Projects our customers shared!

It is always fun when our customers share their projects with us. This week I will share two of their projects with you. Debbie Due, from Centennial, CO, was in the store last Saturday during the Rocky Mountain Quilt Fever Shop Hop and was lucky enough to win a door prize--a charm pack from Moda fabrics. Well, Tuesday she brought in this wonderful little quilt top. We thought it was so cute and loved the pattern. I love the tiny sashing. The pattern is from an Art to Heart book and we are researching which book it is from. It is a great pattern for a quick present or for a charity quilt. Thanks Debbie for sharing your quilt with us.

The other quilt we have to share was made by Carolyn Green's 8-year old grandaughter Emily. Emily made this charming Halloween quilt all by herself and won 2nd place at the Firehouse Quilt Show in July. She even free motioned some original Halloween motifs in the border. Very nice, and congratulations Emily! Thank you, too, for sharing.

Thank you both for sharing your creative endeavors!

Lynda and Nancy

Good listens or reads!

It's been awhile since I listed the books that I've been listening to on my way to and from work. It seems like I got into a more serious reading mood as you will see.

House Rules is by Jodi Picoult. I enjoy Jodi' books and they always seem to have a surprise ending and this one is no exception. House Rules is about a boy named Jacob, his mother, and brother. Jacob has a high functioning form of autism called Asperger's syndrome. I did not know anything about Asperger's--how it affects the person who has it as well as the family, and found it to be very interesting. Jacob is a forensic science wizard which gets him in trouble with the law. He has trouble communicating with the lawyers and the judge showing how our legal system does not always work well for people who can't communicate 'normally'. It is narrated by several people and is about 20 hours.

My next listen was My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor. Jill is a neuroscientist who had a stroke at age 37. She articulates the actual shutdown of her brain. The book is divided into sections. The first part gives a greater understanding of how the brain functions. In the second part, Jill articulates having the stroke, defining to herself that it really is a stroke, and then describing the actual shutting down of her brain. In the third part, Jill describes the methods and therapies that she used to get her brain functioning normally again, a process of about 8 years. For the most part, I enjoyed it. It got a little tedious at some points, but I highly recommend it to someone who has had a stroke and/or to their caregivers. It has some very valuable information about how to work with a stroke victim to help them regain their skills. The book is narrated by the author.

And then I got an iPad and actually read a book. : ) Still Alice was recommended to my by my friend Judy. It is a fictional story about a 50 year old Linguistics Professor at Harvard who develops early onset Alzheimer's. I found it to be very insightful and helped me understand a little more about such a horrible disease, and how it affects the victim as well as the family. I thought at first that it might be very depressing, and it was a little, but it was also a tender love story.
OK! Now for a recommendation on a happy and fun book. Finger Lickin Fifteen is another novel in the Stephanie Plum series. I find these books to be delightful getaways. I haven't listened to them all, so I'm not tired of the series nor the characters as some other reviewers have said. The first time my daughter listened to one of them with me she just rolled her eyes and complained. A couple of months later I found her reading the next one and she has already read Sizzling Sixteen and I didn't even know it was out. If you start reading this series, be ready to fall in love with Joe Morelli or Ranger or better yet, both.

Last, but not least, I re-listened to The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo on a trip to Aspen a few weeks ago. My husband was interested in it and I wanted to hear it again before I watched the movie--especially since it is in Swedish with sub-titles. Loved it all over again!

Well, that's all for now. If you've read anything that you would like to recommend, please comment. Until next time,

Happy listening and/or reading,

Lynda

PS My next listen might be Eat, Pray, Love again before I go to see the movie>

It's finally here, Rocky Mountain Shop Hop 2010!!!!!!!!!!

We have 7 shops in our Rocky Mountain Quilt Fever Shop Hop. The Hop lasts for 3 days-- Friday, August 6th through Sunday, August 8th, 2010.

This year each shop chose a patchwork block and made two of them. We also chose two reproduction fabrics in the same colorway--one medium and one dark. In our case we colored our block in two different ways. One of our blocks is in the upper right hand corner. See if you can find it's match. We were then free to design an exclusive setting for our quilt. As you can see from the picture, we have more than 14 blocks. We chose one of the blocks and made 3 more for the setting blocks in the corners. All of the light fabric in the blocks and border of our quilt is the light combination of the exclusive toile fabric. It made for a very nice background for the patchwork as well as the applique.


Hoppers go to each store, buy a kit to make two blocks (or get the pattern for free) and choose their favorite quilt setting. I've seen most of the settings and they are all unique, but guess which one I feel is the prettiest?

We will have some great demos going on and lots of new product. Nancy is especially excited about a new ruler called Leaves Galore. She has put together a wonderful storyboard showing some of the great things this ruler can do. Several of us want the set of 3, but we will wait until Shop Hop is over to see if there are any left.

We hope to see many of you during the next few days and if you can't come, check back here and we will let you know how it turned out.

Happy Hopping,

Lynda

P.S. Check the blog below for close-up pictures of the exclusive Toile fabric from RJR and our website for close-ups of the blocks. http://www.greatamericanquilt.com/

Rocky Mountain Quilt Fever, Shop Hop 2010, part 1

Yay! Shop Hop 2010 is finally here!!!! All of the shops work all year (and I'm not kidding-our first meeting for 2011 is the Wednesday after the shop hop) to make a unique and wonderful experience for our faithful and wonderful customers for next year.

Last year and this year, the Rocky Mountain Shop Hop shops, designed a special fabric exclusive to the shops in the hop. This year it's an incredible toile that we helped design with RJR Fabrics. It features Colorado landmarks and symbols. We think it is absolutely fabulous and anyone with a tie to Colorado should have at least a yard to keep for prosperity. Many of you are buying 6 yards for a very special backing, as I will be, plus a yard for fussy cutting. (See some of the images on the blogpost below) We have already placed a reorder because of the feedback we have received from posting the fabric online and in the shop, but, it will most likely not be reordered again. So, call us and place your order early--we will take phone orders and online orders starting Friday, August 6th at 9:00am. First come, first served. Ask to speak to Ashley or Lynda to place your order.

Happy hopping!!!!
Lynda and Nancy