Wow...where am I?

Have you heard that saying.... "too many irons in the fire"... hey...that's me. I have so many different projects, trips, etc. going on I'm not sure where in the heck I am. Making new patterns - double handled woven basket with wool tongues, basket with leather handles with sunflower, pumpkin pin cushion, tomatoe/strawberry pin cushion, pear pin cushion, Love in a Cottage 12 month stitchery, 5 & Dime christmas Stitcheries & Fall Stitcheries, Halloween Quilt to put together for "Jillie", Pop Clyde's Bow Ties new quilt pattern, Scissor lanyards with "Felts" wool, scissor fobs, daisy pins, Locker Rug Hooking kits to put together for Philadelphia and Jacksonville show.............whew..... you thought I was kidding didn't you?

I love it! Keep busy... it keeps you feeling young!!!

Web Sampler Celebration

Hey everyone!! Just wanted to let you know I've been working on the final setting of the Web Sampler Celebration quilt. We along with 11 other quilt shops will have individual blocks that you can purchase (one from each shop... 12 blocks total) on-line from each of our websites.

While you are on each site you will also be able to see each "finishing kit". If you love it... you can purchase it through the website... I'll fill you in with greater detail soon. The websites will be ready to sell their blocks on Sept. 15! We're using Marcus Fabric - Paula Barnes/Bonnie Blue Quilts Americana line! It's pretty wonderful....

I'm off to bed...v...e...r...y... tired! Chat with you soon!

Gloria

What a Great Day!!!

What a fun day we had.... Vic, Paula, and I got to the store early and hauled in all of Paula's precious cargo (THE QUILTS!!) We hid them in the stock room to be shown later that evening at her Trunk Show.

The gals started arriving.... one by one... until the room was FULL and we were ready to get started. Vic and I hung out in the back of the room and worked on store samples while the sewing machines began to hummmmmm...... (I love that sound...don't you?) Paula introduced us to a new process of making our half-square triangles. It's called Spinning Stars! Wow... do we love these bad boys. We will be ordering them for the store. You're gonna love them! Talk about perfection!! Each half square triangle is perfectly pieced together and fits into your block like a "dream". Soon they were on their way to making their first block.....

We had all color combinations in the room and EVERY ONE OF THEM WERE AWESOME!!

Our sweet Thelma Henry (pictured above) finished first.... YEA!!! Thelma - good job...heck...she was the last one to enter the classroom and the first one to make a block. I told the room she was a "whizzer" at sewing and "BANG" she proved me right!! GOOD JOB THELMA!!

Look at this wonderful blue & brown color combination! Isn't it gorgeous! Thanks gals for coming from Tampa to be with us! We enjoyed having you here!

The entire group squished in together...showing off their blocks!! Congratulations gals..they are awesome!!

While Paula's students were working on their blocks, I was piecing a new quilt ! It's a copy of an antique bow tie quilt. When I was thinking of a name - I immediately thought of my Grandpa Rawley... we always called him "Pop Clyde" (his first name - Clyde). He was the best grandpa... he was thin, handsome, and neat as a pin! When hugging him he always smelled like Old Spice and Juicy Fruit gum...two of his favorites. When he got dressed up I remember him wearing bow ties. That's how I came up with my quilt name - "Pop Clyde's Bow Ties"!! I can't wait until it's finished. It's in the color palette I love the most "dark and dirty" - the primitive reproduction look.

Vicky was also working on one of our new patterns. Full of feminine soft florals - "Grandma Ruby's Scrap Basket" is surely going to be a beautiful - simple - fast quilt! I can't wait to see it quilted and bound! It's going to be popular...I can tell!!

Grandma Ruby was married to our Pop Clyde. We spent many summers swimming (they always lived by Shriner Lake) and ice skating in the winter...so much that we knew our ankles would break. Isn't it just the best to have childhood memories that will stay with you forever? I still miss both of them to this day. Grandma would spoil us and make our favorite foods when we visited... home made chocolate cream pie and yummy fried potatoes ... we loved them for breakfast! She was the best cook in the world...but oh my... was she a messy cook. I think she dirtied every dish and pan in her kitchen with every meal she made!

