The Quilt Room

Summer Holidays

Well the weather in England has not been that great but Nick and I have just come back from ten days in France and Italy and we had blue skies and sunshine the whole time - even too hot at times but I can't bear to say that!

We certainly did some driving as we drove to the south of France and stayed there for four days enjoying the company of close relatives and lazing around in the sunshine. Then off we went again driving to Tuscany where friends of ours were getting married. This was definitely not a lazy time as it takes a lot of energy to enjoy yourself as much as we did!

There were ninety guests and we all stayed in a vineyard in Tuscany. I think we managed to sample every wine they produced plus an awful lot more! We had such a great time - wonderful food - wonderful company - and the bride looked beautiful.

A Very Tiring (but Exciting) Week!

The past week has gone by in a whirl. I left Cornwall last Sunday night and spent the Monday and Tuesday clearing the last bits and pieces from our old warehouse and getting ready for the Malvern show.  The delivery of Layer Cake, Jelly Roll & Charm Quilts arrived Tuesday afternoon which was cutting it a bit fine but at least they arrived! We then loaded the van and car and set off on Wednesday morning to set up.

The show as always was lovely - it always has such a good atmosphere and we had all the quilts from the book exhibited plus we had lots more on the stand. Here we are with Liz Lynch who we roped into helping out. Liz used to run the shop before she moved to Cornwall and she still comes up to teach. We had a great four days at the show and everyone seemed to love the book. Got back to Dorking late Sunday night and Nicky and I then decided to re-arrange the shop and didn't leave the shop until gone midnight - must be mad!

Got up early this morning (Monday) and arrived back in Cornwall just in time to get the phone call to say that our new arrivals were being delivered in an hour. Well - I haven't told you about them but we now are the proud owners of 12 rare breed sheep plus 4 lambs. They are Manx Loachtan and Hebridean which give lovely natural brown and black wool. They all have names - although how I am going to tell them apart I'm not sure. It is going to be a steep learning curve but they look gorgeous in the field and I know I am going to love them.

I've still got the 8 guinea fowl, 6 chickens, 8 baby chicks, 3 dogs and .... oh yes... 1 husband!

A Double Helping of Bluebells!

The bluebells were glorious in Surrey a couple of weeks ago when we were moving to the new studio and as they are slightly later in Cornwall I have managed to have a double helping this year! As walking through bluebell woods is just about one of my favourite pastimes I am feeling extremely uplifted.

I am heading up to Dorking tomorrow so Nicky and I then have to find everything we need to set up our stand for Malvern.  As everything is now in a different place it will be a miracle if we find everything so if you see us with a couple of orange boxes and nothing else you will know what has happened!

The quilts from the Layer Cake, Jelly Roll & Charm Quilts book were collected on Friday as they are being exhibited at the Malvern show where we will be launching the book and Nicky and I now have the panic of whether the books are actually going to arrive before we leave for the show. Delivery is promised for 'some time on Tuesday' and we are leaving first thing on Wednesday! What would life be like if we didn't have these little panics!

Looking forward to seeing everyone at Malvern - do come and say hello and have a look at the new book. We are very pleased with it - yes we do have one copy and if the delivery doesn't arrive on Tuesday it might have rarity value!!

Mail Order and Quilting Service has Moved!

~ All our worries about the move are finally over as we are now safely installed in our new 'studio' - it is far too grand to be called a warehouse! Nicky can now sleep at night as the longarm quilting machine safely made its way through Dorking on a low loader and is now up and running in its new location. To find us, we are opposite Sainsburys in the High Street and down the little passageway beside Bookends.  There was originally an old single storey building there and we have had it completely renovated with another floor added. Below you can see the transformation. The builders really have done an amazing job and we're so happy with it.

We are hoping to have an open day soon so watch this space.

~ JELLY ROLL CHALLENGE ~ We are now busy quilting all the winning quilts and they really are great - there are some very clever people out there! We will be posting the names of the twelve winners in the next week or so and the announcement of the first, second and third prize winners will be made on publication of the Jelly Roll Challenge book in October.

On a final note I just have to put a picture up to show that sometimes we do get a break. We spent ten days in Eleuthera in The Bahamas with all the extended family - eleven of us. We stayed in a lovely house overlooking the ocean so plenty of fish to cook on the BBQ at night and plenty of sun. Looking outside at the rain right now it seems a very long time ago.

