Lone Star Show

Here's a sneak peek of the Lone Star Show. Our staff has done an incredible job. We have 14 fantastic quilts on display. I'll be posting a slide show of the entire show in a few days.
Nancy

And the new year begins

At this time of year it's always fun to reflect on the events of the 2010 and look forward to 2011.

It's been a good year for Glad Creations. We spiffed up the shop with new carpet throughout and fresh paint. It was a trial when going on, but well worth it! Our staff all pitched in and we are forever thankful!

We had some fun events this year. The Twin Cities Shop Hop is always great fun and such a nice group of shops to work with. The Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop was also fun. Such creativity in the quilting world. Nancy and I were the speakers at 3 different quilt guilds this year. We put on the program for the Chaska Quilters, the Deep Valley Quilters in Mankato and the Rochester quilt guild. It was great fun to meet all of those quilters and to share some of our quilts and some of Glad's prize winning appliqued quilts. Glad attended with us and thoroughly enjoyed it. We also enjoyed the Minnesota Quilt show in St. Cloud this year. It was great fun to touch base with quilters around the state and to share our love of quilting.

Personally, 2010 was a great year. Our family was blessed with good health and good times. We were also blessed with the arrival of a 2nd grandson, Win. What can be better than that?

So what will 2011 bring us? We are looking forward to another great year. It is starting out with one of the greatest quilt displays we have put up. The Lone Star Show is amazing. Our staff really went all out making some magnificent quilts. Be sure to come in to see it. It will be up through January 8. We know we will have those fun shop hops to look forward to. Also the Minnesota Quilt show in St. Paul. We will be the speakers this year at the St Cloud Heritage Quilters Guild and also the Women of the West. And who knows what else will pop up?

We wish all of you a wonderful 2011. Thank you for all your support this past year. We look forward to seeing many of you, enjoying your quilting accomplishments and getting to know you all even better.

White Christmas

OK, all you quilters that have been dreaming and wishing for a white Christmas. You can stop now! Your wishes have come true! It definitely will be a white Christmas! After 2 snow emergencies in Mpls, they have now restricted parking for the rest of the winter. So, just a word of warning--there is no parking on the North side of 34th street. (that's across the street from the shop) until April 1--or until a lot of this snow melts. You can park on the south side of 34th (the side the shop is on) or on either side of Bloomington Ave. This may be frustrating at times, but you will find it much easier to drive on the Mpls streets. You may want to car-pool if possible, especially on a class day. Those of you coming to Scrap Tamers could come to one of the smaller afternoon sessions for easier parking if that would work for you.
Enjoy the beauty of the snow, think warm thoughts, get some quilting done and we hope to see you soon.

Mystery Weekend 46

We've just finished our 4th session of Mystery Weekend 46. What fun! We can't show the Mystery Quilts yet because folks are still working on their Mystery by Mail 46 quilts and we don't want to spoil the surprise for them. We can share all the great "show and tell" that Mystery Weekend participants brought along to share. We saw lots of previous mystery quilts and many other fun quilts as well. It was great to see how many folks completed their "Fancy That" quilt from the March 2010 Mystery Weekend. So many beautiful fabric combinations! Enjoy the slide show. We've labeled the quilts that are Glad Creations designs.

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Holiday Fun

We always get into the holiday spirit at the shop by making Christmas stockings for the Aliveness Project. It is always great fun to get all the staff together to work on these. We all bring fabric from home and spend a couple hours doing assembly line sewing. Of course every single year we forget how to make them--but I guess that's also part of the fun. Eleven of us got together in November and made 34 stockings.
How are you coming on your Christmas shopping? Be sure to sign up for our gift registry . You could list books you've had your eye on, a special Glad Creations kit, a gift certificate for a class or merchandise. How about the new EQ 7? Or maybe an assortment of fat quarters or Aurifil thread or a specialty ruler. We're hoping to make it easy for that non-quilting gift giver. Tell your husbands, children, parents, friends you have signed up at the shop. We will even do free gift wrapping! Can't be much better than that!

