CLICK TO GIVE

Many of you may have seen this already in our newsletter, but for those who haven't, I think it's worth repeating.....

In the spirit of giving, I’d like to share with you a way that you can make a difference in some very needed areas, and all it will cost you is a few seconds of your time. Some charitable websites are sponsored by large companies that donate needed products or services based on website traffic. For example, if you go to www.theanimalrescuesite.com, there is a spot to click. Sponsors donate pet food to animal shelters based on how many clicks the website receives per day. Of course, they’re hoping you stay on the site long enough to read their ads, but it really doesn’t matter how long you spend on the site. At the same site you can “Click to Give” to support breast cancer, literacy, hunger, the rainforest, and child health. Please help spread the word about this..... In this economy, charitable organizations suffer. This is one way to help with their shortfall.

CHRISTMAS IN CHICAGO

Many of you know that I'm originally from the Chicago area. So I was thrilled to get this picture in an email holiday greeting from our friends at Aurifil, USA. This is one of two lions flanking the entrance of the Art Institute in downtown Chicago. They are always decked out for the holidays... And when the Bears were in the Superbowl the lions wore Bear's helmets! Despite all the sordid events in Illinois right now, Chicago is a beautiful city, and I can't wait to visit again. For those who don't know, Quilts, Inc. puts on a huge festival in Rosemont, IL that rivals the big show in Houston. Rosemont is located next to O'Hare airport.....very close to Chicago. If you want to have FUN, why not plan a trip to Quilt Festival in Rosemont, and then spend a couple of days downtown. The parks along the lakefront are wonderful and you can get lost in the Art Institute and the other museums....and the FOOD, and the Shopping.....I won't even go there!

CLOSEUP OF ANNE'S CROWS

I thought you might like to see this closeup of Anne's crows.....aren't they hilarious?!

PARIS BOTTMAN

We are working with a wonderful new artist, Paris Bottman. Actually, she's not really new....she's been around longer than we have! But she's new to us and we just LOVE her work. (Visit Bottman.com to view some of her work.) We're so excited to be working with her. Of course, the hard part is deciding which designs to pursue. We have a few that are already in the design process......

4 F's

We have a wonderful group that meets to sew in our classroom on Mondays. They call themselves the "4 F's"....stands for Friends, Fabric, Food, and Fun, not necessarily in that order. They welcome anyone who is free on Mondays to come and sew with them. The classroom opens up about 10:00 and they usually start packing up to go home at about 4:00. Sometimes they order in lunch, some people bring their own, and sometimes we have a pot luck salad bar. I'd like to introduce you to Eleanor Carlson. She comes every week with her daughter "Coach". These are some of the quilts we have watched Eleanor create over the last few months.

ANNE'S VERSION OF THE QUILTERS

Those who look closely will see this version of The Quilters in the slideshow on the right. I wish the picture was bigger and you could see the details that Anne added to this quilt. She made this for her sister's 70th birthday. The crows represent her, her sisters, and nieces. She uses their hats and shoes to reflect their personalities. One crow has a cowgirl hat and boots, one is wearing a tiara, one has a feather hat and bright pink Mary Jane shoes, and one has a quilt block for a hat (could that be Anne?) She even included her sister's dog, tugging on a quilt!

LORI FAYE BOCK

Three of our quilt patterns, Maestro, I'm Ready, Best of Show, and A Few of My Favorite Things are based on the beautiful art of Lori Faye Bock. Lori's use of color and whimsy reflects her love of animals. I encourage you to visit http://www.lorifayebock.com/ to learn more about Lori's life. Her husband, Richard, has just sent us this You Tube link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnSUi4X38-A ....check it out! You'll see Maestro and Favorite Things, among others.

CHERRYWOOD FABRICS

This is one of my favorite corners in our shop. I fell in love with Cherrywood Fabrics many years ago. Nobody does hand dyed fabrics like they do. I was thrilled when they let us carry their fabrics in our store. You can see a few of the quilts we have made with them. On the back wall is a scrappy quilt....the pattern is Judy Hasheider's Half Fast Pineapple. On the right in front is Blooming Nine Patch from Traditions With a Twist by Blanche Young, and behind that is Linda Hanson's beautiful rendition from the book French Braid Quilts.
We will be conducting a Cherrywood Challenge in 2009. Look for details in January.

Thought you might like to see this stunning version of BQ2 made by Mo Harrah. Mo has devoted a lot of time to Cotton Theory lately, but she does return to traditional piecing and quilting once in a while! This pattern takes only three fabrics and is great for showing off a large scale print. We are almost out of kits in the shop, but it is an easy quilt to select fabrics for. There are such beautiful large prints out now......

SWEET JORDAN

Poor Rachel. She's been so busy filling market orders that she had to bring in an extra special helper! Meet Jordan, Rachel's granddaughter who is visiting today

BISTRO by Deb Strain for Moda

Thought you might like a better view of the fabrics that were used in the tablerunner. There are several coffee lines out, but we like this one the best. The panel wasn't used in the tablerunner....I've got to figure out something to do with it....it's really cute!

