Threading The News

Clothesline and Pottery and Kits, Oh, My!

2012-02-16T09:23:00.000-08:00

Despite the many icy days, the winter classes have kept the sewing machines hot and our fingers toasty. Due to a high demand the Fabric Pottery I Class will be repeated on Saturday, March 10 from 9:30 – 3:30. Please call to reserve your place. We just can’t keep the clothesline in stock! This will be the last class before autumn.

The delivery trucks keep dropping off boxes of stunning new fabrics. Recent additions include:

Robert Kaufman: Fusions Mist and Passage to India

Wilmington: Seaside and Subtle Song—both of these fabric lines have lovely free patterns

Andover: Frogs

Moda: Tropicana and Twirl—the Twirl line has a pattern for sale with three different quilts ($10.00)

Marcus Bros: Tavern Blue—this fabric line was so gorgeous Sue finished her quilt top in record time, we are surprised the bobbins didn’t melt!

We have two new kits, Tavern Blue and 1862 Battle Hymn (for our repro groupies). Photos of the quilts appear below.

Here’s another reminder that Country Treasures is CLOSED ON MONDAYS. Our hours remain the same on the other days: Tuesday through Saturday 10 am to 5 pm, Sunday 12 noon till 4 pm. We will be open on Presidents Day, February 20, 2012, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM.

**PLEASE NOTE THAT WE WILL BE OPEN ON HOLIDAY MONDAYS AND ALSO THROUGHOUT THE VERMONT SHOP HOP.

More soon at Threading the News.

Yours in quilting,

Sue and staff

Take a Romantic Voyage or Visit the Quilt Show

2012-01-20T08:27:00.000-08:00

Classes have started and we are beginning to see lots of new fabric continuously arrive at Country Treasures! Stop in and see our new Moda lines! Some of our favorites are: Always and Forever and a beautiful, just-in-time Redwork Renaissance Chloe's Closet, both of which are gorgeous for Valentine's Day!! The anticipation is over--Top of the Morning from Quilting Treasures has finally arrived. These fabrics are just fabulous for St. Patrick's Day!!

WONDERFUL NEWS!!!! Sue is delighted to share that one of her Quilts of Valor was selected for a traveling exhibit of Quilts of Valor. Original Sewing & Quilt Expo has offered to display 35 Quilts of Valor in an exhibit that will travel to events in eleven cities this year. The exhibit premiers in Lakeland, Florida in February, and then travels to Atlanta (twice), Chicago, Cleveland and Worchester, MA. The tour continues on to Raleigh, North Carolina; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Chantilly, Virginia; Kansas City, and Minneapolis! Her quilt was selected from over 100 quilts submitted for review. The exhibit will also include quilts by such luminaries of the quilting world as Mark Lipinski, Alex Anderson, Eleanor Burns, Marianne Fons, and Nancy Mahoney. It is truly an honor to be part of the Quilts of Valor Foundation honoring our war veterans who return from war and are given a token of our appreciation stitched with love, prayers and healing thoughts, and a thank-you for their sacrifice and valor. The quilt which titled Waves of Freedom was made in 2011 and machine quilted by Carolyn.

We invite all music enthusiasts to join us at the Windham Orchestra's "Romantic Voyage" on Friday, January 27^th, 2012 at 7:30 pm in Bellows Falls at the Bellows Falls Opera House. Jim will be performing with the orchestra which is performing the lush and romantic second symphony of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Sea Pictures by Sir Edward Elgar. If you are not able to crash our ‘Girl’s Night Out’ on Friday, the orchestra gives a second performance on Sunday, January 29^th at 3 pm at the Latches Theater in Brattleboro. More information is available on line at www.bmcvt.org. Tickets are priced at $15-- Students or Seniors $10 -- We hope to see you there!

Here’s another reminder that Country Treasures will be CLOSED ON MONDAYS. Our hours remain the same on the other days: Tuesday through Saturday 10 am to 5 pm, Sunday 12 noon till 4 pm.

**PLEASE NOTE THAT WE WILL BE OPEN ON HOLIDAY MONDAYS AND ALSO THROUGHOUT THE VERMONT SHOP HOP.

More soon at Threading the News.

Yours in quilting,

Sue and staff

Happy January

2012-01-13T09:17:00.000-08:00

Sue and the staff would like to wish everyone a very Happy Healthy New Year 2012!

We have quite a bit of new news for you in updating our BLOG.

Country Treasures will be CLOSED ON MONDAYS starting January 2, 2012. Our hours will remain the same on the other days; Tuesday through Saturday 10 am to 5 pm, Sunday 12 noon till 4 pm. **PLEASE NOTE THAT WE WILL BE OPEN ON HOLIDAY MONDAYS AND ALSO THROUGHOUT THE VERMONT SHOP HOP.

Sue and her staff would like to wish MaryJane future success in her new employment position. She worked with us at Country Treasures for seven years! We will all miss MaryJane very much as she was a vital part of our Country Treasure family.