 

What clever customers we have!

  When I was in the shop a while back I was discussing with the girls how difficult it was to find new things for the window display.

How wonderful are our customers!

Mary Roberts who was on a workshop that day overheard me and offered to put some of her work in our window to help out with the display. She not only arrived with all her beautiful quilts but set about doing the display herself. I believe the girls were around to offer support but I don't think she needed much.

Can there be any other business in the country that would have those kind of customers - patchwork and quilting is really something special. Thank you so much Mary. 

On to another matter. The deadline for the Jelly Roll Challenge has now passed and Nicky and I together with the other judges are having the very difficult job of choosing the winners.

There have been some gorgeous quilts and it will be a while before a decision is made.

We will of course keep you posted and once the winners are announced we will of course list the winners here........ watch this space!! 

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas

 We hope you all had a lovely lovely Christmas.

We all lead such busy lives that there seem to be so few occasions when you can get together with all your family. Christmas is one of the occasions when everyone manages to meet up and we should value these times as they are very precious.

This year Nicky and I have had a lovely family Christmas down in Cornwall. There were 11 of us plus 5 dogs for most days and on Boxing Day we were joined by my nephew, wife and baby son. Here is our Boxing Day photo - it was very difficult getting everyone to stay still (especially the dogs) and Nicky had to leap into place after setting the timer. But here we all are. 

Nicky and I would like to wish all our customers and friends a Very Happy New Year. Don't forget the shop is open on Friday, 2nd January for the start of our GRAND SALE. 

Christmas Party!

 

Yes we do get out to play sometimes! We had our Christmas party this year on Sunday lunchtime which seemed to suit everyone quite well - it certainly made a change from cooking a Sunday roast.

We went to the local restaurant across the road from The Quilt Room called Viva and the food was lovely. I would certainly recommend it if you fancy a lunch out when you are in Dorking.

Here we all are at the beginning of the meal looking quite sedate - even though Margaret's hat is a bit askew already!

   

Here are the mail order girls trying very hard to look efficient - Jean, Hilary and Chris.

This was definitely at the beginning of the meal as they haven't yet pulled their crackers - although even after they had pulled them they were a bit uncertain about putting on their party hats!

Oh dear - yes I think this was a bit later on. Here are Sharon and Ileana with Nicky in the background trying to get out of the picture.

This is our American contingent - Sharon originally from Texas and Ileana from upstate New York.

Sharon is well known to everyone as she has been working at The Quilt Room for many years and works on Mondays and Fridays but Ileana only joined us this year. She works on a Thursday so come in and say hello to her.

 

Here are our lovely Tuesday girls - Linda and Margaret.

Margaret is still tap dancing as is Pat who was also at the lunch. We did try to get them to put on a show but they were unsurprisingly a bit shy!

No pictures of me - I was the photographer!

Get Well Soon Milly!

  We have been exceedingly worried over the past four weeks about Milly who has been very poorly indeed. Milly is one of the pups of my dog Inky and belongs to Nicky. Anyone visiting the mail order department to drop off a quilt will have met her. She is the most good natured of dogs and we couldn't bear the thought that anything could happen to her.

The vets couldn't work out what was wrong with her but they couldn't get her temperature down and admitted that it was so high it was life threatening.

Eventually she was admitted to a specialist hospital and after tests under general anaesthetic they have diagnosed meningitis - to give it its full name Steroid Responsive Chronic Meningitis. We had no idea that dogs could get meningitis and no one seems to know what causes it. Anyway, now they have started treatment she is well on the way to recovery although it will be many weeks before she is back to her old self. She is still in the hospital but hopefully she will be home at the weekend. She is now actually wagging her tail and rolling over to have her tummy tickled so we know she is feeling better. So join with me to wish her a speedy recovery. GET WELL SOON MILLY.

Friends in High Places

It's not often you receive a photo of a friend in this situation!

I am sure you will all recognise Lynne Edwards, author of many bestselling quilting books and much loved quilting tutor.

Here she is at her investiture receiving her MBE from Prince Charles. Normally you can't stop Lynne talking but I think she maybe is letting Prince Charles get a few words in! Well done Lynne - we are all proud of you and you certainly deserve it for what you have done in the quilting world.