Every year's Quilt for a Cause event is a very special time for our quilters to work together as a team for a greater cause. Last year's was a great cause, and a great success. This year some of our quilters came together again in our large classroom and worked dilligently to finish six whole quilt tops to benefit patients associated with the ALS Association: Fighting Lou Gehrig's Disease. The donated quilts will be given to an ALS patient or used to raise awareness and research money for ALS by being photographed, displayed, auctioned, or raffled. The project, Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS, is sponsored by Quilters Dream Batting, and their website shows the complete list of sponsors.
We snapped a few pictures of our quilters in action. Not only did these gals enjoy a relaxing afternoon of quilting with their fellow friends, but they also quilted for a great cause. And to top it all off, all quilts that are sent in will be displayed on the Quilter's Dream Facebook page! So, get ready ladies: if you were here to help us quilt for this great cause, your work will be displayed on Facebook! :) Thanks again to all of you generous ladies for donating your time and efforts for this great cause!
(Disclaimer: Yes, we realize that Shirley's hair appears to be purple in the above photo. And, no, this is not a doctored photograph! She did, indeed, quilt for a cause wearing purple hair. Doesn't she just brighten your day?)
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A while back through Facebook, Twitter, and here in the shop, we made a shout-out for all of our Jo Morton Little Women Club members to show off their finished quilts. We got a great response! There was a total of 8 different quilters who finished 15 quilts and brought them in for us to display as one giant Little Women Club quilt installation here at Suzanne's! We have to give credit to these eight lovely ladies, so in no particular order, we are displaying the quilts of Shirley Thomas, Pat Hall, Donna Hembree, Joyce Whaley Luke, Dee Motto, Karen Cross, Rae Giddens, and Jane Rogers.
Eight different Jo Morton designs are featured in an array of Jo Morton fabrics. Each lady selected whichever Jo Morton fabrics she wanted to use for each quilt, and we now have a countless number of options to show how remarkably beautiful these Civil War reproduction fabrics can truly be. While some may be subtle, neutral, and quaint in their combination of fabric color/pattern, others are more robust with bright reds, greens, pinks, black, and blues. The combination of these two translations of Jo Morton's fabrics is incredibly striking here on our white walls, and we couldn't be happier to display these beautiful quilts made by our loyal patrons. Thanks, ladies! We love looking at your quilts every day!!! (And you should hear all the compliments you're getting on a daily basis!)
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It's always exciting here in the shop, and we never know which customer is coming in next or what he or she might bring in to show us.
Yesterday afternoon we had a few exciting projects show up. One of our customers Julie Adams brought in a very exciting quilt that she had finished. It was a brightly-colored quilt made from fabrics that were just about every color of the rainbow. The theme of the quilt was airplanes, and it had two main sections: one that was an aerial view of planes, and one that was a view from the ground. One detail that made this quilt even more special was the hand-embroidered message that Julie had sewn across the wingspan of one of the bright yellow planes: "MKA 2009 JPA," and just below that, "I <3 U." How sweet! We couldn't wait to take a picture of the quilt and share it with everyone out in blogland.
Another of our local quilting ladies, Brenda, was in yesterday and today to work on our HandiQuilter here in the shop. Brenda has taken our class with Suzanne on how to use the HandiQuilter, so she was ready to get to work on putting this quilt together and getting it finished. All of the girls in the shop gushed over how beautiful the hues of blue and cream worked together to create the quilt. We all tried convincing Brenda to let us keep it! She stood her ground, though, and said proudly that the quilt was a gift for her son for Christmas (shhhh, don't tell!). While Brenda was working, we snapped some pictures of her at the HandiQuilter getting the quilt ready for the next row of quilting. We also got her working on pinning the edges of the quilt once she had taken it off the HandiQuilter. Now she's ready to do some stitch-in-the-ditch and complete the quilt with binding. What a lucky son Brenda has, for her to be making such a beautiful quilt for him!
We are always looking forward to the next quilter bringing in the next in-progress project or the next finished project. Because we have so many Show-and-Tellers coming in so frequently, we're looking forward to making this Show and Tell a regular post to the blog! So, come on quilters! Show us the projects you're working on!
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We have officially survived our Second Annual Quilt Escape! For a second year, the retreat was held in Norman Park, Georgia at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center. It's a beautiful facility with plenty of space for all 50 participating ladies to spread out and quilt their hearts out. We were fed well (lots and lots of good Southern cooking), many ladies made new friends, and everyone enjoyed the felowship.
Suzanne and Shirley were the two representatives from Suzanne's Quilt Shop just like last year, and they both had a great time presenting this year's participants with their mystery quilt kits. The theme this time around was: Making a Quilt is Easy as Pie! The girls back at the shop had a great time packaging the kits into an extra special package for each lady this year. The mystery quilt kits were kept secret from retreat participants until the grand reveal on the weekend of the retreat, so to be sure each quilter would be elated with her finished quilt, we asked: "Do you prefer Cherry Pie, Caramel Chocolate Pie, Key Lime Pie, or Pumpkin Spice Pie?" This had the retreat-goers wiggling for months in anticipation of the retreat weekend's project. (Suzanne loves to be sneaky!) Final presentation of the "pies" had the quilters elated and ready to sew, especially when Suzanne and Shirley presented the pie themed quilt kits while wearing Chef's hats and aprons!
