Country Sampler Quilts

Strip 'n Stitch....

 

Don't forget our Autumn Strip 'n Stitch Bus Trip this fall!  Bus trips are sooo fun and if you've never been on one before, this is the one!

Sept 23, 24, 25, 2011

6 states of quilting fun, twelve wonderful quilt shops!

Check out the shops on the bus trip!

Here are the 12 shops you will visit and our's too! Sunflower Quilt Shop: Hiawatha, KS Sew Country, Belleville, KS; Material Girl, Grand Island, NE; Country Sampler, Omaha, NE; Heart & Hand Dry Goods, Sioux City, IA; Dutch Rose Quilt Shop, Sioux Falls, SD; Gathering Friends Quilt Shop, Bird Island, MN; Quilted Treasures, Rogers, MN; Calico Hutch, Hayward, MN; Quilters Cupboard, Ankeny, IA; and Crossroads Quilting, Cameron, MO

Deposits are taken now to reserve your seat- total price of trip is just $229. (And that's a great price in today's economy!)

We've got all the information in our newsletter (it's on line too), or stop by one of the shops, or give us a call at 402-333-6131, and check it out!

 

Wonderful!

Sharon pulled fabric today for a Take 5 at the West Center store.

You do know Take 5, don't you??  Take five minutes to choose five fabrics, cut 5/8 of a yard of each and in five hours you've made a quilt top! 

Here's the cover for it...

 

 

Anyway, it's the five fabrics that are really awesome...

 

Aren't they perfect? Did you know gray is the new neutral??  Yup... love it!

 

My Life...

I don't usually include jokes in my blog, but this is SOOOO my life.

My husband is an avid golfer.  A good (or bad) golf game can make or break his day (and sometimes mine!).  As for me, I'm an overthinker.  I know I'm an overthinker, so I try to control it, but...

Anyway, here's the joke...

Wife’s Diary:

Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a nice restaurant for dinner. I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment on it. Conversation wasn't flowing, so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk. He agreed, but he didn't say much.

I asked him what was wrong; He said, 'Nothing.' I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset He said he wasn't upset, that it had nothing to do with me, and not to worry about it. On the way home, I told him that I loved him. He smiled slightly, and kept driving.

I can't explain his behavior I don't know why he didn't say, 'I love you, too.' When we got home, I felt as if I had lost him completely, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. He just sat there quietly, and watched TV. He continued to seem distant and absent.Finally, with silence all around us, I decided to go to bed. About 15 minutes later, he came to bed. But I still felt that he was distracted, and his thoughts were somewhere else. He fell asleep; I cried. I don't know what to do. I'm almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else. My life is a disaster.

 

Husband's Diary:

A four putt; who the hell four putts ?

 

 

FriXon Pens....

Have you seen this pens??  (Pronounced friction.)  

It's here and it's every quilters dream and Country Sampler's got 'em!!!!

Pilot has come out with FriXion Ball Fine Point Erasable Gel Ink Pens.
Lines erase with heat... like with your iron.

Finally, you can easily mark quilt designs, outline stencils,draw sewing lines, mark applique placement,sketch embroidery designs...you name it. 

Now... if you read the fine print on the package, you'll see that the lines will reappear if fabric is placed in freezing temperatures - 14 degrees or lower.   I don't know about you, but that's not a big problem for me.  My quilts aren't usually out in a snow drift.  BUT, even if they did get that cold, you just reiron them and the lines disappear again!  Cool, huh?

I've got a short YouTube video that shows the magic!

  

I think these may be "keepers".

Part Three of Christmas In July

Well, I'm finally in the home stretch of my Christmas in July pictures!

Today is a few pics from the West Center shop, starting with Halloween!

Don't 'cha just love this Trick or Treat runner made from a panel??  I think it would love great on a door or a wall.  The little table topper is wonderful too - fast and easy, and very Halloweeny!  (Did you notice that that rhymed? Gosh, I'm a poet and didn't know it!  Cheesy, I know.)

Look at this pumpkin beauty!  Did you know that the inner pumpkin fabric glows in the dark??  We made 15 Minute Table Runner and Halloween pillowcase kits from it too.  Won't the kiddos love those?!

We've got a GREAT selection of Halloween fabric too!

