About 2 weeks ago we got a call from Kathy at the Quilt Shoppe in Stewartsville, MO, home of Tula Pink.  She invited us to be part of the Golden Ticket Bus Trip on May 4, 5 and 6th, 2012.  We had so much fun at our Strip n’ Stitch Bus trip last September, we were delighted to have another opportunity to do a 3 day bus trip.  Our previous bus trippers had a blast last fall and are ready to get on the bus again!!!!  Tickets will be available March 17th, 2012.

The bus will be going to 13 shops and 5 states with some of the very best Quilt Sampler Top Ten Quilt Shops in the USA and Canada.  The shops are:

Gathering Friends Quilt & Gift Shop~Bird Island, MN
Country Fabrics and Quilting~Brainerd, MN
The Quilting Cupboard~Rochester, MN
Millie P’s Quilt Shop~Anoka, MN
Always Your Design~Dell Rapids, SD
Quilter’s Window~New Hampton, IA
Prairie Rose Quilts and Gifts~Jewell, IA
Quilt With Us~Lucas, Iowa
And Sew Bee It~Kearney, MO
Sew Sweet Quilt Shoppe~Brunswick, MO
The Quilt Shoppe~Stewartsville, MO
Seams To Be~Plattsmouth, NE
The Quilted Moose~Gretna, NE

The trip will cover 5 states while riding in a 55 passenger first class executive bus and will stop every 2-3 hours at a new shop.  The cost will be $229.00 for the 3 days that includes transportation, all meals and hotel stay.  Fun and friendship are free!!  If you pay in full at the time of registration, you will receive the newest book hot off the press by Gathering Friends “Runnermania” for FREE.  Otherwise, a $50.00 non-refundable, but resellable, deposit will hold your spot.  Cash or checks only, please.

Please call the shop 320-365-4670 for more information and details.  Tickets will go on sale at 9:00 a.m. on Sat. March 17th, 2012.  Call the store if you’re interested and would like to get on a list to reserve your spot.

If you came to our shop you were greeted by Miss Kitty, a.k.a. Joyce.  She was there to escort you into the saloon…but watch out for her feather boa,  if you’re allergic!Inside we had our own personal cowboy control, Sue, to keep the rough-housers peaceful.  Although, I do believe Miss Kitty was the only one out of hand!Sometimes Miss Kitty got a little too friendly with the customers, but we didn’t say anything cause she was packing!!  We had 3 busses come through on Friday and a grand time was had by all. 

It may be such a thing that Sue Morris and Caroline Hall were in cahoots with Miss Kitty, they don’t look very nervous!!

We also had prizes that could be won by playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey.   If a food shelf item was brought in or donation, you got 2 chances to win a prize.  There were quite a few who hadn’t played since they were in elementary school.  So it was a great chance for them to revisit their youth!

Sheriff Deb was chosen to keep peace, but somehow went to the wild side.  Was it something she ate????  Or the 10 gallon hat….

What started out as a peaceful  partnership between Sheriff Deb and Deputy Kathy went downhill..

something was terribly wrong!

A six shooter out of control is a scary thing.  Didn’t anyone teach Deb not to point guns at people?!?!?

Miss Kitty quickly got things under control and showed everyone who was really in charge (and it helped that she was packing!!)

Law and order were quickly restored to the land, so everyone could rest easy and breathe a sigh of relief!!

By the time cowgirl Jane arrived at the saloon, everyone was on their best behavior and being model citizens.  And that is the story of how the West was won.  By a woman!!

The Shop Hop was great fun as you can see and we truly enjoyed every minute of it.  I’m not sure who had more fun, us and the girls or our customers.  We had plenty of food and fun to share with everyone.  We were fortunate to be able to donate to the Renville County Food Shelf 169 pounds of food along with cash donations.  We were blessed with some very generous shop hoppers.

At this Thanksgiving Holiday as we reflect on everything we’re blessed with~family, friends and enough~please remember those less fortunate and struggling.  This is a difficult time for many families, and donations to your local food shelf help make the load a little lighter for those in need.

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Our small project was a fun placemat Deb designed around the line “Jingle All The Way”.  But for the most part everyone worked on their own UFOs or Christmas presents and got lots done.

 It was 4 days of enjoying old friends, making new friends, getting inspired and helping each other learn different ways to do things.

There was lots of laughter…to the point of tears!!!

