Marby and Casey's Fans quilt

These Are a Few of Our Favorite Things

Oh the creativity of quilters! One great thing about working at the Quilter's Inn is seeing an incredible variety of quilts, and quilters. We love when our customers bring in the projects made from the fabrics we sell them. Spontaneous show and tell makes our day, so please come in as soon as you finish something.

Everyone who works here is a quilters, and we recently had a chance to share some of our own projects. Many of you know and love Marby Bennett, who teaches many of our classes, including the raucous, wonderful crowd at her Tuesday night drop-in, as well as her Thursday Beginner's group. Marby showed us a beautiful quilt that was the first she and her daughter Casey made together. Casey is now one of the most prolific quilters we have the pleasure to know.

And none of us can figure out how the heck the amazing Kathy August, Jane's right-hand woman, accomplishes all that she does. Kathy is shown here displaying a First Grade quilt based on Eric Carle's The Hungry Caterpillar.

Alethea Ballard, teacher by day and wild quilter the rest of the time, decided to make her own rendition of the French Roses quilt by Heather French. Love the way she used the different sized roses to surround the Lady.

Many of you may own Jennifer Rounds' pattern Rose Wreath, and may even have taken a class with her. Jennifer's newest quilt is a stunning abundance of dimensional roses in a beautiful blue and white urn. The quilt will be on display at the Pacific International Quilt Festival, which takes place in Santa Clara next week. Check out www.quiltfest.com.

Aprons are hot right now, and Beth Klingle at the is having a blast making them for adults and kids. Here she is modeling one of our favorites. Check her website at www.fromgrammmywithlove.com.

NEW FABRIC FLASH: We received a beautiful new line called Gipsy Glitter from Art Gallery Fabrics, a manufacturer of some truly unique designs. Come see them, and pick up a free pattern while they last.

Tablecloths, tea towels, and layer cakes from Moda, oh my! Come and get em while they last.

One of the area's most beloved teachers/authors/quilters, Diana McClun, and her partner Laura Nownes are featured in the latest issue of Mark Lipinski's Quilter's Home. Love the sewing structure, Diana, and the fact that you included a kitchen so Laura can back cookies for your students!

Celebrities in the News

It was great visiting with local author and quilter Terri Thayer and her friends Ruth Carter and Maureen Lardie. Look for her quilt mysteries, Wild Goose Chase and Old Maid's Puzzle.

We've Got a Winner!

We wonder how many people were surprised by the weight of the ball, which was about 3.75 lbs. Shocked us when we put it on the scale at Lunardi's--thought it would come in much higher. Congratulations to Tina Kauffman of Alamo for her winning guesstimate! Here sister, Karen, wasn't as lucky, but we won't mention that at all.

To everyone who came in and dropped a guess in the box, had a piece of cake, and shopped during our 4th Anniversary event, a huge thank you! Hope you had as much fun as we did.

If you didn't make it in, there is still plenty of half-price bolts on hand. Think of all the backings you could stock up on!

Four Years Already!

First of all, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO ALL OF US!

To all of our fabulous customers who have walked through the the doors of The Quilter's Inn in the past four years, a HUGE thank you! We couldn't have done it without you. Plus how much fun would it be if we were just hoarding all of this fabric, and you didn't come see us? We have the very best customers. Neenar.

And so we say, Let them eat cake! Starting tomorrow morning, please stop by and enjoy a piece of cake and a chat. AND a discount on your entire purchase. Our in-house guru, the wonderful Margaret Linderman (or Linderperson for a more neutral last name), came up with the idea of saving all our bolt end strips and rolling them into a ball. Well, the idea snowballed (pardon us, we just can't help ourselves), and we have a rather large Bolt-End Ball.

ARE YOU FEELING LUCKY? If you have been in lately and guessed The Ball's weight, good luck. We will be picking a winner and the prize is a $100 gift certificate. Woo hoo! So stay tuned for a photo of the final weigh-in (remember those technical difficulties we mentioned?). We think you'll be surprised. Kind of like, what's lighter than a watermelon but heavier than a hummingbird? Huh? The BIG BOLT-END BALL!

AND it gets better. You're all invited to join the Stripper Club. Everyone who walks in will be handed a strip from the ball with a percentage marked on it. That will be the discount for your entire purchase, and it will be more than the regular guild discount. :) So come on in and get happy. What makes you happier than fabric? OK, so after your cake you can go get ice cream to make it a perfect day.

Either before or after your stop here, make sure you take a drive down to Alden Lane Nursery for Quilting in the Garden. If you've never been, it is a great two-day event organized by the always wonderful Alex Anderson, whose special guests this year include Joen Wolfrom and Melinda Bula, and fellow teracher Cindy Needham. Check it out at www.aldenlane.com/stitch.html.

NEW FABRIC FLASH: Beautiful new collection from Westminster called Daisy Chain from Amy Butler; Moda Collection for a Cause by Howard Marcus, and Charisma Layer Cakes and Jelly Rolls that are just all gorgeous.

So y'all stop by to see us, hear? And by the way, welcome back to our blog. We apologize for the huge gap in time.

Field Trip

Jane and I have been having too much fun to blog. So sorry. We just got back from a week at Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar Conference Center. We ended up in class together with rockin' Rosemary Eichorn, collage artist, teacher, and lecturer extraordinaire. We learned a ton.

If you've never been, we highly recommend it. If you start putting aside about $50 every two weeks you can go next year, and it is totally worth it. Just think--no shopping, menu planning, cleaning, cooking for vie whole days. The beach is right across the street. And you are in the company of quilters and master teachers. It is almost too much fun.

For five glorious days we showed up for class at 9 a.m. and stayed until at least 4 p.m. Rosemary is a generous teacher, and introduced us to a huge variety of techniques to use on our unique quilts. We played with Angelina and Crystalline fibers, painted Tyvek and used heat to make it bubble and shrink, and foiled to our heart's content. Shiva Paintstiks, fabric paints, fusible film, you name it, we tried it. We bravely went where we had not been before, and had a blast in class. And while we worked Rosemary often read snippets from some of her favorite books about creativity.

I have to admit to being a bit cross-eyed today at work. Last night I woke up at 2 a.m. (it's a funny time of life, if you know what I mean), and started reading Writing Down the Bones. It's a book Natalie wrote about the process of writing, and I couldn't put it down. I read til 4:30 a.m., then woke up and couldn't wait to either write or quilt. I worked a bit more on the quilt I started in Rosemary's class. It's a "vision quilt" that will help me through the process of writing my first novel. Yes, it's about quilters. Among the photos is a shot of a cottage where my main characters meet for a romantic weekend. Stay tuned.

Jane finished her table runner, and it is gorgeous. Photo to come. Stop in to see it, OK? In the meantime, here are some scenes from the past week. Come see us and we'll tell you more.

Our UPS guy, Shane, has been busy bringing us boxes. Some of the newest attractions include Eric Carle's The Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar from Andover; new designs by Dena Fishbein; Budda Party by Free Spirit; Anna Griffin's Sierra; and we restocked on lots of our favorite Kaffe Fasset's. Stop by and we'll also tell you more about Asilomar.