Quilty Pleasures Ottawa Scrap Bag

At Quilty Pleasures, our SCRAP BAG page is much like every quilter's collection of useful bits and pieces saved from previous endeavours – and like that little bundle of treasures, we'll be adding things from time to time.

PEACE BY PIECE CHALLENGE!
		We were thrilled with the entries for our "Peace by Piece" quilt challenge! Some very talented people submitted some spectacular pieces to be included in the "Peace by Piece" quilt show. In case you missed the particulars, the rules were easy: create a little quilt (maximum outside dimension 24") that depicts the theme of "Peace". During the show (October 14 & 15, 2011, St Andrew's United Church, Cumberland), "Peaceful Walk in the Woods" was named the winning quilt. The Viewer's Choice award, a QP gift card worth $100, went to Carol Marshall! Have a look at the entries!

FIVE MINUTES OF FAME (AND FIREFIGHTERS)!

On Friday, September 22, 2011, Ottawa's CTV Morning Live broadcast from the world-famous Orleans Roundabout as part of their "Live From Where You Live" series, and Quilty Pleasures was featured as one of the local businesses located in the Heart of Orleans. Host Lianne Laing took excellent care of us and the whole experience was a lot of fun, especially the part where the Great Boys of Fire (studly Ottawa firefighters) made an appearance to promote their calendar – it's hot stuff, and it's all for a great cause. All proceeds (plus a very generous 500% matching donation from the government!) are going to the Queensway Carlton Hospital, so naturally we had to buy a couple. It's important to know which month it is, and those boys are there to help!

NO, THANK YOU!

We have some of the nicest customers in the world, and every once in a while they do things that remind us again how lucky we are to be in this business. Thank you, Linda, for totally making our day with this gorgeous bouquet. It's a (quilty) pleasure to come to work every day!

COUNTRY BEGINNINGS SHOP HOP 2011!

Once again, it was a fantastic shop hop! We had a great time seeing everybody else having a great time, and are very pleased to announce the following grand prize winners:

Diane Brulé (Pictured at right with her Elna EL2800 Sewing Machine, donated by Quilty Pleasures), Rosemary Adams (Go! Fabric Cutter, donated by The Quilting Quarters), Judy Reid (Pictured at left with her certificate for Machine Quilting donated by Karine Chapleau of Karine's Quilting Touch), Marilyn Flint (Machine Quilting donated by Dianne Gale of That Crazy Sew n Sew)

As well, $50 gift certificates (two from each of the participating shops) were won by Penny O'Brien and Carolyn Buchanan (Sew Inspired), Lynn Mittlestead and Katrina Lalande (Textile Traditions), Pat Rowan and Pam Gill (The Quilting Quarters), Victoria Hitching and Pat Trottier (The Country Quilter), Nicole Lemieux and Nellie Van de Ven (Flair with Fabrics), Judy Simser and Anne Cruickshank (Dragonfly Fabrics), Sandra Adamson and Marilyn Lemieux (Aunt Beth's Quiltworld) and Suzanne Sterling and Diana Murray (Quilty Pleasures).

WE WERE THERE!

The 2011 Spring International Quilt Market, held in Salt Lake City in mid-May, was an awesome experience. This is a huge market, populated with vendors of all things quilty: fabric, patterns, notions, sewing machines, threads, gizmos and gadgets. The trends? Slightly smaller scale prints, pretty ice-cream and candy colours, retro designs with a modern twist, adorable clothing, toys and accessories for little kids, and some really innovative rulers and notions (more on these later – once our orders arrive, we'll be hosting a demo event on the latest and greatest).

Just to give you an idea of the size of Quilt Market, here is a picture of us taken from the upper level – we're standing near the entrance, surrounded by 29 aisles of merchandise. That's Leslie on the left, we think, so that must be Val on the right. Or maybe it's the other way around. Hard to tell from this distance.

THE HONOUR OF YOUR PRESENCE!
Everybody had a royally good time at our Royal Wedding Tea on April 29, 2011! Our guests dressed in their regal best to fête the newly wed Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with cucumber sandwiches, scones, cookies, and gallons and gallons of tea – Burtch, our butler extraordinaire, was kept very busy keeping the pot full of the restorative brew. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, go to the Tea Party Page! for the full story!

