Nice weather, New Jelly Rolls

We have lots of new Jelly Rolls, in bright, pastel and primary Moda Marbles, Posh Chez Moi, Flutterby, and Friends and Flowers by Mary Engelbreit. We aslo have several new books with ideas for quilts you can make from these 2-1/2" pre-cut strips for a quick spring project. Our doors are open and we are enjoying the warm N.C. sunshine!

Pouches, lots of pouches

Last Sunday was a beautiful warm spring day and while Carolina was busy winning the ACC basketball championship, look what we were doing...making the most adorable little zippered pouches! Everyone left happy with a completed pouch and many different ideas of what we might put in them. Watch for a pattern coming along sometime this spring!

Multi-tasking in the sewing room

Oh my goodness, we haven't been on here in awhile...but if you have been in the store lately you know why! Its been busy! But we love seeing all of you so often. We are so inspired by all the beautiful quilts that have been coming into the shop lately.

Customers and students often ask me, "How do you do it all, work full-time and still find time to get so many quilts made?" Well, I am not sure exactly how I do it, except that I do stay up late sewing quite often. Here is a peek into my sewing space and as you can see a great way to do double duty--get one machine embroidering away while sewing on another one. And don't ever feel guilty about owning more than one sewing machine! (Many of you probably have more than one television in your home... right?) And note what I use my laundry basket for, not laundry, but sorting fabric! This is after I had already sorted and put away most of it. I do clean up now and then, but only while the embroidery machine is stitching! Always multi-tasking, but in a fun way. Stitch away, and come see us soon!

Karen

Fun with my artista 730

I found this design in the embroidery page of my new 730 and decided to stitch it out late one night, using Isacord thread colors that matched a bright floral fabric with a black background that I had been hoarding in my stash. I put the embroidery design on the front pocket and then made a "Totally Awesome Totebag" out of it. I tried something new for my handles this time. Instead of Craft Fuse and batting in the handles, I covered heavy-weight cotton handle webbing with black fabric. I had some webbing on hand but it wasn't the right color, so the black fabric wrapped around it looks great and makes a nice sturdy handle that won't curl up after lots of carrying. Give that a try next time you make a totebag. I am pretty happy with it! (Now don't be asking for that fabric-you know it's long gone!

Karen

Florida

I just got back from visiting my family in Naples, FL. While we were there, I showed my mother and my sister how to make no-sew fabric boxes. We used Karen's pattern. They were excited to see how easy it was and plan on making some for their friends. (Sure do miss that warm weather!) Julie

New Year, New Fabric

Lots of new fabric has arrived, including these wonderful dots from Kaffe Fassett, along with many other gorgeous prints from Kaffe and Philip Jacobs, another Westminster designer. (By the way, this dot collection includes the box!) Our new shelves are bursting with color and we are busy finding space for fabric. We have an abundance of short bolts right now, so our flat folds are now 20% off all the time and will go up to 35% off during our End-of-Bolt Sale, the last Saturday of each month (next one on January 26th). Come see us soon!

Thanks!

Thanks to all our wonderful customers for your support throughout the past year. Due to your loyal patronage, we continue to move forward and make improvements to the store. We have just finished adding new shelving throughout the store and have reorganized the fabric. It will take a little getting used to, but you will likely see fabric you have never noticed before! So come see us, bring your friends, and start 2008 off right with some new stash, or a new sewing machine. January 1st, New Years Day, is our big Anniversary Fabric SALE from 1-5 p.m. All fabric 25% off! And our Berninas remain on sale through Wednesday, January 2, with great deals on many models. We hope to see you soon!

Julie's Two-Second Quilt

Here is my latest quilt and it went so fast! It is from the book Sweet and Simple with a Lime Twist, by Lavender Lime. I think it took me longer to cut and put the borders on than piecing the blocks. I used fabric from the Chez Moi Fresh Air collection by Moda. I will give you 10% off this book, thru Friday, December 14th, if you mention that you saw my quilt on the blog!

