Love the new Pineapple Trim Tool

 I got to spend some time playing with the new Pineapple Trim Tool by Creative Grid.  It's a special ruler designed to help you make accurate Pineapple blocks.  Make 6", 8" or 10" blocks.
 

Blocks are squared up after each round of strips is added.  Use the white markings and trim with the diagonal side of the ruler for the odd numbered rounds.  Square up with the black center squares and the 90 degree corner for the even numbered rounds.

 

Add oversized corners and square up the block.  Works beautifully.  It comes with super easy to follow instructions or come in and see our demo boards.  They will show you how easy this is.

Now what fabrics from my stash should I use to make a new Pineapple Quilt?

Show and Tell at Mystery Weekend #51

It's time for another fun slide show! We've had an great time teaching our Mystery Weekend #51 quilt this month. We had about 60 participants for this round of Mystery. Everyone got lots done and loved the quilt. We won't be showing you the new mystery quilt yet because folks who are doing the pattern as Mystery by Mail are just getting started.

Our Mystery Weekends are one of the highlights of the year for us. We love getting together with long-time friends as well as getting to know new friends. One of the best parts of each weekend is the great show and tell that we see. We love seeing the completed quilts from past Mystery Weekends. We're also amazed by all the other inspiring quilts that participants bring to share. It's so fun to see what everyone has been working on.  Thanks to everyone who shared their creations with us!

As you watch the slide show you'll see that quite a few people finished their Mystery #50 quilt from last fall. That quilt is called Fabulous Fifty. We'll have it ready as a pattern later this spring.

So, here's our slide show of the photos we snapped. We added names to the photos that are Glad Creations patterns. Also noted are quilts made in classes at the shop.

 Enjoy!

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Vintage Glad's Quilts

January 1 – 11, 2013

Every year or two the staff at Glad Creations plan a "staff quilt show".  We choose a theme and spend a year (or more) working on quilts of that theme.  It's always a fun process as we select our fabrics and chat about our plans.  This time we decided to each choose one of the early Glad Creations patterns and make it in current fabrics.  Everyone selected a favorite from among the first 24 Glad Creations patterns.  It's been fun to get out the original quilts and see how our fabric selections have changed over the years.  

There are a few days left to stop in the shop to see the quilts.  If you can't come in - enjoy our slide show.

Check out our web site to see our entire line of Glad Creations patterns.

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A special honor!

Nancy and I are excited to share some wonderful news! 
 We have been named the 2013 Quilters of the Year by the  Minnesota Quilters Organization.  This is really a special honor--sort of like getting an academy award within the Minnesota quilting community.  Quilters of the Year are chosen by a vote of  members, which makes this award really special.  Minnesota Quilters is a non-profit statewide organization made up of quilters and quilt lovers.   Its mission is to honor the past, celebrate the present and nurture the future of quilting.  We will be honored at the Minnesota Quilt Show in Duluth in June with  a special display of our quilts and will be looking forward to chatting with show-goers.  Do you think we should still wear our New Year's tiara and feathers?

  We have been blessed to have been in a business that has been something we have loved, a business where we could be creative and enjoy the creativity of others.  We have been blessed to be part of a community of creative, caring friends.  We have been blessed to be able to work with family and with great staff.  We have been blessed to be able to share our knowledge and learn from others.   Who could wish for more?

Now just a little history!

Nancy and Gladys opened Glad Creations in 1976.  That was the bicentennial year when quilting had a resurgence of interest.  Glad, our mother, had a thriving purse-making business in her home.  Nancy was right out of college with a degree in Economics and a new love of quilting.  They combined the 2 interests and opened the shop in a former corner grocery store in South Minneapolis.  We are still in that same location after 36 years!   For the 1^st couple years, Nancy ran the shop and Glad continued working from home, making her purses.  We sold her purses in the shop.  When Glad sold her purse business, she began working in the shop along with Nancy.   I started working there in 1980 and have truly enjoyed being part of this business.
 

Nancy and I have been designing our line of Glad Creations patterns for the last 17 years, since 1995.  We now have  80 different patterns that are sold in shops all over the country.  As many of you know, our line of patterns have some common elements.  They are bed size or lap size scrap style quilts using many different prints.  They have a lot of piecing and many different units, but that is what I think makes them unique.  We pride ourselves on having such complete instructions, that even a quilting novice can be successful.  If you would like to see our line of patterns, go to our website at www.gladcreationsquilts.com.  You can see the whole line of patterns.

We have seen many changes in the quilting industry throughout the 36 years we have been in business  and I think these changes have really made our industry grow.   We have loved to embrace the new ideas, but also respect and teach traditional quilting methods.

We want to thank the members of Minnesota Quilters who gave us this honor.  We are looking forward to the Quilt Show in June. You can find out more information about the Minnesota Quilters 35th Annual Quilt Show & Conference on their website.   It's always a magnificent show.  Hope to see you there!

Susan

Nostalgia!

