Sew Many Places with Jim

As we continue to span the globe, bringing quilters to unique and very special places, one of the trips Sew Many Places continues to improve on is our Batiking Tour in Bali.  And as we fine tune that particular destination, we are very pleased and honored to have onboard with our tour planning team, Princess Mirah Designs-Bali Fabrics.

  www.Bali-Fabrics.com

We are incredibly excited that Princess Mirah herself (yes she is a real princess!) and her husband Carl Burman are taking time to assist in planning our incredible Batiking in Bali tour.  Here is part of an email she has sent to us regarding our exclusive arrangement with her:

I was reading in your itinerary that you plan to have quilt class on Sept 9. May I suggest that the Palace is a nice place for your quilt class, under a pavillion, surrounded by gardens. Of course, if there is anything you need besides chairs for the class, let me know.

After the quilt class at the palace on the 9th I suggest we go to Tirttha Ganga Water Palace, built by my grandfather The King, only 15 minutes away from the palace by car. It’s a magical site, and you are all welcome to refresh yourself in the spring water ponds. The spring water is known to rejuvenate both health and spirits. After a dip in the pond, we can arrange an early dinner at the restaurant in Tirttha Gangga Water Palace, or if you prefer, you may depart for the hotel in Nusa Dua to have dinner there.

Please let me know if you think having a light lunch with some of the king’s favorite food and a quilt class at the palace, a spring bath and Indonesian dinner at Tirtha Gangga Water palace sounds like a good ideas, and I will start making arrangements.”

I don’t know about you, but I think these very special additions to our already exciting Bali tour are going to be spectacular!  Could this get any better than to go to an incredible destination like Bali and be treated like royalty?!  

There is really no other Batik Fabric company that comes close to the quality and design of Princess Mirah Designs, and we appreciate the opportunity to be affiliatiated with them.  Anyone who buys their fabric can feel the passion, love and hard work that goes into making every single thing they produce.

The experience on our Batiking in Bali tour is available to just a handful of quilters, so be sure you place your deposit before the waitlist begins.  It will be something beyond your wildest dreams and certainly a once in a lifetime exotic vacation, thanks in part to Bali Fabrics, Princess Mirah and all our friends in the enchanting Island of Bali.

After an impressive meeting this morning with Sherry Nugent, founder and editor of Irish Quilting Magazine, I am pleased to announce the very exciting partnership between both our companies.   Sherry is a very savy businesswoman and understands the quilting industry in Ireland better than anyone I have ever met.  Both her and her magazine are without doubt the leading force behind anything Irish quilting, sewing and patchwork.  www.IrishQuilting.ie

Irish Quilting Magazine

So without spilling the beans on everything we are planning, I can tell you that besides the usual sightseeing that every tour company provides, we will be incorporating some very unique and special facets to all our Ireland tours, based primarily because of Sherry’s connections to the best quilting and patchwork artists, quilt guilds, unique quilting venues, quiltshops, not to mention the very special Irish products she has right in her own backyard.

And not only will Sew Many Places be bringing quilters to Ireland on a regular basis (6 tours in 2010 and 10 tours in 2011), but we will also be planning tours for quilters in Ireland to travel to the United States, sail on European Cruises and participate in many of the tours we are currently offering to quilters.

If I sound excited, it’s because I am.  And if you want to see Ireland in grand style, and participate in a once in a lifetime event as a quilter, Sew Many Places is the perfect choice in providing you with the best that the Emerald Isle has to offer.

Top of the mornin to you laddies and lassies!  Today iIam in Dublin, Ireland meeting with the editor/founder of Irish Quilting Magazine.  We will be discussing some really exciting things we are going to be doing together so quilters can come to Ireland and enjoy a fantasic experience while they visit here.

If any of you are interested in going to Ireland on one of the many quilting and textile tours we are designing, be sure to send us an email to go on our mailing list and we will provide you with all the details.  Next year, we have six Ireland tours designed for quilters, each very special and unique, and I am  proud to say, the celebrity educators who are traveling with us will add that very special element to the tour to make the tour extraordinary.

Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales will never be the same, once the invasion of Sew Many Places quilters from around the world come to visit!

Happy Quilting!

I know this may sound pretty simple and certainly sound like something that is obvious, but in today’s economy, one of the concerns I have is that many local quilt shops do not have enough business to keep their doors open and they are closing because of it.

