Last Blogger Post

It's getting busy over here at CWQ... so anything that makes our life easier is right up our alley.  One thing that seemed to be holding us back was an old outdated version of our website.  It was tedious to load new items... and very unfriendly to users both inside the company and out.

We always get such compliments from all of you on our technologies at shows... and so we decided to go with a completely integrated website and blog application that could be updated while on the road... even from the iPad.  This will create an almost Live Feed experience for our customers during Quilt Show weeks and workshops and lectures.

So that being said... this will be the last post from this particular Blog site.  We will leave the site up and out there on the web so that you can still find us... but the new blog will be on the Blog page of our website at http://www.cabininthewoodsquilters.com.

We are very happy with the new site and blog... which gives us an additional boosted presence on Facebook and Twitter as well so we can reach all of you wherever you visit most... however you like to browse.  The good news is all the posts are searchable and you will be able to get a better idea of what we are doing here at the Cabin.

I still hope to see what all of you are still doing over here at Blogger... and will still comment on your blogs as well.  Thanks for following us... and make sure you get our "change of address" card.

~ Happy Quilting. 

Trash to Treasure

I have the pleasure of guiding another group through the process of creating their own scrap masterpiece. This process never gets old. This group of ladies (not pictured to protect the innocent), the Virginia Star Quilters from Fredericksburg, VA, make baby quilts for Mary Washington Hospital NICU as well as "senior" quilts for the Rappahannock Area Agency on Aging. 

The ladies gathered for a quilting class at the local library to learn to make the most of their donated fabrics and their home scraps for themselves and their cause.  It's always fun when you can energize people who do such amazing charity work to continue their passion with a renewed vigor. 

The blocks pictured are the start of a new charity baby quilt and is made from the scraps of previous baby quilt scraps.   This member brought a small box of scraps and realized that her quilt is 1/2 completed and their are plenty more scraps for more quilts. 

Many brought quite a few scraps and enjoyed playing and planning with their leftovers. Some spread out on the floor, some on the tops of tables and some pic directly from my bins below. 

The members get to add and pick scraps from my stash as well. These scrap bins could sure tell lots of stories. Some members dig in to see what I have, some share theirs with me and some use the bins as a source for just the right color to complete their strip set. 

It's always amazing to see what the ladies can complete in a few hours. It all depends on how fast you so and how quickly you loosen up and let loose. 

How exciting. The best part is they get a chance to learn the methods and make mistakes with me and it really gets the creative juices flowing. I even brought a few of my own "in progress" pieces to inspire them and show some them some of my challenges. Here are a few of the things they get to look at. 

All works in progress. Good luck ladies. I can't wait to see the pictures of all the finished projects. I know they won't take long. 

Frustrations Solved

Oh Happy Day!  I finally solved one of life's little frustrations.  As a designer, I am often times using another company or designers product to create patterns and make instructions easy for my customers.   I try very hard to use products that are readily available on the market so that you as the customer are not frustrated looking for the right companion products for my patterns and books.

While designing my All Scrapped Out! series I wanted to create a series of scrap books that used common rulers that you may already own (to reduce cost) or that can be purchased at your local quilt shop without much effort.

I was very frustrated when I recently called the distributor to place an order for rulers for an upcoming class only to find out that the product was no longer available... from a very reputable ruler company that is still in business.  I don't like to disappoint my customers by not having products available if they should choose to use them.  It's so frustrating.

In the last few months, with some cooperation from another company's equipment, I have been working on the designing of my own rulers and templates for new ideas.  It's always a struggle learned something new and trying to get it just right.  But this weekend we had a breakthrough.

I have been able to recreate some of these ruler sizes as templates and manufacture my own acrylic templates for All Scrapped Out!  Now instead of searching for the right size ruler... I can offer my customers an exclusive new product from CWQ completely designed for use with our All Scrapped Out! series.  In keeping with the simplicity of this method... the new product will be less ruler and more templates.  No pesky lines to measure to.  They will be available on an on-demand basis just like our books and will be manufactured right here at CWQ headquarters.

I am working on some brand new books and now I have some brand new templates to offer alongside those books.  It's all very exciting.  I am hoping to premier these new templates at our next event on Sept. 7th.  How exciting.

Here is a tiny sneak peak of one of our prototype templates.

The templates we have created so far for use with All Scrapped Out! include:

6 1/2 inch 90˚ Triangle

8 1/2 inch 90˚ Triangle

6 1/2 inch 45˚ Diamond

3 inch 45˚ Diamond

6 1/2 inch 60˚ Triangle

6 1/2 inch Trapezoid

These are some of the MOST popular rulers/templates for use with our pattern books (the trapezoid is brand new for an upcoming book).  This is so very exciting... and you get to see a little piece right here on the blog.  

