Inspire. Empower. Create.
Hello, Friends!
Remember how we said we have a lot of things in the process? Well, we are making progress on the retreat center! Here are just a few teaser pics:
I’m also loving the little details:
What do you think? We can’t wait to share this new space with you! Stay tuned to see more next week!
So much is happening in our little neck of the woods! Did you hear about our cool feature in the Kansas City Star?!?! Holy smokes were we excited. We got a picture on the front page even! I asked Dad if in all his 17 years of working at the KC Star he ever thought he would be in a picture on the front page, he laughed and said not in his wildest dreams! We were really just blown away by it all.
Mom, Natalie and I have been working like crazy on our magazine deadline for the Christmas issue of Quilting Quickly. ( yup, Christmas already!) We think you guys will love it! WE have filled it to the brim with gift ideas and fun projects to keep you busy all season!!
Enough of that though….we are also working like crazy on the retreat center. Planning it out, and still in the process of construction! I am picking out paint colors and flooring, doors and trim…you know, the exciting stuff! 🙂
Just FYI, if you want to be on a mailing list where we are sending special updates for the retreat center, make sure you’ve signed up for our retreat info email, we are just sending pics there right now, but eventually we’ll work on pricing and reservations and stuff through that list before we go public with it all. Click here to sign up
Hello Friends,
We have been really improving things on the retreat center, and it all seems to be coming together quite nicely!
The last few weeks we have made some major progress! Several weeks ago we got the insulation installed, and the plumbing rough-in started. Almost all the electrical has been roughed in…and MAN, it’s looking good!
We have managed to save the old tin ceilings, and will re-purpose some of the old windows for decoration. (eek, my favorite!)
We have taken the entire front off the building, and are re-designing how it will look. We will add a double door and windows to the front. I am trying to get my grandpa to design some stained glass windows also. (cross your fingers for me that he says yes!) Ahh, it’s going to be awesome!!
Here is a peak into our progress:
Here is how it looks today: We are almost finished with all the brick tuck pointing! (see the pic at the top) Hoping to get all the new windows in and doors this week! We are also starting the sheet-rock by the end of the week, and couldn’t be more thrilled! (although it will take several weeks to finish!)
We still don’t have a finish date, but are hoping it will be by end of August. Then to start furnishing it and getting it ready for all our amazing forum visitors in October!
I hope you enjoyed seeing a little snippet into our major renovation! We sure do love a project, don’t we?!
Have a happy day!
Sarah
We are beyond excited about teaching at the Riley Blake Fabric Fest in Las Vegas in September! All three of us (Mom, Natalie and I) are looking forward to hanging out and visiting and sewing with you all!! If you haven’t signed up yet there is still time! DO IT! 🙂 If our classes are full and you want a spot, send Riley Blake a note and I am sure we can squeeze you in!!
We’re always getting phone calls and e-mails from you, our beautiful, lovely, patient, loyal, good-looking really good looking, wise customers. You offer us many excellent suggestions and ideas (and thank goodness you do because we 
definitely don’t know it all). As much as we can, we try to incorporate these suggestions into how we run our shop. That is why we are pleased to announce the standardization of precuts!
As you know, MSQC carries a very broad selection (and growing) of precut fabrics from a bunch of different fabric providers. The confusing part is that these companies all do the same precut sizes in different quantities. Take charm packs for example; Riley Blake puts one of each print from a fabric line in their charms, so you could get 22 pieces … or 24 pieces …. or 27 pieces … etc (you get the idea!) Moda always puts 42 pieces in their charm packs, even if they have to double or even triple some prints. Some companies include a flat 40 pieces (with some duplicates). And other companies do it other ways. Many of you commented that it was confusing when you watched a tutorial that used a charm pack that included a certain number of squares, and then bought another charm (more suitable to your taste and style) which included a different number of squares. This also made it hard to easily compare prices of charms, to tell if you were getting good value for your money. The same went other precuts as well.
So what we’ve done, as much as we can, is standardize the number of pieces that come in precut fabric bundles. We thank our wonderful fabric providers, most of which have agreed to custom cut for us to make this standardization possible. Here’s what we decided on, with your advice in mind (each precut lists the standard number of pieces it will include):
Remember, companies call the exact same precuts by different names (eg – 2.5” x 44” strips can be called jelly rolls, design rolls, rolie polies, roll-ups, stone-strips, etc), so always look for the measurements to ensure you’re getting the correct item!
A few things to note:
In case you’re curious, the reason we chose 42 pieces for the 5” and 10” squares, is because then you can make projects that are 6 x 7 squares, plus with the extra couple of prints, if you don’t like a few (and don’t want to use them in your quilt), you have more remaining squares to work with.
We hope that this change will benefit you, and look forward to implementing even more of your brilliant ideas in the future. Thanks for being the best customers in the world! We couldn’t have come this far without you all 🙂 Happy quilting!