Julie

Laurel Burch News

We have just received Fanciful Felines - a great new collection from Laurel Burch that brings back her often-requested cats! This is the first of many new collections that Laurel's family will be introducing in her memory over the coming years.



In addition to the cats, we also received a wonderful line of Laurel Burch basics which coordinate wonderfully with this new collection.



Stop by to see this wonderful fabric line.

Batik News

Great news for all of us batik fanatics! A new line from Moda just arrived---Leaf Reflections Batiks. Beautiful patterns in shades of teal, jade, grass, bark, brick, sand and burgandy. We also just received a line of pastel batik stripes. Come on in and check them out!

Toys for Tots

We are an official drop-off site this year for the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots Foundation. "The primary goal of Toys for Tots is to deliver, through a shiny new toy at Christmas, a message of hope to needy youngsters that will motivate them to grow into responsible, productive, patriotic citizens and community leaders." Please help by donating a new or gently used toy, unwrapped, in our box. For more information or other ways to help and more donation sites, visit the Toys for Tots website. We thank you for caring and helping this holiday season!

Kaffe Fassett

Kaffe Fassett is here in town and the first workshop is going on today, Friday, at the Sheraton Hotel. We can still accomodate a few more people at his "Kaleidoscope of Color" lecture tomorrow, October 20, Saturday evening at 7 p.m. The lecture will be held at the Grace Church, 200 Sage Road, Chapel Hill, 27514. The fee is $20 and you may pay at the door.
We will have copies of Kaffe's new book, Quilts in the Sun, available for purchase.
Doors will open at 6:30.

Directions:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=200+Sage+Road,+Chapel+Hill,+NC&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=30.599615,57.919922&ie=UTF8&ll=35.955777,-79.01556&spn=0.030501,0.056562&z=14&iwloc=addr&om=1

Deer in the headlights?

No, a deer in the quilt shop! We arrived Saturday morning to find a buck had crashed through the front window of the Bernina room, landing right on an Artista 640. Fortunately it happened just minutes before we arrived to open the store, so no one was in the room at the time. He turned around and went right back out the way he came in, leaving a huge mess of broken glass and blood behind. The deer was badly injured and the police told us he died on someone's front porch in a nearby neighborhood. Customers started arriving and we had a class starting, so closed the door to that room and kept right on going. We found a very efficient company, Servpro, who sent two hard workers to take care of the clean-up and board up the broken window. They arrived within two hours and did a great job. We have said it before... that you just never know what will happen next, even in a little quilt shop!!

Stash Dash-it's almost time

OK, so if you have never done Stash Dash you are probably wondering what the fuss is all about! So here you go: The theme this year is "Think Outside the Blocks." The event goes on for 3 days-this coming Thursday, Friday and Saturday. You buy a little passport ($5) at one of the participating 8 stores, (and if you get it right now we still have a few collector's pins!) Starting on Thursday, you visit each store, be sure to get your passport stamped at the stamping station, and you will be given a free pattern. The pattern will be one of eight parts of a quilt, and you will see eight different versions of THE official Stash Dash quilt made up in each store. Feel free to take photos, as at your last store you get to vote on your favorite quilt. Each store will offer you a 20% off coupon for one item of your choice. Door prizes will abound, (see photo of our sea of goodie bags!!) and you are likely to run into every quilter in the Triangle at one store or another.

The stores this year: Us of course, in Raleigh: Bernina World of Sewing, Sew Unique, and Carolina Sew-n-Vac, in Cary: Etc, Crafts and Elegant Stitches, in Wake Forest: Quilts Like Crazy, and in Selma: Whistle Stop Quilt Shop.

Now, here is the big kicker: Turn in your passport at your last store and you will be entered in the Grand Prize drawing which is a fabulous selection of 16 big prizes, including 3 sewing machines, notions, fabric, tools, etc!