A friend of mine told me of two quilt shops that recently closed in here neighborhood, and I just read where another big shop on the east coast is also closing it’s doors at the end of the month.

Quilt shops are the backbone of the our industry.  Of course, we have all embraced the internet and use it for many things. And yes, it is true, there are many online stores who provide a lot of special things for consumers.  I don’t want you to think that they are not a good source of quiting supplies and fabric. But never underestimate the great things your local quilt shop can offer to you that an online store can’t.

First, they offer classes in their shop, sometimes being a teacher themselves, or bringing in a celebrity to make it even more special.

Second, you have an opportunity to have your sewing machines repaired should they need a little TLC or purchase a sewing machine from them. They will spend time with you explaining how it works, show off its features and give you a one on one opportunity to learn about the bells and whistles that make it such a great machine.

Third, there is always a nice variety of fabric to purchase ,and you can get it immediately! You also can see what it looks like upclose and know if it is truly what you are looking for.

Fourth, there is a great feeling as a quilter, when you walk into a shop, where everyone in there is interested in the same passions that you have.  You can strike up conversations about everything from projects to books to classes to quilt shows, and spend an hour just visiting.  Remember the days when people went into a store just to visit with the owner or say hello?

There is no question the large crafts shops like Hobby Lobby, Michaels and JoAnn’s are great for some things, but I really want to encourage all of you to stop in your local quilt shop sometime this week and give them some business, especially during this economic time.  There may come a time when you need them for something, or want something in a pinch, and if they don’t have business now, they just might not be there when you do need them.

I am interested in hearing from you and your thoughts about this.  Feel free to comment. I would love to hear about your local quilt shop and what your relationship is with them.  And if you are a quilt shop owner yourself, please don’t be afraid to comment about how things are going for you.

Happy Quilting!

GARDEN IS WORK OF DAUGHTER’S LOVE

Friday, July 3, 2009 5:47 AM EDT

Taken from the Niles Daily Post

Gary Henderson’s five daughters grew up helping their dad – a landscape architect – in the garden. Now grown, the five daughters returned to their family home this spring to help their dad plant a 40-foot-by-60-foot garden. It’s one of 16 gardens on the Quilt Gardens Tour in Northern Indiana, which continues through Oct. 1. Nearly 8,000 flowers make up this giant quilt garden, which Gabriella Henderson, a veterinarian in Niles and her four sisters helped their father plant in Northern Indiana.

It is one of 16 gardens on a quilt tour which runs through Oct. 1. They spent a combined 84 hours in the garden together planting 7,728 flowers in a quilt-block pattern design. The garden is located at Das Dutchman Essenhaus, a well-known Amish restaurant in Middlebury, where Henderson also has been doing the landscaping for the last several years. It’s the third year he’s helped with a quilt garden, but only the first time all five daughters have helped him plant one of the gardens. The women, who live in California, Michigan and Northern Indiana, get together for a sisters weekend every year at various places throughout the country.

This year, the youngest – Gabriella Henderson, a Niles, veterinarian – suggested that they all return home to surprise their dad and help with the quilt garden. “This is about the best present I could ever ask for,” said Henderson, who owns New Acre Nursery and Landscaping in Goshen, Ind. a small community in so-called Amish Country.

More than 30,000 Amish families live in Elkhart County. The Quilt Gardens Tour is only in its second year, but brings thousands of tourists to Elkhart County, who visit the gardens, photograph some of the 80,000 or so blooms, and see how the time-honored tradition of quilting is being displayed in large-scale gardens. Quickly, the tour has become a destination for girlfriend getaways and mother-daughter trips, says Diana Lawson, executive director of the Elkhart County Visitor’s Center. Volunteers – including master gardeners and landscapers – work hours designing the patterns for the gardens and selecting the plants, most of which also are grown locally from seed. Those designs are then used as the pattern for the spring planting, where over a week, all 80,000 flowers are planted.

Henderson said he visits the garden at Das Dutchman Essenhaus weekly to weed and tend to the flowers. The garden is planted in a diamond pattern that combines just four varieties of flowers – marigolds, white and pink wax leaf begonias and blue lobelia. The five sisters will return again this summer, and join their parents and two brothers on a tour of the garden they helped plant and visit the 15 others. 

Just to let you know, we have three spaces left on our Jim West Quiltposium Program-Amish Quilted Gardens in August.  Please contact Jaci in our office if you would like to join us!