A Tadd More

We're Two Years Old!

Happy Anniversary to us!! This past weekend was our 2nd Anniversary here at TTD. Can you believe it? In February 2007 we had our "soft opening" of our retail store and then in June we had our official Grand Opening. So every year in June we celebrate! We have a special event in the store and offer discounts, and demos to our customers as well as food and FUN!!

 

We always go to our favorite bakery near by, Sweet Dreams and order special refreshments. This time we had cookies instead of our usual cupcakes. They were yummalicious!

 

All of our customers that wore pink and green were given a free fat quarter! It was so much fun to look at the door at times and see a sea of pink ladies coming in! Two of our favorite customers Paulanne and Kyra were looking so adorable I just had to take their picture!

It was such a wonderful day and the weather co-operated so we had a great turn out. I'm telling you, we had such a fabulous day that I almost feel guilty after I read Megan's blog (Megan Morrison's Home and Garden and Moxie) about her Extreme Estate Sale Adventure on June 6th. You have to go read about it, and leave her a comment!

Anyway, sorry the postings are going to be a little few and far between for the next couple of weeks. We are off to Columbus next week for the NQA Annual Quilt Show and the following week I will be vacationing with my mommy for her 70th birthday!!!!  Her and I are going on a little sewing, shopping and eating trip while my kids are away at camp. Can I tell you, I AM SO EXCITED!!!  I'm not sure which part of it that I'm most excited about. Shopping is always a delight (unless it's grocery shopping), and food.... well I don't even have to explain do I? Can I just say "meatloaf" and homemade pies! Now you know why I'm so excited! AND sewing with my mommy! What could be better?

So, I will post again soon. Maybe pictures of the little vacation.... we'll see.

                       ****Thought for the Day****
This is for you mom....
    "The secret of staying younger is to live honestly, 
      eat slowly, and just not think about your age."
                            Lucille Ball

Have a great couple of weeks everyone!
Wishing you many blessings,
Tammy

More..... "My Favorite Quilt Market Things"

One of the "new" fabric companies that we found at this market was Lecien. Now, our friend Pam Kitty Morning and Elizabeth from Late Bloomer Quilts, have been using their fabric for quite a while and blogging about it so this company isn't new to some of you but it was new to me and our store.  This HAPPY pillowcase and laundry bag are patterns of Pams and features Lecien's Flower Sugar line of fabric. Isn't it SUPER DELICIOUS!!!   

 

Anyway, here is another one of Pam's designs called "Frilly Bag" in the same Flower Sugar fabric line. Isn't adorable?  Although I gotta tell you, it kind of reminds me of a clothespin bag that someone in my family had.  I have a vague memory of it hanging on the clothesline and I don't know if it was my mom's or grandma's?  Could have even been one of my aunts? Not sure, but I love it!

Lecien also has a kids "basics" line called Minny Muu. Look how cute these are..... I don't know who's little animal bag pattern that is but it was just STINKIN' ADORABLE! 

 

And look at this..... we all love a free pattern don't we!! Go here and you can print out this one!  One of the girls here at TTD suggested selling this line on our website since there are not a lot of places to find it, but we'll just have to see how hard it is to keep it "in stock" here in the store before we try putting it on-line.  

 

I'll be back soon with another new fabric company we found! Stay tuned......

                                  ****Thought For The Day****
                                 On the subject of Happiness:
"When one door of happiness closes,  another opens; but often we look so
long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."      Helen Keller

and still my favorite: 
                   "I have found that most people are about as happy 
                              as they make up their minds to be."
                                          Abraham Lincoln 

So true! Be happy and blessed!
Tammy

A Few of My Favorite Quilt Market Things....

Well finally!  I have to start by apologizing for being so late in blogging about Market..... we have just been swamped since coming back from Pittsburgh! I have 3 girls on vacation, another just had surgery, and Miss Sherry was off for a few days as well. So, your's truly here, was too busy to do any blogging!  I tried a couple of times,  but just couldn't get enough time to finish a post! So forgive me and here we go.....

I decided I would start right off with a few of my favorite things about market! My first and most favorite thing is always the people!  Old friends, and new friends!  so here are just a few of our "favorite" ones....

