Happy New Year!

Christmas is over and a new year is about to start. I've been very busy getting ready for the new year. New classes, New projects, Wow, so much to do! this time of year gets busy for me. I always feel like changing all the displays, New fabrics will be arriving almost every day and all the class quilts have to find a home. Not to mention all the office work for end of the year. Boy! I'm tired just thinking about it!!!! I'm very excited about the new class schedule. there should be something for everyone to enjoy. Roxanne has added another session on her schedule each month. So, now we will have her here six times each month. Her classes have gotten very popular. With the new year she will be starting a new block of the month. It's really something!!! She just never runs out of tricks to teach us. Check her schedule on the web site or stop in for a hard copy of the newsletter with all the classes on it

A Holiday Giggle

Merry Christmas from Aunt Mary's

HO,HO,HO!!! Merry Christmas!!!! Here at Aunt Mary's, things have settled into the Holiday Ho Hums. All my wonderful customers have way too much to do for their festivities at home. Not allot of time to stop by and pick up new fabric for a project. Oh, but I have seen lots of Santa's. They have stopped by for great surprises for some lucky quilters. I hope all of you have magical holidays at your house.
The big END OF THE YEAR SALE Starts next Monday, and I have a newsletter to get out. So I have lots to keep me busy. Merry Christmas to one and all!

Everthing Santa Needs

This is the time of year that Santa usually stops by and wanders around looking for just the right thing for the quilter in his life. We try real hard to help. This year I put together several baskets through the store just packed with all kinds of goodies. Things I know just about anyone of you would love to find in your stocking. So let him know we are ready for him. You might also want to make sure he knows its Ok for him to buy you a gift certificate so you can get anything you want after Christmas too. Merry Christmas!!! HO, HO, HO!!!!!

Sneek Peek of Winter Class Schedul

For those of you that are on my e-mail list, we sent out a sneak peek of classes scheduled for our winter quarter. This is one of the classes.... "Sizzlin Sixties". It's really a fun project. It looks hard but all you do is sew strips together, cut the strips with a 60 degree ruler, and create triangle blocks. Use the blocks in different settings for endless options. There are other great classes too... Machine quilting, Hand applique, BUGGY BARN!!. If you would like to get on my e-mail list send me an e-mail at carrol@auntmarysquiltshop.com and you too can be the first to get all the info!!

Goodies From Sheila Roberts

Thursday is book club for the month of December. We will be discussing the book "Angel Lane" By Sheila Roberts. She's a local author that writes some really cute books about a fictional comunity set in the Northwest. I am very pleased to have her as a guest at our meeting. She sent a few goddies to give out to some lucky members of the club. How sweet!!! I think it will be fun to have her here for the meeting. I have lots of questions for her. Stay tuned for pictures!

Poor Turkey

Turkey Day is now in the history books! I hope you all had as much fun as I did. I made my first Turduckin! How cool! My husband made his famous smoked turkey and we packed it all up an went to my two boys house for the day. It was just EXCELLENT!!!
We all ate way too much and went home and fell into bed.
Today is our After Thanksgiving Sale here at the store and were all ready. I hope to get lots and lots of food for the food bank. Hope to see you.

Krista's Friends

Isn't this a great looking group? These girls invade my classroom at least one Sunday a month. They always manage to have a good time. (they bring great goodies to eat while they are here too) I just love to have them here. If you have a group and need a good place to visit and quilt. Let me know and we can get you on the calendar too.

The Food Bank Needs Us!

Here at Aunt Mary's, we like to give back to our community and I feel this is one of the most important things we do all year. This past year has been hard on allot of our local families. The food banks are really working hard to have enough. So hopefully we can help. Go to the web site and copy the coupon for this month. Bring in a donation for the food bank and you get 20% off any regular price item of your choice. Our After thanksgiving sale on Friday and Saturday of this week you get 15% off anything in the shop...... Bring in a donation and get 20% off!

Or maybe just stop in with some food. Let's really do it up big this year! Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

MaryLou's New Book

I have been eagerly awaiting MaryLou Wiedman's new book, and now it's here!!! I can remember seeing MaryLou at quilt market in Houston about ten years ago, and being kind of star struck. She is soooo talented and I love here work. The quilts she showed at the time were just wonderful, So full of stories! I had not until that time thought about making a quilt that told stories or celebrated a memory. What a true family heirloom! Since that time I have had MaryLou teach several workshops at Aunt Mary's, and count her as one of my friends. You are going to just love this new book. It's the kind you can sit down and just read for wonderful unending inspiration! Her thoughts on being creative will make your head spin! IT'S A GOTTA HAVE!!! I have several copies in the shop and more on the way. BE watching for a workshop with MaryLou here at Aunt Mary's in the spring!