Quilters Gift Registry

The time for gift giving is upon us. We're looking forward to family and friends coming into the shop looking for holiday gifts. Many times those shoppers have a look of absolute confusion on their faces. How can we help? We're starting a Quilter's Gift Registry this weekend. Come into the shop, fill out a registration sheet listing specific items you would like and take a few reminder cards home with you to tell your loved ones you are registered at Glad Creations. All the shopper has to do is ask to see your registration sheet. Easy as pie! We'll keep the registration sheet in a binder at the shop and you can update it whenever you would like. How fun to receive exactly what you are wishing for. We will even do free gift wrapping on most items. Wait until you see our wild and fun gift wrap!
Hope to see you soon. Be thinking about specific books, patterns, kits or fabric lines you would like. Or maybe you want to ask for a gift certificate to be used for merchandise or a class.
May all your wishes come true!

Quilt Market

Walking through Quilt Market today wearing my hand knit sweater and who should come running up to me but Kaffe Fassett saying, "Oh, can you wait here....... Brandon Mably designed that sweater and he has to see it." So, off to get Brandon, lots of nice complements then a stop by the booth for a photo. What fun!

Ready for the quilter!

My Oh My Stars quilt top is done. Can't wait to see it quilted. The photo shows only part of it. I couldn't get far enough away in my sewing room for a complete photo. It will be part of our Glad Creations Lone Star quilt show in January 2011. Check out Dee's blog too. Her Lone Star in Ohio looks wonderful. The staff is really working hard to make a wonderful exhibit. I can hardly wait to see what everyone has made.
Susan

Oh, My Stars Quilt

I'm finally back to working on my Lone Star Quilt for the Glad Creations show in January. I hope I get it done in time! I have a quilting date in December! I'm making the Oh, My Stars Quilt by American Jane patterns. I absolutely fell in love with this quilt when we saw it at market. I've got all the lone stars done and all the 132 four inch stars done. Luckily I had the Wing Clipper Ruler to help make all those tiny flying geese units for the sawtooth stars. Here's a sneak preview of the parts. Next step is to sew the little stars together into sashing units. Then I can start sewing the top together. I think I might actually finish in time!

Take Four Placemats

What to do with all those fat quarters! The Take Four pattern by Something Sew Fine might be the answer. 4 fat quarters will make 4 placemats. Just add the back and fleece for an easy gift. I made a set with Autumn fabrics--will start another set today using the Quilt Minnesota prints. The pattern includes 5 variations so you can have fun making some choices and uses the slice and shuffle technique. Check them out when you come in to the shop.

Scrap Tamers

First day to sign up for the 2010-2011 session of Scrap Tamers is this Saturday, August 28. We will start signing up quilters at 9:30 AM. We have made a poster of the quilt patterns we will be focusing on this year, along with a time table. We will be using patterns designed by Kaye England for the Bread and Butter Society. (Not sure why I thought all of you quilters liked to be kept in the dark!) I am amazed every year when I drive up to the shop and see the long line of quilters waiting to come in to sign up. It always gets the neighbors talking. And makes me hungry for donuts! If you are in the area and wish to fill out the registration form ahead of time, we do have copies at the shop. You can pick them up for yourself and your friends. It really does speed up registration! If you want more information about Scrap Tamers club, visit our website, check out our class schedule or come into the shop. Looking forward to Saturday!

Wedding Quilt

What a fun weekend! Lots of great family time and a beautiful wedding. Doug and Hayley received the Bali Wedding Star after the rehearsal dinner at our house on Friday Night.

Family fun

What a glorious day for a wedding. Nancy's middle son is getting married today and we could not have asked for a nicer day. Carol has come from Tennessee for the wedding so it's been a fun week of chatting, reminiscing and of course eating lots of Glad's chocolate chip cookies. Life should get back to normal next week.
The class schedule is at the printers. You should be getting it sometime in the first week of August. There will be some fun new classes offered and of course all of our basic classes. Annemarie will be hosting a new club called the Groovy Girls Sewing Club and we will be starting a new session of Scrap Tamers. Signup day for classes is Thursday, August 12. Signup for Scrap Tamers club will be Saturday, August 28. Just a reminder that we will be closed Thursday July 29 for inventory.
The Quilt Minnesota State shop hop starts on Friday, July 30. Be sure to come and visit us during the shop hop. You can pick up your passport at the first shop you go to. Come and see the new fun samples we made using the shop hop fabric.
Susan

Wedding Star - ready to quilt!

