Notes from the Patch

The party's over but the love continues

Just one more video - this one for me, so I won't forget. So I won't forget that it takes a village to put on a party of this size. From the ideas to the execution; it takes a lot of hands, and hearts and love. We have it here in spades.

We made 561 goody baskets and it was EXACTLY enough - we didn't have one extra and no one went home without one! How did we end up with the perfect number? I have my theory. = ) There are no coincidences.

 

Yes, the store is technically mine, but it belongs to everyone who gives so freely to make Strawberry Patches one of the happiest places on earth. Without the love this store would be just a building full of fabric. It's so much more than that!

To all who came and shopped and laughed (and snorted) and ate. Thank you.

To my friends who helped bring our ideas to reality, thank you. I love each and every one of you. I couldn't and wouldn't have wanted to do it without you.

See you all next year!

Encourage one another,

 

Neat and Pretty

Well, it's finally here. Our big shop hop weekend. We've worked hard to get everything neat and pretty for our guests. We're ready and look forward to welcoming you.

I wanted to post this slide show for those of you who can't be with us.

We'll miss you.

Encourage one another,

Chalk Talk

I've been wanting to try some fancy chalkboard printing for a while now, but since I hadn't planned ahead, when I pulled out my box of chalk, all I had was colored chalk. 

Dang.

Before making a trip to Office Depot I took one more look around hoping to find a stray white stick hiding somewhere. What I  found was this.

After all, I do work in a fabric store and this IS chalk. kinda. So what the hay. Thought I'd give it a go.

Oh, my gosh - my printing isn't the best but it totally worked!

The two things I hate about trying to print with chalk sticks is that my hand gets tired and crampy holding those short stubby little pieces and because chalk sticks are fat and blunt it's hard to get any detail. And if I can be totally honest here, there is a third thing that I hate about writing with chalk - it's when kids come along and run their fingers through my hard work to see if it will smear. Duh...it's chalk... OF COURSE IT SMEARS! (Look with your eyes little people)! Sorry but it ticks me off when they do that!

Anyway. These pencils are harder than regular chalk so they don't smear at all, but they are soft enough to get that "chalkboard look" I was after. I may never be able to erase it completely - that is definitely a possibility, but I'm thinking if you were to do a wall or a decorative board that might be just fine since it can be a bit time consuming.

I'm sharing this with you today because I accidentally stumbled upon something that I am totally thrilled about and just wanted to share. All my chalkboard printing will be done with fabric markers from now on.

This weekend is our big Heart of the Valley Shop Hop and we have been prepping for weeks. My team has been so supportive and giving of their time. They each share my vision and are proud and excited  to show you what we have planned. We have some wonderful home grown surprises in store for you (all 100% organic of course) and we sure hope you'll come!

Encourage one another,

Grieving

Tonight as I pulled into the garage Bill asked if I was okay. He could tell by looking at me that I wasn't.

I lied and said I was fine as I headed inside.  

Today my long time friend and Moda sales rep drove to Bakersfield to tell me he was leaving the company. Today I feel like I lost a friend.

Norbert and I always joked that we would retire at the same time. When things got tough he'd look at me and say you can't retire. I'd look at him and say I'll stay as long as you do. Today he broke his promise along with my heart. 

After eighteen years of working together Norbert knew me like a book. He knew what fabric I'd buy before he ever pulled a sample from his case. He was fair, professional, honest and always the perfect gentleman, but above all, Norbert was my friend. When Jeff died he secretly worked with my team to get together fabric for two ALS quilts then insisted on paying for them to be quilted.   

Today as Norbert gathered his samples and pulled away from the store Becky said she pitied the new salesman who would be filling his shoes.  Mark Dunn, you can hire another salesman but no one will never fill Norbert's shoes. Today the quilting industry lost a very special man.

Encourage one another,

Dots nice

So Sunday I was back at the store fluffing and puffing away for our upcoming shop hop  (everything must be neat and tidy for the massive amount of company we are expecting) when I thought, hey, I should count the polka dot bolts, just to see how many we have. I've always been curious to know how many we have but I honestly think I was just putting off climbing up that ladder one. more. time.

So, I counted them.

Care to wager a guess?

384.

384 bolts of polka dot fabric!

Does that seem like a lot to you?

