Blue Iris Pantone

If you're fealing blue for the holidays, you're fitting right in for the color trend for 2008. I'll blog next in January.

15 days left to get great Holiday Kits for gifts

It's come to my attention, with only 15 days until Dovely Quilts takes
a brief holiday vacation, I'm going to end up buying my gifts online
yet again. I've included in this blog, some of the most popular kits
bought this year as gifts to give. As you can tell, there are many
styles as well as price ranges.

The nice part is, they do not cost any more than if you would buy the
yardage on their own, and since they come pre-matched and with a
pattern, it is an appropriate gift for beginning quilters, or quilters
with limited storage space. Consider giving a kit to someone who
enjoys going to quilt camps. It's any easy thing for them to pack in
their suitcase.

Tapestry by Fig Tree (a charm pack kit)

Lakehouse Daisies

P&B Linden

Oak & Reel from Moda

Harmony

Ascot by Bethany Reynolds

Barn by American Jane

Four on the Floor by American Jane

In addition to the ones pictured, we still have a few kits from
Poetry Collection, Faded Memories, Twenty Six Letters, and Noah's Ark.
Note, you must order by the 21st to ensure they will be shipped by
the new year.

Debbie Mumm goes to Jo-Ann

In honor of Debbie Mumm's expansion into the Jo-Ann fabric stores, and the noticeable lack of Jo-Ann stores near Dovely Quilts & Fabrics, we will put our Debbie Mumm fabric panel on the web shop on sale for 25% off.

A second note of interest for those holiday shoppers: if you are looking for a local product to hang quilts & wall hangings, check out L&B Designs LLC.

Wisconsin Quilt Museum Holiday Open House

The Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts is having an open house at the end of November. Don't miss it!

Special quilting events at the Milwaukee JCC

Check out what the Milwaukee JCC is doing this fall:

• Quilts on exhibit: quilts made by students from the Milwaukee Jewish Day School for at-risk babies born in Milwaukee
• Louise Silk will be visiting, and will have her work on display
• several quilting classes.

Details available by clicking on the image:

The Quiltmaker's Gift

For those of you who are looking for another way to experience the wonder of quilts, don't miss this local opportunity to see a great play from the First Stage Children's Theater: The Quiltmaker's Gift, running now through November 11.

Jellyrolls and charms

If you are new to quilting and keep running across patterns calling for charm packs or jellyrolls, you may not quite understand for what the pattern calls. There are a number of companies currently producing these handy, pre-cut fabric offerings. Generally speaking, a charm pack is a 5" square collection of 30 or more fabrics and a jellyrolls are 2.5" x 44" sets of 45 or more matching fabrics. The quickest use for these items are simple square patchworks for the charm packs and/or a log cabin or strip-based quilt top with jellyrolls. However, you can also go the manufacturers of these items and find many many patterns that can be made off of these cuts. Some of my personal favorites include turning charm packs into the traditional "spool" or "butterfly" pattern and using the strips to do a split-rail, or churn dash.


If you go to my web shop, you can purchase jellyrolls or charm packs which support these cuts. A couple of disclaimers:

• The edges of these are always pinking-sheared, so you always do get some extra lint.
• Charm packs often will include large-scale prints that you will only see a portion of because of the 5"x5" limitation.
• Most patterns also include additional yardage which can sometimes be difficult to match up if you don't buy it at the same time that you buy the charm pack or jellyroll.
• Not all companies produce these quick cuts. Currently: Moda, P&B, Benartex, and Michael Miller offer some of these options.

If you have questions about how to use these or want to send a gift to a fellow quilter, this is an easy way to go, and I can help!

Historical Fall

For all the historical reproduction fabric junkies, a great announcement from Windham appeared in the latest trade magazines. Dovely will carry some of this fabric this fall. Enjoy!

Williamsburg issues license to Windham Fabrics

Latest fabric articles out of Home Textile Today News

Click on the image below to view the scanned articles.



As I head in to the July 4th holiday, I wanted to make sure to send out two short articles affecting those of us who really enjoy fabric. The first is an article dealing directly with home textiles announcing that Better Homes and Gardens magazine will be working directly with Jo-Ann Fabric to release an updated fabric line. The second article is an announcement that Cranston is working on a digital image library of their fabric lines. This may lead to a better searchable fabric match system for us who run short a yard or two of a fabric that we bought decades earlier. Let's all hope that Cranston doesn't just scan their home textiles and includes their quilter's cottons and makes the database accessible to the public.

I'll be in the store every day this week except for Wednesday. Monday I will send Ben to work so I can spend a day at home dreaming of searchable fabric libraries and more people making pillows from clearance Jo-Ann fabric.

Don't forget to read the latest edition of my newsletter. Happy 4th!

Sarah

If you give a quilter an icecream cone

Along the line of the children's books, I will now tell you the tail of the Tigerton show...