These girls were laughing so hard they required kleenex.

The facility is wonderful for space and accommodations.  They feed us too well (we always go rolling home only to wake up starving the next morning wondering who’s going to feed us), there’s a kitchen area where we fill the tables with snacks…all healthy , and each room holds 2-3 people with a private bathroom.  We had 37 women there this year and there was room for everyone!  Doesn’t everyone look productive????? 

It’s not only a quilt retreat, but a time to pamper ourselves and get “tuned up”.  Nothing does that better than having Dana Boen come with her massage table all Monday and Tuesday to work out the knots from all that hard work we do.  Speaking of tune ups, the machines could use some TLC once in a while and so with the help of Allen and Karen Eiler from Karen’s Creative Quilting, they kept each of our machines running like a top.  They came up Monday night and had a long list of machines to work on…and they got every one done.  A big thank you to Dana, Karen and Allen for taking the time out of their busy schedules to take care of us!

Tuesday night we had Show’n Tell, which is open to the public.  We did have some friends stop in to enjoy the show and we’re so glad they could make it.  Everyone is getting ready to share their projects and Deb’s got her trusty camera ready. 

Here’s a sampling of the quilts that were shared that night.  So many talented ladies!!!

Julie Hallquist helped Wendy Schultz show off her “Easy Does It”quilt pattern by Darlene Zimmermann.

Lisa Lund can be seen peeking out from behind her “Fuzzy Finish” from our book “Classics”.  She’s been around Deb too long, she was getting camera-shy!

Sue Sandgren had just finished her “Take 5″ done in our new line “Bold and Beautiful” by Benartex.  Aren’t those some happy colors?

I wish we could get a close up of the quilting on this one, it was very detailed.  The colors in this project were just melty!  Sue did her “Chocolate Chips” from our book “Quilt Cravings” in Kansas Troubles.

Gail Caulkins taught a small impromptu class on a new technique for using a jellyroll.  The girls had so much fun making these.  Fun to see the different colorways!

Gloria Sulflow modeling the apron that she made up the pattern for.

Deb Doucettte with an adorable Christmas wallhanging that’s colored~literally!

We could not have asked for a better group of gals, it was 4 days of laughter, friendship and sharing.  That’s what it’s all about.  Our only regret is that we didn’t get a picture of the whole group, so that will be first on our agenda at the 2012 retreat.  We can’t wait til next year!!!

The weekend started early at 5 am Friday with people arriving at the store for a bit of breakfast and coffee before loading onto the bus at 6 am.  Our parking attendants, Paul and Nick, looking chipper so early in the morning.  Thanks, guys!!

Sam and Cameo getting ready to board the bus for a long weekend of fun and inspiration.

Our bus is leaded and ready to roll.  They’ve had their early morning treats and coffee…a must this early in the morning!!!

Kathy heading out to greet the bus and talk “just a bit” before the gals head in.   I did promise them I’d keep it short!   It wasn’t easy, but I kept it brief.

Joyce is at the door doing crowd control.  Look how excited they are, hurrying into the store.  They applauded when I got on the bus, but I later found out they were cheering about our 2 bathrooms.

It was fun to meet everyone, share ideas and of course, enjoy great food.  The goodies were all fabulous, but there was one pan of bars that was absolutely amazing! 

Joyce brought a pan of “Almond Bars” that were a hit.  I’m not sure who ate more of them, the girls on the bus or the girls here at the shop.  I think they were like our jet fuel for the weekend, along with a few other bars. :)  After this weekend of feasting, we may need to walk to work for the rest of the Fall….if not the rest of the year!

Here’s the evidence……

We promised the girls from Cameron, MO, that are right this minute going through Almond Bar withdrawal, we would put the recipe on the blog.  Here you go, girls!!

Almond Bars:  

1 c. butter                                   8 oz. cream cheese
2 c. flour                                     2 eggs
1/2 c. powdered sugar             1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. almond extract (not flavoring)

Mix together butter, flour and powdered sugar.  Bake in an ungreased 9 x 13 pan at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until light brown on edges.
Beat softened cream cheese, eggs, sugar and almond extract until smooth.  Pour over crust and bake 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.  Cool than frost.

Frosting: 

1-1/2 c. powdered sugar          1-1/2 Tbsp. milk
1/4 c. butter                               1 tsp. almond extract

Beat until smooth and frost.  Enjoy!!!!

