Young Designers

As a Quilt Shop Owner we are bombarded in our industry with many voices telling us that we need to grab the Youth Market. We need to "make" new, young quilters. There are many avenues to travel, a myriad of of directions screamed at us. Do we abandon the experienced quilters who are the bulk of our customers? Of course not! Sometimes we hear that our industry will be dying out in just a few years as the Baby Boomer Quilter will age and there will be no one to take their place.
Well I say, the Young Designers are already here....I mean right here in Humboldt county...right here at Scottie Dog Quilts. Our newest pattern: The Market Tote is available for purchase. Designed by our own Liz Scott Adams, she has done everything from conceptualizing the bag, to trial & error sewing prototypes. She did all the computer work for the written pattern, designed the cover and took the awesome cover picture of Molly and Ella. The pattern is beginning to make the rounds on the wholesale circuit and you can get your own from Scottie Dog Quilts. Just come in the store or email us for details

Sandy Gervais had designed this whimsical Christmas fabric with Moda. Laura Meglemre, one of our own Scottie Dog Quilts staff has designed the fabulous quilt at the left using Sandy's Christmas panel (quilt center & 6 Christmas corner blocks) and just 3 other fabrics. Thanks, Laura, for being inspired. If you come to our store, we'll give you the yardage requirements so you can make one too.

Congratulations Liz & Laura! I'm proud of you both. You are imaginative and so inspiring. I say to the "powers that be" who are so negative in our business.....I'm not afraid of the future....The young quilters are extremely creative and they will keep the passion for quilting and fibre arts burning for years and years to come.

Summer Quilt Camp

Every Summer at Scottie Dog Quilts we hold a 3 day event: Quilt Camp. We fill the classroom with quilters (mostly women, sometimes a that rare and exotic creature: the Male Quilter). This year they were all women, one Mother-Daughter combo, all age groups represented. There was lots of laughter, meeting of new friends, great food and a chance to sew interrupted for 3 days.
Our project was an Aunt Sukey's Choice quilt ( see it left) and we all learned how to make a thousand (well, it SEEMED like a thousand!) flying geese with Eleanor Burns' Flying Goose Ruler. This made the job go much easier and each and every flying goose turned out perfect! I caught a few pictures, but then left the camera behind when we went out to dinner at Rita's. I didn't get any pictures of anyone dancing on the tables.....oh, maybe no actually danced on tables, but everyone had a great time! The quilts turned out fantastic. Each and every on was different and yet, each would be welcome in my home!
Quilt Camp is Summer Day Camp for Grown-ups. We hold it every Summer and also run Spring Fling of course in the Spring! Sound like fun? We'll keep you posted.
In October we'll be hosting our Fall Mystery Quilting Retreat. There are still a few open spots. We have quilters from all over the United States coming. October 17-19. Let us know if you'd like a brochure.

Thursday Night at the Movies

Every Thursday night I meet with a small bunch of ladies....quilting friends. We call ourselves The Grateful Threads, GT's, ThreadHeads, friends. During the school year we meet at Scottie Dog Quilts because a Hand Piecing class meets there. We do our thing (chat, eat, chat some more, laugh, solve the world's problems, chat, eat some more and sometimes we even quilt!) while the hand piecers meet in the classroom. Summers we move around some. Last night we went to see Mamma Mia. We had extended the invitation to lots of other quilting women and filled up a couple of rows.
I'm no movie critic, I like what I like and don't like what I don't like. But here's my review:

The cast is wonderful, Pierce Brosnan can't sing, but after the first line or two it doesn't matter. Meryl Streep CAN sing...surprisingly so. The photography is beautiful....so very.....blue. Greek Island....lots and lots of water and sky equal...blue. The story is based around a bunch of ABBA songs. Not much takes place that's not a song and/or a dance. Of course it's a romantic farce. I suppose it's not REALLY a great movie. But I had so much fun. Not only were my toes tapping, but I can't seem to get the music, the energy out of my head. Meryl Streep throughout most of the movie looks to have minimal make-up on. Quite refreshing that she wasn't made up to look as if she were 35!

BrendaLou gives Mamma Mia a thumbs-up!

Cousins at Play

When I was a little girl (about a hundred years ago!) my dad would read me the Sunday Comics. We lived in LA and the LA Times had a very large Sunday comics section. Dick Tracy had this fantastic watch.....I think it was his 2-way wrist radio. In 1971 the college I attended had a computer (just one). They had to remodel TWO classrooms in order just to HOUSE the computer. It was that big. Flash forward to 1973 when Mr. Scottie Dog was then working for Radio Shack. I remember he called several people he knew because technology had finally reached the future.........Radio Shack had come up with a 4-function, hand-held calculator that could add, subtract, multiply and divide for ONLY $129.99!!! And people ran down in droves to scoop up those calculators. A few years later one of our friends had a watch with a calculator under the face....Technology on the march into the future. Now they give away calculators that do more than that early Radio Shack one! And it's the size of a credit card!
In 2008 my 3 1/2 year old granddaughter Sydney "plays" regularly with my 2 1/2 year old grandson Jakob. Not unusual you say? Well, it is, because they live 1578 miles apart! Sydney lives in Eureka,CA and Jakob lives in Savage, MN. Here they are on Tuesday. They show each other their puzzles, sing together and chatter. What is funny is that the kids were busy chatting here on Skype and their moms (MY kids, Beka & Liz) were chatting away on the telephone.
Grandparents---if I haven't convinced you yet: RUN, DO NOT WALK TO YOUR COMPUTER AND SIGN UP AT http://www.skype.com/.

BTW....skype doesn't pay me.

Sleeping Beauty

We were moving some fabrics around the other day and after emptying one fabric shelving unit we turned around and "voila!" Sleeping Beauty.

Sydney's favorite princess is Cinderella, but I'm sure she won't mind being compared to Sleeping Beauty this time.

Quilters know how to Party!

What does a quilter do when she turns 60??? Does she hide at home feeling sorry for herself? NO WAY! Our friend Stephanie is a Quilting Diva, a child of the 60's who knows that turning 60 is just the beginning. After all, isn't 60 the new 40? So Stephanie invited "just a few" quilting friends to join her at Scottie Dog Quilts on Sunday for a Birthday Bash. We all brought "a little something" for the table.



Now if you're a quilter you know that we like to do 3 things:

QUILT
TALK
EAT

You can see by the pictures that we had plenty to eat....we certainly didn't go hungry. Stephanie is such a talented artist and made a beautiful collage for each of us and didn't forget to provide us with THE MOST IMPORTANT food of all....the chocolate!

The cake was from Ramone's Bakery. UMMMM.
Everyone had made Stephanie a 12" quilt block using Batiks. Almost all of them had turquoise in them. The rest had orange. Remember when we went to Quilt Market in May we told you the new colors were Turquoise & Tangerine. Stephanie's 60th birthday quilt will be right in style. Of course there were lots of packages to open, lots of funny cards, lots of laughter and even a little sewing! Lynn worked on button hole stitching a Jean Well's project from long, long ago; Laura finished a store sample; Judy was binding a quilt; and so on.......Happy Birthday Stephanie! We love you.