If you give a quilter an ice cream cone in Fond du Lac, it will not last to West Bend. If you wake a quilter before dawn, she will drive north on US45 and get lost a couple times. While she's lost, she'll try not to hit two deer but she will enjoy the sunrise over Lake Winnebago. If she finds her way to Clintonville, she will order iced coffee from Mickey D's because Starbucks hasn't made it there yet. If the quilter gets to the quilt show before it's open for vendors, she might take a little nap in her car. :-) If you ask the quilt shop owner to give a hand quilting demonstration, she will be glad to, but she won't sign autographs. If you feed a quilt shop owner a tuna salad sandwich for lunch, she might be hungry by 4pm. When the shop owner packs up her things at the end of the show, she will say ta-ta on her way out the door. When she turns out of the parking lot, she will drive less than a 1/4 mile to buy a grilled cheese sandwich at the BP on US45. If you give a quilt shop owner a map, she might not get lost a 2nd time driving south on 45 in Fond du Lac, but if she does...just give her ice cream at the DQ on south 45.

We're Moving!

Starting Saturday, June 2, the store will be closed for about one week while we move it to the 2nd level of the current building we are in. Of course you can shop online anytime at https://shop.dovelyquilts.com/catalog/.

With this move, our hours will now change to: Monday - Friday, 10am - 5pm. We will not be having Saturday hours and we hope to add some evening hours in the fall. Give us feedback on what evenings you’d like us to be open. Please remember we will continue to have our open handwork night the 2nd Monday of every month including Monday, June 11.

We look forward to continuing to be able to service you in our new studio.

One final reminder: we will be at the quilt show in Tigerton this coming Saturday, June 9.

Artist in residence,

Sarah

One Last Chance

With the winding down of the spring show season, you have only one last chance to see the dime-store, traveling show display and benefit from its dime-store style pricing. I will be in Tigerton, WI, June 9 for one day only at the Woven Hearts Guild Show. I am blogging about this to let you know because I may forget what I'm doing because I am still trying to recover from a fantastic quilt camp!

Truly the highlights of the spring have been:

1. Meeting the matching quilt-jacket/purse sisters
2. Continually running out of change at shows
3. Having no sleep at quilt camp

I will share more pictures and experiences from quilt camp in a later blog, but please be aware that Tigerton will be your last chance to buy any girl scout fabric grams until next year.

I have already placed fabric orders for my fall lines. if you are interested in what I'll be getting in, stop by the shop to look at the sample books.

Fabric~gram

As I sat and watched our April snow today, I couldn't help but think of May and flowers and Mother's Day and presents. And so I decided to share a favorite new way of sending fabric to friends: the fabric-gram! Simply reuse the packaging of your favorite treat and fill it full of half-yard fabrics add in a pattern and voila! A fabric-gram. Check out the website if you want to order one for your favorite mom. The samples here include reuse of my favorite snacking items, not surprisingly, they are all chocolate. I also threw in my favorite oldie-but-goodie fill-up-a-mason-jar-and-wrap-it-with-a-bow.

Don't forget April is Autism Awareness month and there are still pillow case kits available at the shop. See you next weekend at the Crazy Quilters in Mukwonago Quilt Show. The theme for this booth will be: old-fashioned dime store. Stop by and experience a whole new look and feel to our vending for the spring season.

Chocolate covered blueberries

Godiva~licious

Eat less~buy fabric~evil

Canned for later

Pink Soda POP

Spring break

How do you prepare for the spring? I apparently sew a lot, attend more meetings than I should, and squeeze in a whirlwind trip to Ohio to buy new things for my favorite customers. Ohio you say? Why? Because it is the home of one of the largest fabric warehouses in the midwest. I can bring you along for the ride.

Let's begin with the hotel with a business traveler's view!



That's right, when I travel, I travel in style. As you can also tell from the picture, it was a nice, warm, balmy 82 degrees. Surely the snow in the picture is meerly an illusion that is if I can see around the back of the sign that was directly outside of my window. Nothing but the best!

I entered the warehouse at 9 in the morning and almost spent an hour just in the templates room looking for the ever-popular tumbling block pyamid template. Go ahead, find it in the picture:



If you didn't find it, don't worry. I did--it's in the shop!

Then it was onto fabric. I had a shopping list from some of you out in cyberspace: more kids' flannels, more cheaters, something to go with the Nearly Insane quilt I started 5 years ago and from the lovely ladies at the church, the cheepest 60 inch polyester batting I can find. In the photo below, you can see what the oversized, larger-than-life cart looked like a the half-way point.



On the way home, the classic travel around Chicago moment happened at the exit of the Indiana toll road when at 11:45 at night, the car in front of me had to write a personal check to get off the toll road. Neadless to say, the tollbooth operator was not happy at the giggling that happened in the verhicle that pulled up to pay its toll. Ah! Only in Indiana! I wonder who they had to make the personal check out to? And what do you think the odds are that it bounced?

You don't have to wait to see all the goodies I bought on my spring shopping excursion. I will have a lot of them with me at the Cedarburg Quilt and Antique show. Stop by & say hi. (and you don't have to pay a toll)

3D Fabric Flowers

Fabulous Fabric Flowers


No need to water these flowers.

