"..Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String..."

One of the nicest things about being home in retirement is hearing the mail truck out front, and knowing that a package ordered a few days earlier is here.  This past week brought many packages; here are some photos of what came at the end of this week or, if marked with a RED STAR, are expected to come within the next week:

* 26  6"  x 6"  quilt cotton fabric squares

Package of two bunny crewel and quilt works: 12 x 18" and 18 x 24"

wool for the above kit

Rare Beatrix Potter QT fabric panel 24" x 36"

fabric of 10" squares: spring colors

fabric of 10" squares: spring posies

40 different 6" charm pack

patriotic fat quarters

23  5" charm calico blocks 

Boy and Bear Crewel work 5 x 7 in 8 x 10 frame (not included)

Morning in the meadow crewel kit 12 z 16"

Hand sewn 2 layer cotton bunny applique 10 x 18"

one yard 60" wide green micro-fleece Beatrix Potter print

Remember, if you're reading this in your email, thank you for signing

 up for these updates.  Please feel free to forward this to your quilting 

friends, so they can sign up in the right margin to hear about new

 arrivals:  http://atquiltersquarters.blogspot.com/

Be well, be warm, and happy anticipation!

~Terry and Rick

New Purchases Continue to Arrive at Quilters' Quarters

It has been too cold to step out of doors lately, and so I've had a week of small packages of items I've ordered for the shop online. There isn't a lot of room for profit with these purchases, but it is fun seeing what arrives day by day, package by package. Sometimes, I'm lucky and hit a "free shipping" offer at a website. But other times, I pay almost half of the fabric's price in additional shipping.  Such is life~ here's what I've acquired this week, courtesy of the post office delivery:

NEW: 40 pink variety 2.5" quilt fabric strips

NEW:  20 silk skeins hand embroidery thread

NEW: ten batik variety 2.5" strips

NEW: ten quiet purple and blues variety 2.5" strips

NEW: ten flip flop design variety 2.5" strips

NEW: ten bright floral variety 2.5" strips

NEW: six new fat quarters

NEW: 20 batik variety 2.5" strips  

NEW: 100 pre-cut charm pack 5 inch squares

There will be still more deliveries in the next few days~ these are what we are expecting to arrive: military quilt of valor fat quarters, ten-inch 'layer cake' squares of quilt fabric in spring colors, and a charm pack of forty 6" squares of different patterns. We'll post photos when they are in - I promise!

Come on in and see if we have what you're looking for! And if we don't, you know we'll do our best to find it for you! We have another shopping trip to the warehouse planned in a few weeks. 

Remember, if you're reading this in your email, thank you for signing up for these updates.  Please feel free to forward this to your quilting friends, so they can sign up in the right margin to hear about new arrivals: http://atquiltersquarters.blogspot.com/

Be well, be warm, and happy stitching!

~Terry and Rick

 Thank you!

Happiness is ...

Linus, Snoopy and Woodstock have come to visit Helen and Henry, and they are going to stay awhile! I've got to get busy and make a crib size quilt of the new panel I just received. It will be on display in the shop soon.


Come and meet Helen and Henry while the Peanuts Gang is here for a visit!

We have lots of 'tone on tone' folio prints from the Henry Glass line that will blend beautifully with the bright colors in these Linus panels from Quilting Treasures.

Pick up a panel and some coordinating fabric to make a special person in your life a Happiness Quilt! Quilting Treasures donates money to the Linus Project whenever a bolt of panels is sold. 

We also have batting, threads, rotary blades and rulers ... almost everything you need to make a beautiful quilt!

I have lots of projects on my calendar, but this one is going to jump right to the top of the page! 

Sew much fabric, and sew much fun! 

There's also a new bolt that will be a perfect accent piece for a Quilt of Valor; visit our QOV page here on the blog.

Remember, we're open from 11 to 7 four days a week, Wednesday through Saturday. But if you need different hours because of your own schedule, you can call us and make arrangements to come on another day. If we can be home that day, we will open the shop for you! Just give us a call at 978-352-2676 or email Terry at needlesandpens@comcast.net 

Looking forward to seeing you, and sharing these new fabrics!

~ Terry and Rick

Oh - and if you're reading this in your email, Thanks for signing up to follow us! AtQuiltersQuarters.blogspot.com.   

More Threads and a Collection of Thimbles

One of our consignees, Ann, has shared a collection of thimbles that her mother had saved through several decades. Ann thought there might be some quilters who could add some of hers to their treasures.  Come  into the shop to see them.  Here are a few pictures of the fifty thimbles she's placed in Quilters' Quarters:

Fifty sweet thimbles collected over many years.
From the top shelf of specials
to the lower shelf of plain metal thimbles
One of wood, one of fabric, and one of plastic
Each one unique.

Pewter, silver, fabric, ceramic and bone china ...
so many different thimbles!

The top right thimble is marked inside:
Spode Fine Bone China, England
and has gold cherubs painted around the rim. 

 I love the pewter pot thimble, though I haven't a clue how to use it to sew!

The top opens to reveal a dimpled thimble surface.

More enamel embellished, filigree design and hand painted flowers 

I've been able to add some more things to Quilters' Quarters inventory this week by monitoring auctions at eBay.  But I must offer a caution here: I lost a few auctions in the very last seconds because my fingers are not as nimble as others. I had made a higher bid, and for more than a day I had the lead on two lots of embroidery thread. On the first lot to come to its deadline, I was online and watching. Two seconds before the clock stopped, eBay released my hidden maximum bid, in time to let another bidder add one dollar to it. I was not  happy to see it happen that way.  On the second lot, the next morning, it happened again ... my maximum bid, thirty dollars higher than the standing bid, was suddenly released, and before I could hit the bid button, another did, and the bidding ended. I called eBay and asked why, as no other bids had come in, had they released my maximum in time to allow the other bidder to see it and beat it. They said simply 'that is how automatic bidding works.'