So quilters, do not miss this fabulous event, and if you show up in our store toward the end of the day, bring wine or margaritas, or mojitos (for the staff that is...!)

See you soon. And if you were thinking of just regular fabric shopping this weekend, better wait til Sunday!

Flower Sale

SALE!! We have 100's of bolts of gorgeous florals on sale. Celebrate the rain with us by getting a garden quilt started! They are 35% off and going fast! Sale continues through Saturday 10-5.
Hope to see you here...

Jelly Rolls

We just got in these new Moda Jelly Rolls-the bright ones are called "Alien Invasion" by Amy Bradley and the other ones are from a collection called "Shangri La". The Shangri La Jelly Rolls come in these cute little suitcase-style tins that is perfect for holding sewing notions. They come with a free pattern inside too. So what is a Jelly Roll you ask? Well it's pretty new if you are feeling out of the loop, but they are 2.5" strips perfectly pre-cut for you and tightly rolled into an irresistable little package. And what do you do with them? Well, make a quilt of course...and to help with that we have lots of patterns that use 2.5' strips. Endless fun!

Keep Cool and Sew

Wow, it's been a long time since we posted. Where did August go? School starts tomorrow and the weather forecast promises a little relief from the record breaking heat. Thank goodness. It's been a good month for staying inside and sewing, so I guess we shouldn't complain, since we have such a great indoor hobby. So what have we been up to at Thimble Pleasures? We reorganized the store a little bit, so don't panic when you walk in and there's Christmas fabric, where Kaffe used to be! Kaffe has a new and bigger location along the wall where all the florals used to be. We're not sure where the florals went... The loads of new fabric Julie bought after Spring Market are arriving. We just put out some new bright pastel batiks that are gorgeous. There's a new Fusions collection-a roses print in many colors. If you like sheep there is a group of sheep fabrics that are adorable. Hope you all have been sewing cause its almost time for Fall Market! My machine has been whirring away all weekend. Two small quilts are almost done. I'll post some photos when I can take them in the daylight!
Karen

Hot new notion

These beautiful new Olfa rotary cutters just arrived and we can hardly resist them. They are decorated with orange or plum Calanthas, and just make cutting your new fabric even more fun.

Halloween fabrics are arriving and some are not even out of the box yet, but if you get started soon, you could have a wallhanging ready by Halloween. Come by, its cool in here!

Cool new stuff

We have a whole new assortment of fun embellishing products, like Bead Soup, Bead Gravy, Oliver Twist, Boucle, Radiance and Eyelash yarns, lots of new colors of Paintstiks and Angelina fibers. Oooh, ooh, just so enticing. Plump bolts of spectacular Alexander Henry's keep showing up, and if you haven't seen Jason Yenter's new collection from In the Beginning Fabrics, come quick as some are just about gone. The collection is called Floragraphix and is a luscious mixture or florals and graphix in 22 (whoops, 21 now) different prints. I took a photo but it didnt do them justice so just come see!

Quilting for Teens

We are back from Bernina University and our heads are spinning with new ideas. We are all working on integrating some of what we learned , with new quilts, classes and techniques to keep bringing you fresh inspiration. Meanwhile, while we were gone, our wonderful staff filled up the store with new goodies. (fabric!) So come see! We keep finding new bolts that we had not yet seen.

Coming up soon, with space still available, is our first-ever quilting class especially for teens, 13 and up. If they are just a little familiar with the use of the sewing machine they can take this class. They will make a simple and gorgeous, large, throw-size quilt using the fabric of their choice. We carefully scheduled this class during the late summer so that most teens would be back from camp or vacation, but had not started school. Stop by to see the beautiful sample made by our teacher, Kristie Taylor, using Amy Butler's fabrics. (pictured above) The class starts Monday August 6 and will be held from 2-4pm,then will continue on Tues, Thursday and Friday of that week.