Fundraiser Quilt Winner

Congratulations to Eileen Wooten winner of the shops fundraiser quilt.

Thank you to all the customers who purchased tickets, we raised $800.00 to help Jacob pay some of the medical expenses.

Jacob was very touched by the generosity shown to him.

Thank you again for supporting this fundraiser.

New Bali Pops & Other Stuff

Just arrived today via UPS, the beautiful new Bali Pops! Flavors are Mango Margarita, Blue Hawaiian, Zinfandel, Grasshopper, Pink Lemonade, Sangria. We've got lots but these fabulous fabric strips won't hang out for very long. Make sure you come in & get one for yourself.

These have arrived just in time for the Bali bag class that is starting this Saturday December 5th. If you haven't seen this bag your missing out. Come in by Friday, there is still room in the class.

WIN A QUILT

We are raising funds for Jacob Connor, newly diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

Jacob is the son of an Oasis staff member; he is 24 years old, married with a 3 year old son.

We want to help out to off set some of the medical expenses that his private insurance isn't covering.

So we decided to offer a completed quilt; Split Decision in one of last years Moda Christmas line. Tickets are $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00. We will draw for the quilt on Tuesday December 21st. Please come in & help out by purchasing a ticket.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mine was, we spent the day with family & friends. Bob & I got to spend Wednesday evening preparing side dishes & had a good time making an apple pie with our granddaughter Carmin.

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone it's time to prepare for Christmas. The shop still has Christmas fabrics for those of you who still need to make some gifts or need to make some decorations for your home.

UPS has delivered some beautiful batiks for a special wall hanging, purse or garment.

We also just received the bendable light if you need a good gift or want to drop a hint to family members. These won't last long.

Our clubs are back in full swing; December brings Christmas parties & gift exchanges both in the Red-work and Stash Buster Clubs.

The teachers have scheduled some great classes for the month of December; Many of the class projects will make great Christmas gifts. Check out the schedule on the website at www.aquiltersoasis.com. Come in & see the samples the teachers have prepared. I know you will find a class that is perfect for you.

Friendship Triangle Exchange

The Friendship Triangle exchange brought in almost 19000 half square triangles. The 30 participants where very busy sewing.

It took us 2 full days to count & divide up the triangles. The staff & I are very glad that we got them all divided up. Saturday November 20th is the big day for the triangles to be picked up. Now it's up to all of you to create a beautiful quilt with your triangles. I can't wait to see what patterns you choose. Thanks to everyone that participated.

2010 SHOP HOP WINNERS

Congratulations to the winners of our 2010 Valley of the Sun shop hop.

Grand Prize: Connie German

Viking Sapphire Sewing Machine

Have fun stitching on your new machine.

$100 Gift Certificate Winners:

Sun Valley: Melissa Blanchard

Quilter's Bee: Karen Baker

Quiltz: Pat Shampo

Bearly Stitchin': Donna McGuire

The Quilted Apple: Lynnette Mault

Cutting Edge Quiltworks: Louise Schilling

The Quilter's Ranch: Kristen Durrant

Zoe's Trunk: Elizabeth Smith

3 Dudes Quilting: Teri Nevarez

The Olde World Quilt Shoppe: Linda Dehoff

A Quilter's Oasis: Maryln Brooks

Bernina Connection: Fran Kline

Quilted Cactus: Marcy Clark

Ladies congratulations & have fun shopping.

Thank you to all the participants for making 2010 such an exciting shop hop.

Hope to see you all again next year.

September 2010

What a busy month September was. First the Valley of the Sun Shop hop! What an energetic, fun, flurry of activity that week was. We had a great time meeting all the quilters that participated. We had ladies from Northern Arizona, Southern Arizona, all the ladies who reside in Maricopa County & then some from Montana, Oregon, & from as far east as Delaware. It is so fun to meet so many women & men who enjoy quilting as much if not more than I do. It's exciting to hear what you are working on or planning to work on.

