Happy New Year!

New Year Clearance Sale!

January 3-4-5

Christmas fabric $7/yard

(one yard minimum)

$5/yard Sale Table

(one yard minimum)

(no additional discounts)  

But...here's the best part!

Stack your Sand Dollar Cards

up to 40% off on all other

fabric, kits, magazines, & books! 

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

 

Merry Christmas from all of us at Calico Mermaid!

I love this photo. This is my Dream Team. 

They put up with me & my crazy ideas. 

They rein me in when I start to get too cheesey. 

They support me when I get in over my head.

But the main thing we all share is a passion for sewing & quilting.

We love to see others catch the "quilting bug."

We want to inspire our quilty friends & enjoy helping you create.

It's so exciting to see my Mermaids getting excited over a 

new idea or technique.

Then when they start to share that excitement, 

I can hardly contain myself.

So...

have a Merry Christmas with those you enjoy, & with those who support you & your passions.

Thank you for a beautifully creative year.

We've enjoyed helping you. We hope we've inspired you.

We hope to see a lot more of you next year, 

because we have some great plans you're going to love!

 

Thank you for shopping small this weekend!

Shop Small Weekend at Calico Mermaid!

November 25-26-27

-double punches-

20% off Christmas fabric

25% off selected books & magazines    

30% off fall prints & Christmas kits

50% off Halloween fabric

(some restrictions apply - in shop only)

Start collecting one Christmas Clam

for each $10 you spend 

until December 11…

then spend just like cash December 17-24!

Free Shop Small Reusable Bag with $50 purchase while supplies last!

It's almost time for Harvest Shop Hop!

Open House every Sunday!

 Be My Neighbor Sew Along Block Party 

begins this Sunday!

Here's how it works:

Come in each Sunday afternoon between 1 & 5 to receive 

your free Be My Neighbor Block pattern.

There's a new one every week - for 16 weeks!

No kits-no sign ups-no fuss-just some adorable free block patterns.

Come join the party!

Check out this video!

My friend Lili from RJR Fabrics made this video for us.

She toured the RJR manufacturing plant in Korea to see how our favorite fabrics are printed.

Click here to check it out:

Fabric Manufacturing for RJR in Korea

Row by Row Experience

 

 http://www.rowbyrowexperience.com/

Do you know about the Row by Row Experience? 

It's so much fun! 

We've been participating for a couple of years now & we can 

hardly wait.

It all starts on June 21 (you know - the first day of summer.)

Each participating shop has designed a row depicting 

this year's theme: 

Home Sweet Home.

You visit shops & collect free quilt patterns for rows 9" X 36." 

Create a quilt with 8 different rows, completely quilted & bound, 

& you could win a stack of fat quarters!

The first person to come to a participating shop with 

their complete quilt wins!

Here's our Mermaid row:

 Calico Mermaid sewing at home - her castle - her happy place!

There are more than 2500 participating quilt shops in the US & Canada. Each has designed a row pattern for you to pick up free, & in addition many have prepared kits for their row.

Our kit has all the applique pieces laser cut & pre fused. 

I even found you some buttons for the mermaid's coconut bra.

Ready to go! 

You're welcome!

You just need to add your favorite floss for the 

clothesline & bra top. Or you could use decorative stitches on your machine. Whatever makes you happy.

You can collect rows (and kits) through September 6.  

 

In addition, many shops have also created fabric license plates to help commemorate your travels. Ours will be for sale soon.

 Between September 6 & November 1 no kits or patterns 

may be sold or given away.

After that, if we have kits & patterns left, they will be available 

for sale.

 Remember - you must actually come into shops to buy a kit or receive a free pattern between June 21 & September 6. 

Although we can mail you a fabric license plate. Just give us a call.

 

Inside look!

Would you like an inside peek?

Check out Quilter's Paradise - the leader in  

laser-cut appliqué and pre-cut pieced kits. 

 

There are stacks & stacks of fabric. Some is already cut to size & ready to have shapes precisely cut.

Some is just waiting for its turn.

 

This amazing machine is larger than a king size bed. The computer tells it what shapes to cut, the fabric is loaded (up to 100 layers of fabric) with a thin plastic sheet on top & bottom, then it cuts. You can see Richard holding the blade that cuts through all those layers.

