Visitors to our booth in Paducah
It’s been more than a month since Paducah’s quilt show and I’ve sat down several times to write in my blog, but it obviously didn’t get done. Where does the time go? Paducah was WONDERFUL and I want to thank all of you that stopped by to see our beautiful fabrics! We love meeting each and every one of you and apologize if we were so busy we didn’t get a chance to really talk to you. We sold a lot of fabrics, including a lot of our Bali batiks and have replaced some and ordered some new fabrics! Shopping for the fabrics is half of the fun of running a quilt store . . . all those fabrics to choose from . . . !
One of the reasons I haven’t been more in touch with you, is that I started a temporary job at Wal-Mart working on the remodeling team. I felt that this would give me some extra money to put into my store for advertising. It has helped and I’ll be advertising in both Quilter’s Newsletter and McCall’s Quilting for the next 3 issues! Please look for the ads and show them to your friends. I have now gone to part-time with Wal-Mart working in Ladies Wear, which now gives me some extra income and the time to work with Batiks by Design.
Jelly Bags
If you check our home page, you will find some wonderful purse patterns that are perfect for those rainy summer days when you want something quick and easy to do. I wish I had taken pictures of all of the wonderful bags and purse we saw at the Paducah quilt show. Wow is all I can say! We made 2 versions of Jelly Bags pattern. What do you think? We sold kits for the strips to make them both.  They went very well and I was wondering if you thought that they would sell online just as well? Give me your feedback.
BQ2
We’ve also add a few new patterns that are easily made in a weekend – or less! Check out Afternoon Delight, a truly delightful quilt that is quick, easy, and oh so beautiful! Another one we had a lot of fun with is Love That Print. This is a great pattern to play around with some of those fabrics that are hard to cut and need larger pieces to really show off the fabrics. Stir Crazy (right in greens and purple) from Strip Therapy 2 
was made in a weekend using the KiwiBerry Bali Pop strips and an added background and border fabric. I’m very pleased with it. Another quick and easy quilt that is perfect for showing off your favorite fabric or fabrics is BQ2 (far right) by Maple Island. I made one using a variety of Asian fabrics for my daughter and we made one with a wonderful Bali fabric for Batiks by Design. It is pictured to the right. Isn’t it pretty?!
Join us for the Quilt Dash starting on June 15th and you could possibly win a kit to make the blue and white version of the Jelly Bag. On our home page is a link for you to join the Dash. It’s a lot of fun with great prizes and a limited number of shops to visit.Â
Until next time, happy quilting! Patti
My mother’s birthday is just around the corner and I’m getting ready to make her the Towne Purse that I sell on my site. This is one of 
the purses that I’ve been meaning to make for a while, but just haven’t gotten around to it. It’s the pattern that most seems to fit my mom’s needs as well. She doesn’t like to carry a shoulder bag anymore and has to have lots of pockets. This pattern says there are 9 pocket
s. I hope that is enough! It even has a zipper, a must with my mom. My dilemma is what fabrics to use . . . she’s not into the Vera Bradley look since her purse has to match her outfit! I just use a purse until I get tired of it or it falls apart, whether it matches my outfit or not. I’m thinking black and white, which is a nice look for summer. If I make the main part of the bag in fabrics with black as the background, then it won’t get so 
dirty and I can use the white fabrics for the 
trim/accents. Two of my possible selections are to the right. I’ve also considered some of the fabrics that are black and white with a little bit of brown as shown to the left. If you have any suggestions, let me know.