QuiltTrends Blog

Finally!! Jennifer is offering HQ16 classes for the more experienced HQ16 owners. She attended HQU at the HandiQuilter studios, and she is very pumped. Jennifer is pretty excited about life on a normal day, but now she’s ready to go! She is offering a Free Motion class and a Pantograph Class, each 4 hours for $75. Each student will be on an HQ16, and have their own demo quilt to take home.

Free Motion is Jennifer’s forte, as she is an accomplished artist and calligrapher, so free motion for her is like a duck on water! She has several years experience quilting every day so she has alot of practical tips, plus more from HQU. You’ll come away with more confidence and alot more ideas on free motion designs and how to draw them and use them. This class is offered: Thursday, Mar 20 from 10-2; Saturday, April 5 from 9-1; Sunday, April 6 from 1-5 or Wednesday April 23 from 1:30-5:30

Pantographs take some practice and know-how. Like knowing how to size them for your particular space; knowing how to place them correctly so it actually ends up where it should on your quilt. She’ll show you all of this and more! This class is offered: Saturday, April 5 from 1:30-5:30 or Wednesday, April 23 from 9-1

Call and register with a credit card–614-841-7845 or 866-HQ16-FUN

NOTE: If you are coming in from out of town, we are offering 2 classes the same day on Wednesday,April 23 (for those going to Paducah), and on Saturday, April 5 as well.

So, here’s a fun idea: grab a group and come let us teach all of you to sew. You probably already know how to sew or you wouldn’t know about this blog. But, how many of your friends sew? How many have said to you, “Oh, will you make me one?” Well, now you can help them become addicted to fabric and fun, just like you are! This was an idea hatched by the two Kathys a while ago, but it’s been in the test kitchens for awhile.

This is what a Sew Partie! is: it’s a way to be with friends (or substitute family or co-workers) and share your hobby. You decide the date, choose from a list of projects (one per party, please!), invite the friends (we have a .pdf you can email, or a printed invite), bring some snackies, and leave the rest to us!

We’ll help you choose the fabrics, provide the machines, supplies and know-how to teach you and the friends to sew. By the end of the Partie, you’ll all have the project finished, and you’ll all know how to sew.

If you’re interested in continuing, we can set up classes for projects you’re interested in creating.

I made three different projects for you to choose from: a large tote bag, a 15″ pillow with a flanged edge, and a smaller bag, great for a small clutch or a bag to use in a bag.

Friday and Saturday evenings are best for us because of our busy class schedule, but Sunday afternoons are occasionally free. Call us for more info, or to schedule your Stop in to pick up brochures or to see the samples. We think you’ll enjoy them!

Finally, SNOW has arrived in Columbus!! YEA!! In case you haven’t figured it out, I am one of those peculiar Central Ohioans who love snow! I don’t mind driving in it, and I would love it to snow a little every night, or at least every few days. Now before you majority who disagree with me speak out, here’s my argument for constant snow:

• if there is snow, it’s not gray but sunny. After all, which of us loves gray skies??
• if there is snow, the temperature remains more constant; less fluctuation means your spring/summer wardrobe is definitely not worn, i.e. it’s easier to dress in the morning—it’s snowing, it’s winter, wear a sweater!
• if there is snow, you can shovel and drive. If there’s ice, it’s slippery and driving and walking is trickier.
• if it snows ALOT, like today, everything is closed and you can spend the day SEWING!! Which I am prepared to do, but so far all we’ve done is shovel and play in the snow, followed by coming inside to get warm and dry, which includes “we better make some hot chocolate!! (Recipe is in latest “David’s Recipes”) Watching the snowy blizzard makes you just want to go out again, and the cycle begins again.