They will not grow

When you get tired of them,

Take them apart and sew.



Ben is making me blog again, and he tells me Sonji should be proud of this thing. She will have to let me know what she thinks. So I was one of the many women who did not receive flowers on Valentine's day. Additionally I had been toying with the idea of crafting flowers from fabric that aren't laden with adhesives and just collect dust. Thus from the Dovely workshop, also known as my couch as I was home with my ill son all day, Fabric Flowers! The first dozen has already been delivered in the doorstep in the middle of winter without any risk of destruction. The best part about these beauties: they can be taken apart and the fabric reused for whatever is needed. Order now! In other words, check out the website if you have a need for spring.

All flowers made of 100% cotton fabric and are uniquely hand crafted. Although they are not exact replicas of real flowers, the variety of styles mimic most cut flowers available in a floral shop. Flowers come shipped in a flower box or can be locally delivered in a vase. Additionally the charm of this never-dying beauty is it comes with a pattern to create a wall hanging out of the disassembled flowers. Two gifts in one! Many colors available.

A year for autism

As most of you know, Dovely Quilts annually picks a not-for-profit cause to highlight. This year, the focus will on autism. Throughout the year I will be working to help spread awareness and raise funds for both a local and regional receipiant. Autism currently affects roughly every one in every 200 children and our society is still learning how this impacts us.

Locally we will be supporting Help Autism which directs funds towards local children who have outgrown their birth-to-three coverage and fall into a gap where medical expenses and therapy often falls directly on parents instead of insurance. Regionally we will be supporting the Autism Society of Southeastern Wisconsin.

Again this year there will be ways you can help out raising funds for these two groups. First, we will have pillow case kits available in the store for $12.00. The kit will make one pillowcase that incorporates the Autism Awareness puzzle fabric you can find in the webshop. With the kit you may donate back your pillowcase to be given to a child affected by autism, or you can donate the pillowcase back to the shop to be sold to raise additional funds. If you do not trust your sewing abilities, but would like to a pillow made, you can buy the kit and give it back to have the pillow made for a child with autism. And if you're really desparate, and hate sewing, you can buy a finished pillowcase from the shop and either keep it for yourself and donate it back to be given to a child. The pillowcase project will last the entire year and we have included a printable PDF, simple set of instructions for your use. Thanks to Helen for giving me a quick lesson on how to make these fast pillowcases.


Throughout the year, I will try to give you updates on other opportunities to learn more about autism. Just last week ABC's "The View" had an hour-long special presentation that focused on autism. Watch for it on reruns. We will also have informational brochures at the shop. Nationally there are a number of organizations that work on awareness and networking on autism including CAN (Cure Autism Now). Currently the Autism Society of Southeastern Wisconsin is organizing their annual fundraising ball and Help Autism is working at organizing a fall golf outing. What the website for updates.

Good Old Singer and alone time

I hope your holidays all went well. I received many wonderful contributions to the fabric donation drive we run here out of the shop. In the end, between December 15th & January 15th, 10 boxes of donated fabric appeared! There will be very many happy church quilters in the near future. Additionally, I was approached to find a new home for a 1956 "touch-and-go" Singer. I'm not sure, but it appears to be one of the first, multi-stitch function Singers that was available for household use. It even comes with changeable disks for each of the stitches. I understand that my wonder at this machine may show my naivete in the realm of machine use. But I did get a few hours of pleasure out of this die-hard working machine.


In a related die-hard working theme, another great friend of mine, Susan (one of the many shop elves who never uses computers and will never read this post unless I print it out for her), handed me one of the most wonderful Christmas presents I received this year: a new copy of Mary Janes Farm. The issue is almost completely dedicated organic farming and simple lifestyles. And this month's edition has a special focus on handwork, stitchery, and aprons! Mary Janes Farm reminds me of a well-updated version of the old Foxfire Almanacs (which by the way is celebrating its 40th year of publication with a anniversary album). Wholesome living, simple approach to life, and taking time to just breath is something I shouldn't have to read about but is a good way to slip it into my daily life. And as Mary Jane says this month, from p.5:

How do you master such a thing? How do you cultivate your senses, get them back? Alone time helps--time alone when you turn off and tune in, unplug, focus, just you and the rhythm of your breathing. doing something rhythmic with your hands helps. Women have always known how to accomplish that, even on the fly. Why do you think so many women (and even a few men) have taken up knitting on subways? Knitting, crocheting, embroidering, and mending brings you to that restful place. The rhythmic moving of your hands holding onto quiet (thread) and focus (needle) gives our brain the kind of quick, deep massage it needs to stay healthy.

Of course I would add quilting to her list of activities that bring you to a restful place. And unfortunately, my husband would probably say, typing, as he just typed that entire paragraph in less than 2 minutes. It would have taken me an hour I'm sure. For those of you who are seeking out alone time, a reminder that a quilting retreat opportunity will be coming up this spring in southern Michigan where I will be teaching a mystery quilt. Feel free to check out the website and register: http://amigocentre.org/

Sarah