Humble Beginnings Reminder

Our first involvement in a multi-quilt shop adventure is almost here ~ The Humble Beginnings Adventure will occur from  Friday, September 30th through Sunday October 2nd. Have you secured your pass yet?

You can still buy them at Quilters' Quarters for the inaugural price of $6.00, and let me refresh your memory as to what that small fees entitles you to:

• Six very unique quilt shops run by their owners ... shops that haven't been involved in many or, in my case, any other shop hops to date.
  
• Each shop will give to you a unique, free Humble Beginnings Adventure kit that contains enough quality fabric to make two autumn-colored 6.5" blocks. We all have chosen different patterns for our blocks, and when you bring the twelve free blocks together you will have a wonderful small quilt to share during New England's beautiful fall season.

  

  Quilters' Quarters 2016 block
  made with  Moda Marble Swirl fabric
• Each shop will have its own unique sample quilt made with these twelve blocks and some blender fabrics, and will share their pattern with you.
  
• For the first fifty customers buying an Adventure Pass in one of the six shops, a free Tote Bag for Humble Beginnings will be given as well.
  
• The shops will have their own special offerings available to Adventurers during the three days of Humble Beginnings. There will be door prizes provided by Moda Fabric at the Quilters' Quarters shop ... and others at each of our shops. There will also be a sewing machine given as one of the prizes!

  

  1915 Singer Model 66 hand crank sewing machine
  refubished with a white oak two storage compartment base
  made by Rick Palardy for Humble Beginnings Adventure 2016

• Light refreshments will be offered to our customers as well.

We are very excited to be offering you our first shop hop adventure for such a reasonable price; it is our humble offer to thank you for visiting our shops and helping us to spread awareness of what each of us has to offer.

At Quilters' Quarters, you will find not only quilt quality 100% cotton fabric, but also interfacings, elastic,zippers, buttons, rotary cutters, mats, templates, pins, needles, threads and more for those sewists who create custom clothing. We also feature antique and vintage sewing machines, as we are too small to have a contract with a sewing machine manufacturer ... and what we can do is help you learn to maintain your own vintage machines ~ you will be surprised at how simple restoring and sewing on these beautiful treasures can be. We have been accumulating so many antique Singers, their treadle tables, and reproduction hand cranks for those that have lost their treadles, that we now have enough to offer some to you ... again for reasonable, humble prices!

Merrimack Valley Quilters Raffle Quilt
2015-2016

While it is ironic that the Merrimack Valley Quilt Guild has chosen the same weekend as our Humble Beginnings Adventure (a change made too late for us to alter our printing orders) we're going to be optimistic that our MVQG friends will be able to attend the quilt show in Newburyport and still have time to visit our partner shops in the same weekend. We're sure you will enjoy both!

Merrimack Valley Quilters Show Poster 2016

We have invested a lot of time, energy and materials in preparing for Humble Beginnings Adventure, to provide what we want to be a wonderful, colorful, beautiful New England weekend quilt shop expedition ... please put us on your calendar for those three days. You can visit the special website that

we have set up for your convenience to learn more about our six shops. We've provided maps in the flyer that will help you locate us and plan your route. We've also posted the Humble Beginnings Adventure (and the MVQ show in Newburyport) at Quilters Bug website, and at each of our own sites.

Will you honor us with your company? We promise it will be well worth your while~

No Question is a Silly Question ..

Sometimes I post pictures of new fabrics in the shop, and plan to add them to the online webstore. And too often, I forget to add something. If you see something here that isn't showing at the web store, please feel free to email or call me (978-352-2676) to order it. I'm happy to fill your order and can invoice you directly through PayPal. (If you are not familiar with PayPal, it is not difficult to use. You will receive an email invoice from them - of course, I'll need your email to invoice you - and you can respond to the invoice with a credit card number or a check.)  Don't be shy - if you'd rather send a check directly to me, we can do that instead.

So, here are a few I've picked up this week ... and a few that will arrive in a few more weeks! Our shop features two treadle machines and three hand cranks that visiting customers are free to try their hand (or feet) on ~ and these fabrics fit right in to our theme of old fashioned sewing and old fashioned service, where "the customer is ALWAYS right!"

Three new bolts of fabric featuring
vintage sewing machines and tools
All are quilt quality 100% cotton, 44" wide.

Old fashioned buttons with
wooden spools of thread.
$10.00 yard

$12.00 yard. 2 yard limit per order,
as fabric is not readily available for re-order.