After cutting, the fabric moves aside & then next stack is ready to be cut. Watch the action!

Here you see 6 layers cut into Wedding Ring pieces.

Quick!

We even ran into a friend lending a hand, assembling kits.





 
Quilter's Paradise cuts squares, strips, triangles, & all kinds of pre cut fabric pieces to save us time & energy!



Our next stop is Hoffman Fabrics of California.
It was a heavenly visit to their incredible warehouse.

 Have you ever wondered how the fabric gets onto those bolts? There are about 6 wrapping machines going all day long, wrapping fabric from tubes onto bolts just for us!

What fun!

It's our Birthday!

Porterville's Downtown Sidewalk Sale Day

is also

Our 5th Birthday Party!

Many Main Street businesses are putting their best out on the sidewalk for a huge 

Main Street Sale

Saturday, March 5

Saturday, March 5

10-6 

Come join us for

Fun-Prizes-Sidewalk Sale

A special thank you for all our quilty friends!

 

Thank you for your support & friendship

through our first 5 years!

Where have I been?

I know. I know. 

I've been shirking my blogging duties lately.

It's been super busy at the shop. 

If you haven't heard, Rae Lynne had knee surgery, & Richard had back surgery. 

So they were busy recuperating. 

(By the way, they are both much better & Rae Lynne is coming back to work Tuesday.)

We've added some new Mermaids to help out in the meantime.

You might see Melanie & Sheri around the shop, & Ginger is helping out on weekends & after school. Sheri has taught many classes at the Mermaid over the years, so she's a familiar face. 

I've known Melanie for many-many-many moons. She was in our wedding, so it's very nice to have her around more often. 

Ginger is our Splash My Stocking Mermaid (& Jen's daughter.) 

If we can catch her between Barn Theater & Harmony Magnet Academy productions, she's helping out at the shop.

It takes a village. 

Our quilty friends are the best!

I LOVE all our quilty friends!

We've really enjoyed getting to know all our quilty friends during the past 5 years.

Can you believe the Mermaid has really been open 5 years?

It's amazing to me that I knew just a few of our quilty friends before we opened, & now you've all practically become part of our family.

We recently had a vendor booth at the Cotton Patch Quilters' Show in Bakersfield, & since Richard & Rae Lynne weren't able to work, some great friends stepped up to help out.

My nephew, George, loaded the truck for us.

Rich & Lynette Stover helped me load the trailer, set up the booth, & unload when we came back to town Sunday.

Lisa & Don Claus helped me break down the booth after the show & load the trailer to come home.

It's great to have such wonderful friends.

We really appreciate you all very much.

Local Quilt Shop Day

 

We're getting excited for Local Quilt Shop Day!

We love our quilty friends!

On January 23 

we'll be celebrating & showing you 

our appreciation for you!

Door Prizes – Refreshments

We love our quilty friends!

Holiday fabric $5/yard  Sale table $5/yard

Books - Buy One Get One Free!

Almost all Patterns - $4

Stack your Sand Dollar Cards on

regularly priced fabric, notions, & tools!

( up to 40% off original price )

January? Already?

January already? Realllyy????
I'm not even ready to un-Christmas my house!
This happens to me every year. It takes me awhile to get all the Christmas decor unpacked & settled, then I just don't want to take it down. Maybe I'm lazy. Or tired. Or maybe I just LOVE Christmas!
We've been out of town this week...and I'm noticing this is a widespread problem. I still see Christmas stuff on lots of homes & businesses that aren't mine. So I guess I shouldn't worry. If it's all put away by Valentine's Day - I'm good!
But we have lots of new ideas going on at Calico Mermaid that aren't Christmas-y.

This is Garden Grove Block of the Month 6 month program using Windermere by Moda.

This beauty is our Deco State Block of the month from In the Beginning Fabrics. 

Each block features fabric depicting the 50 state flowers. 

With ten blocks each month, you'll be finished by summer!

Local Quilt Shop Day is coming up on January 23.  

We have lots of fun & excitement planned for you! Just wait till you see. 

Plan to stop by that Saturday.

We hope to see you soon!