Not everything is Halloween.  Here's our "fall" table with the more muted autumn colors and projects.

And, of course, the Ghastlies have made a return visit this fall.  This has really been a shop favorite.  Don't 'cha love the spider web quilting design we quilted on it??

Oh... and here it is ... The 15 Minute Table Runner display.  We have customers that have made over a dozen of these because they're so quick and easy and make great gifts too.

Below is our Halloween cabinet display.  Lots of great goodies in here - a Halloween stitchery from Buttermilk Basin, Spidey table topper, a new cookbook for fall from Gooseberry Patch, mini Twist Bag kits, and more!  Be still my little stitching heart!

Don't you just LOVE, LOVE this??  "Crazy Jack" (with kits, of course!) from the Buggy Barn book, Frightfully Crazy.  I'm going to get this kit on the web site as soon as I can, 'cause it was a great seller for Christmas in July.

So.. are you ready for a little winter and Christmas??

If you've been following along (and I hope you have!), you've seen that the Papillion store had a great quilt from Whimiscals of the entire panel from the Winterberries Christmas line.  Here, we've stitched up two of those panels into separate "wall warmers" for your home.  The muted colors are so pretty, aren't they?

And.. we've got a yummy snowman flannel quilt and pillow case kits.  These babies will go all through winter!

I know this isn't a great picture... once again, short little 'ole me had to shoot up on the wall, but you get the idea.  Aren't these quilts fun?  And fast and easy too!

These Santa quilt blocks are taken from vintage postcards and screen printed onto fabric.  With just a little batik border fabric, you can make them into wonderful little Christmas quilts!

Here's the kits.  I'm going to put these on the web site too!

A LOT of really cool "Jovial" fabric from Moda, with a couple of fun 15 Minute Table Runners to match.  We have a wonderful BIG quilt coming from this line, but we were waiting for more background fabric, so it didn't get done for Christmas In July.  It's getting quilted now, so it'll be up soon.

We had a demo of the Yo Yo Maker going on off and on in the classroom, along with this fun yo yo garland that was on display.  It's really easy to make with the Yo Yo Maker and a charm pack....

AND... Carla was demoing the pinwheel tool from Primitive Gatherings on this new fabric from Marcus.  The fabric is printed in little squares - just the right size for the pinwheel tool - so you don't have to piece all those little squares together!!  You just add a border and start cutting - yeah!  It makes a to-die-for table runner - you can see half of it on the table - in no time at all.  Cool, huh??

Okay - DOUBLE WHEW...  we've made it through Christmas in July!  But, as always, we're not done.  We'll continue to display new and awesome holiday models in the stores as we get 'em finished.  Stay tuned....

 

More Christmas.....

Okay, it's time for more Christmas in July - are you ready??

These photos are from the Papillion shop...

 

A new wool stitchery tablemat from Primitive Gatherings - love it!!

 

Two great wall warmers.  Wouldn't they be perfect on your holiday door to welcome friends and family??  Yup, very cool.

 

 

Aren't these framed wool projects adorable?  We've got a pumpkin one too!  The kit includes everything but the floss - yup, the frame too.  I'm going to try to get these on the Country Sampler web site and shopping cart soon!

 

Suzanne made this awesome embroidery quilt for us from the Redwork Winter Twitterings book.  See the kits at the bottom - hint! hint!

 

Each store made a model of this great nativity quilt.  It's kind of hard to find a good pattern with a religious theme for Christmas, isn't it?  "Stars Over Bethlehem" is really perfect!  Notice the little bit of embroidery at the bottom??

Look at this amazing quilt made by Sandy Ackerman and designed by Judy Niemeyer, called "Christmas Tree Skirt Celebration"!  Judy includes the paper piecing templates right in the pattern, so it's a little easier than it looks.  Although it was designed as a tree skirt, wouldn't it look great on a holiday table too?  Hey, what about doing it in autumn colors??

 

The next two wall warmers were designed by our very own Sandy Ackerman and Ann Lage!!  They're "coundown quilts".  Just hang them on the wall, fill up the little pockets with treats and small gifts, and you can keep the little ones counting down to Halloween or Christmas with a little gift every day. A great project for Grandma to stitch up, huh?

