We got to Hartwell on July 13, 2011 - the temperature was over 100 and we wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. Maya, the chocolate lab, had no desire to hang outside - the yard was too hot. Maya has some labrador challenges, including no desire to swim in the lake, silly dog. The weather stayed hot through the rest of the summer, and we moved from the house, where we have been working on unpacking and re-arranging to the store, where we have been unpacking and re-arranging, with periodic jaunts to the lake to let Maya play in the shallows.
The house is still in need of major unpacking, but the store has no (or almost no) packed boxes left, the furniture is all arranged, the fabric put away and the notions hung everywhere. I have been shopping and having a wonderful time buying fabric, looking for something for everyone.
The store opened September 1, right on time. The fabric is so bright and clean it is a joy to walk into each morning. Now that the set up is done I have started to have time to work on some quilts. John is learning (probably more than he ever wanted to know) about fabric and quilting and has been busy cutting fat quarters, kits and helping to wait on customers.
Two crib quilts were completed in the last week. The Windham Chelsea collection makes up into a cute scrappy quilt using a bundle of fat eighth's and the Clothworks Critters collection project is a very cute whirligig quilt in blues or pinks. We have the complete collection and have kits for the projects. Next I start on a large quilt using the Henry Glass Black White and Currant collection. Come check out the progress, I think this one will take me a little longer.
More fabric is coming almost every day, so keep coming in to see what is new. Let us know what you want to see, we will do our best to find it for you.
Stitching all my pretty pieces,
Annie