Of course, the weekend started with a warm and friendly meet-and-greet in the grand entryway of the facility. But not too much time was spent just sitting around and chatting--these ladies came to sew for the weekend, so everyone got settled in pretty quickly:
There were a few opportunities to be distracted from "making pie" and everyone loved each chance to appreciate another quilter's work. First there was a Show-and-Tell of past projects. Quilters brought their finished projects from last year's Retreat, some brought projects they had worked on throughout the year, and one quilter even showed off a beautiful Christmas tree skirt.
Other than breaks for delicious meals made by the spectacular Convention Center Kitchen Staff, the next distraction to stop the quilters' machines from buzzing was a block contest. Each lady brought a block, and three winners were selected from the whole lineup. Everyone did a beautiful job on their Autumn-inspired blocks, and they were all so festive lined up next to each other.
After more quilting, chatting, and having an over-all good time, another contest began: APRONS! The quilters were encouraged to bring an apron they had made and model it for the contest. There were many very distinct and pretty aprons sewn--such a creative bunch of ladies! In the end, three aprons were selected as winners. What better sewing project to judge than aprons for a pie-themed weekend?
The 2009 Fall Quilt Escape was such a hit, we already have quilters signed up for the retreat coming in the Spring of 2010. With only 50 spots to fill, this 2009 Fall Quilt Escape list was overflowing before we knew it and many quilters were lined up on a waiting list. Don't miss your chance to be in on the fun when Spring comes around! Come into the shop or call us to reserve your spot now.
Cherry Pie: Pumpkin Spice Pie:
Key Lime Pie: Caramel Chocolate Pie:
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Our first quilt retreat was held October 31 - November 2, 2008 in Norman Park, Georgia at the Georgia Baptist Convention Center. Cotton was being harvested in the surrounding country side and the leaves were changingIt was a huge success!!! Retreaters came from as far away as South Florida, Alabama, and South Carolina to join our Georgia and North Florida customers. Everyone enjoyed making new friends.
We had a pumpkin block challege and there were 4 winners selected for prizes. Four other retreaters won 12 blocks each to take home and complete into a quilt.
The retreat project was a mystery quilt featuring the Mexican Star. There were 3 color choices of fabric (blue/white, plum/cream and bright batinks on black). You can see some of the fantastic quilts as they developed.
Lots of prizes were given away and everyone is hoping they will meet again next time at the next retreat. Thank you to all for being such wonderful guest!
Suzanne
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The logo for Suzanne's Quilt shop was designed by Beth Dix of Primrose Lane. Beth is a designer of clothing patterns for dolls and children. You can see her designs at www.primroselane.com In addition she is great resource for heirloom sewing supplies. Beth is a quilter and once worked at our shop in Royal Palm Beach. I told her back then that I wanted a new version of a Sunbonnet Sue that would represent a woman heading off to go quilting. She came back a day later with a wonderful sketch.
Since we are celebrating out 20th Anniversary in business and our 10th Anniversary online, I recently had our website revamped. The web designer added colors to the original sketch to give her a new look.
We have an Anniversary Quilt in the making and the logo is going to be an embroided design in the center. Tunie, another former employee, quickly stitched the embroidery design for our quilt. Shirley Thomas, current employee, designed our 20th Anniversary Quilt which is in the process of being made. We will have the pattern and kits available at the Anniversary Celebration coming us soon!
Hope you will be able to attend our 20th Anniversary Celebration. Our official opening date was June 1, 1988. Do to graduations and vacations, we delayed the 20th Anniversary Celebration to Saturday, Sept. 6th. We will be giving away 20 quilts at 3 p.m. You must be in attendance to win. From August 1 - September 6 we are giving a ticket to the drawing for every $10.00 purchase. Starting Saturday, September 30 - September 5 we will be having daily specials in store.
Now where is that girl going? She's going to Suzanne's for the best in quilting supplies!
Happy Quitling,
Suzanne
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Suzanne's Quilt Shop opened in 1988. Five years previously, I became interested in quilting because of a neighbor Linda H. Here we are together hand quilting at the South Florida Fair. Linda is the lady in the background and Suzanne in the foreground. We belonged to the Palm Beach County Quilter's Guild. Each year there was a special competition for a block to go in the quilt made for the fair. Linda and I both had blocks in that quilt.
Linda did not teach me to quilt but she inspired me. I took some lessons from our pastor's wife and at a quilt shop in hand piecing and hand quilting. After the first 2 quilts I wanted to do some quick machine pieicing. I thought I could tear my strips for a log cabin quilt and they would be fine. I created one big mess. Linda said"Try my rotary cutter." I was too cheap to buy a non essential gadget like that. Boy was I wrong! I was hooked on rotary cutting. It was one of those AH HA moments!
I had no sooner started quilting, when I realized I would like to teach quilting. I have a degree in Home Economics Education and loved to sew. Linda and I thought it would be wonderful to own a quilt shop together. We did a little research and realized the timing was not right for us financially. Our children were young and we needed jobs with paycheck and maybe some day it would happen. We each had 3 kids in the same age range and we attended church together.
Linda started teaching pre school and I started teaching home economics to middle schoolers. We tried to find time to meet once a week for quilting. After 5 years I was able to financially open Suzanne's Quilt Shop. Linda could not join me in the business venture. She continued our weekly quilting bee at the shop. She comleted a Baltimore Album quilt while I only made 3 blocks. She was artistic and one of the sweetest persons you would ever know.
I speak of my friend in past tense because Linda passed away at the age of 60 last November of Alzheimer's Disease. This is the only photo I have of the two of us enjoung our hobby. When I last saw her in the nursing home I mentioned quilting. Linda replied "Oh how I loved it so! You and I were going to ........"
Spend some time each week doing what you enjoy with the people you love.
Happy Quilting,
Suzanne
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