We are also manufacturing a really neat new product by another designer.  These rulers are called "Strip Stix" and are used to strip cut various sizes.  They are the "Great Scrap Busters" and are used when you have a large numbers of strips of a certain size and get confused by the lines on your rulers.  These strip cutter templates come in two set sizes.  The small set are 1 1/2", 2" and 2 1/2".  The large set are 3", 3 1/2" and 4".  All the sticks are 24" long and are designed to cut the entire width of your fabric on the selvage to selvage fold without having to fold again.  CWQ is proud to be manufacturing this product and showcasing it at our various events.  They have been a huge success for any quilters that are making scrap quilts.  They are useful for lots of designers patterns.  Here is a photo of the small set below.

Aren't they FANTASTIC.  All products will eventually be for sale on the website.  We are working on updating our site for Retail Sales as well as Wholesale.  Until this update happens we will be offering them for sale online on our Square Marketplace storefront.  Click Here. to check it out.

Watch for new item updates happen all this month.  Pay online with a credit card and we automatically ship to your door.  Great new things are always happening here at the cabin.

This Week's News

Hey there everyone.  The two weeks after market have flown by.  I processed all the orders we took while at Market and created all the invoices and sales receipts, shipped off all the books that I had left... which I think was 10 copies of each, added all the new customers and events to the website and ordered all new books.  What a lot of work.

I have come to the conclusion that based on all the new changes occurring around here... it was probably time to update the website and the blog and make some more new changes.  My new pre-New Year’s Resolution is to try to post to the Blog at least once a week.  

For those of you that are interested in purchasing new books (or those that have already purchased and are waiting on delivery), all the books should be here from the printer on Friday.  I am picking them up from the printer in person.  The plan is to get everything packaged and mailed on Friday and Saturday.  So look for your orders to arrive next week.  The plan is to send an email update when they are set free from the home office and on their way to you.

Anyone who had the chance to meet me in Houston at Market knows that I was losing my voice and suffering from the “Houston Hayfever”.  When I arrived home I was confronted with the “Creeping Crud” in my home.  It made it’s way through the house like a freight train.  I have been working at definite half speed for the last few days having just gotten over a fever myself... but I have never been away from the office... just checking email slightly less often.

I even made it into the studio this week to make some corrections to some patterns.  Which really brings me to my next thought.  This week I received emails from two different customers on the same day that were having issues with the same pattern.  In the last few months the office has been updating some of the pattern formats for patterns that were released years ago.  Apparently (with at least one of the patterns) there were some definite omissions to the instructions.  This caused some confusion and needed to be corrected.  We will be adding a corrections page to the website soon as there is no way to tell who purchased the few copies of the pattern that were sold.

I look forward to hearing from every one of my customers.  I am excited to learn how your customers enjoyed the designs.  

Back Home and Sorting Through

Wow... What a whirlwind week in Houston.  Hurricane Sandy sure did take the wind out of the sales of attendance this year.  Many of the shop owners and buyers in attendance this year took early flights home in order to ensure they were able to arrive back home before the storm.  That meant many flew by the booths and collected materials to take home rather than taking their time to shop.

I was just grateful so many took the time to attend my Schoolhouse class and stop by the booth to say hi.  Many complimented me on the booth design, my books and methods and my general energy in class.  It seems many were really excited by the prospects of using their scraps.

I was able to return home as planned on Tuesday after the storm passed.  My flights to Atlanta and DC remained right on time.  Many thanks to Delta Airlines for making that happen as planned.  I am, however, still waiting for the truck to arrive with the trunk show, books and patterns.  Expected arrival is Friday but I have not received confirmation... so that means I have been unable to ship orders out this week and will begin on Monday morning.

A great big wonderful thank you to everyone who made our first market a success.  I am so excited to talk to all of you again and here what you have done with my designs at your store.  Follow up emails should be coming next week as well.  Also, check the website calendar for updates on classes and trunk shows.  I will let you know where we will be appearing next... as soon as possible.  Also be on the lookout for new books and patterns premiering soon.  Going on sale by March 2013.  There are plenty of new looks on the design wall.  I am excited to show you everything that I have come up with for the new year and all the new products we are hoping to work with as well.

Happy Quilting!

SchoolHouse Presentation Day and Setup.

Today was the day of the SchoolHouse series at Quilt Market.  I had been selected to present a new idea or product available to all the potential new customers attending the show today.  This was a lot of pressure.  It's only a 15 minute presentation.  Five minutes to quick change into the classroom, fifteen minutes to present your program and 5 minutes to quick change out of the classroom.  

I had been sitting in on quite a few presentations throughout the day.  Some were good, some were OK and some were downright struggles.  But one of the things that I was most interested in was the attendance of the classes.  See the trick is getting everyone into your classroom to actually see your presentation.  There is so much competition.  There are about 15-20 presentations all going on at the same time in your time slot...  so the competition is pretty steep.

Most of the classrooms looked a lot like this.  Some had really good turnout but the most I had seen were classrooms about 1/3 full.  In fact, here is a photo of the presentation following mine.  The one before me was a double slot by the Warm Co. (a batting manufacturer).  

 

I was concerned that no one would attend.  I worried for nothing.  I had the highest percentage attendance of anyone at Schoolhouse today (according to Mr. Mitchell of Mitchell Marketing).  Here are a couple of photos of my room during presentation.