I finally finished piecing the Bali Wedding Star quilt for my son's wedding. I shipped it off to Carol on Monday for quilting. It should be back just in time to get the binding on - the wedding is July 24! I know some of you have seen it in process so I'll try to have it in the shop for a couple days around July 15 - 17 for anyone who wants to see the finished product (sans binding!). I'm expecting that the UPS man will bring it mid day on the 15th.
This was another great pattern from Judy Niemeyer. It's foundation pieced using a really neat strip piecing technique. The blocks went together nicely after following her pressing instructions which were planned so that all the seam allowances would wedge.
Thanks to Judy for a great pattern.
Nancy

Minnesota Quilters show

We are starting to get all packed up to go to the Minnesota Quilters Show in St Cloud. Hope we can get all the new goodies in 2 cars. We will have 2 brand new quilts on display plus lots of others and a new mystery by mail ready. We will also be demonstrating some of our favorite tools. We have fallen in love with the rulers made by Deb Tucker for Studio 180 Designs. We'll show you how to use the Tucker Trimmer, the Wing Clipper and the Square-squared rulers. Hope you stop by our booth (H204-206). We're looking forward to seeing you. The show runs from Thursday, June 17 -Saturday June 19. It's always one of the highlights of the year!
Susan

Quilt Market Review

The International Quilt Market was in Minneapolis this spring. Nancy and I found a lot of new items--books, patterns, tools, ideas, fabric. We met and talked to quilt shop owners from all over the country and had many shop owners visit the shop. Fun to show it off! Come join us for a preview showing of some of our favorite finds. We've scheduled a showing on Saturday, June 12 at 10:00. Call and reserve a chair for the event. If the 10:00 session fills, we'll schedule additional time slots. I took a photo of just some of the things we'll be showing. I know you're dieing to know what's in the bottom of the basket! New items are coming in every day! Can hardly wait for the delivery man to come. Come and join us on June 12 if you're able. Be sure to call to hold a spot.

International Quilt market

We are very excited that Quilt Market will be in Minneapolis this spring. We wish to welcome all you quilt shop owners to our wonderful city. We will have many of our Glad Creation quilts on display at the shop. One of our newest patterns is called Tapestry. We have samples made in 2 different color combinations. Check out our website for the complete list of our patterns.
We are only about 15 minutes away from the Convention Center and very easy to get to. We will be open until 8:30 on May 17, May 18, May 24, and May 25. Hope all you visiting quilters will have a chance to come to our shop.

And the winners are

Congratulations to the winners of our quilt giveaway. Judy Thayer won the Magic Carpet quilt and Gloria Meyer won the Twice as Nice. I think they were both thrilled and we were thrilled for them. We were glad so many of you came in to see our new carpeting. We only wish we could have given quilts to all of you. We thank you so much for being a part of our lives. We have made so many friends through quilting and appreciate the support you have given us. We hope to see you all soon.

Are you coming?

Two days until the Twin Cities Shop hop. It's always a really fun time. We have our folders stuffed with all the information you need to start the hop, our sample made, kits ready, new samples hanging, door prizes ready and the shop all spiffed up. All 10 shops are ready for 3 days of fun. Its been great getting to know the other shop owners and working together for this fun event. Get in the drawing to win some really great prizes by getting your card stamped at each of the shops. We are giving away 4 sewing machines, a bundle including a $50 gift certificate from each shop and each shop will have it's own selected prize worth $200. Ours includes a kit to make the Forever Friends quilt. I love that quilt!
Hope to see you and good luck on winning. Susan

Twin Cities Shop Hop

The Twin Cities Shop Hop runs next week from April 29-May 1. Fun, fun, fun! Visit all 10 shops to be eligible for the great prizes. Each shop will be giving out a pattern for a 9" quilt block. You need to go to all 10 shops to receive the block patterns. This year each shop has designed it's own quilt with those 10 blocks. Not only that--each has made the quilt with it's own selection of fabrics. This is our quilt. It's called Salt Water Taffy and was designed by Amy Miller, one of our staff members. We think she made a wonderful quilt. We have a poster showing the quilts from each of the different shops. You can see the poster at our shop or if you are a member of Facebook, you can see it on the Twin Cities shop hop facebook page. Each shop hop participant will receive a coupon for one free layout. If you love more than one, you can purchase others. We hope to see you during the Twin Cities Shop Hop. It's a fun event with great prizes, displays and demos. Hope you can join in the fun.
Susan

Mystery Weekend 45

March was a busy month with 4 sessions of Mystery Weekend 45. Nearly 80 people participated in this round of Mystery Weekend sessions! Now we can reveal our quilts. We call this quilt "Fancy That!". We'll be adding this quilt to our line of Glad Creations patterns sometime this summer.