We shared our demo Tucker Trimmer with all of you & got such an overwhelming positive response. Thanks for being patient when we had to re-order twice. When I saw it demoed at Spring Quilt Market I knew it would be a good tool. I've used it a couple times & love it. I hope all who purchased it will really put it to good use.

I will list the winners separately. I have the names posted in the shop!

I hope everyone will enjoy making the mystery quilt. The quilts were hanging in the shops for you to view. It is a beautiful quilt & all the shops did a great job picking such different fabrics. We didn't get to see each shops in person, but had photos to view. Our agreement with Debbie Caffrey is that we cannot place the finished quilt photos on our website as she owns the rights to the mystery quilt. Hopefully you have been into your local shop to check out the finished quilt. I want to thank Terri Teeple for piecing our quilt & Cindy Osburn for machine quilting it. They did a fantastic job.

After shop hop my son, daughter in law & grandchildren came to visit us. The staff covered for me so I could spend time visiting with them. What a fun time we had! We had a great time swimming & just spent time playing. Grand kids are the best!

These are my 3 grandchildren

Left to Right: Addison, Killian, & Carmin

Once the kids left for home it was back to work! Well I tried to work on the computer but it had crashed". Tried to get the data recovered & it's gone forever. Five years of data gone in a blink. I am kicking myself for not backing everything up. Thank goodness I had just don a backup on QuickBooks. I've had to purchase a new laptop, install all the programs & now I'll have to re input all kinds of data. So take a lesson from someone who learned the hard way. BACK UP your computers on an external source. So I'll be busy for a while.

Make sure you check out the classes we are having in October. There are several really good technique classes coming up. I'll be updating the website in the next few days. So check the website at www.aquiltersoasis.com

If you haven't been in the shop in a while or just a shop hop; we have gotten in Hope (Quilt for a Cause) pre-civil war line from Moda and the proceeds raised go to ALS (Lou Gehrig Disease) research. Lots of new batiks from Tonga batiks from Timeless Treasure, a great jungle animal baby line from Robert Kaufman (sample is being made), Tangled Threads by Whimsicals just arrived, and Happy by Barb & Mary of Me and My Sister Designs. I know I'm missing some other fabrics so make sure you come on in & take a look around. You won't be disappointed.

Happy Quilting

Kathy & A Quilter's Oasis Staff

Photos of Schnibbles Quilts

Ladies I apologize for the poor color in the photos of the quilts from the Schnibbles contest. The color was fine in my camera. Not sure what happened when they were uploaded into the computer.

Schnibbles Finalist

Thank you to the ladies who entered the Schnibbles contest. We had 5 entries hanging for the past 2 weeks. The ladies all did a great job! Our customers had a difficult time choosing their favorite. Thanks to all the Oasis customers for voting. The staff and I did not participate in the voting. This evening we counted the votes and Warm Winter Buns received the most votes. Congratulations to Cyndi Arneson. Her quilt is now entered into the national contest. We wish you Good Luck.

Charity Pillowcase Day

What an AWESOME Job!!
Quilter's came through. A huge thank you to the ladies who came to the shop today to make pillowcases. Our donation for Sunshine Acres was in desperate need of pillowcases for boys/young men ages 7 yrs to 18 yrs. The ladies came with fabric in hand & ready to sew. Several ladies couldn't join us but brought us completed cases. At 5pm we had 52 pillowcases completed. The cases are perfect for boys; sport themes, lizards, sea turtles, sharks, horses, construction trucks, & bright colorful prints.
Of course I had my camera but didn't take a single picture. I was so into preparing the fabric that I missed my opportunities for photos. Sorry..
So we surpassed our need for the boys and we have more to donate to ConKer Cancer & to Sojourner Center.
Thank you again for all you do for the community and for these special charities.

A Quilter's Oasis has the best customers around!

