

around the first of September. I was prepared to like my new machine, of course. But little did I know how much! I am so in love with my Pfaff! The dual feed foot on this Pfaff machine is really something....this means that any time you sew, you can have the advantage of a built-in walking foot. Oh, my! This baby keeps your fabrics from slipping, wobbling and more. My stitches are straighter and more even. I push a button and voila! Both my threads are cut. It has presser foot lift I can touch with my knee....or just tap the foot pedal and the presser foot goes up or down.....neat! On my own I learned a lot about this machine....but there is so much more to learn. I don't even know the right questions to ask. I can make button holes two ways....but this machine can make 6 different kinds of button holes. It has a wonderfully large and extended neck making quilting a larger quilt relatively easy. There are embroidery stitches up the wazoo (I always wanted to use that phrase!) and three alphabets. I can't wait until tomorrow afternoon when our Pfaff Educator comes to teach me (and my whole staff) all the tricks, tips and take away any mysteries we might have about our machines.We'll even learn to use the Pfaff Grand Quilter....of course Liz is already a pro at it. I look forward to being able to quilt our store samples right on the sales floor. Did you know that this big baby extends up to 120" (think King sized Quilt!), is complete with the table, poles, etc, has a stitch regulator and is affordable? Our lessons will be 1/2 day on Tuesday and all day Wed....but don't let that deter you if you wanted to come to the store. We'll be glad to help you....the whole staff will be here!

Did I say I was excited? Well, I am!

Counting my blessings!

Canadian Thanksgiving was Monday and since my son-in-law, Jason, is Canadian there has been a lot of talk about the subject. It got me to thinking about counting my blessings. Right now in the midst of a visit to Minnesota I think of how blessed I am with my grandchildren. Today we went to the Minnesota Zoo.
Here are Mercedes & Jakob with a welcoming scarecrow.
Here they are checking out the shark petting pond.

The cutie "turtle" is Shiloh who just turned 8 months yesterday. She ALWAYS has a smile on her face and I've never heard a baby giggle as much as she does.

Here's a picture of Sydney back in CA at the pumpkin patch.....I missed it this year.
On Saturday we went to Emma Krumbees Apple Orchard and Farm. What fun we had...the kids rode a little train, rode John Deere tricycles round the track, played musical instruments with Mr. Landon and his music box, rode the hay wagon out to the orchards and so much more. We picked a few apples (Sadies seemed to like to pick up the windfalls on the ground)...the weather was in the mid 80's!

I'm so very blessed that I'm able to travel to visit with my Minnesota family....blessed that my dear Mr. Scottie Dog holds down the homestead and that my daughter Liz so generously takes up my slack at our store. Many, many thanks to both of them.

I'm blessed with wonderful friends.....both those I've met in person and those I only know through the Internet. I hold you all dear.

Tomorrow afternoon I fly back to California. Mr. Scottie Dog and the kitties are waiting for me.

It's Fall!

In the rush of our store's Grand Opening/name change/remodel it didn't really sink in that just a couple of weeks later I would be halfway across the country where Autumn is actually a real season! On Tuesday I flew from Eureka to San Francisco to Denver to Minneapolis. It was a tad warmer in MN than in Eureka, but not much. I understand it's been an early Fall. The trees are turning and today Sadies and I saw two little chickadees on the patio table. We got some bread crumbs and will try to get an actual photo later today. In the meantime, here's a pic from the internet:
Such cute little things.

I'm here taking care of the kidlinks. Jakob is quite the little man with a schedule! My first day "sitting" he went to Awana, a kids' ministry. Jakob is a "Cubbie" or pre-school member. He proudly wore his vest and off he went with Laura, a friend of Beka's and mom to two other Cubbies. Sadies and I fixed our own dinner treat....a tea party

Jakob has also gone to his Montessori PreSchool at Bethany College. Check out the link for pictures of Jakob, Miss Grace and the gang. When I dropped him off yesterday they were studying Family Trees and Miss Grace asked if I would talk about Jakob's birth, any birthdays and the like. When I told them that Jakob's parents were missionaries in Ukraine and Grandma & Grandpa flew in an airplane to help celebrate his first birthday there were several oohs and ahhs..."missionaries!" they said under their breath. They were impressed.

Today there is a picnic and preschool will last until 2:30 so Sadies and I took the long way home so we could get some pics of the stunning Fall leaves! We stopped at the store and bought some mini pumpkins and gourds! Fall is here.


Yellow leaves!

Red trees!

Orange!

I like the mix of orange, yellow and the green grass. Not a cloud in the sky right now but they say we may have rain this afternoon.

Last night I made meatloaf. Sadies declared she "LOVED!" meatballs. I said, "meatloaf." She said, "I told you I LOVE your meatballs, Grandma." Meatballs, meatloaf...doesn't matter what you call it I still think the best part is meatloaf sandwiches the next day.

I heard from Mom and Dad and they are having a wonderful time, tonight are the bachelor and bachelorette parties, tomorrow rehearsal dinner and Sat. is the wedding. Meanwhile, the kids and I are doing fine!