Soon our sewing time ended... class was over... BOO HOO!!! It's now time to get the room ready for the trunk show. I was going to vacuum and have all of the thread, scraps and pins picked up and I said to myself - "What the heck for....these gals know we've been sewin' today.... they won't care!" So... we set up more chairs, got Paula's quilts in order for her presentation and went to dinner! It's all about the food you know... and speaking of food... yes we had yummy, yummy dessert breads from Fresh Market...

Paula told the history of each quilt as Vicky and I held them up for her. We soon found out that our arms are NOT in good shape. Wow ... those quilts were heavy! It could be from due to them being so LARGE! Of course... that's what I love to... BIG quilts.

The group loved Paula's presentation... she's a great story teller and brought many laughs and giggles to the group! Too soon the trunk show ended. It was time to visit and shop a little.

What a great day... Paula is a delight and a great friend. I'm so proud of her and Mary Ellen and Marcie... they've been in business a little over 4 years and they have a super website business, over 35 patterns that are sold world wide, and now Paula is designing fabric for Marcus Brothers. That's pretty darn wonderful!!!

Paula is now on her way to Louisiana... she has two teaching engagements and 2 trunk shows. Then she's taking some time to visit with her daughter... We will meet again in just a couple weeks at the Philadelphia show!.... We're travlin' fools... but we must "make hay while the sun shines"!

Chat with you soon... and Sew a bunch today!!

Gloria

Bonnie Blue has entered the building!!

Hi everyone!!! Thanks for following our blog. It's a new, quick and easy way for me to reach all of you and keep you up to date on the Olde Green Cupboard's life!

Paula Barnes from Bonnie Blue Quilts is with us...right now... right here... at the Olde Green Cupboard! Today she, Vicky and I are sewing together ... working on store projects of course. We were going to take her antiquing but she has asked to have a sewing day... poor thing...she never gets to sew. She's always at her computer designing... so you know us... we gladly said YES.. since it's hard for us to get sewing done too.

Saturday she will be teaching one of her new designs - Cabin Creek. Now... let me tell you...this quilt is HUGE. The last show we attended they were our neighbors...right behind me at the cash register. That quilt is so big it was hanging 10' back and over 8' tall... I had to pin the bottom of the quilt up so I wouldn't walk on it and get it dirty. What an awesome piece of work Paula (she's on the left)!!! Good job... and good job to Mary Ellen (she's on the right) that pieced it!

Then Saturday evening she will show us over 30 quilts that she has designed along with a little story about each. We'll have a big crowd for her...!!

Ok... I'm off to get my sewing machine packed along with 50 million other items that you just need to take...'cause if you don't... then you'll need them!!! Know what I mean?

Sew a bunch today!!

Gloria

It's Fall Ya'll !!!

If you haven't had a chance to visit our website... you must do so! We have the entire store decked out for fall and Halloween! It's gorgeous... the gals did a super job... it's my favorite time of the year!

Jill, Sue and I have just returned from Knoxville, TN. This was the first show in Knoxville that had been moved from Nashville. The convention center was awesome... large...bright.... and great folks to work with. We think the attendance was down; however, with this being the first show and the economy.. it was still great for us! I'm sure we will have many more visitors next year. I know I'm pushing for some buses to leave from Jacksonville!! We should have buses going to all of the big shows!

Speaking of big shows... have you heard about the Mancuso Brothers World Quilt Show that will be held in Palm Beach this November? It will be the 13-15 !! Mark your calendars... call all of your girlfriends and make plans to attend. The quilts they have in the show are A+ and they are from all over the world. They are fabulous!!

We're gearing up for our new 5 & Dime that will be this Friday and Saturday morning. Since this is the first session they are normally huge with attendees... so we're going for two mornings to be able to handle the crowd better. Come on in and start this wonderful project. We will have a Christmas and Fall for you to select from... or you can do them both. In addition we have optional stitchery for each season. Each of those patterns will be $2.00. You're going to love them! If you've always wanted to do embroidery... don't be afraid... I'm here to help you! It's so easy and you will become addicted to the calmness of stitching!!

I'm off to work on my new patterns that I'm drafting... oh...by the way.. we have NEW patterns from The Olde Green Cupboard on the website...go take a peek!

Chat with you soon..... gloria