Time flies

Here I am again wondering where the time has gone since I last posted.
Quilt Market
Bob & I had a very busy 4 days at Spring Quilt Market. So much to do, see, learn & absorb; lots of classes, lots of information and so much walking. It always amazes me at how many designers are out there. The creativity that we as quilters/sewers get to enjoy because of these folks, great fabrics, patterns, and wonderful use of color. The number of fabric lines for fall release is just phenomenal. Great new reproduction prints (Civil War that is), fabulous Batiks: I could not control myself, so the shelves will be filling up with these wonderful fabrics. Even Bob got into shopping & picked a great line of Batiks from Timeless Treasures.
Downtown Minneapolis (the two blocks) that we experienced had great restaurants, with outdoor sidewalk seating, so lots of people watching. We met a quilt shop owner from the Netherlands at one restaurant. It was very interesting to talk with her briefly about her shop. Quilter's have the same passion there as we do here. We all LOVE the fabric!!
New Arrivals
New arrivals of lots more Christmas fabric, so the Christmas corner is pretty full; we even got a sample made, quilted & I'll finish the binding tonight & have it in the shop tomorrow. Yahoo!!
Halloween has also arrived; 2 lines Trick or Treat & Moon Dancers plus a few add on prints from Avlyn. Just cute whimsical prints; nothing scary!
Another delivery of phenomenal Hoffman Batiks, those fabrics just keep getting better & better.
Locks of Love
Many of you know that I was growing my hair to donate to Locks of Love. Well a week ago today I went in & donated 12 inches of thick brown hair to this very worthy charity. So when you come in, you'll notice my very short hair cut. One thing it's a whole lot cooler in the Arizona heat.
Independence Day Holiday
The store will be closed Monday July 5th.
We wish you all a very happy & safe 4th of July. Enjoy your family, friends, BBQ's & great firework displays. Celebrate the freedom we have in this still great nation we call the United States of America. Thank you to all the service men & women who fight to provide us those freedoms.

So until next time... Happy Quilting

Spring Quilt Market

Spring Quilt Market in Minneapolis, MN is just around the corner. Bob & I leave Wednesday morning. It's a very busy time: early wake up times & LOTS & LOTS of walking but I'm excited to see what new fabrics and products will be on the Market floor.
It's always a bit overwhelming to see all the booths and displays. Bob & I are both taking classes; I tried to get Bob signed up for a make & take sewing class but no such luck. He will be spending time in the business classes, while I'm taking two make & takes. The class descriptions are sometimes a bit deceiving so I hope both of the classes will be something that will be inspiring and fun to share with you.
I have my camera ready to pack so I'll try to get as many photos as possible.
I will be sharing as much as possible with you once we get back! So keep checking the blog.

Fabric Arrivals

We received two fabric collections this week.

Wine Country
The fabric line has grapes with grapevines & grape leaves, wine corks and 3 blenders in rich wine & green.

This is great fabric for kitchen projects; table runners, napkins, place mats, & aprons. If your a wine connoisseur this would make a beautiful wall hanging.

Our first line of Christmas arrived from UPS today. Woodland Holiday from Moda.

These are just two of the beautiful fabrics that have traditional Christmas motifs. The colors are deep rich red & green. Coordinating prints have pinecones & pine boughs, holly & holly berries. These prints will make any Christmas project outstanding.

Wishing all the Mom's out there a very Happy Mother's Day. Enjoy this special day with family & loved ones. A Bouquet of flowers for all of you. Remember to take time to smell the flowers & enjoy each and every wonderful day.

Washington Irving wrote: A mother is the truest friend we have.

Thanks to all our quilting friends.