The Quilt Branch girls; Mary Jane and Susan. Aren't they just the cutest! We brought some of their newest book Six Halves Make a Whole Lot More, home with us. They actually live fairly close to us so we can see them more often than just market.  We had dinner on Friday night with Susan, MaryJane and Celine from Perkins Dry Goods (which apparently I spent too much time talking when I was in Celine's booth and didn't take a picture....) along with Celine's friend Barb.

 

And naturally, Late Bloomer Elizabeth and Pam Kitty Morning! The really great thing about not vending, is that we have more time to hang out with friends and have lunch together! AND, don't know if you can tell what that is in my hands, but we attended the presentation ceremony at the Better Homes and Gardens American Patchwork & Quilting booth on Friday morning. We were presented as one of the Top 10 Shops in America in the fall 2009 issue of Quilt Sampler coming out this September, so watch for it!

 

Tomorrow, more of "My favorite Quilt Market Things"!  Fabric and new books and patterns!! I should have taken pictures of all of the food I ate too, 'cause food is "right up there" don't ya know! 

                                           ****Thought For The Day****
                      "Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only 
                           true friends will leave footprints in your heart."
                                                  Eleanor Roosevelt

Blessings everyone, have a great day!
Tammy

MEOW..............!!!!!!

"The Cat is Out of The Bag!!!!!!"

That's right we can now let you in on our little secret that we've had to keep for the last few months! And let me tell you, it hasn't been easy!!!  We are going to be featured as one of the Top 10 Shops in the Better Homes and Gardens Quilt Sampler Fall 2009!!   WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!

We are SOOOOO excited! We are going to be having all kinds of special events and celebrations in the next few months so watch the website and blog for all of the details. We might even give away a few autographed copies right here on A TADD MORE.....

****Thought For The Day****
"Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
who satifies your desires with good things...."
Psalm 103: 1,2,5

We're taking lots of photos and buying lots of new patterns, books, and FABRICS! Can't wait to show you all when we get back!!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, and God Bless,
Tammy

 

Paducah....

American Quilter's Society Paducah Show 2009 has come and gone! Like I said in a previous post, I didn't take a lot of pictures. I was too stinkin' tired..... but here are the ones I did take. We were in a new location this year and we had a couple of surprises in our booth that made set-up more interesting.... Here is MaryLynn (who will kill me when she sees this picture), pointing out the lovely wooden box that was protruding from the middle of our primary wall. Believe it or not, this box is the cover for an electrical outlet, which by the way is just a normal sized 2 plug outlet, and some body had the great idea of building this big huge box over it..... so, we had to get creative!

And, we also had a fire extinguisher on the same wall, which we were told that we couldn't cover up....so what to do?  I have to confess that we did complain, but obviously the booths were all distributed and there wasn't anything they could do about it. The AQS people are always so nice too. I know they must want to just scream sometimes "put on your big girl panties and deal with it!" But, they don't, they are just too nice to do that.

I will tell you that I just wanted to cry about it 'cause I was just so tired from everything that was going on the whole month of April. And honestly, I didn't know HOW I was going to get everything in my booth that I needed to. Well let me see, I actually did cry a couple of times.... my poor friend "Lollypop Laurie" (Laurie Malm, Lollipops Designer Bindings), felt so sorry for me, that she offered to let me trade booths with her. Isn't she the sweetest? Thankfully God helped me to get a handle on it and put things in perspective. I needed to remember where I've been (the basement and the pool) and appreciate where I am. 

 

So, here is our "creative camoflage" of the box. What do you think? You'd never know there was a big box there would ya?

 

You can see a little corner of it in this photo. But, all in all it worked out fine. Things usually do, don't they? Why do we let ourselves get so upset about trivial things like this? It's just lemons right? Make Lemonade! I can say that now.....

 

So here is half of the booth. The walls to our booth were so short we couldn't put up our usual flowers and lights which was a little disappointing, but the good thing was the ceiling was short enough we could just hang bags from the overhead pipes. And, we got lots of compliments on the chandeliers that we hung in the booth. We were definitely the only booth with chandeliers. Imagine that....

 

Here is the other half of the booth. This was a whole different set-up for us. We only had room for a single cash counter instead of our usual double and we were bumpin' behinds with our customers the whole time but they didn't seem to mind. My cutting table is actually right there under the sign, turned sideways. It was very cramped behind there for customers and me. Oh well, ladies seem to expect it....