QUILTY PLEASURES CELEBRATED ON DANCING WITH THE STARS!

Did you see it? ABC's Dancing With the Stars dedicated their April 25th show to Quilty Pleasures! True, there was a little typo in their mega-watt sign, but we know what they meant – Quilty Pleasures is indeed the quilt shop of the stars!

FABULOUS FIVE-HOUR MACHINE SALE! March 2011 The mood at our five-hour machine sale was very festive, thanks in great part to the beautiful bouquet of roses that arrived from two of our long-time loyal customers just as the sale kicked off. We were so touched by the gesture and their lovely note of support, we just have to share them with everyone! Thank you so much, Barb and Brian, for the gorgeous bouquet, your very good wishes, and your generous endorsement. You made our day! And thanks to all who attended our sale. It was lots of fun (in spite of crummy weather) and a goodly number of machines found new homes, so the fun will continue!

HUNTER AND EMMA HELP MOM QUILT! You may recall that Quilty Pleasures was visited at last fall's Shop Hop by our two youngest quilters – baby Hunter, 17 days old and baby Charlie, just 13 days! (You can see our item below on this page.) Well, since then we got the following delightful email!
Hi there! I was told that a photo of me and my baby Hunter was on your website. Very cool! I just saw it. Hunter was so little there! I thought I would pass along a photo of Hunter with his 1st quilt I made for him. My daughter Emma is also quilting with me. My Emma is now 6 but she was 5 in that photo. We were making a quilt for our aunt. She chose all the fabrics herself. =) Jessica

MANON'S VISION! January 2011

Manon purchased a Pfaff creative vision 5.5, with the 5D Suite software, in mid-January and arrived for her training on January 18. With her, she brought a quilt design she had created with her friend in mind – it had a dramatic pieced background, with embroidered words and lips (some stand-alone, some paired up into butterflies, some foursomes arranged into medallions) scattered liberally throughout. A very nice quilt for an affectionate friend who's into kissing.

But what absolutely floored us was Manon's announcement that this would be her first quilt ever, her first embroidery ever, and she intended to have it completely finished and in her friend's hands by the end of January, even though she works full-time. We didn't want to discourage her or stifle her enthusiasm, but we tried to be realistic in letting her know how much work was involved. Then Leslie showed her the ins and outs of her new machine and embroidery unit, and Manon went away to play. We figured maybe she'd have the quilt top done by the 28th, if she was lucky.

Well, imagine our surprise when we heard from Manon on January 28. Here is her note and the picture she sent of her first quilt – it just goes to show that with the right tools and the right attitude, anything is possible!

"Hey Leslie & Val

I just thought I'd share this with you. When I had my class on the 18th of January, I was not too sure I'd get this done by Jan 28th. But, as confident as I was, here it is! I have also embroidered all the lips designed with my machine. Of course, I've changed the designed a bit to spare some time. But I'm quite happy with it.

By the way: I just LOVE my machine. I'm really amazed at the quality and what it can do. I still have to play with it but so far, I was able to use the software and convert my lips designs into embroidery stitches. It's so much fun.

Take care all!"

MILLION PILLOWCASE CHALLENGE!

As you know, it was thanks to the generosity of many, many of our customers that Quilty Pleasures was able to donate 443 pillowcases to Ronald McDonald House as part of American Patchwork & Quilting's Million Pillowcase Challenge. So we are happy to pass along this thank-you note for everyone to see. Thank you for making a difference!

