FabShop Schoolhouse Recap

Thank you to everyone who joined FabShop for our seven Schoolhouse presentations at Quilt Market in Minneapolis—we always enjoy the opportunity to share how FabShop’s programs can help you ring up more sales and improve your bottom line.

In case you weren’t able to join us at Schoolhouse, we were thrilled to introduce QuiltRed, FabShop’s exciting new program that helps raise awareness about the importance of women’s heart health though a flexible, comprehensive club program that includes 12 quilts and redwork embroidery; this new program is literally three programs in one and a great value! Debbie Welch debuted the second course in the Beginning Quilting by Machine series, which is a how-to-quilt course that absolutely anyone can teach. We also had fantastic presentations about the popular Breakfast Club program, Block Swappers—which brings customers back to your shop twice a month, Posies and Patches from the Quilt Gardener and Stash Pot Pie II, which is a great program to encourage your customers to use their stash, while increasing your sales. FabShop’s final Schoolhouse was all about financials—be sure to come by and ask about our book, Benchmarks for Quilt Shops to get all the numbers you need.

Stop by the FabShop booth, #2435, during Market to check out these programs and more that can help your business flourish.

Wishing you a fantastic Market from the entire FabShop team!

Australian Quilt Teacher Lisa Walton Awarded Patterson Scholarship

Quilts Inc. recently announced the 20th and final recipient of the Jewel Pearce Patterson Scholarship for Quilting Teachers. Here is the official announcement.

HOUSTON—May 11, 2010—International Quilt Market is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2010 Jewel Pearce Patterson Scholarship for Quilting Teachers is Lisa Walton of Sydney, Australia. The scholarship—now in its twentieth and final year—provides a commendable quilting teacher with the opportunity to expand her creative talents and improve upon her classroom and teaching skills. Walton will receive round-trip airfare, hotel accommodations, and paid tuition for the 2010. International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston. Over the course of the following year, she will apply what she has learned during her time at the shows to an exhibit of her work and that of her students. This special exhibit will debut at the 2011 fall editions of Market and Festival.

“What a delight it was to contact Lisa and let her know that she had been selected as this year’s recipient—her response was one of sheer disbelief,” says Judy Murrah, Vice President of Education and Administration for Quilts, Inc. “I look forward to meeting Lisa and seeing her inspirational quilts. And her exhibit promises to be a real explosion of color!”

Walton was thrilled upon learning that she had been named this year’s scholarship recipient. “I was in the car, checking email on my phone, and I screamed so loudly that my husband—who was driving—had to stop. I think I started crying then!” Now, she is looking forward to learning new techniques and technical skills during her time in Houston, she adds. “I am going to absorb every minute of it. I want to especially observe teachers’ styles and their interactions with students.”

A quilter for close to 20 years, Walton began teaching about 10 years ago and has since made it her full-time job. Walton’s classes cover a wide array of styles and techniques including piecing, appliqué, machine quilting, embroidery, couching, and other decorative stitches, and bead embellishment, the latter of which is her area of expertise.

“I cannot believe how much I love teaching quilting and patchwork,” she says. “I love the
exchange of knowledge between my students and myself, and I always learn something from them as well. I love seeing my students have that ‘ahhhhh’ moment.”

Walton is also an award-winning quilter whose work has appeared in various exhibits, judged shows, and private collections around the world, including two solo exhibitions in her home country of Australia. Her designs are regularly published in all of the major Australian quilting magazines, and Walton and her work have been profiled in a number of other international publications, including several in the U.S.

In 2005, Walton and her husband launched their business, Dyed and Gone to Heaven, which offers patterns and kits for her original quilt designs, hand-dyed fabrics, and beads and beading supplies. And recently, she was featured in two educational DVD workshops, which she says—much like her classes—encourage students to “just give it a try!”

The scholarship was created in honor of Jewel Pearce Patterson (1910-2002), a Houston-based quilting teacher who taught thousands of students throughout her career. She was one of the cofounders of what is now the International Quilt Association, as well as the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston. Patterson was also the mother of Karey Bresenhan, Quilts, Inc. president and director of International Quilt Festival and Market.

The scholarship was first awarded in 1990 to mark Patterson’s 80th birthday, and this year—the final year for the scholarship—would have marked her 100th. Over the course of its 20 years, many of today’s best-known quilting teachers received the scholarship and the opportunity to study at International Quilt Festival and Market and, in some cases, Quilt Expo in Europe.