One Million Pillowcase Challenge

This is what happens when you haven't written in forever & you don't make a list of everything you want to put on the blog.
I totally forgot to tell you that we are proud to be a part of the One Million Pillowcase challenge.
We are donating the pillowcases to several different charities:
ConKerr Cancer who's mission is to brighten the lives of sick children in hospitals through homemade pillowcases. The pillowcases we donate will be given to the children's cancer unit at Banner Desert Hospital.
Sunshine Acres in Mesa, AZ; this is a long term residential home for children ages 5 to 14 (at time of admission). These children stay a minimum of 12 months, are from families that are experiencing homelessness, incarceration, terminal or chronic illness, and other circumstances that prevent the family from caring for the child.
Sojourner Center in Phoenix; this center provides shelter and support services to individuals affected by domestic violence. We will team up with Queen Valley Scrap Rats & help them provide more pillowcases to these families.
So mark your calendar for Wednesday June 30th, we are holding an all day Charity Pillowcase Event.
You can come in and sew with us, drop off your already constructed pillowcase(s) or prior to the event you can donate fabric that can be made into pillowcases.
Fabric needs to be washed, pressed, & ready to make into pillowcases.
You don't have to wait until June 30th to drop off completed pillowcases, we are collecting them now.
All pillowcases donated will be added to the running total on the One Million Pillowcase Challenge homepage.

Wow can you believe the weather we've had. I've lived here in Arizona for 30 years and I don't ever remember having these cool days in late April. Boy have I enjoyed them!! Well I know that the cool weather is gone & it's time to prepare for those hot summer days.

I've got lots of projects for shop samples to keep the staff & I busy everyday. Make sure you stop in & see all the samples we've prepared for you.

I've just finished the May - July class schedule, updated the calendar for the website & will get the class registration book updated starting tomorrow. Hopefully, no changes will need to be made today so we can get it uploaded to the website.

The teachers have again prepared great classes for you this schedule. Several of them are perfect for using your stash. Make sure you check out the website later this week. www.aquiltersoasis.com and click on the apple icon.

We have received two great fabric lines.

For the grown ups we received the complete line Heart & Soul by Whimsicals

If you love Taupe/Neutral colors then you will love this line. It also features a fabric type panel in softly colored, block design with inspirational 5" motif squares alternating with those that contain coordinate patterns.

We have the book "If Quilts Could Talk" by Whimsicals that features projects using this fabric collection.

Then for the Boys young or old:

Hard Hats by Avlyn Fabrics

Construction Trucks in both a panel & a border stripe. Coordinating prints feature gravel, construction hats, boots, warning cones.

Make sure you come in & see the class samples & get ready for a wonderful summer filled with quilting.

See you soon. Kathy & Staff

Quilt Shows

March already!!
This is a great month for quilter's. You can enter your creations into the quilt show or just get to view the beautiful creations. Whether you have entered into a community show or if you've entered into the Arizona Quilters Guild show. What a pleasure it is for everyone to share in this wonderful tradition.
I had the pleasure last night of attending Quilter's Point of View at Viewpoint Resort preview Quilt Show. The display of quilts, bags, jackets was fantastic!! There were rooms that were full of beautiful creations. It was just a pleasure to see. Make sure to check out all these local shows, you won't be sorry you took the time. There are 4 this weekend beginning today. We have the information posted in the store window.

Remember March 20th is National Quilting Day.

Happy Quilting
Kathy

New Arrivals

Happy New Year to all.
It's been quite a while since I've had time to sit and write. We had a wonderful Christmas with our children & grandchildren. It is so fun to see the holiday through young eyes.

I can't believe that January is half over. We have been very busy at the store. Thanks to all the wonderful customers, we appreciate you choosing us for your quilting & sewing needs.

I just wanted to let several of you that have been asking: FIX IT by Avlyn arrived & is out on the shelf. If you have a carpenter, woodworker or just a Mr. Fix it at your house then this is the perfect fabric to make a lap quilt for that special handyman. There will be a free pattern for this throw on Avlyn's website very soon.

The store will be open Wednesday at 11:30am. The staff & I have been invited to a small quilt show.
Have a great day. Kathy