Lesson learned ... I was able to buy a few lots and did so, without bidding. Buyer, or bidder, beware; this is not our century!  Here are some photos of what I've added to the shop:

I have 166 bobbins of embroidery floss that come on numbered bobbins, all tightly packed together, and I will sell them separately for 25 to 50 cents each.  Some have had some of their floss removed from the bobbin; hence, the different price ranges. 

I also was able to buy 165 skeins of six-strand DNC embroidery floss, in a range of colors from whites, ecru, beige, pale pinks, reds, all the colors of the rainbow and so on through dark browns, and a single skein of black. And when I took a picture of the reds, yellows and green portion of the color spectrum, without the flash, they seemed, with my tremor, to blend into an image of salsa!  

If you know of someone who is looking for just that particular shade of color in embroidery threads, let them know of Quilters' Quarters and our reasonable prices.  I think these will go for fifty cents a skein. 

Be well, all.  Happy Sewing!

~Terry and Rick

email:

Terry:  needlesandpens@comcast.net          Rick: woodentoyandgift@comcast.net

websites:     www.woodentoyandgift.net             www.terrycrawfordpalardy.com

QuiltShopUpdates: http://atquiltersquarters.blogspot.com

Wooden Toy Updates: http://wtandgnews.blogspot.com 

Sharing a Local Press Article about Quilters' Quarters

Our favorite local reporter has interviewed Rick and me in the past about our retirement businesses.  When I let her know that we had diversified our shop and added Quilters' Quarters, she came over to visit and interviewed about this new endeavor.  She wrote a wonderful article, which I've reproduced for you here.

The editor chose a rather unusual headline for the article, but I'm pleased to say it appeared on page one, "above the fold."  Here is Sally's article: 

By Sally Applegate
georgetown@wickedlocal.com

Posted Mar. 2, 2014 @ 10:00 pm


GEORGETOWN


Since the 1940s, Georgetown quilters have always known they could get what they needed right downtown at Cressy’s, the unique little store that had everything. When owner Bob Dillon announced the store would close in 2007, Georgetown quilters rushed to the store to get things they knew would not be able to find anyplace nearby

Now there’s a new place for quilters right near Georgetown Square.

Two doors past Perley Elementary School sits Wooden Toy and Gift Shop, the popular home business of Theresa "Terry" and Rick Palardy, at 59 North St. The Palardys have recently added Quilters’ Quarters, an extensive collection of quilting and sewing supplies, to their collection of hand-carved wooden toys and one-of-a -kind gifts, including original quilts made by Terry. A valentine quilt is on display, and Easter quilts are on their way.

"We’re trying to fill the void left by the departure of Cressy’s and its sewing and crafts supplies - there was so much you used to be able to get at Cressy’s," Terry said. "When our local ‘everything’ shop closed its doors, the absence of a one-stop shop was felt by many families. While Rick and I can’t fill that void completely, we are happy to stock things that stitchers are looking for."

Customers will have input into what styles and brands of fabrics and notions will be carried in the shop, Terry promises. The Palardys are working with a wholesale quilt supplier in Massachusetts and can get most things within a few days.

They have opened their inventory with the basics: hand and sewing machine needles, dual duty threads, embroidery floss, packaged and rolled batting, scissors, rotary cutters and blades, mats and rulers. The Palardys say they can help their customers maintain the sewing machines and assist them in finding a professional repair person in a nearby town.

In the large room where Terry’s pretty valentine quilt is hanging many fabrics are on display. There are cotton flannel backing fabrics in prints and solids, sewing notions like pins, needles, zippers and interfacing.

The shop carries blank note cards by Lynne Schulte, quilted bags in prints and solids by Darcie Nuttall, and small purse kits by Ann Lainhart. The shop has a lending library of quilting books, as well as books by Palardy, who is also the author of eight books. Several of these are for sale at Quilters Quarters, including her latest, a new mystery novel called "The Quilter’s Quarters."

"It’s part mystery novelette and part annotated quilt gallery," Terry says. "I'm working on the second in the series now. It will be called "Winter Wonder in the Quilter's Quarters."

Rick and Terry have lived in Georgetown since 1976, moving to their 59 North St. home in 1994. Because Terry is dealing with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) she found herself unable to continue teaching at the Doherty Middle School in Andover.

The nice thing about their current North Street location just two doors from a school is that they can hear the cheerful voices of the Perley Elementary School students when they go out for recess, and Terry enjoys that.

"It’s a happy sound," Terry says.

Rick and Terry married in 1970, and Rick has been a tremendous support in her journey through MS. Rick is a retired Georgetown firefighter and metalworker, and the shop is filled with his creative carved wooden plaques and ornaments.

Terry is offering individual lessons in sewing, and assistance in color/fabric selection and quilt design. If you are interested the lessons, you can call and leave her a message at 978-352-2676. Patterns and kits are also available on request. Quilts can be ordered and made onsite.

As a member of the Merrimack Valley Quilt Guild and the Essex County Needlework Guild, Terry can introduce quilters to professional finish-quilters as well.

Quilters’ Quarters is open Wednesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

For a sneak peek at the new quilting shop, you can visit www.TerryCrawfordyPalardy.com.
To see the article on the Georgetown Record's "Wicked Local" website, you can open this link:

http://georgetown.wickedlocal.com/article/20140302/NEWS/140309908?utm_source=newsletter-20140303&utm_medium=email&utm_term=view_as_webpage&utm_campaign=newsletter