We had our greenhouse decorated with quilts and plants and the weather was absolutely gorgeous!!  Couldn’t have ordered days any better.  To be surrounded by friends, quilts and sunshine…

     Life is Good!!!!

We want to thank everyone who participated on all 12 buses and came to visit our shop.  We enjoyed meeting each of you and hope to see you again, its events like this that make us so appreciative of the business we’re fortunate enough to be in.  The people we meet and the friends we make are a treasure!!!

Also, a big thank you to our shop girls who worked so hard, baked for us and gave up their personal time to make this bus trip a success.  We couldn’t do it without each and every one of you!!  Plus, we have so much fun with you guys

Speaking of scappy quilts, Joyce designed a quilt for our Minnesota shop hop section cookbook called Brain Teaser.   It is a great scrap user!

We do have the cookbook “Wrap It Up”, which features ten quilt projects and a few favorite recipes, available in the shop.

]]> http://gatheringfriendsquiltshop.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/vegetable-soup/feed/ 0 gatheringfriends IMG_0857 http://gatheringfriendsquiltshop.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/viewers-choice-for-the-fair-challenge/ http://gatheringfriendsquiltshop.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/viewers-choice-for-the-fair-challenge/#comments Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:20:21 +0000 gatheringfriends http://gatheringfriendsquiltshop.wordpress.com/?p=187 Continue reading →]]> Here’s a picture of the Viewer’s Choice, as promised.  It has lots of eye appeal and motion.  Cheryl Walter from Bird Island entered this piece in the Fair Challenge.  For those of you who made it to see all the entries, we hope you enjoyed the display and all the sights to see at the Renville County Fair.  Be sure to put your thinking caps on for next year’s challenge…..it will be here before you know it!

We’ll post more information in our website newsletter, on facebook and our blog when we have it for the 2012 Fair Quilt Challenge.  Enjoy the rest of the summer.  Our Strip n’ Stitch Bus Trip September 23-25 is just around the corner.  Wow!  Makes a person wonder where the summer went.

We chose fabric from Blank Quilting called “Harvest Festival”.  Very fitting for the time of year we’re heading in to.  With all the rich warm tones, golden hues and black background, we thought it would be fun to work with.

The projects were to be dropped off at the store by August 15th so we could get them hung up at the fair for judging.  Awards to be given out are First prize~$150.00 Gift Certificate from Gathering Friends, Second prize~Fabric assortment valued at $75.00 from Gathering Friends, Third prize~Gift Basket valued at $25.00 from Gathering Friends & Viewers Choice~$30.00 prize from Renville County Fair.  Our quilting friends came through for us with some awesome entries.  Sure glad we didn’t have to judge!  You can see them on display at the Renville County Fairgrounds through Aug. 20th, after that they’ll be on display at Gathering Friends Quilt Shop through Sat. Aug. 27th.

Grand Prize went to Bonnie Swenson from Svea with her “Garden Angel”.  The detail that went into this project was amazing!  You have to see it up close to appreciate it.

Second prize went to Gloria Gunderson from Olivia.  This entry has visual impact.  Gloria used 30 degree angles and buttonhole stitching to embellish her project.  The overall total effect is a WOW!

Third prize went to Barb Schuerer from Danube.  Her barn scene is done in warm fall colors to compliment the challenge piece.  The fall leaves that surround the center and flying geese that flit across the top and bottom take you back to the farm in the fall.

The entries were great and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the talent that we have around us.  The projects were amazing and we’d like to thank everyone who took the time to participate in our Quilt Challenge.  We wish we could give everyone a prize.   Sure glad we didn’t have to judge them!  Watch for our last prize to be chosen Saturday night……the Viewers Choice.  We had so much fun we’ll be doing it again next year.  So for those of you that didn’t get a chance to participate this year, start designing and get a jump-start on next year’s challenge.

Joyce chose to tackle a large quilt called “Northern Escape” from the book Serenity. The quilt is 72 x 90 without adding a border, so easily could be made queen size.

Jane is sewing “Road Trip” from the book By Request.  Well, here she is thinking about sewing it!!This 60 x 80 quilt is a great size for a twin bed or a nice throw for your couch.

Sue chose a cuddly 60 x 70 lap quilt called “Home Sweet Home” from the book Quilt Cravings.  It went together super fast and she was ready to quilt it before our first sew night was over!

As you can see everyone is concentrating very hard on the project they are working on!