So, there’s my argument (and it’s a good one) for SNOW!! My brother is of the same genre, so after their stint in Sierra Leone, they moved to grad school in Madison, Wisconsin, and recently retired to a cabin in the woods in upper Wisconsin. My sister is different. As I am writing this, I know she and Jon already have cabin fever. They are ready for a run to Polaris, I’m sure. When we were little, my brother being 7 and 9 years older, got the honor of taking Patty and I and sometimes our cousin Barbara Jean sledding in the Walhalla Ravine. Well, of course, we were thrilled, but looking back I guess we probably cramped his style. But, being the good brother he is, he continued. It gave our Mom and Dad a break, too, didn’t it?

Fortunately for me, David loves the snow, too. A transplant from Kansas and Colorado, he watches the snow, and me in the snow. His question to me today was, “How old are you again?” IMHO, you’re never too old to enjoy, and view the entirety of God’s creation with wonder and excitement. This includes but is not limited to each of the four seasons, for each season has it’s wonder to behold if you can just not listen to the media, and open your eyes like a child.

So my wish for you is to enjoy this day and what it brings to you, good or bad. Learn what it is you’re to learn, and look ahead with the innocence and wonder of the child you are.

(If I had remembered my camera last night from work, I could post some pictures for our out of state friends. Alas, we’re still waiting for the plows. Then, we’re off to shovel out the girls!)

We just returned from Colorado visiting David’s sister Jill, her husband Matthew and niece Mallory, who is officially 11 as of 2/28. Usually David makes the journey to celebrate THE birthday, but this year I joined him. Judy and Ed (Eddie to me) joined us from Kansas. So basically Jill had 4 extras for 6 days. We all had a good time. Jill teaches first grade, so the days were spent with the inlaws, which is a good thing. I always look forward to time spent with David’s parents. Judy and I talk a lot, and Eddie and I have a similar sense of humor and enjoy bantering back and forth. Judy usually drives, David sits in the front seat (navigator and more leg room), Eddie and I (short legs) sit in the back with no responsibilities. Except to chitty chat, which makes David and Judy laugh. It’s a picture, isn’t it?? It’s a great situation we have—not everyone enjoys inlaws like I do. Every once in a while I ask David when his parents are coming back—I need an Eddie and Judy fix.

As much as I enjoyed the family visiting, I was totally enamored by the Rocky Mountains. From the back windows of their home in Ft. Collins, the Rockies were the first thing we looked at every morning. Three different days we commandeered a car and took various excursions: once to Breckenridge, once 8 miles into the Rocky Mountain National Forest, and once through Colorado Springs and the Garden of the Gods. In fact, we spent so much time walking looking at those red rocks we missed the deadline for driving partially up to Pike’s Peak. So, that means we have to return.

I look up at these wonders of nature and it reminds me of the Scripture “even the rocks will cry out”.

In the distance is Pike’s Peak, over 14,000 feet above sea level. Snow capped on this side, but totally snow covered on the west side of the peak. I was so looking forward to SNOW, but much to my chagrin, on the east side of the Rockies there is little snow. It was 63 degrees in Ft. Collins. However, when we drove into our neighborhood, it was snowing!! Yea!!

Sorry it’s been so long!! It’s been crazy busy, and I’ve gotten out of the blog habit. So, here are two very favorite recipes. The first I received a long time ago from my very first hair client, Juanita. She was a master Mom with great recipes. It’s good for kids or adults, and goes great with my favorite winter thing: SNOW!!! I love it!

Hot Chocolate Mix 

In a very large container combine:

8 qt Instant Milk (10 3/4 cups or small box)

1 lb Nestle Quik (usually 14 ozs nowadays)

6-8 oz Creamora (2 cups)

1 cup powdered sugar (I use Splenda)

Put 1/2 cup of Hot Chocolate mix in a coffee mug of hot water. Since coffee mugs are so huge now, you’ll need more. So adjust the amount so it tastes like hot chocolate made with milk instead of water!

At Christmas, I usually store my Hot Chocolate mix in a holiday jar with some pretty Christmas mugs (all gifts from former clients)  so it’s ready to serve. Many Christmas mornings are spent enjoying both opening gifts and sipping our hot chocolate! Enjoy!
A Recipe from David….