 

These 2 cute little ladies were repeat customers and sporting the Tammy Tadd colors. We tried to talk them into working the booth with us, but they weren't signin' up! Isn't Miss Sherry (in the middle) the cutest? That's Meredith in the green and Sylvia in the pink.

 

****Thought for the Day****
ON FASHION.... from  "Women Know Everything"
3,241 Quips, Quotes, & Brilliant Remarks by Karen Weekes

"Put even the plainest woman into a beautiful dress
and unconsciously she will try to live up to it."
-Lady Duff-Gordon (Lucile Christiana Sutherland)(1863-1935)
English-Born Candadian Fashion Designer and Titanic Survivor

"Adornment is never anything except a reflection of the heart."
-Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel (1883-1971)French Fashion Designer

 

Off to Pittsburgh! See ya when we get back! Enjoy the rest of your week.
Blessings,
Tammy

More Rosemont....

Hey everyone! More pictures from Rosemont... we started carrying bright wools from Weeks Dye Works, so this is the first show that we have sold wool and let me tell you, I could have sold every bit of bright wool that I could have gotten my hands on! See the bin in the bottom right of the display, these were scrap bundles that we made up of various colors and prints that equal a fat quarter and they sold like "HOT CAKES"! 

 

These little candle mats are adorable aren't they? They are from Bare Roots. I have to say that I saw other booths at the show with samples of these same mats but they were done in darks and weren't nearly as cute. I know it's just a matter of opinion, but these are so much more fun in the bright wools. My mom made these samples and her hand work is just so beautiful that these kits sold out, by the middle of the second day of the show. SO...... I need to have twice as many for Columbus!! Mom is going to be busy cutting lots of kits!! Good thing she likes to do it!

 

This adorable table runner is called Calico Charm by Cindy Walker of Stitch Studios. We kitted it up with fabric, wool and jumbo rick-rack, also a big seller. 

 

And of course the ever popular Taddle boxes that we sell at every show. These are 11" squares that can be cut into 4-5" charm squares. It's a bakers dozen, so out of these little boxes, you can get 52 charm squares! It's a great value and our customers love 'em. We have a future project coming up in a national magazine using Taddles so watch for it!

 

Our Market Aprons in some fun new fabric from Dena Designs called Snow Drops for Free Spirit. The child's apron is LakeHouse Dry Goods by Holly Holderman.

 

So that's all about this year's Rosemont show. Next up is the Paducah show.... and we are getting ready to leave for Market in Pittsburgh.  I will try to take lots of pictures in Pittsburgh to show you what's new and exciting! 

Hope you all had a fabulous Mother's Day. Mine was great. I got to see all of the kids but one, she'll be home tonight for a little while. AND..... I got to see the new STAR TREK MOVIE!!!!!! It was FABULOUS!! Being an old Star Trek series fan, I wasn't sure what to expect.... it did not disappoint! The only thing that would have made it better was if we had gotten to the IMAX early enough to get better seats. We were a little close for my liking. I don't know why, but we really didn't expect it to be that packed by Sunday at the 3:50 p.m. showing. I guess we figured if we waited a couple of days and it was Mother's Day, not that many people would be going. BOY WERE WE WRONG!!!!  It's definitely one that I will see again, and there are not many movies that I would pay to see more than once.

****Thought For The Day****
From the book of Momisms
What She says and What She Really Means  by Cathy Hamilton
Momism #17  What she says: "Just wait till you have kids of your own."
What she really means: Every mother knows the only way to gain
complete parental restitution is for her kids
to have kids of their own. Then, and only then,
will they realize the sacrifice, pain, and suffering
moms go through every day of their
thankless lives.

So true! Have a fabulous week everyone! God bless,
Tammy

Moms Big Day!

 

****Thought for the day****
She makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple.
She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:
Proverbs 31: 22, 27, 28
Read more about the Proverbs 31 Woman.

"I think the Proverbs 31 Woman was a quilter don't you!!  Have a wonderful Mother's Day everyone. If you still have your mom with you, cherish her and tell her how much you love her. If your mom is no longer here, encourage all of the mother's in your life and tell them how much they mean to you. Especially new moms and single moms. They need all of the help and encouragement we can give them. I say, give flowers to people that you love while they are still here, don't wait until their funeral."  God Bless,  Tammy

p.s. I love you mommy! You are the best mom any girl could ask for.

