A little bit of sewing

Lots of sewing has been going on at Redwood Sewing Center.  I've taught a few classes and of course every Tuesday morning I host a Sit & Sew from 10-2 pm.  We have lots of fun and everyone works on different projects.  

For the past two months I've been teaching three classes of The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt.  Each month we get together and make 10 or 11 of the blocks in the book.  All blocks are 6" square and there are 111 blocks in the book.  I'm so proud of my gals.  Here are many of the first month's blocks from one class.

 

 I love the variety of fabrics everyone is using!

 One night when our small quilt group of ladies was getting together to sew Sydney came along.  She wanted to sew too so her mom set her up on the Singer Featherweight and had her sew.

 

Sydney's first 9-Patch! Perfect 1/4" seams!

  What do you think of Sydney's block.  Grandma thought it was perfect!

 

The Farmer's Wife

There's been much buzz around the Internet about The Farmer's Wife. It's a book by Laurie Hird which contains 'letters from 1920's farm women and the 111 six inch blocks they inspired. Liz and I had the privilege of meeting Laurie at Quilt Market in Minneapolis about a year and a half ago and getting signed copies hot off the press.
I've bogged before about my quilt group (The Grateful Threads) and our block swap of another book, The Civil War Diary Quilt. We make 8 identical blocks in Civil War reproduction blocks each round and trade or swap our blocks with each person, thus getting 8 different blocks each round. We've not been very good about our swapping calendar and are only halfway done. But we've been energized with a new swap! Now each month we are on the spot with Civil War blocks and our Farmer's Wife 1930's swap. I don't know why Laurie made her quilt with Civil War fabrics but then tied it together with the 1920's. But we are having fun.

Liz took this picture for me today...the book, HER book (notice that we have had our books spiral bound so they lay flat) and the blocks from Round 1. That's my basket block in the foreground. It's going to be so much fun! I'll be missing two rounds while I'm in Minnesota (I leave on Wednesday) so I've made blocks ahead for both swaps.
Here at Redwood Sewing Center we are going to start a year-long class on The Farmer's Wife. It's going to start in January. If you are in the neighborhood join us!

I'm a winner!

Don't you just love those words: "I'm a winner!" Not, of course to be confused with "I'm a whiner," although to be truthful, I suppose I am a whiner once in a great while. In any event, I AM A WINNER of a fantastic Civil War panel of Grant and the Generals of the Army of the Potomac from Bonnie Hunter and her Quiltville blogs' giveaway. Thanks Bonnie! This panel will be included in the quilt I will be making of my blocks from my Civil War Diary Quilt Block Exchange. You can't believe the squeal I let out when I learned I was the winner.

Today was Sit & Sew at Redwood Sewing Center (formerly Scottie Dog Quilts). We have Sit & Sew classes Tues. & Thurs. mornings and Wed. evenings. You come, bring your sewing machine and do whatever you want. There's always a teacher there to help you out (she said modestly since Tues. & Wed. I am the teacher!). The Tues. class has been meeting for about 15 years....note that we've only been open for 10 years. But I taught the Tuesday morning class for 5 years at another, now defunct Quilt Shop. There are a few who come regularly who have been there since the beginning. It is fondly referred to as "The Tuesday Class."

Show and tell happens quite frequently. Today we saw Margie's newest "Martinique." She'll be teaching a class on this quilt from "Baker's Dozen." If you are local, be sure to come see it in person. This picture doesn't do it justice.

Katie showed us a quilt for her granddaughter Cera who is 4. I love the whimsical ladybugs.
Then Judy showed us her Asian masterpieced French Braid. Every time I see it I marvel at the story it tells. Judy confesses that this quilt grew so big they had to buy a new King Sized bed as it was too large for her Queen. I bound another quilt this afternoon and prepared backings for four more. Busy as a bee! I heard the weatherman say it's rain for the rest of the week. Bummer! But guess what? I'm a winner!!!!!

Crock Pot Potato Soup

Yesterday at Redwood Sewing Center the Tuesday Morning Sit & Sew class had one of their famous birthday pot lucks. Once a month we celebrate birthdays....the birthday girl(s) wear birthday crowns, lots of singing goes on and of course, there is food! We have several "foodies" in the group...Barb takes lots of classes and always brings something good. She also makes sure we have funny cards for the Birthday Girl. Del keeps us all organized...she is the keeper of the master roll call/email list and lets us know when a birthday is imminent. Donna or Del make deviled eggs (oh, and Jan G.'s chickens keep us all in eggs!). Joan is a newcomer to our group...she just retired and sold her interest in Cherry Blossom Bakery and she brought a cake! We had pasta salads and potato salad and by popular demand, I brought my stepmom's Crock Pot Potato Soup.