Ta Da!!!!

I just finished this quilt and thought I would show it off. It's from the new Buggy Barn book "Crazy Fun and Games". As you probably know I LOVE THEIR PATTERNS!!! I heard they were at the Q.A. Guild meeting this last week. Now maybe everyone will get as addicted as I am with the projects. The colors from this quilt were inspired by a quilt in Sandy Bonsib's book "Patchwork Party". The quilt is called Key Lime Pie. All Purples, Magenta's and lime Green. It just makes my mouth water just thinking of it. So when I picked colors for this quilt it just fell together. I do have fat quarter packs if you would like to make one too.

The Famous Christmas Tree Napkins

Here it is! The Famous Christmas Tree Napkin. We started making this cute little pattern last year for Christmas. It's about THE easiest project that you can make, and EVERYONE loves them. All you have to do is cut them out, sew around them and turn them inside out. TA DA!!! Your done!! Even kids learning to sew can make these. We sell the pattern in a kit that makes four napkins. Then you can use the pattern to make them for everyone you know. It's a great way to use up your collection of Christmas fabrics. That way you don't have to feel guilty about how much you have.

Being Thankful

November is our thankful month! Sometimes I think we all get carried away with our lives and kind of forget to stop and be thankful, even for all the small things that make our lives great. Marylou Wiedman's blog (Which you can access from my blog.) has a challenge on it to find ten things every day that we are thankful for. So I am going to pass the challenge on to you. Here are some things I am thankful for today. Falling leaves, dinner in the crock pot (so I don't have think about dinner) an e-mail from my friend that makes me smile, lattes, a good book, my son's goofy sense of humor, a customer I haven't seen in a while. OK, so now you give it a go. Maybe we can make it a habit.

Judy's Mystery

Judy's mystery class is today! This is such a popular class. Maybe cause Judy is kind of crazy! You just never know what you will be doing. Here's Joan and her sister Terri Anne. getting set up. What a great way to spend a rainy, windy Saturday!

Here Norma and Judy are working on some designs. Normas says she is WAY out of her comfort zone. Hey! that's good for you sometimes. I bet she learns lots today!

Looks like Cindy is having fun! She's always up for an adventure. These mystery classes are fun. We usually try to schedule one in each quarter. We start in the morning about 10:00 and sew and have fun till 8pm. We will be ordering pizza for dinner and just enjoying each other. Stay tuned for pictures of some of the quilts from this class

A New Book For The Book Club

Aunt Mary's Book Club meets this morning! I always look forward to this day. We have such lively discussions over coffee and stitching. (Not to mention our fantastic pot luck lunches) I have made some great friends at this club. Over the past six years we have read some really wonderful books. (And a few dumb ones too). For the month of November we will be reading "Angel Lane" A book by a local author sheila Roberts. With any luck, it looks like she may be able to join us for our discussion on her book on December 3rd. If you have ever wanted to join a book club, we would love to have you join us. Angel Lane will be avaialbe at the shop while supply lasts

Olympic Flannel

The 2010 Winter Olympics are just on the horizon! Look at the warm snugly Olympic Flannel that just arrived. Do you know anyone going to the games? I bet they would just love a quilt made with this for their trip to keep them warm.

The BAT sale

It's that time of year! The BATS have arrived. We have Hobbs 80/20 and Warm and Natural on the bolt, and lots of other high quality bats in stock. Have you tried the new Bamboo batting? I have heard such great things about it. It's soft and drappy, and washes like a dream. I also have limited quantities of wool batting for the bat connoisseur! Oh! and don't forget BLACK BATS!! The Bat sale is on Saturday. The spookiest day for bats all year. Take 20% off all batting. Happy Haunting!!!!!

King Tut!

Aunt Mary's is now carrying Beautiful King Tut Quilting thread. It is soo pretty and comes in such beautiful colors. I can hardly wait to finish a project so I can play with it!

Good Friends!

Here's my Friend Judy Irish! She stopped in to say hi. She is such a fun friend! She will be teaching a mystery class here at Aunt Mary's soon. She is a VERY talented machine quilter and artist. I feel very blessed to be able to call her my friend. What a cool place I get to work at! There is a link to her blog here on my blog. Check her out!

Inspiration Everywhere!

Even on a nasty, rainy windy day, inspiration can fall right on your head! I love looking for the perfect leaf. I think I found it!