David is a master at chili and always follows a recipe, so it’s great every time. I, however, sometimes use a recipe, and sometimes just do it the way my Mom did it, which was more like use the same proportions all the time, and it will come out like—well, chili! She was a good cook, too, so I think it’s OK to do both!

David’s Chili

Brown together:

2 lbs ground beef

1 large onion - chopped

1 green pepper - chopped

Drain and add:

16 oz tomato sauce

16 oz water

16 oz kidney beans

1 1/2 Tablespoons chili powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons cumin

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

Simmer 45 minutes. It’s better if it simmers longer!

Hard to believe another year is past, isn’t it? Again, it seems like a few weeks ago 2007 began. How did you do with last years’ resolutions? I did pretty well with mine…I decided a long time ago that one of the things that adds needless stress to my life is unrealistic expectations, aka New Year’s resolutions. So, last year I vowed to keep on breathin’ (so far, so good) and take more days off (I actually did) and spend more time with my family. (Did that, too!) See? Pretty good. 3 out of 3. Doesn’t baseball have a phrase for that?

This year, I don’t know. It’s too early to tell about New Year’s resolutions. Don’t we have all month to celebrate the new year???

I’ve been busy sewing samples and getting ready for the 1st quarter of the New Year.  We returned to work for the lovely thing called inventory. It seemed easier this year, maybe because just 2 months earlier we had organized everything for the move. But, we counted everything, which is not easy, and actually gets quite tedious. It kind of separates the accountant types from the artist types, if you know what I mean. We’re kind of heavy on the artist types, much to David and Kathy’s chagrin, but it makes it fun to be here most days.

We even had time for dinner out on New Year’s Eve, which gave us needed sustenance to return to the store and finish getting ready for The BIG ONE, which started this year at 8 am. We actually had folks waiting at 8, just like I told David we would. Being the night person he is, he can’t fathom being anywhere at 8 am, much less at a store where one might have to verbally communicate. But, being the morning person I am, I was sure there would be others chomping at the bit to get out early (8 is early?) and be with others. After all, after sleeping and not talking all night, I’m always ready to interact early.
Such is the tension at our house in the early morning. He considers singing verbal communication, by the way.

So, share with us, what do you think of New Year’s resolutions? Like them? Make them? Keep them?

David prepared this recipe last year for our staff dinner, and this year I used it for our family Christmas dinner. I decided it’s a new tradition, because I was in the kitchen very little, and the cook time was amazingly fast: 45 minutes for a 5.5 lb tenderloin, which was about 5 minutes too long for medium. The whole roast was almost all well done. Amazing??

6-7 lb beef tenderloin

1 T olive oil

Crust Dough: (I mixed the dough together Christmas eve afternoon)

Chop and set aside:
1/2 cup fresh herbs (parsley, thyme, sage)(David used sage, rosemary and thyme)

In a large mixing bowl, mix together:

5 cups flour

3 cups kosher salt

3 T fresh ground pepper

In a small bowl, whisk together:

5 egg whites

1 1/2 cups water

Add egg white mixture to flour mixture, along with 2 T of the chopped herbs. Combine with a potato masher until mixture comes together. Knead on a floured surface for about 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a Ziploc bag and let it rest 4-24 hours, at room temperature.
Christmas Day:

Using high heat and a griddle or large skillet, oil the tenderloin and sear it on all sides. Takes about 10 minutes. Let it cool a few minutes so it doesn’t melt the dough.

Transfer dough to a floured surface and roll to 3/16″ thickness, about a 24″ x 18″ rectangle. Trim away extra dough.

