Off to the Houston Quilt Festival!

Today we are off to the Houston Quilt Festival! I am really looking forward to seeing all the vendors (I have already marked the ones I want to visit; I printed the 12 pages (yes, 12) of vendors last week so I would be ready 🙂 I am also looking forward to seeing Sharon Schamber’s Best In Show winner, Spirit of Mother Earth. I saw the quilt on her site yesterday and it is truly a work of art!

I will be taking photos of the show to share with you and will also give you information on the new items and gadgets that I find at the show. I am curious about the new Handiquilter 24″ machine; I hear from the dealers that it is a sleek machine and VERY fast. Isn’t it amazing all the new items that are premiered at this show? I am also wondering if Quilt EZ will unveil their machine quilting robot at this show. I know that they had hoped to have had it ready for the  2008 Machine Quilter’s Showcase but it just wasn’t possible.

I hope you will enjoy reading and seeing pictures from the show and, if you haven’t been before, that my posts will give you some idea of what you can expect.

Another Word On Luggage Tags

I received a nice comment this week about the luggage tags as gift ideas for the holidays, small shower gifts (wedding), graduations, etc. I wanted to give you an update on the colors of luggage tags that I will be receiving in my shipment. The tags are not only available in black, (see posting for 10/07/08), but also red, orange, lime green, hot pink, aqua, and yellow.

The other cute gift idea that I will be receiving this week are koozies. The ones that I have ordered are black with pink dots, black with lime green dots and camouflage.

All of these items can be mongrammed with initials or with cute phrases. Again, both items would provide a great and inexpensive gift for any occasion.

Houston International Quilt Festival

The Houston International Quilt Festival begins on Wednesday. Many people are already attending the market that takes place prior to the show. Because of prior commitments, I am not going until Wednesday, but I wanted to give you the links to their site. I have downloaded the vendors and found that it took 12 pages!

I plan to take pictures of the event so that I can share it with you. It is truly sensory overload to see the hundreds of vendor booths PLUS the fantastic quilts that are on display. Each year, even without attending formal classes, I learn so much from the demonstrations and, in some cases, meeting the winning quiltmakers. If you haven’t been, put it on your “must do list” for the future. It is well worth it! By the way, today’s photo is from the online gallery for the event located at http://www.quilts.com/home/galleryViewer.php?txtfile=/gallery/lbqf08-1/onlineGallery The name of this quilt is “Ma How Come She Gets All the Attention”. It is by Helen Remick of Settle and is hand and machine pieced, machine quilted.

Quilter’s Recipe for Oct. 19, 2008

This is a recipe that is often made by various people in my bee. It is easy and can be made sugar free. Serve it hot with vanilla ice cream—YUM!

Dump Cake

2 sticks of butter
1 whte or yellow cake mix
2 cans of sugar free or regular apple pie filling (you may also use peach or cherry or any other filling that you prefer)
Grease a 9 x 11 pan.  Pour in the cans of pie filling and spread evenly across the pan. Dump in cake mix and evenly distribute over the pie filling.  Melt the butter completely and pour over the top of the cake mix.

Place the pan in a 400 degree oven for 45 min-60 min until browned around the edged and somewhat firm. Serve hot.

Eco Battings

While at Innovations, I found that there was alot of discussion about Eco Battings. For example, bamboo based battings are now available from Fairfield and a corn based batting is in production through Mountain Mist. Now I would like to hear from you. How do you feel about eco friendly batting? If you are not familiar with this type of product you can learn about the Fairfield product at http://www.poly-fil.com/batting.asp or the Mountain Mist product at http://www.mountainmistlp.com/ecocraft.htm 

Answer the question below and be part of a new ChiliQuiltes poll. (Note: Although anwers 3, 4, & 5 are listed, they are not active. You need only to answer YES or NO) I realize that you would want to touch the batting,  get an idea of the drape and price, but try to imagine that these issues have been addressed to your approval before you answer the poll question.

The poll will close on November 1. Thanks for your participation!

Innovations 2008 and Back to San Antonio!

Saturday Blog Cabin Blocks Participants

The View from the 23rd Floor, Hotel Murano, Tacoma, WA

 

The last day of Innovations was Saturday and it was, as had been the case of the other days, a great day to learn and meet new people. I taught another class of fantastic folks (their picture is included today) and had the opportunity to take a class taught by Kim Stotzenberg. She gave us wonderful tips and some lovely designs that I will be suggesting to my customers; they will be a perfect addition to their quilts, I am sure.