Pretty New Fabric

Just got some new wonderful fabric in. The chocolate brown colors that we are getting in are just fabulose!!! I think this fabric would make a great mans quilt. Such rich colors!

Here's a close up of the main print. Isn't it just yummy?

Whewww!!!! what a weekend!!!

Here's Freddy and the group of wonderful quilters that came to Freddy's workshop. What a fun time we all had! I'm sure tired anyway! I had Sunday off and I slept most of the afternoon. I guess that means I had fun.

Freddy's quilts are so much fun! She loves bright, happy fabric (it just happens to be my favorite fabric as well) and her thing is to just relax and play at quilt making. Sometimes that's a big obstacle for people. The more fabric in a quilt the better!!! This little quilt makes you just look and look at it. Each time you see something new!

Just look at this place! It kind of feels like the fabric world just exploded all over my classroom! I guess all the best party's make a mess in your house. Oh well, it won't take long to get it all back to normal by Monday afternoon and we will want to have another party. I think everyone had a great time and are looking forward to having Freddy back. Maybe early next year? Stay tuned to find out.

Freddy is in the House!!!

Freddy got to here yesterday for a three day party here at Aunt Mary's. Here she is signing books for everyone. I'm ready for lots of good times in the next couple of days.

Here is Freddy with my good friend Linda. She made this quilt in one of Freddy's classes at Assilomar, in Californina. It's a very special quilt, with such a nice story. It'sn't this a cute picture?

Stay tuned for more pictures of the shinanigans going on in this class.

Cozy, Isn't it?

Well, it looks like the rain has finally arrived. This is a picture out the classroom window. We have had such a glorious summer and fall so far. I think the rain is wonderful too. It's time to cozy up. Put on a pair of fuzzy slippers, make a pot of soup, (the smell is wonderful in the house) and get some quilting done. this kind of weather makes me feel very homey! So relax! Listen to the rain on the roof and Enjoy!

Halloween Fabric!

I am quite sure everyone knows I think Halloween fabric is fun! Cute little spiders, monsters and pumpkins, in bright colors. what could be better? Well Aunt Mary ordered lots this year. I have had lots of fun with it. But It's time to find it a home. Sooo I have all the Halloween fabric on sale for 25% off. While supply lasts. It's not to late to make a fun project for the spooky holiday. Pillowcases are always a big hit and soooooo easy! I also have several panels that would make quick easy projects for the ghouls! Happy Haunting!!!

Movie Night

Saturday night was MOVIE NIGHT! I always love this fun day. I get to have fun too! We watched lots of old wonderful old movies like "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Dial M For Murder" and a few new ones Like " The Bucket list." It was Lot's of fun just being with the girls and enjoying the day. I also got some quilting done. I think I ate way too much junk food though. Pizza, Popcorn, chips and candy. Maybe next time we will have some healthy food. Hanging out in the shop in my Pj's always seems lazy, but fun. It's a great excuse to get some brand new flannel pj's. I love them, and you can never have to many. Look for this event on the winter schedule. IT"S FUN! Until then, brush up on your movie trivia. You could win a gift certificate.

Aunt Mary's New Collectible Pin

Check it out!!! Aunt Mary just got in a new pin for everyone. You will want to be the first one on your block to have one of these on your sweater or hand bag. I think it's kind of fun. They are FREE for all my great customers. So next time your in be sure and pick one up!

Wasn't That That Yard Sale fun!!!?

Well the First annual Tri County Quilt Shop Yard Sale ("91 Mile Yard Sale") was this Friday and Saturday. I had such a great time haveing everyone stop in. We had lots and lots of Books, Patterns, Fabric and other great treasures to be had for 50% off. WOOO HOOO! I hope you all had as much fun as I did.

We even had a four legged quilting buddy in to visit. What a cutie! I just am such a sucker for dogs! I found this one is someone's purse.

Setting the Sampler

Aunt Mary's "Saturday Sampler" has come to an end for this year. In the past few weeks we have had a few fun sessions in the classroom to get them all sewn together. My goal for this years sampler was to teach different techniques each month, and to get everyone to try new things. I had a great time teaching! I hope everyone got some new things to think about.

All of the settings were so different. I don't think any ones will look like anybody else's.I think the big surprise for everyone was that YES! even that bright color will work! Just spread it out and add more!

I am always so happy to see some of the quilts finished, so when you get them done I hope you will come in and share it with me. I'm thinking of something new to start at the beginning of the year. Maybe You can join us!