GUILTY-QUILTY COMPARISON CHART Sometimes our name causes confusion to arise between two major pleasure zones, the "guilty" and the "quilty". In the interest of clarity, we have prepared a handy comparison chart to help you determine whether your own secret indulgences are merely guilty, or gloriously quilty. We hope it helps you make appropriate choices
SITUATION	GUILTY PLEASURE	QUILTY PLEASURE
When you need a little pick-me-up, you buy a new colour of :	Lipstick	Thread.
The secret stash under your bed consists of;	A pile of romance novels.	Boxes and boxes of fabric.
When the house is empty and no-one can see you, you eat:	Kraft Dinner, straight out of the pot.	Nothing – why waste uninterrupted sewing time?
Your girly drink of choice is:	A Pink Cosmo Mojito with one of those cute little umbrellas.	Anything with enough alcohol to help with your free-motion quilting.
Your secret downfall is:	Layer cake à la mode.	Layer Cake à la Moda.
When a special occasion comes up, you splurge on:	A whole new outfit, with coordinating handbag.	Fabric for a whole new quilt, with enough left over to make a coordinating handbag.
A day at the spa means:	A full-body massage, followed by a facial, then a mani-pedi.	A full tune-up, followed by special attention paid to the sticky foot pedal.
When stressed, you:	Eat chocolate. Lots of chocolate.	Sew. And eat chocolate. Lots of chocolate.
When it's time to clean house, you:	Crank up the tunes and strip down to your skivvies.	Crank up the tunes and sit down to sew.
Your must-have accessories are designed by:	Chanel, Prada, and Louis Vuitton.	Dritz, Clover, and June Tailor
Your idea of a perfect date would be:	Dinner with George Clooney.	Quilting with Ricky Tims.
At the beach, you:	Read trashy novels.	Read trashy novels for which you've made funky quilted book jackets.
Your PVR is permanently set to record:	Oprah and Days of Our Lives.	Quilting with Alex Anderson and Sewing with Nancy.
Your ultimate shopping experience can be found at:	Neiman Marcus.	Quilty Pleasures.

PILLOWCASE CHALLENGE!

Our Pillowcase and Pizza Event was great– we produced 28 pillowcases for Ronald McDonald House! One of the participants, Anne-Marie, had a personal connection to RMH, since she and her husband were residential managers there back in the '80's. Her stories and perspective just reinforced our initial feelings when we chose Ronald McDonald House to be the recipient of our pillowcases: RMH provides a homelike atomosphere that is highly valued by young patients and their families.

As part of American Patchwork & Quilting's Million Pillowcase Challenge, we collected them until the end of the year, at which time we held the draw for a $100 gift card from Quilty Pleasures. Every pillowcase handed in to us meant one ballot for the draw.

WE LAUGHED A LOT AT CAMELOT!

Our 2010 In-Town Retreat at Camelot Golf and Country Club was a resounding success! Twenty-eight ladies (plus Val and Leslie, who don't quite fall into that category) spent the better part of three days sewing, eating, and laughing, but not necessarily in that order. Camelot's Jay, Tyler, Melissa, and Chef Andrew spoiled us rotten, as did the weather gods who bestowed a spectacular November weekend.

Our days were jam-packed: we started with a delicious breakfast, then we sewed. A fabulous lunch appeared around noon, and then we sewed until our gourmet dinner was served at 6:30, after which we continued to sew. Also included in this rigourous schedule were fitness breaks (Fat Quarter Toss, anyone?), various games, puzzles, and brain-teasers, classes, and, of course, Bedtime Bingo to finish the day.

We had a blast and we'll definitely do it again. Popular opinion seems to call for a four-day event twice a year, so we'll see what we can do. In the meantime, take a look at our smiling faces. Here are a bunch more pictures, so you you can see what you missed!

EAST MEETS WEST SHOP HOP!
Baby Hunter, 17 days old, tagged along for the shop hop with his mother and was officially declared the Youngest Shop Hopper of 2010. Unfortunately, he was dethroned mere hours later when Baby Charlie, just 13 days old, showed up with his mom and grandmom. It's a competitive world, boys, but at least you're both being raised right – with early exposure to quilt shops!

It was a hoppin' hop, with lots happening! We had an excellent turnout and lots of fun. With our Halloween theme, you could say it was "Spooktacular"!

Leslie and Val enjoy the festivities.

One of the prize Gift Baskets!
WINNERS! Thanks to everyone for hopping, and congratulations to the following prize winners: Gift Baskets worth $150 each: Yvette Yaehne (RS) and Cathy Newman (QP) $75 Gift Cards: Pat Holmes (RS) and Susan Ethier (QP) $50 Gift Cards: Sharon Diotte (RS) and Alex Reshetnikov (QP) $25 Gift Cards: Roseanne Hutchingame (RS) and Cathy Sabourin (QP) Kim's Game Tray of Notions Worth $50: Lorraine Chilibeck (RS) and Betty Lambert (QP) Thanks again!