Place tenderloin on dough. Sprinkle herbs on top of meat. Bring up one side of dough to top center, folding back about an inch. Bring the other side up to center, and overlap dough about an inch, standing up, and pinch it together. Fold ends and pinch together. (By this time, I had a few holes, so I got a glass of water, dipped fingers in water, smeared it around the hole, took a scrap of dough, smeared a little water on it, and glued patches of dough on the rolled up tenderloin. Doesn’t matter if it looks pretty, the dough goes in the trash!! Just cover the meat!)

Use a couple of spatulas to place it on a jelly roll pan, and place in preheated oven, 400 degrees. Bake to 125 degrees, and take out of oven. Let it rest 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Cut the dough apart and remove the roast. Slice and serve! It’s delicious!

TIPS:

Use a meat thermometer! The recipe says baking a 6-7 lb roast to 125 degrees takes 20-30 minutes. We wanted ours both medium and well done. Ours was 5 1/2 lbs, 140 degrees in the small skinny end and 120 degrees in the big fat end in only 45 minutes. The recipe says it will continue to cook another 10-15 degrees as it rests. Our rested about 35 minutes, was up to medium well (150-155 degrees) when David carved it, and by the time we carried it to the table, was well done!!! It cooked much more than 15 degrees while resting. Next time I will take it out at about 110 degrees for medium, which cookbooks say is about 140-145 degrees. Well done is 160 degrees and above, which ours ended up to be.

So, go from there!! The meat was so tender, even though well done, and so flavorful and moist, because of the dough. Even the little kids ate it, and sandwiches were great the next day!

Try it with pork tenderloin with rosemary, or with eye of round beef roast. Also, remember, Carfagna’s usually has beef tenderloin on sale the week before Christmas. We paid $8.79/lb, Giant Eagle was $17/lb!! Costco was $12, but untrimmed and untied. Take cash and go to Carfagna’s!!

Well, here it is, December 26. I must say, I am somewhat relieved! We had a busy week before Christmas at the store, and this was the year I decided to give bed sizes quilts to 6 of my darling and much loved nieces and nephews (ratio 4:2), Christmas dinner was at our house, and Kelly left for Ireland at 5:30 Christmas Day! Alot to pull together, even for me. But, we did it! The quilts were finished on time (thank you, Jennifer!!), the beef tenderloin was perfect, dinner was cleaned up by 1:30, and we sat with Kelly almost an hour at a very busy Columbus airport. I am assuming her overnight flight arrived safely in Belfast, and since she didn’t text me, assume her cell phone isn’t working in Ireland! Hopefully!

Today, the 26th, we awoke exhausted and thankful to be able to take the day off to relax. We actually did absolutely nothing, which is rare for us.

But, I love Christmas! I love it mostly for the true meaning of the season, which I always tried to keep in the forefront when the girls were little. I was a single mom for 12 years, almost the whole time the girls were growing up. (See? That’s why David is so patient!) We always had plenty to open, but we spent a fair amount of time talking about Jesus, the perfect gift, and celebrating that gift in non-material ways. We always had a family meeting, just the girls and I, during Thanksgiving break and made a big calendar of December. We stuck it on the kitchen door. Then we wrote on post-it notes all the things we wanted to do during the season. Everything went on a note, from looking at lights, to decorating the tree, making cookies,  overnights with friends and making decorations and gifts. Then, we attached the post-it notes on appropriate days, which made me organized, and made them excited with anticipation!

One tradition we started which the girls still follow is having a dinner party with friends. As elementary age kids, each selected a night during the school break, and we had a dinner party for friends. Kelly had her friends on one night, and Erin had her friends in on another night. The menu was determined by the girls, sometimes it was spaghetti, sometimes macaroni and cheese, but always special to them. We always set the table as if it were for a prime rib dinner with the President, with silver and fine china, and the girls acted like ladies for the night! After dinner we would play games and make a craft to take home.
Now that Kelly and Erin have their own homes, they still always have a dinner party each Christmas. Kelly has always made a special gift for each of her friends to be given out during the party, even last year! Erin just today was shopping for a new table cloth for her fondue party with her girl friends which happens next week.

