Mystery Weekend 49

We completed our final session of Mystery Weekend 49 last weekend with a fun group of veteran Mystery Quilters. We had such a fun series of Mystery Weekends - many folks who've come to Mystery Weekend over and over - and lots of new folks, too! It was inspiring to see so many wonderful fabric combinations as participants worked on their quilts!

One of the highlights of Mystery Weekend is always Show & Tell! We saw quite a few previous mysteries that have been completed and a lot of other fun projects too. There were several versions of the Mystery quilt from last fall - Quilted Gems. We'll be publishing this as a pattern later this spring.

We snapped some photos of the Show & Tell and put them together into a slide show. We've included names for the quilts that were previous Mystery Weekend quilts and are now Glad Creations patterns. Don't worry if you're working on Mystery by Mail 49 right now - we haven't included any photos of the current Mystery project.

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National Quilting Day

National Quilting Day is Saturday. We have the 7th Session of our Scrap Tamers + Marti and Me Club scheduled. There are 135 quilters who have been part of the club this year. We meet in 3 time-slots of 45 members each. We have had a Scrap Tamers club for several years and each year have run it a little differently. This year we combined it with the Marti & Me Club. I think everyone, including me, has learned a lot this year. Each month we have focused on a different tool designed by Marti Michell. Members also receive a free Marti Michell pattern that uses that tool. It's been great fun. One of my favorites was the Good Neighbors pattern using the Small House Template Set. (Nathan and Cheri will be running a summer school class on this quilt) This Saturday the pattern is the Carpenter's Wheel which uses the Marti Michell Set A, based on a 3" unit.

In the other classroom applique lovers will be learning from Pat Cox. We had enough applique lovers to fill both a morning and an afternoon class. They surely make some beautiful quilts.

What will you be doing for National Quilting Day? We know what we'll be doing.

Putting Together a Glad Creations' Kit

We've been busy at the shop assembling kits for Mystery #49. We have the kits all ready for our Mystery Weekend sessions and are now busy cutting fabric for the Mystery by Mail kits.

Have you ever wondered about the process we go through as we create a kit to go with one of our Glad Creations patterns? We start by selecting a group of fabrics to work with. Here we've selected a group of Civil War reproduction prints and a group of Batiks. These are the fabrics for Mystery 49. We'll have information up on the website next week with all the details for Mystery by Mail 49.


Then we spend a few days at the counter - cutting, cutting , cutting.


The final step is assembling the fabrics into a package that's ready for the quilter to take home.

Sometimes it's easy, we just roll them up and tie them into a bundle or fold them into a bag. Other times there's soooo much fabric in the kit that it takes a bit of muscle and some teamwork to get them into their completed form.

Amy was so amused watching Susan & Pat trying to bundle up the Mystery Weekend kits that she decided a video was in order.
If your sound is turned on, you'll hear a bit of giggling!

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Dakota County Star Quilters

Nancy and I will be the guest speakers at the Dakota County Star Quilters meetings on Tuesday, Feb. 14. This will be in conjunction with their quilt show at the Dakota County Historical Society in South St. Paul. You can go to their website at http://dakotacountystarquilters.org/quilt_show.htm to find out all of the details. We show about 30 quilts, some older, some newer and talk about the history of our shop. We also talk about how we design our quilts. We have around 80 quilts in our pattern line now. We're looking forward to meeting new quilters, seeing lots of friends, seeing their quilt exhibit and sharing our story.

A Quilting Retreat

Would you believe that Nancy and I have never gone on a quilt retreat? I know that many of you go on retreats--we've heard all of the fun stories. We know you go again and again, so it must be fun. Well, this is our first. We won't be teaching, just participating. Will we bring enough projects? What if we forget something important? I've been trying to organize my projects today. Of course that was after I finished my mystery quilt which I can't bring with me! I'm bringing parts to make a 7 sisters quilt using the Marti Michell templates, the next project for Scrap Tamers and some parts for the Scrap Tamers mystery quilt. I might get together some half-square triangle paper piecing for a quilt I've always wanted to make--one by From My Heart to Your Hands. Don't quite have it pulled together, but might get some of it organized. Is that enough? I might spend some time on a nature walk--I've heard that the Lanesborough area is beautiful. I've also heard you can get a massage. Now that would be fun. And I've got a new book I'm reading. Oh, and handwork on the binding for the Twin Cities Shop Hop Quilt--may pass it around for anyone wishing to put their feet up and do some handwork. Am I ready????? Did I forget anything???? I'll let you know how it went. Please respond with any tips you have.

Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Part 2

Wow! Another fantastic display of Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilts. I am so impressed at all the effort that has gone into creating these quilts. They're just beautiful. We've had lots of folks through the shop to see the quilts and there have been many complements while trying to select a favorite. Such a fun variety of sets and fabric combinations.

This group of quilts will be on display through Saturday January 21. If you're planning a visit to see this group of quilts, keep in mind that we do have a few classes scheduled during this show. You're welcome to view the quilts while classes are in session but it may be a little harder to get up-close to all of them. Our volunteer group will be working on quilts in the classrooms during the day on Tuesday but they'll be glad to have folks in looking at the quilts. Some of them even have quilts hanging in this show. We'll be open Tuesday evening until 8:30 PM with no class scheduled in the evening so that would be a great time to stop in. The final day of the show, January 21 is also our Scrap Tamers day so one of our classrooms will be a bit crowded. If that's your day to see the show, stop in after 2:00 for the best viewing.

Enjoy the slide show. The first 2 quilts in this slide show are quilts that were in the first exhibit but we didn't have a good photo for the first slide show so we've included them here.

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Sylvia's Bridal Sampler

The first group of Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilts are hanging at the shop and they look fantastic! If you've been following our blog, you'll know that this show is the culmination of 2-1/2 years of work by our Sylvia's Bridal Sampler club. So many members completed their quilts that we'll be displaying them in two groups.

Thanks so much to everyone who finished their quilt and brought it in to share with us. Our New Year's Day shoppers enjoyed the great variety of sets and fun fabric combinations. This group of quilts will be on display through January 10. On the 11th we'll switch everything around and hang a second group of quilts that will be on display January 12 - 21. Enjoy the slide show!

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