We welcome new staff member, Jim Adams, to our shop. Jim will be working Tuesday through Friday 9am to 1pm. He is a Chester resident. Jim has many talents, including performing with several orchestras in southern Vermont and New Hampshire, for which he plays oboe, English horn and Oboe d’Amore. He is contributing his computer and organizational skills to help us with our shop management. We extend a warm welcome to Jim who is presently acclimating himself to his new responsibilities!

We are receiving beautiful new fabrics in daily! Yesterday our new line of cozy corduroy fabric came in and it is just scrumptious!!!

The shop is carrying another batting from Fairfield American Spirit. It is a luxury blend batting, 50% Rayon from Bamboo and 50% Natural Cotton. We have just crib and queen sizes right now. Carolyn has tested it and is delighted to tell you it is now one of her favorites. It is great to work with machine quilting and hand quilting. Estimated shrinkage is 2-3% and no need to presoak.

Please review our many class schedules and join us for a fun filled six weeks of classes available to get you through the cold month of January and February!! Samples of the classes are on our website as well as in the shop.

Yours in quilting,

Sue and staff

THE BRIDGES ARE OPEN! THE BRIDGES ARE OPEN!

2011-07-15T06:07:00.000-07:00

Did you hear us??? The Route 103 bridges are finally back open, maybe with a few delays but open for traffic! No more one lane bridges, dirt roads, detour signs, red lights in cornfields.
If you were at the Vermont Quilt Festival this year we hope you had a great time. It was a wonderful show and our friend Mara Novak of Flying Goose Custom Quilting won The Viewers Choice award and Governors award for her quilt - Garden Stars! Congratulations Mara. We ran out of our extra pink and gold "crown fabric" for our Happily Ever After kits while we were there so who ever was looking for it, it is now in stock.
Elvis is in the Building!!! We have the Elvis fabric from Quilting Treasures ! Also Thomas the Train!! Go to www.quiltingtreasures.com to see the projects and fabrics to go with these two great new lines.
The queen size Colorsplash quilt raffle that was part of Quilts Around The Town and Music In The Meadow was won by Candi Garrett of Alstead NH. The quilt raffle raised over $4000.00 for The Susan G. Koman Race For the Cure. Thank you to all who bought a ticket.
Shhh! Even though the Fall Newsletter is a month away someone has "heard" that a couple of the classes will be.... The Twister Christmas Tree, Circle of Nine, Clothesline Baskets and a Folded Star. You did not hear it here!!!

TO MAY AND BEYOND

2011-05-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

Quilt Market was in Salt Lake City Utah this Spring. Sue even took some time to watch and listen to an organ recital at the Mormon Temple.

We are getting new things in every day. Saturday we received 10 new patterns from the Ribbon Candy Quilt Company. Check out their blog. ribboncandyquilts.blogspot.com

Yesterday we got a beautiful line from Henry Glass called Botanica with big beautiful hydrangeas. Go to www.henryglassfabrics.com

Today so far, a brand new product called Retro Clean. “One Soak and It’s History” A great way to wash your quilts!

We also have the latest 17” square rotating cutting mat. Perfect for class and traveling.

May 31^st. Where were we? We are getting new books and patterns in everyday. Two big boxes from Deb Tucker including her new LeMoyne Star template.

Wilmington’s Fall Colors is in. We are kitting up a beautiful quilt. Till next time Sue and Staff

After Quilts Around The Town

2011-05-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Whew, we are just beginning to unwind after Quilts Around The Town last weekend. The weather cooperated and we all had a great time. Our Featured Student was Pat Bermani of Ludlow, Vermont. She had a wonderful showing of some of her beautiful quilts and wall hangings.

The Viewer’s Choice winner was Sherry Bingham of Perkinsville, Vermont. Her quilt was the beautiful appliquéd Vintage Valentine. Congratulations Sherry!

Our Quilt Trail winner was Elizabeth Ralston of North Adams, Massachesetts. Congratulations to you too, Elizabeth!

The Quilt Trail was even more fun than we thought! Answers are:

Country Treasure - Maple Leaf. (who wouldn't get that one!!)
Country On The Common - Square in Square
Rose Arbor - Roses
Ivy on The Green - Treble Trouble
Mountain Leather - Flying Geese
Barret and Valley - Churn Dash
Inn Victoria - Oriental Fans
Moon Dog - Carpenter's Wheel
Misty Valley Books - Woodland Clover
Fullerton Inn - Rail Fence
Chester House - Log Cabin
Hugging Bear - Irish Chain
Book Nook - Jack in the Pulpit

Carolyn's machine applique demo

Pat Bermani - Featured Student with Sue

Antique and Civil War Quilts

We are posting some pics of Quilts Around The Town. Take a glimpse of a wonderful weekend in Chester, Vermont

Next post will be Gearing up for Vermont Quilt Festival and What did Sue find at Quilt Market

Thanks, Sue and Staff

2011-04-22T13:32:00.000-07:00

April 21, 2011

WE NEED YOUR QUILTS!!!!!