A New Project For ME!!

What is your favorite part of quilting? Picking out some scrumptious fabric? The excitement of just getting started? Creating with the great fabrics and seeing it come to life? Finishing? I gotta say, I still get quite excited about finding some great fabrics that I think are going to be great and getting started. but I love the whole process really alot. I am starting one of my favorite kind of patterns, (Buggy Barn! out of their new book "Crazy fun and Games") It's called, Crazy Eights. As I was picking out the fabrics for it I just knew it was going to be stupendous, so I cut enough for several kits as well. I was sewing well into the night last night. (My Saturday nights sure have changed over the years!) I was having so much fun seeing the combination of colors come together, I couldn't stop. So stay tuned for the finished quilt. I don't think it will take very long. I hope you all get lost in your quilting as much as I do.

91 Mile Yard Sale

Many people tend to think quilt shops are in competition with each other. Here is proof that the opposit is what really is true. Two years ago all the best quilt shops in Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom county got together to make this area a world class quilt shopping area! I really love working with these great business women. Smart, Fun and we run some darn great shops! Hopefully, you have all enjoyed our quilt tours (Shop Hops) in march, and now we want to make this event an annual thing. Stop by our shops and take advantage of some really great pricing on closeout and regular merchandise. All the shops have a map for driving directions. So mark your calendar and see you there!

New Posies

In case you haven't heard, My good friend Pat Little who has taken such great care of the flower baskets on the way into Aunt Mary's. Has moved to Arizona. I miss her VERY MUCH. She has taken care of me and the shop on my days off for many years. I'm not sure how I'll survive! But the baskets out side at this time are looking great! Hopefully I can do ok with this job. I will give it a go. But I will really miss her! I hope only good things for her. HAPPY TRAILS, PAT!!!

New Guy Stuff

New Fabric just for guys!!! It's always hard to find fabric for men. This line is full of all the things they love Tools, Beer, Cars.......... I think it would make a great quilt. Or maybe you could make a table runner for the garage? A Work Bench Runner?

Meet the Teacher and Demo Day

On Friday evening we had Meet the teacher. I am very proud of the class schedule for this fall. There are lots of great classes, and new teachers too. These are wonderful frames made from fabric and your photos. I think they are just fantastic!! Suzanne Carlson will be teaching how to make these on Friday October 23rd. There is still lots of room in most of the classes. So check the schedule on the web site and give us a call an we will get you signed up.

Here we have a quillow! It's a simple quilt that folds up into a pillow. Donna will be teaching this class November 20th. I think they make a really great gift for so many people, and they are easy, easy easy!!!

Saturday was DEMO DAY. We had fun demonstrations on some of the newer products and fun patterns that have come in. Some of the demos were on fun projects for the gift giving time coming up. Here is Donna showing a customer how the paintsticks are used.

Quick Projects Even For Kids

Isn't this little guy sweet! I had yesterday afternoon 0ff. So I spent a little time making this cute critter. It uses old zippers (Or new) You could put little notes in his mouth. (Or secret things), and best of all he's very easy! He just uses scrapes and imagination. He would make a great project for a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Class Samples Are Coming In!

The teachers are dropping of class samples for all the fun classes that are coming up this fall. I think there will be some great classes. I'm excited!! There are some techniques that we have not really covered. Like CRAZY QUILTING. Suz Litzsinger will have a two part class that will show the construction of the block and then how to do all the embellishments. We also have some fun projects to help you out with your holiday list. If you haven't gotten the class schedule either stop by the shop or just go to the web site and click on classes. I know there will be something just for you. OH! and don't forget on Friday, September 11th from 5 - 7 we have Meet the teacher. Most of the teachers will be here to answer any questions and get you signed up. If you sign up at this time you will get a coupon for 15% off your supplies for the class. Hope to see you!

Keeping Sharp!

This is John, from Ewok's Eversharp. He spent the day last Saturday here in the shop sharpening all kinds of things that you guys brought in. I hope nobody has any cut fingers! He really does a good job. I think we will have him here again. A very nice guy!!

Conteporary Round Robin

These four quilts are from Cindy Hayes' collection of round robin quilts that she has done. She will be facilitating a "Contemporary Round Robin" group here at Aunt Mary's this fall. It's not a class for scaredy cats. She will have you really thinking about design and new techniques. I'm going to love watching this class. Come see her portfolio. It's amazing!

Here's Robert! He's been extra happy this morning. So I thought he would pose for a picture. Isn't he handsome?!!! I think he likes these sunny mornings.