 

 

Remember "The Ghastlies" in orange from the West Center shop last year? (We still have that too, I'll show you that one later with the West Center pictures!)  Well, how 'bout those spooky guys in gray??!  Isn't it cool?  Did you know that gray is the "in" color this year??

 

This isn't a great picture of these little guys (they were up a little high for short me), but they were sooo cute I had to include them!  Next to them is our "Easy Stripe Tablerunner" -- isn't it fun??

Whew!!  That's just some of the highlights at the Papillion store - next is the West Center store.  Stay tuned -- WE'VE GOT MORE!

 

A Weather Report...

I know I probably should be composing a post with more pictures from Christmas in July, but I couldn't resist this! 

Christmas in July Weekend....

Boy-o-boy, what a weekend ... what a week!  We've been stitching, and cutting, and long arm quilting, and kitting, and packaging, and decorating.... all for our annual Christmas in July!  

You KNOW and we KNOW that models sell fabric and that's what keeps the ole' Country Sampler doors open.  Did you know that last year the West Center store stitched up over $8,000 worth of quilt samples for display in the store?? And that's just one store! That's a lot of moola!  We also know that finished models (i.e., quilted and bound) look better and inspire YOU more than unfinished quilts, so we long arm quilt every project that we put on display.

So it goes without saying that I am VERY proud of the women of Country Sampler and this year's Christmas in July..... so without further ado, a few pictures from our BIG week end!!

As you walk in to the West Center Store, you're greeted with Moda's new line "Countdown to Christmas"....

 

...and the new bed is decked out with an amazing quilt, "Caroline Lily", by Bonnie Blue Quilts.

 

Walk in the front door of the Papllion store, and you'll be greeted with this wonderful display from Whimsical's new line of fabric - Winterberry Lane. 

The quilt begins with this panel - isn't it great??

In addition, we've got a great tree skirt from Terri's new book, Make It Merry and the Winterberry Line...

We try verrry hard to kit all our new projects, so you're gonna see a lot of kits in each picture!!

Then... with just a little turn to the right, you're gonna see the new bed display...

I'm not sure of the name of this quilt, but I do know it's from the Christmas line of fabric from those awesome gals at Buggy Barn.  Oh, and that's Shivers on the bed - he's a cute little snowman tabletopper.  We ran out of kits, but we're cutting more like crazy!!

And what's behind the bed, you ask??  Well... both stores stitched up this adorable quilt - "To All a Good Night"....

Isn't it fun??!  We did fusiable applique and the blanket stitch around all the applique, so it's fast and easy.  Love it, love it, love it!!

So, now I've got you in the front door of each store, but there's lots more to see!!  In the next couple of days, I'll post more pictures of the big event... Stay tuned!

Whew....

Did you know this Saturday is our annual Christmas in July at Country Sampler??!  Yup, it's that time of year again....

We've been squirreling away all the holiday fabric and patterns for months, and the Country Sampler elves have been stitching up a storm - all for the big unveiling on Saturday!  We've run out of room trying to hide all the fabulous goodies in every nook and cranny in the stores!

Now, of course, just like you - we never get EVERYTHING done in time for the big event, but I think we'll dazzle you with lots of models, kits, and holiday ideas for fall, Halloween, and Christmas.  AND... we're going to have a few demos going during the day, so you won't want to miss a thing! PLUS... at the Papillion store, (starting around 10:30) we're gonna have Linda, from AccuQuilt, demoing the really cool AccuQuilt Go and Go Baby cutters... ALL FOR YOU!

BUT - there's always a but, isn't there?? - to totally redecorate the two stores we need a little extra time so...

we're closing the two stores on Friday for MAJOR redecorating.

Moral of the story - DON'T come see us on Friday, but DO come see us on Saturday.  Hey, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve that I can't talk about yet for Saturday --  so fire up the ole' mini van on Saturday morning and come see BOTH shops for a LOT of holiday inspiration.  

It's the MOST wonderful time of the year!!

 

 

More flooding...

As most of you know, we're having a real problem with flooding here in the Midwest.  My husband sent me this picture the other day and I wanted to share it with you...

Can you see what (or who) is on the front porch of this farmhouse north of Blair, NE??  It just brings home that people are not the only ones impacted by the rising water.