Tuesday, April 28, 2015

It's Heart of the Valley Quilt Shop Hop time!

May 1 -2 - 3


Join us for 9 shops full of fun!

Grand Prize: $150 Gift Certificate from each of the 9 Shops*
Second Prize: $75 Gift Certificate from each of the 9 Shops*
Third Prize: $40 Gift Certificate from each of the 9 Shops

(You must visit and have your Passport stamped from all 10 shops to be eligible for prizes.)
**Gift Certificates expire December 31, 2015**

Shop Raffles: Enter at each shop you visit for a chance to win a 
prize worth $300

Here's our Calico Mermaid raffle prize!
Over $300 in Olfa & Omnigrid products


  Participating shops:
Cloth and Quilts
Bear Paw Quilts & More
Quilters' Paradise
Mennonite Quilt Center
Thimble Towne
Calico Mermaid
Totally Tina's Fabrics
 Bolts to Binding
Strawberry Patches

Monday, April 13, 2015

One down - One to Go

We just finished an AMAZING weekend at 
Best of the Valley Quilt Show in Lindsay.


This is a picture of the tireless volunteers from our San Joaquin Valley 
who make this terrific show possible.
They work very hard all year to pull it all together for the rest of us.
There were over 200 quilts, made by creative souls from age 8 to over 80.


Viewer's Choice, Quilts
"Fragrant Memories," by Margaret Taylor


Viewer's Choice, Dolls
"Ruby Begonia," by Valle Lee


Viewer's Choice, Challenge Quilts
"Mail Call," by DeAnn Farris


Viewer's Choice, Quilts by Quilters 80 and over
"Glorious Christmas Card," by Willadene Dodd


Viewer's Choice, Quilts by Quilters under 18
"Citrus Paisley," by Marin Bako


Carmen Friesen with her First Place Ribbon


Best Use of Color by Karen Erwin


First Place by 10 year old Payton, who shops at Calico Mermaid, by the way!
I'll add more photos as I can.
Or you can keep up with the news at 
http://www.botvquilts.com/

CeCe Westerfield was the featured artist. 
She showed an amazing variety of beautiful pieces.





 Here are some beautiful quilts by some of my quilty friends. 
 I did my best, but forgive my lousy photography skills.




























BUT - no rest for the wicked...
and now we're ready to start preparing for the 
Heart of the Valley Shop Hop on May 1-3.

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Four years

Today is the fourth anniversary of our shop opening.
It's hard to believe, when I think of the new friends we've made & everything we've learned.
Let me tell you our story:
Once upon a time,  I loved teaching elementary school, but wished for a little more buzz, like that I'd enjoyed as a teaching principal at our rural school. I'd also been very involved with high school sports & band activities, but our kids were finished with college, self sufficient & busy starting their own lives. I wasn't close enough to retirement to stop working. I didn't want to stop. I wanted a little more.
So began the adventure.
We researched, thought, figured, & started planning to open a quilt fabric shop in our hometown. Our vision was to make a place where quilters & those who love quilts could come & enjoy quilting together. We intended to make everyone feel welcome, no matter their level of expertise. It would be a center for creative minds to come together.
We hoped to be able to continue teaching, & manage the shop. We had no background in retail, so we started learning from as many sources as possible.
We found the perfect location on Main Street, but it was being renovated from the ground up, & expected to be completed in January, 2011.
So we hurried up & placed orders for all kinds of merchandise, to be delivered in January.
Well.
The building renovation didn't actually BEGIN until January - as the deliveries began to arrive at our house. Almost every room in our home was packed with boxes of bolts, patterns, books, notions, & puzzles. (The books & patterns were stacked to the ceiling in boxes in the kids' bathroom. The shelving filled the garage.)
I stopped by the building every week after school to check on progress.  I took the construction workers cookies to try to encourage them to hurry up. (Maybe that backfired. I think they liked the cookies.)
Then on a Friday after school in March, the final inspection was completed & they handed me the keys. Richard brought the shelving that night as our family started to arrive from all over California. Saturday morning we loaded up a truck & brought everything from our house.



Our family & friends worked all day to bring everything into the building. They assembled shelves, carts, displays, & tables. They organized the fabric so it could be placed on shelves as soon as we passed the earthquake inspection scheduled for Monday.


                     

The work continued Sunday, inspection was passed Monday, & employees started arranging fabric immediately. The work continued all week. I'd go after school & check their progress, & leave directions for the next day.
We opened the doors the next Saturday, April 2, 2011.
It wasn't perfect, but it was open.
The response from our local quilters & friends was touching. It is so gratifying to be able to help people in their creative endeavors.


The very next weekend we had a booth at the Best of the Valley Quilt Show in Lindsay. How on earth did we pull that off?



We had a Grand Opening Party a few weeks later. The Porterville Quilters loaned us their beautiful quilts to decorate.




We even had the Monache Stage Band out front to start the celebration.




So the adventure continues...four years...so many new friends...so much new knowledge.
Our lives have been changed so much by Calico Mermaid in these four short years.
Thank you for your part in this crazy endeavor.
We'll be celebrating our 4th birthday on May 9. 
Come join the celebration! 
There will be prizes & fun & cupcakes, of course!