CLARA'S BISTRO TABLERUNNER

How do you like what Clara has done with Moda's Bistro fabric and Atkinson Design's Waffle Time? I love how she fussy cut the coffee cups and pots in the light squares. Ever since we got this fabric in I'd been trying to decide what I wanted to do with it. I'm going to be a copycat and do the same thing Clara did, but make it a tablecloth! On the back I'm going to use Jason Yenter's Wintergrafix overall print and bind it in black. Of course, it won't be ready for this holiday season....too many gifts still to make. Thanks for the idea, Clara!

By the way, we will be making kits up of this, so if you'd like one, give the shop a call. I know we're limited in our supply of the black print.....

SHARED STITCHES

IF you live near Cameron Park, California, mark your calendar for December 6th! SHARED STITCHES Quilt Shop will be hosting a party with 7 of our Trunk Shows! They will have the Horse Series by Toni Whitney, which includes 4 Ever Friends, Wild Horse Canyon, and Spring Storm, our best selling pattern of all time. They will have Lori Faye Bock's Maestro....I'm Ready, Best of Show, and A Few of My Favorite Things. They will have David King's Perrito and Sebastian and Brenda Yirsa's Garden Sunflowers. They will have Ty Livingston's Autumn Lullaby, Butterfly Kisses, One Moose Open Sleigh, and Lazy Daze. They will also have Debi Hubbs' An Apple A Day, Romancing Red, The Picnic, Sunday Stroll, Apple of My Eye, Out To Lunch, and The Quilters.

This is a rare chance to view all these quilts in one place. I hope you get a chance to drop in and see them......We're proud of them and we thank Shared Stitches for hosting this event!

BEAUTIFUL SHOP QUILT KITS

If you have been to our website and clicked on "Fabric Kits", you might have noticed that we have 15 pages of kits! Most of these are kits of our original patterns....we offer them for sale with the pattern or without (in case you've already purchased a pattern). With over 50 patterns, you can see why we have so many pages of kits.

The reason I'm telling you this is that I'm afraid that our beautiful shop quilts may get lost in the shuffle! So I've made a slideshow with pictures of some of our shop kits. The pictures are small, but if you click on one, you'll link to a bigger picture. It will also give you the name of the quilt so you can search for it easily on our website.

Our busiest time in our shop is summer/fall, so as we wind down to a quieter time, we will be making up more kits.....Check back often to see what's new!

Hint: To browse through shop kits on the website, try putting the letters "SK" in the search box. Only the shop kits will come up......

ROCK STAR

This is a quilt that was created for Batik Textiles to feature their beautiful fabric. It hung at Quilt Market in Houston. You can download this FREE pattern from our website, http://www.bigforkbaycottonco.com/. If you'd like to use these exact fabrics, we offer fabric kits on our website, also, or feel free to give us a call at the shop, 866-245-5718 to order one.

Trunk Shows

To the right you'll see a list of shops hosting one of our Trunk Shows. We have several quilts of each of our patterns that we make available to shops. It is hard and costly for shops to create samples for the patterns they carry. So we have rotating Trunk Shows. These are booked by shops in advance, sometimes timed to coordinate with shows, shop hops, or special events. If you live out of town and you'd like to see our quilts in person, why not suggest to your local shop that they contact us? We're happy to share.....

THE GIRLS by Toni Whitney

Yesterday I promised to show you a fabric rendition of Bo created by Toni Whitney. I know her name is familiar to many of you, but for those who aren't familiar with her, Toni is an extremely talented fine art painter who lives in our town. A couple of years ago Toni began working with fabric in addition paint. She is responsible for our beautiful wildlife quilt patterns. She has designed the patterns, chosen fabric, and created the quilts, which she then turned over to OK Carol Rockwell to quilt. You can view all of those patterns on our website. She also has her own blog... http://www.toniwhitney.blogspot.com/. On it you can follow the progress of a painting she is working on. Anyway, when we had our art auction to benefit breast cancer last summer, Toni offered, as an auction item, to create a fabric portrait of a pet. Well, a bidding war ensued, and we eventually had to call it a draw....and Toni agreed to make a portrait of Bo, who you met yesterday, and my three girls....I'll show you them also.

THANK A VET

I came across this in our local newspaper, The Daily Interlake. It was written by Jack Heller of Lakeside, MT. I thought it appropriate for today.


It is the Veteran, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the Veteran, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the Veteran, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the Veteran, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.
It is the Veteran, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the Veteran, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote.

We are lucky to live in a country that protects our freedoms. Thank a Vet today!

Meet Bo

I’m not sure what the connection is, but it just seems like most quilters are animal lovers! So I thought you might like to meet Bo, our shop dog. If you want to get technical about it, Rachel, our amazing head of shipping, brought Bo into our lives. He comes and goes with her every day, she feeds him and takes care of him, but really, we all feel like he’s ours. He puts smiles on our faces everyday. You could pet him all day and not equal the love he gives to you. This is his “formal” portrait by Traci Suzanne Marvel, but I hope to catch some of his spontaneous acts of crazy for you soon. Tomorrow I will share with you his fabric portrait created by Toni Whitney.

Here's where it all started. This cute little building originally housed our quilt shop, classroom, and business/pattern development offices. Well, that didn't last long! Now this entire building is our quilt shop, over 4000 bolts, plus everything else a quilter might need. We have added a large classroom, production and business offices in a separate building behind the shop.