Rosemont....

We are finally back from both of our shows in Rosemont and Paducah!! I was back in the studio on Tuesday and have been trying to get ready for our shop hop this weekend, so we haven't really slowed down too much yet, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. It's dim, but it's getting brighter every day. Just one more weekend to go and then a break for a couple of weeks until we go to market!

I have to confess, I didn't take a lot of pictures at either show. I was just too busy and too tired to think about it. But what I did take, I will share! Thought you might like to see our "booth set-up" routine step by step. So here is the beginning of set-up. First goes the backdrops. We bring our own and usually put them up. There are a few shows that we don't. Next is our flooring.... we have a nice cushioned floor that we take with us to every show that looks like a hardwood floor. We get asked all the time where we got it so here is my usual "plug" Wondermat.com. Wish I got a commission for every floor I've probably sold for them!

You can see in the above photo that the girls are putting up our vines and leaves. That's the next step. Then the flowers and lights! It's all fluff I know but that's what makes us stand out in a crowd. It takes longer, and I know it's a pain but customers love them.

 

Next comes the quilts and the signage........

 

And, look at these.... our new table skirting that mother made. Aren't they fabulous! I have to give credit where credit is due; this idea came from my friends Barb and Mary at Me and My Sister Designs. They have table coverings like these at market and I thought they were such a fabulous idea that they let me take pictures and showed me how they were made. The front even has a flap that you can lift up easily to get to "stuff" under the table. It sure made set-up easier!

 

Then it's time to set the shelving......

 

and next the bolts of fabric......

 

And the final product! It usually takes us between 5 and 6 hours to do the complete set-up. Then we can tear it down in about 2! Just like Christmas decorating! Takes three times as long to put the decorations up as it does to take them down!

 

So that's all for now! More pictures to come.... stay tuned!

So I guess I should start thinking about Mother's Day next weekend and what to get the best mom in the whole world. Although she's got me, what more could she need or want? So in the spirit of motherhood, I will try to come up with some motherly advice and funny stories. If you have any funny stories you want to share with us, please do!

****Thought for the day****
"This day.... I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live."
Deuteronomy 30:19

God Bless everyone, have a fabulous weekend,
Tammy

p.s. Hey all of you ladies out there who told me you read the blog, you need to start commenting!! If I can do it, you can too!!

Happy Easter Weekend!

It's Easter weekend and bunnies and flowers are popping up every where!! These "happy" little cookies came from my favorite bakery that is right up the street from us here. It's called Sweet Dreams Desserts. And they made them in "MY" colors!! Wasn't that thoughtful of them? I think they just say "It's spring"!! And they are delicious too!!

                              ****Thought for the day***
              Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. 
              He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 
              and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." 
                                      John 11:25-26   NIV

Happy Easter weekend everyone! Have a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends and most importantly, celebrate new life with our Savior! He is Risen!
God Bless,
Tammy

Bold and Beautiful!

Hey everyone, wanted to show you this "beauty". Isn't it FABULOUS!!!! This lovely treasure was made by one of our customers and frequent students here at TTD. Her name is Barb, and she started this quilt for her mom, who has since passed away. She just recently finished it and brought it to show all of us. I tried to convince her to give it to me, but I don't think she was listening.

Thanks so much for sharing such a labor of love with us Barb, and thanks again for the black licorice scottie dogs for my birthday. You're my new best friend!!

We are in the "throws-of-shows" right now. Gettin' ready for Spring International Quilt Festival in Rosemont next week. We are cutting, folding, stuffing, packing, hauling, loading, and just about every other verb I can think of..... so the blog posting will probably not be too plentiful, if you know what I mean!

The following week we will be in Paducah and there will be no break in between the two shows. So, my apologies in advance to all of you who will see us in Paducah, 'cause we are gonna be lookin' a little rough by the end of that show! Just so you know, you've been warned! See ya when we get back!

                                 ****Thought for the day****
               I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, 
                                     but Christ lives in me. 
            The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, 
                         who loved me and gave himself for me. 
                                          Galatians 2:20-21

Remember, He died for you and me, that we might have everlasting life with our Father in Heaven! Be thankful for that today on Good Friday!
God Bless,
Tammy