A Beautiful Quilt Made by Polly North

This quilt, from the book Bella Bella Quilts by Norah McMeeking, was made by our very talented staff member Polly North. She made it as a gift for her brother. He shared a picture of the quilt hanging in its well deserved place of honor.

Quilt Expo in Madison, Wisconsin

We had a wonderful time in our booth at Quilt Expo. This quilt show is put on by Nancy Zieman

and Wisconsin Public Television. The show features many quilts and special exhibits and of course all those terrific vendors for your shopping pleasure. One of our new items for the show was Kaffe Fassett's new book, Quilts En Provence. It is a beautiful book, so be sure to stop by the shop to take a look.

Look what our beginning quilters are doing!

The Beginning Quilting class at The Samper is fantastic. Diane Entrikin leads beginners on their journey into the world of quilting. She has a great pattern and the quilters learn lots of basic tips and tricks. We hope to encourage many more beginners to challenge themselves and take the plunge into all that quilting has to offer.

Kids' Quilt Camp At The Sampler

Last week The Sampler held a week long Kids' Quilt Camp. Under the direction of Cathy Guy, four young girls cut, stitched and designed some beautiful quilt creations.

Emme Jubara, Ellie Tremain, Claire Robbins and Leah Richter were always busy during the week long class. They learned the basics of quilting. We are sure there are many quilting projects in their futures.

The girls were thrilled to complete (or almost complete) their quilts. The last day brought smiles all around.

Sno-Daze Quilt

The Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop is about a month away. We are busy preparing for all the fun. Here is the quilt Mary Deeney designed for the shop using many of the Quilt Minnesota fabrics. The quilt is called "Sno-Daze". She recalls a week long event in high school called Sno-Daze, this quilt is a way of remembering those fun events. The quilting is beautiful. You must see all the wonderful custom quilting that was done by Patti Marrin of PM Quilt Design. The Quilt Minnesota fabrics are available at The Sampler for pre-order and will be available for purchase when the shop hop starts on July 30th. A pattern for this quilt will also be available at the start of the shop hop. If you have any questions stop by the shop or call us at 952-934-5307.

Great New Fabrics

We are so excited about all the new fabrics that have come in lately. Last week the shop received over 50 bolts of new fabrics. Brandon Mably, Michael Miller, Liberty fabrics, just to name a few. We are already working on projects using some of these fabrics. We will keep you posted on the progress. Be sure to stop by The Sampler and see these fabulous fabrics. There are endless possiblities when you have fabulous fabrics to work with.

Back From the Minnesota Quilter's Annual Quilt Show

The Minnesota Quilter's Annual quilt show, held in St. Cloud this year was great. Here are a few pictures of The Sampler's booth at the show. Congratulations to The Chaska Area Quilt Guild(especially Tracy and Audrey) on the first place ribbon for the guild's raffle quilt, and to Lori Allison on her first place ribbon for her quilt. Great job everyone.

International Quilt Festival in Chicago

Here is the Sampler's booth at the International Quilt Festival's spring show in Chicago. Karol and Mary spent four wonderful days greeting customers and selling everything Kaffe Fassett. The booth looked fabulous, with several never before seen quilts on display. One of the quilts was still being worked on at 10pm the night before.

Waiting for the Kaffe Fassett book signing.

Liza Pryor Lucy, Karol, Kaffe Fassett and Mary having a great time at the book signing.

Kaffe and Liza's new book, Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts is a wonderful book. Customers loved it, we had none left by the end of the show.

Kaffe came by the next day to go shopping with the class the he was teaching. What could be more fun then to go fabric shopping with Kaffe Fassett.

All good things must come to an end.
Be sure and stop by the shop during the Twin Cities Shop Hop

April 29, 30, and May 1. We will have lots of new quilts and great fabric. New classes are now being added for the summer. Check out our website for more information. http://www.the-sampler.com/

Pillowcase Mania at The Sampler

As part of American Patchwork and Quiltings 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge we have been making and collecting pillowcases that will be donated to local charities at the end of this yearlong project. Customers and staff have been busy creating wonderful pillowcases. This week we have collected hundreds of pillowcases. What do you get when you combine 4 friends, food, fabrics and a lot of fun? 82 pillowcases! This 3 day process even involved the Boy Scouts. Thanks Julie, Kim, Jenny and Maria for this great effort. Also this week members of the local Binkie Patrol donated 20 pillowcases with the promise of more to come.

On Saturday, March 20th The Sampler hosted a Pillowcase Sewing Day. A dozen customers took up our challenge and transformed our classroom into pillowcase heaven.

Thanks to Valerie, Monica, Mattie and Katie and their moms' and grandma, and Kelly, Maggie, Julie, Marlys, Sandy, and Mary for making the day a wonderful experience and successful sewing day. Congratulation to Mary Stoner, who made 10 pillowcases over the course of the day! We will be planning more fun sew-ins throughout the year so stay tuned. For more information about the 1Million Pillowcase Challenge you can contact The Sampler at 952-934-5307.

Christopher Straub Speaks at The Sampler

On Friday, March 12 over 30 lucky customers heard Christopher Straub of Project Runway fame speak about his experience on the show, how he was chosen to be on the show and what he is designing now. The question and answer period lasted a couple of hours. Christopher answered all those fun questions about Project Runway. Two of Christopher's handbags were given away to lucky attendees.

Claudia Clark Myers at The Sampler

We were thrilled to have award winning quilter, designer and author, Claudia Clark Myers share her talents with a group of quilters on Sunday, March 7. The quilters spent a day learning new techniques and being inspired by some of Claudia's beautiful quilts.





























Claudia taught some great paper piecing techniques. Everyone had time to practice and achieve some great results.





































Claudia shared many of the quilts from her new book.
Everyone had a wonderful time and we look forward to having more quilting events like this one at the Sampler.



Coming up Friday March 12 Christopher Straub of Project Runway fame will be speaking at the Sampler. Visit our website www.the-sampler.com for details.

Excited New Quilters

Our Beginning Quilt class just finished up their sessions with teacher Diane Entrikin. We wanted to show off their accomplishments. They had a lot of fun and are ready to start on their next quilting project.






























Be sure to watch for new classes and events coming soon to the Sampler. We are especially thrilled to have Christopher Straub of Project Runway fame coming to speak at the shop on Friday, March 12. Check out our new website www.the-sampler.com for details.

What we're talking about at the Sampler this month!

The Carousel Lap Quilt
From: Cozy Modern Quilts book
Here is just a sample of what this quilt looks like. It is fast becoming a customer favorite. The rich colors and great textures bring this quilt alive.

Here is another quilt filled with texture. The Seashell fabric is from Westminster Fabrics by Phillip Jacobs. It looks great combined with Kaffe Fassett fabrics. The pattern is called Midnight Garden.

And speaking of texture....We are very excited about the fabrics from Art of Possibility Studio, designed by George Mendoza for Free Spirit Fabrics. Art of Possibity
Studios represent physically disabled artists. Find out more at their website.
http://www.aopstudios.com/ We have a sample, quilted beautifully by Shannon Atwill, hanging at the shop. Mary Deeney quilted the one on the left for her son's apartment.