MACHINE APPLIQUÉ FOR THE NO-LONGER-TERRIFIED QUILTER!
	The Sharon Pederson workshop on October 3 was a resounding success: all of our machine appliqué fears have been vanquished! Sharon is a terrific teacher for the terrified. She gives crystal-clear instructions, shares fool-proof techniques, and inspires new-found confidence, all with plenty of patience and humour. We loved spending the day with her. Now we have to find a new phobia just so we can invite her back!

JANOME HORIZON!

Marvin is not for sale, but the new Horizon by JANOME has been very PAW-pular! (Read more about the quilter's best friend on the Janome Machines page!) Our earlier launch party featured our Janome educator, Linda Pidzamecky providing a top-notch demonstration of the Horizon and all its wonderful features.
We had cake!

THREAD PLAY DAY!

Thread is quilters' candy, and our Thread Play Day participants spent a full day gorging on the sweet treats brought to them by Gail Robertson, from Superior Threads. Not only did they learn all about threads (and the appropriate needles to use), but they also learned some surprising things about their sewing machines (zero tension, anybody?). By the end of the day, everybody had a stitch sampler for future reference, a small thread painting to show off their talents, an arsenal of information, and a kit of new Superior threads to play with at home. If you missed it, don't get yourself all in a knot – we've already asked Gail to do a repeat performance next year.
Sharon shows off her thread painting.		Machines, needles, and threads. Oh, my!

Learning about tension, without the tension headache.

Linda and Catherine thread up their machines and get ready to play.

SEW A LOT AT CAMELOT!

We did, and we had a fantastic time! Twenty-two ladies joined us for our first-ever in-town retreat at Camelot Golf and Country Club from November 13 to 15, 2009, and it was a terrific weekend — we sewed, we laughed, we had classes, we played games & had contests, we sewed some more, and we ate very well (served by two extremely handsome young men, we might add!). Take a look at these pictures from the weekend! You'll wish you'd been there, but rest assured, we'll be doing this again this year!

KAFFE VISIT!

World famous fabric, knitting and needlepoint designer Kaffe Fassett visited Quilty Pleasures in October '08. Here he is chatting with his fans and providing photo ops.
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Kaffe spent the morning signing books and spreading inspiration. We also forced him to pose with Val and Leslie (he liked the way we co-ordinated our outfits for his visit!).
	Kaffe holds Anneliese and Pam's attention as he discusses his latest knitting design.

SHOP HOP!
The East Meets West Shop Hop was a hoppin' event!
	May and Debbie plan a project during the hop -- both ended up winning prizes!

HEXAGONS!
The Hexagon Tree Skirt class admires a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt that Anne-Marie rescued from terminal UFO status.

LINDA LUM DE BONO!
A celebrity visit to Quilty Pleasures! C&T author Linda Lum de Bono, stopped by while on a trip to see relatives in Pembroke.
Here, she signs a copy of her book for Madeleine.	Sam is a big fan of Cool Girls Quilt. Linda was impressed with her choice of fabrics for her journal cover.

BITS AND PIECES!
Anne-Marie Valois is one of our favourite quilting teachers, and apparently we're not the only ones who feel that way! This year, Anne-Marie was nominated as a finalist for the CQA's Teacher of the Year award. That puts her in the top seven for the whole country! Congratulations, Anne-Marie!		Quilt Marc works his magic on the ladies.
		A customer's husband tries his hand at embroidery – without using his hands!.
Meet Hanne, a quilter from Norway, who visited us during our Anniversary Sale. She's part of an internet quilting group that physically gets together every so often (this year in Indiana)— she extended the trip and spent an extra couple of weeks with her friend Val, a quilter from the Pembroke area. She definitely gets the prize for travelling the farthest to attend a Quilty Pleasures event!		Lorraine and Michèle didn't consult each other about their outfits before they came to the store, but they managed to be each other's negative. If there were another one of them, they'd be a nine-patch!