If you go to all ten shops in the Southwest section, which is our section, you will receive a bundle of 18 different fabrics, each 1/3 of a yard! Imagine what you can do with that!

The table topper Joanne pieced is true to its name-”Save Your Scraps“.  This great small focal piece is from the book Northwoods Crossing by Gathering Friends.

Kathy put together the runner called “Running Wild” from the book Runners to Go and a quick and easy small topper with mitered corners.  Eek!   Here she is binding the topper before she moves onto the next project.

Deb chose her favorite bag pattern, called “My Favorite Bag” by  Kati Cupcake.  It’s a great bag that can hold a lot of goodies with pockets galore.  We have another sample in the shop that’s done in fun, funky colors.  It’s always fun to see projects done in a variety of colorways, takes the guessing out of it.

And below is a picture of our finished projects on the wall for our Shop Hop display….we’re ready for Quilt Minnesota 2011!!!

Here at Gathering Friends we have been busy sewing children’s clothing…for little girls in particular. Of course, it is blistering hot here in the Midwest so we are concentrating on sleeveless and summer clothing.

This yummy little pattern called Twirl Top and Pants has endless possibilities in  both fabric and color selection.

The pattern is easy to sew and fun to wear!  Just ask Lila!  The multi sized pattern fits sizes 1-4T.

The next three patterns we found recently at Spring Market and could not resist.  The dress pattern,  Little Vicki is also multi sized, in sizes 1-6.

The dress is sewn from the Modern Mix fabric line from Moda. A yellow button added near the collar for extra interest.

Sweet Polly’s Playclothes-does the name not speak for itself!  This pattern includes sizes 1-14 and a variety of items including the cardigan, knit pants,  leggings, tank and tshirt.  Wow-a great bargain for anyone that has children to sew for!

This is sewn in the Modern Mix knit from Moda.  We love the knit-very nice quality! For those of you who still have sergers, which were the rage in the 80s, dust them off!  You could seriously sew up these pants in less than 15 minutes.

And last, but not least is Sassy Little Sisters Child’s Apron. Little girls can be adorable in an apron that is just like mommy’s.  Small, medium and large sizes include plenty of growing room with a clever button on the neck strap.

Whatever you are sewing on these days….have fun!

Then we got in “Grand Finale”, the new fall line by Sandy Gervais.  It’s gorgeous in turquoise, purples, oranges, browns and greens.  I fell in love with this line.  We do have a pattern in the store for the panel, but I wanted to play with the charm packs so I whipped up the miniature size 38″ x 44″ of “Call of the Wild” to show off all the rich fall tones.  Once again, I had to play with the striped binding…. which just happened to already be on the diagonal on the bolt. Simple!  I like this pattern because it goes together fast, uses charm squares and has some pizazz.

Before I got to Christmas, I had to play a bit more with some summer tones.  I’m just not ready to give up on summer…can you tell. :)  For this pattern called “Peggy Sue” by Fig Tree, once again I used charm packs.  You can actually get 2 purses out of one charm pack!  I used “Dragonfly Summer” by Holly Taylor with it’s variety in shades of purples, greens and browns.   This purse went together so fast, now I know why Joyce likes doing bags and purses.  And of course, using fusible batting comes in really handy.  You could actually split up the colorways in the charm pack to have 2 complete purses with totally different coloring and looks, they’d be done in record time!

Now onto Christmas.  I played with “Jovial” by Basicgrey.  They always have such festive Christmas lines that are different than anyone elses.  I loved the focal print in this runner with it’s elegant black that makes the red, green and blue seem to pop.  Still has that traditional feel with just enough splash of contemporary color.  I chose the smaller version of my pattern “Deja Vu” in Positively Runners.  It was the perfect compliment to the focal fabric.  The runner has that stainglass effect in a non-traditional red instead of the usual black.  Always have to switch it out a bit, you know.  With this design I was able to pull in a variety of colors from the collection.  This runner goes together so quickly and you can do as little or as much quilting as you’d like.  I walked everything, than just outlined the focal print and did some stencils in the corner.  Because of the fabric I chose in the book Positively Runners,  I just walked the whole thing so it felt more like stained glass. The options are endless!

Back to work…the shop hop corner will soon be ready for viewing.  It’s so fun to see all the projects coming out of the line for the Minnesota Shop Hop this year.  We’ve had so much fun playing with it!