It makes me feel good to see that the girls have fond memories of their childhood Christmases as evidenced by all the things they think makes a good Christmas: quality time spent with friends, making cookies with their Mom, driving around to see lights (they still call me to try to recall certain houses we tried to find every year!) and snack breaks under the tree, to name a few.

So, for all you single Moms out there, keep the faith! It really will work! Quality time with your kids buys you more than all the money you could possibly have. I didn’t have much money to spend, but I had some time, which I never regretted spending with Erin and Kelly.  That’s why when Kelly called me from the Newark airport on Christmas Day, she lamented that we just didn’t have enough time together this Christmas…..so we’ll have dinner on January 2 on the way home from Port Columbus! She’ll have a lot of stories, I’m sure!

We are actually moving this weekend!! We are almost packed, almost ready! We are closing early on Saturday, October 27….at 3pm. We’ll open at our new location on Wednesday, October 31 at 10 am. Stop in and see us on Huntley Road.

QuiltTrends new location is at 6155-J Huntley Road, one traffic light past Busch Blvd (west on Rt 161). Turn right (north) on Huntley, and go .3 miles. So, just as you start to curve, LOOK LEFT, and there we are in the Worthington Commerce Center. Turn LEFT into the driveway: cream/tan buildings, red letters. Our sign will be up in a week or so, meanwhile, our old banner sign will tell you where we are.

The buildings have several American flags by the road, so turn in at Old Glory! See you at Huntley!

Finally, after almost a year of looking and planning, we’re able to tell you….we’re moving!! We’re so excited, although a little daunted by the immensity of the job, but excited none the less. You’ll love it! More space (which we’ve needed for oh so long), nice, newer space, well lit parking, no Chinese food nearby (YEA!!!!!!) and safely within the City of Worthington. All pluses, in my opinion!

Well, the landlord is doing a lot to a ready-to-move-into space. I can’t tell you all the details, because you need some surprises, but I think you’ll like our ideas. I will tell you, it’ll be a different looking quilt store! And, the classroom will be much bigger and better, the lighting will be wonderful, the quilts will look beautiful, it will just be better!! Wait and see.

On, yeah, Kathy and I will have our own workspace, separate from David and Rhonda, the number crunchers. Not that we don’t like them, we just want to be separate! What is that saying?? Good fences make good neighbors?? Especially if you’re married?? Get it??

Now, for the exact location! Go west on Rt 161 from Busch Blvd, turn right on Huntley Road, and go past the corner strip mall. As the road starts to curve, look on the left side of the road. There are a group of buildings, cream/taupe in color with red letters. That is, except ours!! The City of Worthington actually granted us a variance on our signage, so we get to be purple and red QuiltTrends!! Awesome??

So, the exact address is 6155-J Huntley Road. We’ll move in over the last weekend in October, and we’ll close the store on Sunday and Monday. Then, Tuesday, it will be an all volunteer workforce, because all of us will be dead!! Kidding!! We’ll be there!!

Take advantage of our moving sale! We’re cleaning out already, and trying to get rid of some things. You know how it is at home when you move, you find things you kind of forgot about. It’s not that these things are trash, we just don’t need them anymore. After all, never throw away good fabric, right?? Here is a partial list: (Partial, because I’m still adding!)

• Elna Sewing Machines—all of our demo machines are priced to sell!

• Clearance fabric—we’re adding more and more bolts to our Clearance section at 40% off!

• Huge Scrap Pile—fill a plastic bag as full as you can and still zip it— all for $5!

• Sample Sale—we can’t take them all with us! Some are quilted, some are not! We priced them to sell!

• All of our yarns and accessories are reduced to 50% off the regular retail price! Tell your friends—it’s a great opportunity to stock up for Christmas gifts!

So, there it is! Now you know everything we do! Check back often as we update the progress and load more pictures! Just go to our website www.QuiltTrends.com and click on “blog”, or just go to www.QuiltTrends.com/blog