Willie served this soup once and I knew I had to have the recipe. It's so easy and sooo good. Yesterday I made it with one chicken breast added to the soup before cooking and had green onions & cheese for toppings but forgot to get the toppings out of the fridge. It was still yummy!

Crock Pot Potato Soup

30 oz bag frozen hash brown potatoes

two 14 oz chicken broth

1/2 onion diced

1/4 tsp ground pepper

options: 1 cup diced chicken breast, 1/4 cut diced green or red pepper, 2 cans of clams (juice & all), 2 cloves minced garlic

place all in a crock pot on low for 5 hours

then add: 8 oz cream cheese, cubed & cook for 30 mins. Stir before serving.

Optional toppings: bacon bits, green onion, cheese, dollop of sour cream, etc.

High Tea at the Eureka Inn

There was a benefit today for the Humboldt County Historical Society today at the Historic Eureka Inn. The Inn's owners had gone bankrupt in 2004 and it had been closed and changed hands a few times before opening in May of 2010. There are only 50 rooms ready for occupancy and the restaurant, pub and coffee shop are currently closed, but the current owner, Mr. Libo Zhu has a vision to restore this wonderful Eureka Treasure to it's former glory.Redwood Sewing Center will be holding our next Mystery Quilting Retreat here April 8-10, 2011. ( If you are interested, call the store at 707 444-9662).

Today we were there for High Tea! And what a wonderful time was had by all. I think there were 100 guests. Most of the ladies present wore hats. At our table we wore hats, gloves, pearls and our pinkies were held up high! My beautiful daughter, Liz and Geri.Just a small portion of the dessert table...lemon bars, cookies and scones from Ramone's Bakery.

Margie and her lovely daughter Charlotte.

Here we are, mother and daughter.

Some more desserts...luscious cupcakes filled with goodness! (mine was chocolate with raspberry filling.) There was so much more food, but I guess I didn't get a photo. Cucumber sandwiches, chicken salad, Thai wraps, shaved Tri-Tip roast from Porter Street Barbecue ( with Cypress Grove Cheve blended with Tulle Lake horseradish!), mushroom tarts, Swedish cucumber salad and so much more. The food was fabulous, the company even more so! We laughed, told stories on one another, planned our next quilting projects, caught up on family news while entertained by a 6 piece musical group which played an eclectic mix of classical and folk tunes from many lands.
Donna, Brigette & Kenny. I loved his hat too! See Liz's bag? So chic black satin with just a peek of pink. So girly, yet sophisticated.
Here we all are (thanks Kenny, for patiently taking photos with all our cameras). L-R: Margie, Dona, Geri, Judy, Brigette, me (BrendaLou), Liz and Charlotte.

After we had our photo op we took a tour of some of the guest rooms. We are so excited about our upcoming retreat being held here. Don't worry about the restaurant not being open yet...we've got wonderful caterers coming in. And the Redwood Lounge may just be open by April.

Weekend with Gamma

Saturday mornings I usually sleep in a tad, but not this weekend. We were holding a Get Acquainted Class for some of our new Pfaff sewing machine owners. Giving a class like this is always fun because of the lights you see going on. "Oh, I didn't know I could do that!" "I never dreamed I could make a button hole so easily!" "It has an automatic thread cutter?" "Oh, my goodness....it's beautiful!" You hear all sorts of comments just like these. We, at Redwood Sewing Center/Scottie Dog Quilts are overwhelmed at the response of our local sewing/quilting community since we've opened our Pfaff Sewing Machine dealership. And we are glad that they have all been so happy with their machines. One gal had confided last week to a fellow class member that she "hated" her new Pfaff. Couldn't do a thing with it. After Saturday's class she told me she's not going to sew on anything else! She loves it. I wish she'd told me that last month and I could have helped her out before! And so every month we offer get acquainted classes for our new owners.

Sydney calls me Gamma and the Haché household calls me Grammy. I suppose that when we go on our cruise next month all the grandkids will choose one or the other name. This weekend we've had the pleasure of Sydney's company. We ate dinner at her favorite place: HomeTown Buffet. I'm surprised that she first chooses a (somewhat) healthy plate with 1 slice cheese pizza, carrots, hard boiled eggs, cherry tomatoes, grilled white fish and then, of course, comes dessert. You'd think with a vast array of desserts that she'd want several or at the very least have a problem choosing. NOPE! Every time she goes for a cone filled with orange fat free, sugar free frozen yogurt....with lots and lots (and lots and lots!) of sprinkles on top.

