The Shops At Willow Lawn • 1601 Willow Lawn Drive • #108 • Richmond VA 23230 • 804-262-0005
Here’s our shelf of Halloween/Day of the Dead fabrics:
Here’s a picture of just the panel:
This morning I started cutting fat *eighths* to make some bundles for all you Baltimore Album fans:
Well, it’s taken me over three hours to do this little blog entry, and now we just got in five boxes of fabric! Bright plaids and stripes, ikats, and more batiks!
The UPS lady was very good to us this week! We got Halloween fabric, including a really cute panel by Maywood; fairy fabric from Timeless Treasures; more pansies and roses from Marcus; and more batiks!
The class schedule is *almost* ready to go on the website. I’ll be sending out an email notice just as soon as it is.
Our design walls are up, and they’re wonderful! We have a black one and a white one, and they’re 8′ x 8′ and 8′ x 7′ respectively. Please feel free to come by and use them when you need to (but you might want to call first). We also have the wide flannel that we used to make them in case you want to make one of your own! Also, our classroom is nearly always empty now and will be until mid-September, so if you want to use the tables, or need a place to have a group get-together, please let me know; we’re happy to share!
Since we’ve been open, many of you have asked for specific products. Sometimes we told you we didn’t know if we’d be getting it in or not, because we needed to wait and see if we saw enough interest to be able to carry whatever it was. Or sometime it was already on backorder, or it was something we just didn’t think of. So, here are some of the new products that have come in this week that I know some of you asked about:
There’s probably more that I just can’t remember. So you’ll have to come see for yourself! 
The class schedule is almost done, will be headed to the printers next week and up on the web before then.
Maria Parker stopped by the shop today and dropped off some information about the proposed quilter’s license plate. If you would like more information on this, she left several copies of the DMV forms needed to apply for one; please ask us next time you’re in the shop. She needs to get 350 advance orders for this to move forward. I plan to get one myself. Now I just have to figure out how to spell Quilting Adventures in only six characters.
Some new arrivals today -
The newest Mariner’s Compass book by Judy Mathieson
Easy & Elegant Lone Star Quilts by Shirley Stutz
Fast, Fun & Easy Christmas Stockings by Susan S. Terry
New fabric from Alexander Henry – some awesome skulls with glitter – ya just gotta see them!
And another box of fabric that I haven’t even opened yet…..
Please enter our Fabric Postcard contest. Here are the rules:
1. You must use at least one thing you bought in our store in the postcard. It can be fabric, thread, timtex, whatever. Obviously, we are simply going to have to use the honor system for this rule.
2. Your postcard should be close to 4†x 6â€. Oh, say, within 20% either way.
3. Please don’t put your name on the front of the postcard. But don’t forget to put it on the back, so we know it’s yours!
4. Your postcard must be mailed to the shop by October 15 (Quilting Adventures, 7121 Staples Mill Road, Richmond, VA 23228). It can’t be mailed in anything (like an envelope); it should be hand cancelled.
5. Postcards will be on display in the shop until November 15.
6. As each postcard arrives, it will be assigned a number. Between Oct 15 and Nov 15, each $5 purchase will earn one ballot to vote for your favorite postcard.
7. The swap part – when you come to pick up a postcard, you’ll just pick a number out of a bowl, and that’s the postcard you get to take home.
8. The maker of the postcard with the most votes will win a $25 gift certificate to Quilting Adventures!
Here are a couple of links for inspiration:
art2mail
Postmark’d Art
I had a lot of help from a lot of my friends getting the shop ready for opening day. Some of them sewed samples. Some of them worked opening weekend. Some cut and folded zillions of fat quarters. They all encouraged me and believed in me.
I know I could have just given them some nice fat quarter packets as a way of saying thanks, but that just didn’t seem like enough. So I sent them all some fabric postcards:
These are so much fun to make and to receive! So we’re going to have a contest and swap here at the shop. I’ll be posting the rules shortly.
Oh, sorry – some of these are upsidedown or sideways. I scanned them in a hurry the other day before I ran to the post office!
