Retreat from Old Man Winter

Have you had enough winter? I certainly have. I am ready for a great retreat. Someplace I can eat a lot of good food, go and sew all day, eat a lot of good food, shop for great things, eat a lot of good food; did I mention eat even more CHOCOLATE?

Have you signed up for such a thing? I have! The Legendary Quilting Retreat is a happening place on March 5-7 at The Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City. Join us for all the fun.

You will check in on Friday afternoon to a beautiful room that includes a microwave, refrigerator, tv and full sofa, plus a balcony, and then sew all evening. On Saturday you can sew all day on your own project or you may participate in the FREE Mystery Class taught by our own Dana Brue (Dana is from Atlanta and if she does not have you speaking Southern before the day is over, you are never going to learn!). She is a delightful person and a great teacher. You will be provided fabric requirements and cutting directions ahead of time so you may use your personal collection of fabrics or choose from one of three kits we will be offering.

In the evening you may sew if you choose or you may come to the shop for an all-out Death By Chocolate desert event. We will have lots of fun things for you at the shop including discounts and special items. Not to mention more chocolate than anyone needs. (humm, did someone say wine?????)

On Sunday you may sew all morning or try to work off some of that chocolate by shopping around The Legends shopping area.

The Great Wolf Lodge is providing special pricing on all the Spa treatments for our retreat members and The Legends' shops will provide you with many discounts for their best shops and restaurants.

Each participant will receive a new tote from The Quilters Quarters that will be filled with fun quilting items as well as a FREE QUILT KIT (just in case you run out of anything to sew on).

Space is limited so don't wait too long to sign up.

Do you ever wonder what a group of quilt shop employees do in their spare time? For Christmas this year the staff and I adopted a family from a local charity organization and began to be Santa's for this young family. The father (21) had just lost his job and the mom (20) was a stay-at-home mom with two small girls (18 months and 2 1/2). We had a ball shopping for these people.

When we had our staff dinner at my house, we wrapped all the gifts and had them ready to deliver the next week. One of the staff even donated a beautiful wooden rocking horse that was her grandson's. She said it had no one to ride it and she knew it would be well loved in its new home.

These ladies were more than generous with their time and money and hopefully, helped make the holidays happier for a young family. I am posting photos of the wrapping party.

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2010! Did you see the ball drop in Times Square on New Year's Eve? It was beautiful. Well, I have decided that we cannot let the ball drop on a very good program this year. American Patchwork and Quilting is sponsoring a 1 million pillowcase challenge. The idea is to donate at least 1 million pillowcases to charity.

The Quilters Quarters is going to participate in the challenge and we invite you to join us. If you purchase one pillowcase kit from us at regular price, make a pillowcase and return it to us, we will give you a $5 gift certificate that can be used on anything in the store (excludes more pillowcase kits). You can return ANY pillowcase and as many pillowcases as you want.

The way it works is simple. Buy one, donate one, get $5. You may keep the ones you purchase for your personal use if you want to and use your stash to make the donation one. We don't care what fabric is donated so long as it is new cotton fabric. Use some of the stash that is sitting unloved on your shelves and get new for your use. The person who receives your pillowcase will love it as it will be new to them.

Want $100 in gift certificates? Order 20 kits, return 20 pillowcases and you will receive $100 to spend on anything in the shop (excluding pillowcase kits).

Let's see how much good we can do for those who need it. We will start with the local shelter for donations and if we fill their needs, we will move on the other charitable organizations. The sky is the limit on this one. Make a new one for each of your children and grandchildren, donate one each of their names.

We will be adding new kits each day or you can just tell us you want a "1 Million Pillowcase Kit" and we will choose a pretty one for you.

Join us to have some fun and make some people very happy. This is an on-going project for the entire year of 2010!