“My mother would have been delighted to know that her love of quilting and teaching resulted in many teachers from the U.S. and other countries receiving scholarships from Festival to expand their teaching skills,” says Bresenhan. “She was a big believer in education, earned three college degrees while working full-time as a teacher and librarian, and always laughed that she retired from teaching to go to work teaching quilting! So, it was a pleasure to offer the Jewel Pearce Patterson scholarship for two decades. Mama was so happy that she got to meet quite a few of the early recipients of “her” scholarship—that meant a lot to her.”

Euro-notions Launches Roll the Gold at Sewing & Stitchery Expo

Euro-notions introduced their new “Roll the Gold” blade at the 2010 Sewing & Stitchery Expo last month. The following is a press release about that successful launch and their participation in the show.

Rhonda Pierce, Marketing Director for Euro-notions, the North American importer of SCHMETZ household sewing machine needles, introduced the SCHMETZ Designer Portfolio at the 2010 Sewing & Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, Washington.  “It was a thrill to launch the Designer Portfolio with high profile sewing stars like Sandra Betzina, Mary Mulari and Kaye Wood.  What THEY SAY about a sewing machine needle carries real weight with the average consumer.  Because of their enthusiastic testimonials — SCHMETZ sewing machine needles have been elevated to ROCK STAR status.”

Partnering with one of the SCHMETZ Designers — Luveta Nickels of The Junk Jeans People — SCHMETZ also sponsored a special “Recycled Denim Day” at the 2010 Sewing & Stitchery Expo.  Nickels said, “It was exciting to see what the consumers were wearing on Friday.  We had no way of knowing how many people would participate – but at the end of the day – we gathered them up for a photo – and 300 people showed up!!”

According to Pierce, “Doing such a large consumer sewing show is an excellent opportunity to test the waters with new products.  This year, we introduced our new rotary cutter blade – “Roll The Gold – and we SOLD OUT”.  The titanium blade comes from the industrial and commercial industry – it has an extended life.  The new, premium 45mm titanium rotary blade fits into most popular rotary cutters.  Consumers are excited about Roll The Gold.

Roll The Gold is the perfect blade for stores to be using at their fabric counter, in classes, etc. The flashy GOLD BLADE will get their attention – and is available in two-packs and ten-packs, making it a very economical choice.

Rhonda Pierce also used the SCHMETZ “Super” Needle in her classes as a tool to explain the anatomy of a sewing machine needle, and to reinforce the importance of SCHMETZ engineering.

To learn more, visit the following websites:

www.euronotions.com

www.creative-drawings.com

www.schmetzneedles.com

http://schmetzneedles.blogspot.com

The 2010 Independent Handbag Designer Awards To Be Co-Sponsored By SINGER® Sewing Company and COATS & CLARK

Singer and Coats & Clark are the sponsors of the Best Handmade Bag category for the 2010 Independent Handbag designer Awards. The following is the press release on this new program.

Handbag Designer 101, the world’s handbag designer resource, announced today that SINGER® Sewing Company and COATS & CLARK will cosponsor the “Best Handmade Handbag Category” for the 2010 Independent Handbag Designer Awards (IHDA). This unique partnership will recognize the world’s finest handmade handbags and inspire handbag designers to incorporate new techniques under the auspice of two of the best known brands in the world of sewing.

“The ‘Best Handmade Handbag’ is one of the most competitive categories to our prestigious competition that spans the globe,” said Emily Blumenthal, founder of Handbag Designer 101 and IHDA. “In 2009, we had more than 300 entries in this category with the winner, Alexis Campagna of Antibellum, designing a one-of-a-kind downloadable bag with ‘how-to’ instructions for the enthusiast to make at home. We are pleased that SINGER and COATS & CLARK see the value of our competition in terms of inspiring the modern sewist.”

The SINGER name has been synonymous with sewing, reliability and innovation for the past 159 years. For nearly two centuries, generations of needle-crafters around the world have looked to COATS & CLARK for its signature quality and inspiration. The partnership of these two well-respected and loved brands allows IHDA to continue to provide the best in sewing education to more than 2,000 handbag designers and our 300,000 on-line visitors, continuing its mission as the resource for handbag designers.

Exclusively for Handbag Designer 101, SINGER and COATS & CLARK will continue to provide “Sewing Tip of the Month,” including techniques for the beginner and advanced designer as well as accessory information to make sewing easier. The monthly SINGER/COATS & CLARK Sewing Tip will be featured on Handbag Designer 101 and the Handbag Designer 101 Weekly Round-Up which reaches the handbag designer community at large and handbag aficionados throughout the world.