One panel measures 25x44"and contains six 12 x 12" blocks,   $8.00
Limit one panel per customer order.
as fabric is not readily available for re-order.

And I almost forgot - we have a new line of fabric that will arrive at Quilters' Quarters in early August ... We will be carrying Shannon  Fabrics' CUDDLE! Here's a sneak peek of the beautiful colors and textures that you will find at Quilters' Quarters:

We'll also be ordering some kits that incorporate this beautiful fabric, and will hold some workshops to learn CUDDLE techniques. Exciting, isn't it?

Thanks for subscribing to our blog.  Please feel free to share this email with your family and friends who love fabric and want to get our monthly updates!

Terry, web page/store TerryCrawfordPalardy.com
     email: needlesandpens@comcast.net
Terry's blog:  AtQuiltersQuarters.blogspot.com (you are here.)

If you haven't yet seen Rick's intricate scroll work, be sure to visit his blog to read about his work, and his webpage / store to purchase some:

Rick, web page/store WoodenToyandGift.net, 
     email: woodentoyandgift@comcast.net
Rick's blog: WTandGNews.blogspot.com

Vintage Sewing Machines and Spool Pin Doilies

1904 Singer Model 27, which I bought
 twenty years ago in a local antique shop.
This is my oldest machine. 

I've begun acquiring treadle machines ... they are fun to use (especially with children) and are a practical investment, as they are nearly indestructible and will continue to gain in popularity as they age decade by decade.  Two of my machines, now more than 100 years old (1904 and 1911,) are considered antiques. Two other treadle sewing machines, called Red Eye Singers, are considered Vintage as they are between fifty and one hundred years old, (they will be 100 soon!)  Another two Vintage machines are dated between 1935 and 1947, both with electric motors, but could potentially be returned to "people-powered" by removing the motors and wires and giving them hand cranks. And there are two more are from the late nineteen sixties/early nineteen seventies, considered Retro-Vintage.

The four oldest are all working treadles and my goal is to get them all in good working order and then have a workshop on care and use for those who might have one in their attic that they are thinking of restoring one day.

Dawn's Spool Pin Doilies

What I've found recently are sweet little crocheted or tatted spool pin doilies.  There is a group of people that connect via Facebook to discuss their love of vintage sewing machines and share their tips for restoration techniques.  The spool pin doilies turned up there. I connected with one of the women sharing her patterns and offering to make them for those who could not, and then connected through a friend with another woman locally who would do the same.

Dawn makes white cotton thread doilies that are about an inch and a quarter in diameter, and are a perfect fit for my small Featherweight 1947 machine.

Margaret's Spool Pin Doilies

Margaret hadn't heard of doilies until my friend told her I was looking for some; she immediately went on line, found a few patterns and made some up for me. Hers are of varied sizes and shapes, and I've used some of them on my oldest treadles.

One of Dawn's on my little Featherweight, 

Some who "collect things" collect for the sake of collecting; I collect machines that I want to keep running and share their productivity and versatility with others who want to keep the time honored traditions of quilt making alive.

To be able to do this while protecting their treasured shiny black surfaces with delicate and beautiful lace doilies gives me a great sense of satisfaction and happiness.

Two of Margaret's on a 1911 White Rotary Treadle
given to me by a friend.

If you can crochet for yourself, you will no doubt find a wide variety of patterns for free on the internet. Happy searching! If you can't crochet, you can always reach out to those who can, like Dawn or Margaret.  People who do needlework of any sort are as happy, content, friendly and generous as quilters themselves!

You can find many of Margaret's talents at her Facebook Page.   And you can contact Dawn at her Facebook Page as well. And if you want to have one of these delightful doilies at home with you today, stop in to my shop to see if I still have one or two to spare! Some day soon, perhaps, I'll find someone who will produce another dozen or so that I can post on my web-store page

As always, if you are reading this update in your email, thank you for signing up for the newsletter. We usually publish it about twice a month, but in between editions, we also update the various pages that comprise this blog. Recent additions are the Machine Quilting Classes page,  and progress on current quilts at Terry's Quilting Journal 2014 page.  Come visit us at the blog and see what else is happening at Quilters' Quarters

Feel free to share this email or blog link with your friends and families. Thank you for sharing our pages.

Terry, web page TerryCrawfordPalardy.com, email: needlesandpens@comcast.net
Rick, web page WoodenToyandGift.net, email: woodentoyandgift@comcast.net
Rick's blog: WTandGNews.blogspot.com