This is the Porterville Quilters' opportunity quilt.

Getting Ready!

We're spiffing up the shop for our Grand Opening party on Saturday. I spent this afternoon hanging quilts from some of our talented local quilters. They have done some amazing work. I'll post those pics as soon as I can. Right now I have cookies in the oven for Saturday - gotta go!

Grand Opening!

The prizes are all wrapped up for our Grand Opening celebration. Many of the big fabric companies sent beautiful freebies. The challenge is to wrap them & get them ready for Saturday. We have more than enough to draw a name every hour. No purchase necessary, & we'll call if you win after you leave.

Quilts of Valor

Quilts of Valor is a wonderful organization dedicated to providing quilts for our service men & women. For details about their mission, check their website:
http://www.qovf.org/index.html
If you have questions about the organization, come in & we'd love to help you out.

If you'd like to make a quilt for Quilts of Valor, we have complimentary labels & we'll ship your quilt for you - no charge. Just bring us your completed quilt in it's presentation case (details at the QOV website) & we'll mail it off for you.

We have lots of patriotic fabric to choose from, & some free patterns. This is the new Moda collection from Minnick & Simpson. These fabrics are perfect for a more feminine design. Then we also have all the armed forces represented if you'd like to use fabric with a little bit of ooh rah!

Come to the shop to see what we have to offer.

May is a perfect month to honor those who serve our country & make so many sacrifices for our safety.

Classes!

We have classes scheduled for the coming months!
Call or come in for complete details.

Calico Mermaid

Class Schedule

Beginning Quilting $35.00

Instructed by Rebecca Haley

Class days/times:

4 pm to 6 pm or 6 pm to 9 pm - Tuesday April 19

4 pm to 6 pm or 6 pm to 9 pm - Tuesday May 3

10 am to 3 pm - Saturday May 7

Machine Quilting Basics $25.00

Instructed by Lynette Stover

Class days/times:

10 am to 2 pm - Friday May 6

1 pm to 5pm – Saturday May 21

6 pm to 8 pm – Thursdays May 12 & May 19 (two nights)

1 pm to 5 pm - Saturday June 11

Pillowcases $20.00

Instructed by Rebecca Haley

Class days/times:

1 pm to 3 pm - Sunday May 15

Place Mats $35.00

Instructed by Rebecca Haley

Class days/times:

6 pm - 9pm Tuesday May 17

Tahoe Tote $30

Instructed by Rebecca Haley

Class days/times:

10 am to 3 pm - Saturday May 21

Little Twister $25

Instructed by Sheri Cates

Class days/times:

4-7 pm - Friday May 6

All classes will be held at:

Calico Mermaid

122 N. Main

Porterville, CA

559 793 2510

You may register by phone with payment information

or by email & then call with payment information.

Reserve your place today!

Best of the Valley Quilt Show

We enjoyed our first vendor booth experience at the BOV Quilt Show last weekend. We didn't know what to take, how to set it up, or what to do. So we just jumped in anyway & it turned out just fine. Our booth wasn't the most sophisticated or the most efficient, but it was our first & everyone was very kind. The other vendors from out of town were really helpful. They are masters at setting up their booths almost every weekend, so we made several new friends.
I even bought some sparkly yarn from the yarn lady to put highlights in the mermaid's hair.
The button lady sold me some beautiful buttons - many found new homes yesterday!
It was our "one week birthday," which amused many of our visitors, & we entertained the nearby vendors with our enthusiastic invitations to our Grand Opening on May 14.
We sold out of several bolts, which I promptly came home to reorder.
Lots of folks stopped in to say they've been following our blog or watching our development on Face Book. It was great to meet them & find out ther
really are readers out there!
Over all, it was an amazingly positive
first experience.
If you weren't able to come to the show,
I hope you'll come next year. The quilt entries were pretty awesome.

Free shipping tomorrow!

Thank you for welcoming us so warmly. Our opening has been very successful & we thoroughly enjoyed our first quilt show. So we'll say thank you for your support &
encouragement to all our loyal friends
with free shipping tomorrow.
Celebrate Tax Day with us!

Calico Mermaid Quilt Shop is open!!!!!

Wahooooo!!!! We're finally open!
We had a wonderful first week. There were many friends, old & new, who came out to welcome us. It was so sweet to see everyone.




Here you see our amazing new Mermaid Crew: Dion, Jenna, & Darlene. They're all very enthusiastic & creative! Be sure to introduce yourself when you come in.

We so appreciate each & everyone who came out to wish us luck on our first day. What a warm welcome! I forgot the camera in the frenzy - there were even people waiting for us to open up!
They brought such thoughtful gifts, plants, flowers - even lunch! If success could be measured by good friends, we're already more successful than we ever dreamed.
What more could anyone ask for?!

What a first day!

Well, the first day was a huge success! Many thanks to everyone who came out to visit. We appreciate all the thoughtful calls, texts, lunch, flowers, & plants.

We learned many things today:
1. we have some techno glitches to work out - but many were resolved by the end of the day.
2. our mermaid crew - Darlene, Dion & Jenna are even more amazing than we thought.
3. our A/C works really well. ;)
4. the mermaid was a hit.
5. we love our POS system
6. we forgot some merchandise at home...ooops :(
7. we have a wonderful home town!

If you have a chance, come see what we have to offer.
Tuesday-Saturday 10-6
Sundays 1-5