We have a group that gets together once a month at Glad Creations. We just call it "Quilt Club". It includes our current staff as well as several former staff members – from as far back as 1984! It's fun to get together. We usually see some recently completed projects, sometimes we bring some quilting to work on, there's often a lesson or demo by one of the group members. Sometimes we just enjoy the companionship of long-time friends. 

So, a few months ago some of us started talking about foods that we remembered eating as children. For many of us that was 1950's and 60's. We had so much fun talking about it that we decided to have a 50's – 60's potluck for our holiday get-together. Just a note, some of us could remember those days and some had to do some internet research to come up with a recipe.

Our friend Georgia offered to host. Her south Minneapolis bungalow was all decked out for Christmas. Every room was filled with fun holiday decorations!

Here's the menu
 • Ham salad appetizer - with Ritz Crackers of course.
• Cheesy olive bites – green olives wrapped in a bit of dough (of course with lots of butter and cheese) and baked.
• Buttered popcorn
• Tater tot hot dish (2 types - tuna and ground beef) – of course Mary did due diligence and confirmed that tater tots were introduced in 1953!
• Wienie Wonders – not what you think – it involves hot dogs, hard cooked eggs, sweet pickles and a meat grinder. I think it was a girl scout recipe.
• Porcupine meatballs
• Chicken Tetrazzini
• Orange Jewel jello – complete with mandarin oranges and cream cheese balls.
• Red jello with fruit cocktail.
• And the highlight of the main course – fried Spam topped with fried pineapple and a maraschino cherry!

Desserts followed – Chiffon pie, banana pudding with vanilla wafers and "chocolate oops"!

Wow! What a meal. We should probably all just eat salads for the rest of the week.

We had some fun show and tell. Debbie brought the quilt she's finishing for our staff quilt show "Vintage Glad's Quilts". She used our Shady Grove pattern for her quilt. If you haven't heard about the upcoming show, here's the scoop. Staff members who wanted to participate selected a pattern from a list of the first 24 Glad Creations patterns and made an updated version of the quilt in current fabrics. The quilts will be on display at the shop January 1 – 11, 2013.  We're pretty excited to see all of these quilts hanging.  We'll be getting out the original versions of the quilts too.

Cheri brought her nearly completed Hopscotch quilt to show. She added some special appliqué butterflies. It's going to be a gift for a special friend. All it needs is binding.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday from all of us at Glad Creations!

Mystery Weekend #50 Show & Tell at Glad Creations

Wow! We've finished our 4th session of Mystery Weekend #50 here at the shop. We had about 75 participants in 4 sessions. We saw loads of fun show & tell - always a highlight of the weekend!  It's so fun to see all the wonderful designs and fabric selections. We snapped some photos so we can share it with you!

We saw quite a few quilts that were started in previous Mystery Weekends. I've labeled the names of quilts that were made using Glad Creations patterns. We also saw several versions of Glacier Star, a quilt designed by Judy Niemeyer, that were started in a class at the shop with instructor Julie Arrowood. We saw a couple Bali Wedding Star quilts too, also from a Judy Niemeyer design, started in class with Julie this past year.

So, sit back and enjoy the show!

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Fall Classes--What's new?

Now that the summer sale is over, it' s time to plan for our fall classes.  We're now in the midst of planning the fall class schedule. (this is hard when it's 100 degrees outside). Watch for it in your mailbox or on the website early in August.  We've got some fun new classes in the making.  Of course, we'll have the basic hand and machine classes offered as always but it's always fun to add some new ones.  Julie is coming up with a couple new Judy Neimeyer classes.  Dee is planning a handwork club and will again offer her Electric Quilt class.  Cheri will be teaching handquilting along with her color clubs.  Pat and Annemarie can get you started with good basic quilting classes.  Nancy and I are planning the next mystery weekend--and mystery by mail.  This will be number 50!  Can you believe it?  I'll also be teaching the North Star Quilt using the Spotlight tool.  Have you seen the sample at the shop?  First day to signup for classes will be Thursday, August 16.

We'll also be starting a new year of our Scrap Tamers Plus From Marti and Me Club.  This club will run for 9 months, once a month, and has been very popular.  Last year for the 1st time, we combined our Scrap Tamers with the From Marti and Me club.  Each month we focused on a different tool and members received a pattern using that tool.  Members learned a lot about using the Marti Michell tools and rulers.  We learned a lot too so we'll be combining the clubs again!

One of the favorite features of our club has been the scrappy mystery quilt. Each month, members received instructions to make a section of the quilt.  Many of the club members showed their finished tops at the last class.  It's always great fun to see the same quilt pattern in different fabric and color combinations.  We've included some photos from the last class.  Watch for this quilt to turn into a pattern!  We named it Hopscotch.  We're planning the next Scrap Tamers mystery quilt now and it's going to be fun. 
And of course we always show you all the new things that have arrived at the shop so you are among the first to know. First day to sign up for Scrap Tamers Plus From Marti and Me is Saturday, August 25. 

 Mark the dates for class signup and Scrap Tamers signup on your calendars!  And don't forget the Quilt Minnesota Shop hop runs from August 3 to August 19.  We're getting some samples made using the fun new fabrics designed especially for the hop.  Hope to see you then.