We got our order from Westminster on Friday – 58 bolts of Kaffe Fassett, 10 bolts of Martha Negley. Awesome stuff! I think I’m going to grab me a bunch of fat quarters of these and throw together a “Yellow Brick Road” quilt – in my spare time! 
Come see them!
Oh, and the “Chelsea Bag” pattern by Amy Butler is back in stock, too.
I just got the most wonderful phone call. One of the members of my guild was in the shop today, and I sold her two spools of the Mettler fine embroidery thread to use for applique. She’d never used it before, and she’s been doing applique for a *long* time. It took a little convincing, but she bought it. And she just called to thank me for selling it to her, because she loves it! I wish Mettler would change the name of it. I don’t know what kind of embroidery people use it for, but I think it is just the best applique thread, and I love it for hand piecing, too!
New stuff today – lots of stencils, more kona (including three bolts of BLACK!).
And two new classes on the roster for the fall – a wonderful purse class using Susa Glenn’s Small Shoulder Bag pattern, and a Reversible Quilt class based on (and requiring) the book by Sharon Pederson. Stay tuned for more info soon!
The UPS lady was very generous today. FedEx man, too. We got (not an all inclusive list):
Michael Miller black cotton
Michael Miller black/white noveau letters, dots, Escher cats
MM pawprints, altoid dots, assorted colors
More Marcus Brothers Midnight Rose – this is a very elegant collection
Kaufman PFD Pima
Stencils
Come by the shop and check it all out!
The shop is closed today, because it’s a holiday and because it’s Monday (and I’m closed on Mondays for the rest of the summer), but my DH is working. So no boating today – which judging by the sky is a good thing. That means I have time to catch up on some stuff today – like cleaning (things must be bad for me to want to clean!), sewing bindings on shop samples, maybe working on some fabric postcards….
And updating the shop blog and website.
A very sweet couple came in yesterday and told me that they just couldn’t wait to see the shop after the enticing photos of an empty white space on our blog. *smile* I think (hope!) they were pleased with what they did see, so for those of you who haven’t made it yet or live too far away, here’s a quick tour:
This is the view of the shop from the parking lot. I love my sign! We had the windows treated with film to help prevent fading, and so now they’re a bit darker and too reflective depending on the time of day. So we’re going to get ourselves a light-up open sign (or something!) to let people know we’re really in there.
Here are pictures of our two window displays, including a couple of samples very generously sewn for us by family and friends:
We’re planning to have an 18″ doll and quilt “club” for girls and their moms/grandmothers/friends/whatever. We’ve got some wonderful books with patterns for 18″ dolls and plan to do a monthly doll quilt kit series, too. If, by any chance, anyone reading this would like to help me coordinate and plan this, please call or email me!
The doll in the window is PopTop from Magic Threads. That’s the pattern I’ll be teaching in my Beginner’s Dollmaking class this fall.
Here’s a quick walking tour of the shop:
Here’s the Geometrix quilt I made from the free pattern by Blank Textiles to go with this fabric collection by Karen Combs. I’ve sold out of the kits for it (because I’m out of black fabric!) but should have more kits ready by the end of the week.
And as much as I hate pictures of myself, my friend Becky took this one of me in front of my quilt so that the star points give me this Statue of Liberty thing going on – perfect for today:
I started working on the class schedule yesterday and it’s looking good, even though it’s only a start! So far I have penciled in dates for From Square One (beginning piecing), Beginning Hand Quilting, Reminiscence Table Runner (machine applique), Free Motion Thread Play, Landscape Quilting, Yellow Brick Road. And those aren’t any of the classes I’ll be teaching, like dyeing and dollmaking and ATCs. Not to mention Bonnie McCaffery’s classes in October, one of which is already half full!
Now that the shop is open, I plan to get into more of a routine of updating the blog as new fabrics and other goodies come in, so please keep checking back!
Mon 10-6; Tue-Fri 10-9; Sat 10-6; Sun 12-5