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.