No, me neither. One can never have too many dots - that's my philosophy.

Anyway today we got just one box of fabric from our handsome man in brown and guess what was in it?

Um hum. DOTS. Just dots! Glorious dots in three new shades of grey, two greens we really, really needed and that perfect shade of aqua and red.

So make that 391 bolts of dots.

Sweet.

If you're looking for a particular shade of dot, chances are, we have it.

Life is good!

Encourage one another,

          

What I've been up to

I wasn't going to make "party favors" for this weeks Bernina Club because our Make It - Take It is a bit over the top but decided at the last minute you can't have a proper party without party favors.

I whipped out fifty of these babies, all from my stash, proving once again that it IS necessary to have all. this. stuff!

#soproudofmyself.

Today is Sunday April 14th- the first day of the rest of my life without a second house to clean. So what am I doing on my day off? DOING DISPLAYS AT THE STORE!! #soexcited

Probably Absolutely my favorite thing in the whole world is doing displays. There is nothing I love more than putting on my grubbies, cranking up the music and puttering with displays. I really have no idea what I'll end up with (that's half the fun) since I usually just pull junk er props from the storeroom and see where they take me.

Here's hoping your Sunday is filled with fun creativity!

Encourage one another,

          

What I'm loving right now

Awk. Can you stand the cuteness?

It's Woodland Pals by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman Fabrics.

We've been madly making kits, new models and some of the cutest little gifties for our up coming shop hop. Show up around four o'clock on any given day and you'll likely to be handed a pair of scissors with an invitation to join the fun.

The last of the goody bag components arrived today and we all squealed with delight as we ripped open the box to inspect its contents. (I love when a vendor exceeds my expectations). The next twenty days are going to be crazy busy but so worth it. I think you'll agree.

Encourage one another,

Spring cleaning tip

I love the fancy gas stove that came with our beach house but I could never get the grates that cover the gas burners really clean. No amount of scrubbing would remove the cooked on spots that dotted the heavy iron grates. I had resolved to live with them the way they were until I found this cool cleaning technique on Pinterest.

You'll need a resealable plastic bag large enough for the item you want to clean, about a quarter cup of ammonia, and a brush or scrubber.

Place the item into the bag. Add the ammonia and seal. Set aside for twelve hours.

Remove from bag and brush the dirt away. They say it's the fumes from the ammonia that loosens the greasy stains, not the actual liquid.

Here are my before and after photos. You can repeat the process for super stubborn stains, but it really works!

Just thought this is something you would want to know - the cleaning technique, not how bad my stove used to look. Yikes!

Encourage one another,

What a difference a day makes!

Bill and I celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary on Friday.

I had an eye infection.

He suffered from a bout of diverticulitis.

I went to bed with a hot compress.

He took antibiotics.

We're such a fun couple.

I've been under a bit of stress lately - emptying a vacation home and getting ready for our annual shop hop. Friday morning I was feeling physically rotten and completely overwhelmed. Saturday I awoke to a much improved eye and the offer to help cut 1300 shop hop felt thingies from two sweet friends. What a difference a day makes!

I wanted to show you our quilt for the shop hop. The theme this year is baskets. Each of the eleven shops was to provide a 12" basket block in "basket colors". It was up to the individual shops to set and fill the baskets any way they saw fit. Although the basket idea was basically mine I'll admit that once we had all of the blocks together I was stumped as to how to set them. They all seemed so...brown, but after a few days of trying different setting ideas we came up with this and

I absolutely love it!

We have a limited number of setting kits available for presale so if you're interested please let us know.

We hope you'll join us May 3, 4, & 5 for our fourth annual Heart of the Valley Shop Hop. Our team has been putting our heads together and with the help of Pinterest I think we have some super fun surprises planned for you. (How did we ever exist without Pinterest)? All I can say is you will not want to miss the party!

Encourage one another,

          

Who knew hard boiled eggs could be so delicious?

If the Easter Bunny's left you with a refrigerator full of hard boiled eggs, you may want to try this. 

Chopped hard boiled eggs, mashed avocado and a sprinkle of sea salt.

That's it. Pure and simple and oh. so. good!

(Am I the only person to just now be finding out about this yummyness)?

Thank you Easter Bunny. Bwak. Bwak.

Seriously. You've got to try this!

Encourage one another,