Quilts Around The Town is fast approaching – May 6-8^th. Chester will become a Quilt Mecca- Quilts hanging on Inn porches – displayed in business windows and in four venues in walking distance of Country Treasures.

Please consider sharing one of your quilts. We want all quilts, from first time quilts to advanced. People love to read about any stories that go with them too.

We have extended the deadline for registration form to May 1^st. For more information please read our Spring Newsletter on our website, www.vermontquilting.com

We also are very lucky to have Mara Novak of Flying Goose Custom Quilting demonstrating many different techniques in machine quilting.

Bring your antique or new quilts to be appraised by Sandra Palmer. Sandra is an AQS Certified Quilt Appraiser. Please give us a call at 802-875-4377 to set up a time to meet with her.

Even with the time change to Spring forward we still lost all track of time. The 6^th Annual Vermont Shop Hop and the Lancaster Quilt Show at The Continental Inn both happened on the same week! Some of us stayed here and Sue and Mary Jane headed for Pennsylvania.

Because we took the camera to PA we didn’t get any pictures of the Shop Hop but we understand that everyone enjoyed their time hopping from one shop to another.

We brought our Quilts of Valor display to the quilt show in Lancaster and we are posting the pictures here. Everyone there commented on the display so much so that we are going to be hanging the Quilts of Valor at Quilts Around The Town.

We will be reopening on Saturday, April 23^rd and then closed for Easter Sunday. We have been scrubbing, painting and cleaning and rearranging for 3 weeks. We miss the hustle and bustle and can’t wait to re-open.

Of course, the fabric and notions kept coming in so we have plenty to tempt you all with.

Red Rooster has a great new line called Winterberry Lane. We are making kits as we write!
www.redroosterfabrics.com/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/8456

Moda sent us jelly rolls, layer cakes and charm packs for Warm Memories and Grace. The fabric lines will be following soon. It’s always like a tease when we get them!

Just in from Henry Glass is Liberty Ridge. We have kits for this line ready to go!

Now that Sarah is only here on weekends, this has been a new experience for us. We hope we haven't messed this up to badly. WE WILL GET BETTER Sue and Staff

Continuing Saga of Country Treasures February 11, 2011

2011-02-11T08:17:00.000-08:00

Is it Spring yet?

It is snowing now as we are writing this. UGH ! Quit it already!

Let ‘s think Spring with some nice new colors just in:

Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes and Charm Packs from Moda, Lovely and Le Petit Poulet . The full lines will be in for March. We can’t wait.

Bright and bold is Urban Garden from Fabri-Quilt which just came in.

Looking for a cute new baby panel? Bear With Me by Fabri –Quilt has two.

We have a great new quilt pattern and kits available for the Carnival Line, from Plum Trees Quilts.

Sue has been making Pioneer Picnic quilts from her closet scraps!!! You could too!! See the Pioneer Picnic quilt using the Carnival Line from Red Rooster.

Pioneer Picnic pattern is from Stitches and Sew Forth.

MORE NEW NOTIONS!!!

We have 606 Spray available now, great for large area appliqué and Stitch n’ Wash a paper piecing paper that dissolves in water!!! No more tearing and distorting your stitches.

CLASSES

We still have a couple of openings for our Machine Quilting III class this Sunday, February 13^th. This class is about machine appliqué and decorative stitching. You must have taken Machine Quilting I and II or have prior machine quilting experience with another instructor.

Wildflower Rhapsody class has openings too on Saturday, February 26. Call if you would like to join us.

Have a great week ahead.

Sue & Staff

Our First Blog February 4, 2011

2011-02-04T06:47:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Country Treasure’s brand new blog. We are calling it Threading The News!

We hope to be able to “blog” once a week or so to let our quilters know what’s happening !

Carolyn and Sarah sat down a couple of weeks ago with our sales rep, Pauline, from Checkers, our notions distributor. In the next couple of months we are expecting a lot of new items that we can’t wait to show to you.

We just received our first shipment which includes:

Mary Ellen’s Best Press, a great spray product for removing those stubborn wrinkles in fabrics. There are six scents (say that 3 times fast!) to choose from and one scentless.

A new ruler for cutting triangles for ½ square and ¼ square triangles

Sarah has already tried our Print ‘n Fuse which is sheets of Wonder Under that go into your printer, eliminating a lot of tracing! Come in and see her Valentine sample – Wrapped in Love by Patch Abilities.

Have you tried Betty Bands? This is an alternative to machine quilting gloves that leaves your fingers free to manipulate while still gripping the fabric.

New fabrics arrived last week too:

Hydrangeas from Clothworks

Hurrah – patriotic and Ember Reds and EverGreens – reproductions by Jo Morton, for Andover.

We have been kitting up lots of projects for you:

Life on The Farm – Wilmington Fabrics

Tangled Threads – Red Rooster

Best Friends – Clothworks

Don’t forget the Vermont Shop Hop will be here before you know it! Passports are available. 17 Shops are participating this year!

That’s it for this week. Please check back with us in a week or “sew” .

Sue & Staff