We came home and baked a cake. Syd's getting really good at cracking the eggs! Then we watched our friends, Huckleberry Flint, perform on TV! What a treat to see them. We like their "old timey" sound. Some of them grew up with our children and we've been fans for many years now. Then Gamma fell asleep and when I woke up Grandpa had put Sydney to bed. So much for Gamma's bedtime stories!After church today we frosted the cake and Sydney put sprinkles and jimmys on the cake. Is she proud or what?

"What's for lunch, Gamma?" I had an idea. Last week she'd asked me what a pig in a blanket was. I had a can of biscuits from who knows what in the fridge. First we smashed the biscuits and then rolled them on the hot dogs. It takes a lot of concentration.

Then you bake them (and any stray biscuits you have left-over)Next you fix your plate....did you know it's a law that you have to fill up each section of your plate? It is! Truly. And after she said she didn't want any carrots, Grandpa came to the rescue with Cheetos....she and Grandpa have a thing about Cheetos. They are too artificially orange for me! As you can see we have filled up the plate with 5 major food groups....Your bread/grain group, your protein group (hot dogs?), your milk/dairy (string cheese), your vegetable group (I kid you not...when Bill Clinton was president they classified Catsup as a serving of vegies for school lunch programs!) and your "too orange, what could be in a cheeto" group!
She looks pretty happy about the whole thing!

Right now she and Grandpa are outside doing something.....it's cold and misty (not quite raining, but certainly not dry) but they are having a fine time. Later I'm going shopping with daughter Liz and maybe a movie. Good weekend...and for me it ends today as I work all day tomorrow....and since it's a holiday I'll probably be busy.

Wednesday Nights

What do you do Wednesday nights? I teach a "Sit & Sew" class at Redwood Sewing Center (formerly Scottie Dog Quilts). It all started about 17 years ago when I began teaching quilting in my home on Monday nights. After a couple of years a small craft store asked me to move to their location. For roughly 48 weeks each year I taught Monday night and Tuesday morning quilting..9 of those years at my own store. This past September we decided to switch Monday nights to Wednesday. So now I teach the Sit & Sew class on Tuesday mornings and Wednesday nights. Geri teaches the Thursday morning classes.

What do I do at a Sit & Sew Class? I give lots of opinions....on color, fabric, patterns and borders. I cut fabric for customers. I teach how to get those seams a true one quarter of an inch. I show how to use a rotary cutter, how to put on binding, how to figure out how much fabric one needs for a border or a backing. I help thread a pesky machine. And sometimes I get to work on a project of my own while doing all of the above.

But the BEST OF ALL is all the Show and Tell I get to see. Tonight Sue J. T. showed off her BQ3 quilt (pattern by Debbie Bowles) made with "boy" fabrics.

Then she showed off another nearly completed quilt in which she has combined printed fabric panels, pieced blocks and a realistic road I've seen her make in previous quilts. Sue makes a lot of little boy quilts.Paula finished putting the borders on her Keyhole quilt for an ailing relative. It's a bright and cheery quilt bound to brighten-up any room.

So this is what I do on Wednesday nights. How about you? Tell me what you do on Wednesday nights by commenting on the blog by 9 pm Sunday, January 9. In honor of my 300th posting yesterday I'll send to a randomly picked commenter a jar of my homemade Jalapeno Jelly. It's REALLY good!

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!

Out with the old, In with the new....

Friday, Mr. Scottie Dog took down the old sign (sigh!), and he & Liz put up the new sign and this banner:

Today was the Grand Opening of Redwood Sewing Center! And what a day it was! Many, many thanks to all of you who attended. The store was full to overflowing most of the day....at times the cutters and those checking out were overwhelmed but we are so glad everyone stayed. Thanks to Mr. Scottie Dog, Steve & Lewis who bar-b-qued for us. Lunch was great.