One new thing that I am going to further investigate is a program by SewBatik. This company is present at shows and sells their awesome batiks through representatives as well. Their batiks are soft and easy to needle and they also have 108″ backings.  At this point, I think it would be a nice service to provide to my customers, so I will keep you up to date on when or if this will be a service I will add to my business.

Now that I am back in San Antonio, I have two customer quilts and two samples to prepare for the Houston International Quilt Show (one of my favorite quilt shops, The Quilt Haus, has a booth and this booth will have the two samples), so I am “off and running”. I also have another quilt coming in this week…thank you for your support! I love to quilt and I feel very blessed that I have the opportunity to quilt and embroider for other people.

Innovations 2008 Part 2

A Beautiful Entry at the Innovations 2008 Quilt Show

Glass Sculpture Located in Union Station, Tacoma, WA

Good Morning again from Tacoma, Washington! Yesterday, I took two classes that were fantastic. One was by Elaine Huffman, author of Bread and Butter Quilting and the other was with Diana Phillips, the author of several books but in particular, Flower Power. It is so exciting to have the opportunity to learn new motifs to share with my customers; I am looking forward to getting back to my studio so that I can put what I have learned into action!

I also had the opportunity to visit with quilters from California, Canada, Washington, and Idaho last night. There was a great deal of sharing of ideas and we all agreed that our meeting and sharing was as beneficial as the classes that we have taken.

On a personal note, I had family members who met me briefly yesterday afternoon and we visited the Glass Museum and Glass Bridge here in Tacoma. The book, 1000 Places to See Before You Die, had suggested this as something special and I have to say it was absolutely fantastic.

Today I will be teaching a second session of Blog Cabin Blocks, Creating a Business Blog and I am truly looking forward to meeting the participants for today’s class.  I am blessed! It is so much fun to get to meet all of these people!

Today’s pictures include shots from the peer judged quilt show at Innovations as well as from as a glass sculture housed in Union Station.

Innovations 2008

Art Glass in the lobby of the Hotel Murano, Tacoma, WA

Blog Cabin Business Blog Participants-Innovations 2008

Greetings from Tacoma, Washington! For next 3 days, I will be blogging about Innovations, a machine quilting conference that is held here in Tacoma each fall. I taught a class today on creating business blogs and how it differs from business websites. The participants were AWESOME and I have included a picture of them so you can see for yourself. I also took an excellent class taught by Megan Best. It was called Spinal Twist and I came away with some new design motifs for my quilting that I think my customers will like very much.

The other picture that you see here today is from my hotel’s collection of art glass. Tacoma has the distinction of having a Glass Museum that is considered one of the 1000 places you should see before you die. 

There are some great teachers in attendance here: Karen McTavish, Pam Clarke, Dianne Philips, Megan Best among many others. I will be commenting on my classes, what I have learned and sharing photos of the quilts that will be peer judged during the conference.

What Determines Pricing for Quilting Services?

I recieved a comment a few days ago and thought this would be a great topic for today’s post.  The comment indicated that my pricing seemed low…I am not sure to whom my prices were compared.

I live in South Texas and we are blessed in that yes, we have been hit by the tough economic conditions, but I believe that our cost of living (housing, food, gasoline, etc) still seems lower in comparison to other places in the United State (I am judging this by where my siblings live, and I know they pay more for goods and services than we do).  When I was setting my prices, I started looking at the prices of longarmers and embroidery services in my area, and mine are comparable; really not more or less.

That being said, I think anyone who is considering a longarming or embroidery business needs to carefully look at the pricing of their competitors and set their prices accordingly. This advice was given to me when I started two years ago and my business is slowly increasing.  I believe that my customers are getting a high quality of quilting and embroidery services that fits with the economy in which they live. Thankfully, I am able to buy quality threads and batting economically so that I can pass that saving along to my clients. The same is true for my embroidery business…I look for the best prices for the best quality embroidery threads, stabilizers, and blanks with the intention of giving a good price AND a great product.

Luggage Tags: A Great Gift Idea for Any Occasion

As many of you know, sometimes life gets in the way of the best laid plans, so I am late to deliver on my promise to show you a new “blank” product that I am making available to my customers. I have been looking for gift ideas that are affordable and classy; that look expensive but are very economical. These luggage tags may be exactly what meets your needs from kiddoes to adults. I am also going to be carrying blank koozies. Again, this can be a cute, inexpensive gift to show you care without “breaking” your bank account.

As more blanks are added to my inventory, I will try to be more prompt in getting them uploaded to share with you.

Blank Luggage Tags for Mongrams