Quilting Adventures ~ The Friendly Store for Everyone Who Creates With Fabric!

Thank you all for your donations of socks, undies, and shoes for the kids at the YWCA Women & Children’s Shelter.  Here’s a picture of all the goodies we collected:

Barbara F. was the lucky winner of our gift bag of goodies.  Thank you all for your donations!

~Joyce

It’s time to announce the winners of the highest-fundraisers’ prizes for the Quiltathon for Massey!  First, I want to thank everyone who participated – the current total is $9701 (and you can still donate at the Quiltathon website!) and seven quilts.  We are still working on our plans for how the quilts will be auctioned or raffled off; I’ll update you as soon as we have a firm plan.

So, the winners.  The highest individual fundraiser is Sheree K, who raised $785.  The highest machine team was Team 10, Ellen K’s team, who raised a total of $1870.  And the highest hand quilting team was Team 13, Penny S’s team, who raised $1555.  Each member of the winning teams will receive a QA bag of prizes.  Sheree, as the highest individual fundraiser, wins 10% off all purchases at QA for the next year.

Again, thank you all for your participation and donations!

~Joyce

We got a lot of calls today from people asking if we’re open tomorrow (Sunday) for Mother’s Day.  We are!  Normal Sunday hours, 12-5.  We’re having a Pillowcase Sew-in tomorrow, to sew more pillowcases to donate to ConKerr Cancer as part of the Million Pillowcase challenge.  We are asking for a $5 donation for each pillowcase you sew tomorrow to help cover the costs.

So, please stop by – bring your Mom, if you can – even if she doesn’t sew, she’ll probably enjoy looking at fabric and all of our colorful samples.  And if you’re the Mom, ask your family to let you slip away to hang out at your favorite quilt shop for a bit.  Sew a pillowcase, or not.  Check out all the new fabrics that came in last week, all the new stuff I moved to clearance to make room for them.

I’ve got a small free gift for everyone who makes a purchase tomorrow – something that’s destined to become a collector’s item one day!    (in the same way that your old Ukrop’s memorabilia will become collector’s items)

Hope to see you tomorrow!
~Joyce

At the end of day 2 of our Quiltathon for Massey, I am pleased to report that we have one quilt with a lot of hand quilting done (but more to do – stay tuned for an announcement later of how you can help get this one done!), two quilts completely done including binding, another two quilts with just a few finishing touches needed, and a sixth quilt well under way!  In fact, I think that during tomorrow’s shifts, they’ll finish the ones that are in progress and probably manage to sew number seven as well. 

We still have a LOT of door prizes to give away for the Quiltathon, and you do NOT have to be present to win!  Please come by the shop early tomorrow (we open at noon) and get your name in to the door prize basket early to increase your chances of taking home one of the great gifts donated by local merchants (we have lots of restaurant gift cards, theater tickets, many great prizes!).  We are asking for a $10 donation to Massey for each door prize entry.  All the prizes will be drawn by the end of the Quiltathon tomorrow (we close at 5 but are sewing until 6), and we will contact you if you win a prize.

Please stop by and have a look at how great these quilts are coming together and cheer on our volunteers – they are doing a great job!  Oh, and there are some yummy eats, too. 

Best of all, we have clearly made our goal of raising $6000 for Massey Cancer Center with this event.  So, why don’t we try for $8000?  You can still make a donation at the Quiltathon website – the site will remain live for a couple more weeks; we’ll be announcing the teams and individuals who raise the most funds for the cause on May 15, so click on over and give a donation to the team of your favorite teacher or staff person.  Remember, this money is ALL going to Massey!

Hope to see you tomorrow!

~Joyce

The blog had a hiccup earlier today when I first tried to post this – emailed all you subscribers but didn’t really post it.  Sorry ’bout that!  So, I’m going to try this again…..

Even if you aren’t signed up to sew during the Quiltathon (well, wait a minute, you’re not?  Why not?  We can use all the help we can get, there are jobs for everyone, no experience required!)  – okay, where was I?  Oh, yeah, this weekend.  In addition to prizes to participants (yes, you ALL get prizes), and prizes to those who raise the most funds for Massey, there will be door prizes for the general public, all your friends and family who come to cheer you on!  All they have to do is register for the door prize when they come (and you all can register, too) – there is a suggested $10 donation, all of which will go to Massey (we prefer cash or check made to Massey Cancer Center).  During the course of the weekend, we’ll be pulling names for prizes, and no, you need not be present to win!  So please encourage all your friends and family to stop by and say hello, and maybe they can win a prize from one of these very generous donors:

All Brands
Arby’s
Barksdale Theatre
Ben Franklin – WL
Coconut Jewelry – WL
Dairy Queen – WL
Deluca’s Gelato
Dominos – Willow Lawn
Gearharts Chocolates
Henrico Theater Company
Krogers – Willow Lawn
Logo Advantage
Picadilly Cafeteria
Qdoba – WL
Ritz Camera – WL
Starbucks – WL
Su Casa
Superstars – Patterson
Woodcraft
Yardbirds

AND – while I’m saying thank-yous, I want to also thank Checker Distributors for donating the backing fabric for the quilts, and Quilter’s Dream Batting for donating the batting we’ll be using.  We’ve also gotten donations from several of our fabric vendors, including Andover Fabrics, Red Rooster Fabrics, and RJR Fabrics.  As more continue to arrive, I’ll be adding their names to the roster of generous folks who are making this Quiltathon possible.

Also, on Sunday, my dear friend and massage therapist Joy Payne will be onsite with her massage chair, doing massages for donations, $1/minute.  Joy is one of the best – if you are a quilter, let her do her magic on your hands and you will love her forever, as I do. 