Redwood Sewing Center Staff L-R: Crystal, BrendaLou, Laura, Judy, Geri, Katie, Liz, Sydney & Margie. Redwood Sewing Centers helpful & knowledgeable staff. Many, many thanks to my fabulous staff...we were all busy all day long and we couldn't have done it without you. You all look "fab-oo-lous" in your aprons.
It took a very long weekend plus work week to get the store in it's new glory. We have room for new displays, an expanded Notions Wall, the Pfaff Sewing Machine Center, Fabric Value Wall, the new centrally located cutting & checkout counters and more.The comment I heard most of all was, "How could you keep all you had before, add sewing machines AND the Value Wall and the store and classroom look bigger than before?" Our new plan was mostly due to the vision Liz had and Mr. Scottie Dog's expertise. Many, many hands helped us...Thanks especially to Liz, Laura, Crystal, Mr. Scottie Dog, Larissa, Lewis, Steve & Sydney who spent many late, late nights (and into the early mornings) to help us get it all done. It is such a nice space to work in and as soon as we remember where everything is, it will be much easier to help our customers.Here's a little nest of chicken pincushions made from our newest pattern, Henny Penny & Leroy

One of my favorite things about our remodel is the little areas we have for displaying fabric lines.
How about an old washtub of pillowcase kits?

I wish we had counted all of you who came today despite the rain (it actually held off for most of the day), all we know is that the sales floor and the classroom were crowded almost every minute of the day. We sent home sewing machines, kits, fabric, books and more with happy customers. The demonstrations in the classroom were well-received and if you missed them, we'll be doing more as time goes by.

Now that we are open, please feel free to stop by for our new class schedule, take a peek at our upcoming Saturday Sampler---make a stunning Queen-sized Quilt for only $10 (begins October 9) or take a test drive on a Pfaff machines....we've got a Grand Quilter 18.8 set up too (a mid-arm quilting machine with an 18.8" neck!).

I came home after the Grand Opening, put my feet up and woke up at 10:15 pm! Liz was having a Girl's Night Out with her friends and looking forward to a massage!

Thanks again to everyone!

We've been busy!

I haven't blogged for a bit. We've been busy around here lately. We're in the midst of a store remodel, and extreme store make-over, if you will. We're changing our name.....Scottie Dog Quilts is not going away....we still own the name and will continue to use it for our retreats, cruises, classes (How could we get rid of Scottie Dog Quilts University????) and we'll retain it as the brand name for our line of patterns.

But we are changing our name to better reflect our business as a whole. We are now Pfaff Sewing Machine Dealers. Yes...authorized dealers! With an authorized Pfaff repair center too! Our new name is.....(drum roll please.............) Redwood Sewing Center at Scottie Dog Quilts or as our new sign will say...just Redwood Sewing Center. We'll try to answer the phone with that name too, but it may take us awhile to get it down pat. If you want to continue to call us Scottie Dog Quilts it's ok by me. Quilters "get" the name Scottie Dog Quilts. But to the average person, we are a place that sells quilts and probably quilts for dogs... or maybe we sell dogs and accessories....or maybe it's a place for dogs to shop for quilts. They are never quite sure. So we want the average person to know what we are about: We sell sewing machines, fabric and supplies....books, patterns, notions, gifts, books and oh, yes! We have an awesome classroom with lots of fabulous teachers teaching wonderful things....sewing of purses, bags, table runners, clothing and yes, QUILTS!

Do not worry....we continue to have the largest selection of quality quilting cottons on the North Coast of CA. In fact, we've added "THE VALUE WALL" of fabrics to the back room....first quality 100% cotton from all your favorite fabric companies for $6.99! What a deal!

We are having a Grand Opening next Saturday and you are all invited. September 18 from 10-4 pm. Sales (fabulous sales on all our Pfaff sewing machines including the Grand Quilter...a mid-arm for the home quilter with an 18.8" neck!!!!) on fabrics, books, notions and more. We'll have demonstrations all day too. Come see us, we'd love to show you around the store. You'll hardly believe you are in the same place. But our friendly and knowledgeable staff is the same.

Here are a few pics of the extreme store make-over:

Mr. Scottie Dog hanging the slatwall for the new notions center. One new counter in...another to go (and what a mess!).

Moving fixtures! Our friend Lewis helping out with the telephone/computer wiring. Where's Sydney? Hiding out in a cave of fabric.
Even the bathroom got a make-over. What color do you think we chose? Today I hung the wallpaper border.Where's Sydney? Hanging out in some of the fixtures! These are now holding our 1930's collection.Sewing machines are on their shelves...Maywood's Old World Style fabric display is up...I think it's coming together!

We couldn't have done it without our awesome crew....Mr. Scottie Dog, Liz & Sydney, Laura, Crystal, Lewis and myself. Well, actually I got to do some sewing during lag times.

Here's a teaser photo of our Saturday Sampler Quilt....You can make it for only $10....well, all the blocks for only $10. Come to the store and we'll tell you how.

Whew! Telling all of this has made me tired all over again! Grand Opening Saturday, September 18. I'll post the "after" pictures then.