If you notice... there are people kneeling in my aisle to see and both doors are open to the classroom.  What you can't see are the 40 people in the hallway straining to see inside.  Sam was in the hall passing out as many catalogs as possible.  The ladies loved it.  They were thrilled to see something new and someone new.  Somehow the word got out that there was something to see in Room 371 F.  The room chair capacity was 87.  It was amazing and I couldn't have asked for a better day.  Some of the ladies suggested taking a photo for my Mom who was unable to make the trip due to knee surgery.  So here is the view from my vantage point.

Once my presentation was over... I was actually able to assemble the booth.  My design theme... a cabin in the woods.  Complete with dining room table, family photo frame (which is actually a wonderful slide presentation of patterns, quilts and photos of workshops) and a working wood stove. Notice all the candles around the room, the quilts on the shelves and some lovely fruit and veg spread on the dining room table.  Coffee table books are out.  Can't wait to hear what everyone thinks of the booth tomorrow. 

 I am overwhelmed with cold symptoms and allergies out here... so no Sample Spree for me.  Many of the vendors headed out to dinner and then up to sales room for Sample Spree tonight and then have to go back to their booths tonight to complete the setup.  Not me.  I am tucked in as snug as a bug in a rug back at the hotel.  See all of you tomorrow.  Something tells me it will be a busy day.  I am on the first aisle of the show and lots of books will need to be signed.

Check In Day at Quilt Market

Today was the official check-in day at Quilt Market.  I was given a rainbow colored "new exhibitor" ribbon from Quilts Inc and a beautiful catalog... which I am in... Yay!  It was a day of walking, moving, lifting and hauling.  I have never seen so many crates and forklifts before.  It was unbelievable.  

I felt like I was behind the scenes at a circus.  The vendors were all very nice... and despite having one REALLY useless moving cart... we were right on track with all the other veteran vendors... which of course made me feel really great.

Here is a picture of the stuff in my booth... although not completely setup because I have a schoolhouse presentation tomorrow and cannot hang anything or organize and decorate until about 2:30pm.  So we are gonna wander around and see what all the other vendors are showing and check for freebies and giveaways.  Anyone have an ideas about what the "theme" is?

I did my very best to get some photos around the convention but... the full lighting is not up yet, the booths are no where near completed and ... most importantly... I didn't want to use flash because it was late and that is really annoying to those trying to build the booths.  Here are a few of the pics I took today.  I will do my best to explain what you are looking at.  

This is a shot from one of the "peep holes" above the show floor.  This is the only view of the show for the shop owners right now.  They are able to look down on the floor and check out how things are coming together.  FYI... I am all the way in the bottom right corner in Aisle #100.  The aisles go up to #2300 so... you get it... the place is huge.

Here are a few of the vendors working on their setup designs.  There is no way to explain or describe how large some of these displays are.  My booth is a 10' x 10' and most of the bigger booths are 40 x 50 or 60.  

 Here is the beginning of Windham Fabrics booth.

 One of the vendors that is pretty well set up and ready for store appointments.

 Pretty little open corner 10 x 10

 This photo is completely blurry but I couldn't resist showing you how outrageous some of the booths are.  This one has an RV in it.  WOW!

Me and My Sister Designs.  Two fabric wrapped mummies.  Too cute.

The other side of the RV booth.  Not quite together yet.  Can't wait to walk around and take pics when they are all done.

Another blurry one... but this one has a full tiki bar.

Another full sales booth setup.

Jan Douglas Design.  Everything is coordinated in her fabric.  Including her supports.

Not quite done yet but some really beautiful and colorful quilts.

These ladies were still working and making progress well into the night.  As you can see all the aisles are still bare floors.  When market opens they will all be covered in red carpets.

This open corner booth has a full bed in it.

The anthology booth looks like a concert setup.  So anxious to see what they put under all these lights.

Riley Blake has lots to look at.

Giant Clover booth.  Nothing to see yet.

How do you make batting look beautiful.  Not sure but they are working hard at it.

Brewer... these guys are my suppliers.  I will stop in here at some point.

Another side of the Riley Blake booth.

An interesting angle to make a double booth.  Looks like a lounge inside.

Tons of patterns to make cute little girl clothes.  But I don't make clothes and don't have any little girls.  Can you imagine having to make all these little things?

Here is the beginning of the Better Homes and Gardens American Patchwork and Quilting booth.

I would so trip over this umbrella about 800 times.

Another colorful pattern designer.

This is the biggest concession stand I have ever seen.  That flag would cover the side of a house.

Aurifil thread booth looks awesome.  I want to swim in this one.

In the Beginning Fabrics is going for the rainbow look.

This one is a really cool design.  Can't wait to see it completed.

Anna Griffin is just a bald space yet.  Really looking forward to see how she incorporates all the new fabrics.

These are the best pics I could get this evening and hopefully I will get some amazing ones tomorrow.  Northcott has Stonehenge in their booth but it hasn't been arranged and completed yet so those pics will have to post tomorrow.  Enjoy!