As of almost 6PM on Monday, we’re up to over $4000 raise for Massey Cancer Center.  My goal is $6000 – please help us reach that! Hope to see you this weekend!

~Joyce

Do you see all the delicious fat quarters in this picture?

These and SO many more will be on sale this weekend, April 24 & 25, during our Fat Quarter Frenzy!  Here are the rules:

- 10 fat quarters for $15
- must be purchased in groups of 10
- precut fat quarters only
- fewer then 10 are sold at regular price
- we will restock all weekend
- specialty fat quarters (velveteens, silks, etc) are excluded from the sale
- fat quarter bundles are not included in the sale

While you’re here for the Frenzy, be sure to sign up for a shift during the Quiltathon, too!  We still need people to help with machine quilting, ironing, hand sewing panels together, filling cookie trays….  There’s something for everyone!

~Joyce

Okay, I admit it.  I’ve been out of town for the last few days on a shop owner’s retreat with some of the greats in the quilt shop world – Carol Britt of Sew What Fabrics/Batics Etc; Cathy McKillip of Wish Upon a Quilt; Kelly Ann Richardson of Kelly Ann’s Quilting; Sue Sandritter of Quilt Trends.  We’ve been at the Orchard House B & B in Lovingston, VA.  It’s been fun, there’s been lots of chocolate, but it’s also been hard work – and we’re not done yet!  We all brought sewing to work on, too, but there really hasn’t been much of that going on.  More on that later….

In the meantime, lots of stuff that I need to be working on is just sitting back at home on my desk waiting.  One of the number one priorities for me right now is the Quiltathon for Massey.  And I need some help with it!  I currently have two urgent needs:

1.  I have one more shift in need of a captain – Friday April 30, 1-4, hand quilting.  All the hand quilting captain really needs to do is encourage the other quilters and answer questions (if you can).  You should know how to hand quilt on a frame.  I will be around, too, although not all the time (will be running back and forth, I’m sure).  Please consider volunteering for this time slot.  Just send me an email (joyce @ quiltingadventures.com without the spaces, of course) ASAP if you’re willing or if you have questions.

2.  I need help rounding up door prizes for the event.  The door prizes will be given to both quilters as well as the general public who stop by to offer their support and encouragement, so door prizes shouldn’t be quilter-specific.  I need a team of folks who have time and are willing to go out in the community and solicit donations from other businesses – things like retaurant gift cards, merchandise gift baskets, etc.  Again, please email me if you can help.

So, I guess you’d like to see pictures from our retreat, huh?  Sorry – I didn’t bring my camera.  So I’ll just have to wait for one of the others to post something and then I can steal the pictures.    OR stop by the shop Friday morning, as I’m bringing Cathy home with me and she’ll be hanging out at the shop for a while.

See you soon!
~Joyce

You all are doing an amazing job of donating pillowcases for the Million Pillowcase Challenge!  All of the pillowcases you bring to us are going to our local ConKerr Cancer representative, Susanne Earnhardt, who has been working with local hospitals to distribute the pillowcases and bring some smiles to kids who really need it!  We still have pillowcases kits available that when you turn the complete pillowcase in to us, you get a $5 off coupon.  We also have two pillowcase sewing days scheduled – click here to read all about them!

Susanne sent me this news of another way in which we can help ConKerr, and I wanted to pass it along to you:

Yesterday I sewed together 36 of the log cabin blocks we’ve been collecting to make quilts for the upcoming Quiltathon for Massey.  Then I basted it (I cheated and used spray baste, 505, since I’ve discovered that I can use it without having an asthma attack AND it’s not *too* sticky).  Today I loaded it on our hand quilting frame, and sometime in the next day or so we’ll be moving it to the front window to display until the Quiltathon.

We’re only going to be hand quilting the one quilt; the others will be machine quilted using a quilt-as-you-go technique.  They’ll also be larger – my frame couldn’t handle anything much bigger.

So, you haven’t signed up for the Quiltathon yet because you’re afraid you don’t know enough to be helpful?  Let me tell you a secret.  There will be jobs for *every* skill level.  We’ll need people to cut and iron and refill the cookie trays and cheer other people on.  So PLEASE don’t let that hold you back.  And if you can’t make it that weekend, please do consider making a donation.  You can do that very easily at http://quiltathon4massey.kintera.org.  ALL the donations are going directly to Massey.  There will be a prize for the team that raises the most funds, so you can donate to the team headed by your favorite teacher or QA staff member – click here to see the list of team captains.

What’s that?  You want to know where the pictures are?  Well, I did take pictures of the quilt yesterday after I basted it, but they’re still on the camera, which is at the shop, which I’m not….  Well, you get the idea.  So you’ll just have to come to the shop and see it in person! 

~Joyce

Our 30 Hour Marathon to raise money for cancer support is undergoing some changes – all good! – and I’ll be posting more details soon.  But for now, I wanted to let you know about the block kits we have in the shop, that we need YOUR help with! 

During the Quiltathon weekend – April 30 through May 2 – we’ll be working on several quilts that will ultimately be auctioned off to raise additional funds for Massey Cancer Center and the American Cancer Society.  We’ve put together some block kits using some black and white prints to which you add happy colorful fabrics to create log cabin blocks like these:

This picture shows four blocks together (each kit will make up to four blocks).  The kits sell for $9.99, and $5 of that goes directly into the pot of money that we’ll be raising during the Quiltathon, 100% of which will be donated to Massey Cancer Center.

We’ll be telling you more soon about how you can be a part of the Quiltathon, but for now, please come by and pick up a kit, and help us get some of these blocks underway!

Hope to see you soon!
~Joyce