“We are once again pleased to be a part of this impressive competition. The 2009 Best Handmade Handbag winner’s free downloadable design was extremely popular with more than 143,000 visitors to Alexis Campagna’s handbag project page” said Gary Jones, President, Mass Sales, SINGER Sewing Company. “We are pleased to partner with Coats & Clark for the 2010 IHDA and look forward to working closely with the 2010 Best Handmade Handbag winner.

“We see this as an opportunity to develop the COATS & CLARK brand with up and coming designers from a domestic and industrial view point,” said Dale Sutherland, commercial vice president sales and marketing, sewing products. “Sharing the spotlight with SINGER makes it that much better given the longevity of our brands and the natural connection between sewing machine and thread.”

The winner of the 2010 Best Handmade Handbag will receive a SINGER CURVY™ sewing machine which boasts the world’s first SwiftSmart™ Threading System and Drop & Sew™ Bobbin System for easy machine set up, a key factor to successful sewing. The winner will also receive from COATS & CLARK a collection of various types of thread, including its new Dual Duty XP® general purpose thread, a unique poly core, poly-wrapped thread offering precise and pleasurable stitching. In addition, the winning handbag will be featured on the SINGER and the COATS & CLARK website where the winning designer will also share a downloadable handbag pattern from his/her collection for the sewing enthusiast.

Applications for the 2010 Independent Handbag Designer Awards are now available at handbagdesigner101.com. The pinnacle of the international competition will culminate with the annual awards ceremony on June 16, 2010 at Parsons The New School for Design.

###

About Handbag Designer 101

Handbag Designer 101, the handbag designer resource, was inspired by the needs for the handbag designer, aficionado and fan in all of us, as one knows we can never have too many bags. Handbag Designer 101 and Independent Handbag Designer Awards trademarks are owned by handbagdesigner101.com, a privately held company based in New York City.

Today’s HB101: http://www.handbagdesigner101.com/designer
Bag Trends: http://www.handbagdesigner101.com/trends
Celebrity Bag Watch: http://www.handbagdesigner101.com/celebrity
Jobs and Services: http://www.handbagdesigner101.com/jobs
2009 Independent Handbag Designer Awards Winners: http://www.handbagdesigner101.com/awards/winners_2009
SINGER Sewing Tip of the Month: http://www.handbagdesigner101.com/handbags?m=tips
Handbag Designer 101: http://www.handbagdesigner101.com or http://www.hbd101.com

About SINGER®:

Founded in 1851, SINGER® is one of the world’s leading sellers of consumer and artisan sewing machines. To date, Singer maintains a strong international presence, with manufacturing facilities in Brazil and China, 10 overseas marketing operations and a network of third-party distributors selling product in more than 190 countries. The company has a long history of innovation in the sewing machine industry, having produced, among other breakthroughs, the world’s first portable machine in 1921 and its first computer-controlled machine in 1978

About COATS & CLARK:
Coats & Clark is the world’s largest textile/thread manufacturing company with products sold in over 150 countries for industrial and home use. Coats continues to innovate with ongoing research leading to revolutionary new products such as Dual Duty XP® “X-tra” Performance thread, the culmination of over 200 years of thread manufacturing experience.

C & T Announces New Imprint

C & T recently announced the creation of a new imprint, Stash. Below is a copy of their announcement and upcoming titles under that imprint.

CONCORD, CA, December 17, 2009—C&T Publishing is excited to announce the launch of our new imprint called Stash. Stash was formulated to respond to the quickly expanding handmade movement and the desire to get “back to basics” by creating unique and inspired fiber arts. C&T continues to be devoted to publishing accurate, high-quality books for people who appreciate all things handmade. Stash focuses on showing our readers how to create beautiful authenticity in a time of impersonal mass-production. The first books in this new imprint will be published in Spring 2010. Among the projects on the inaugural list are Kate Haxell’s Me and My Sewing Machine, Cherri House’s City Quilts, C&T Design Collective’s Little Birds, and Brenna Maloney’s Socks Appeal. “Stash will be a new way for us to reach readers who share our passion for sewing and handmade creations. The Stash audience strives for individuality and originality and the Stash editorial team is dedicated to creating beautiful, and inspiring books. We are all really excited about creating the Stash books and marketing them in new and innovative ways,” said C&T Publisher, Amy Marson.

Available March 2010 • $22.95, 128p, color		Available May 2010 • $23.95, 112p, color

Available May 2010 • $15.95, 112p, color		Available June 2010 • $17.95, 128p, color