One of the highlights of Mystery Weekend for us is the Show and Tell. We saw lots of recently completed quilts - what a productive group. Check out the slide show below of the Show and Tell from all 4 sessions. I added quilt names to the designs that are Glad Creations patterns.

By the way,the new carpet is in place and we've put the shop back together - whew! Come in and check it out.
Nancy

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New Carpet

You think you have a stash! We just spent 2 days cleaning out the entire shop to get ready for the new carpet. What a job! Thanks ever so much to staff, family and friends, the upstairs and downstairs are almost empty and the carpet is now being installed. The bathroom, office and basement are mighty full! You might worry about an avalanche in the bathroom. And you have to make yourself very thin to enter the office. It will be a huge job to get everything back in the right spot. But we can hardly wait to see it all finished. We will be reopening on April 6. Be sure to come in to check it out and also to enter the drawing to win one of two bed sized quilts. We will be ready for a celebration!
See you soon, Susan

Emily Dyer

I had a few minutes this morning to catch up with some online contacts. While checking up on some Facebook friends I came across this great video that Emily created about her ceramics business. For anyone who doesn't know, Emily is Susan's daughter. She's worked at the shop in the past and now takes care of our web site and graphic design needs. She's done a great job of sharing in this video. You'll all want to go visit her at her Northrup King studio after watching her video!
Nancy

Cleaning out

What happens when you are getting new carpet? We're cleaning out! The thought of moving everything is really overwhelming. So, we moved some notions, patterns, books and lots of fabric up to the half-price room. Come take a look and help us out! This picture is only a small section of the marked down items. Maybe you will find that treasure you've been looking for. Our carpet installation dates will be March 31- April 5 during which we'll be closed . Then remember to come into the shop between April 6 and April 24 to be entered into the drawing to win one of 2 queen size quilts. You can add your name to the quilt give-away drawing each time you come in. How fun is that! And you will be able to see how wonderful our shop looks. Hope to see you soon.
Susan

Layer 'em Up #2

Our 2nd Wednesday Demo this month will be on the technique in the book Layer 'em Up #2 by Sharyn Craig. I will be showing this technique on Wednesday, February 10 from 1:00-5:00. It's a fun technique and a well written book. It's a stack, slice, shuffle, sew and square up technique so makes for a fast and easy quilt. It's also a great stash quilt since you can use so many different fabrics. The book includes several different options for "box" blocks. Within each option, you can vary the look of the block by changing the measurement of your slices. I might need to keep this quilt for myself. It looks really nice on my couch.
Susan

Wedding Star

I got together with my son Doug and his fiance Hayley last week to select a pattern for a wedding quilt. We spent some time looking at patterns I'd selected as possibilities. I wanted to get an idea of what colors they like and what kinds of patterns appealed to them. We ended looking at Judy Niemeyer's web site and when Hayley saw the Wedding Star, she knew that was the one.

Wow, what a fun project this will be! I starting selecting batiks in gradations. I still have lots more to pick, but here's the beginning.

The wedding's in July. I think I'll be busy!

Nancy

Too Many Batiks?????

Is it possible to have too many batiks? Shelly and I pulled 60 bolts from the batik colorwall today to make room for all the great recent arrivals. Those 60 bolts are in the half-price area now. We all did a bit of shopping as we moved the bolts upstairs but there's still lots to choose from. Stop in soon to see the selection - they won't last long.......

Nancy

New Years Resolutions

Do you ever look at those beautiful photos of sewing rooms in magazines and books and feel jealous? I do! Oh, to have all that space and everything in its place.
The best part about not completing your new years resolutions is that you can use the same ones again. So this year I will try again to conquer the sewing room mess. OK, this photo was taken last year and nothing much has changed. If fact, it may be worse. I will try again. But maybe not until I finish this next project I'm working on.
Susan