August 2025 Volume 5, Issue 08
Hello Quilt Friends,
Golly, we’ve been super busy this past month with a lot of both business and personal activity going on. In July I hopped a quick flight to FL for what was supposed to be a “surprise” visit for my daughter Kim’s wedding to her now husband Chris. Well, the surprise was on me when I found out that my grandson Ryen had already spilled the beans. For weeks I had been anticipating a great big “I can’t believe you’re here!” when I came through the door that Sunday night. But shoot, she didn’t even get out of bed. Granted, it was around midnight when we got to the house. Talk about bursting my bubble. Sheesh, see if I ever again tell him anything important. Anyway, the ceremony went well, and I was glad I was there to support my daughter and this new path in her life.
Just a week later I met with a couple of “old” friends for lunch. I’ve known Connie since we were both five years old. Janet and I met through church youth activities during our high school years. She was actually one of my bridesmaids at my first wedding. What’s even more of a “trip” is that we all met at Heaps Brick Oven Pizza in Provo, which I hadn’t been in since the 1970’s. Great food, great friends and great conversation made it feel like the past 50 years had melted away. I look forward to doing it again in a few months rather than several years from now.
On Wednesday, July 30 I had the privilege of judging quilts for the Orchard Days Quilt Show in Santaquin with my new friend Penny. Not feeling abundantly qualified to consider myself a “judge” we started calling ourselves “quilt advisors” about halfway through the process. We did our best to lovingly point out ways the quilter could improve her and/or his skills and tried to be as gentle with our comments as possible, especially for newer quilters (one of whom was a 6-year-old boy). Our goal was to find something we both appreciated about the workmanship of each quilt. Once again, I was inspired (and a bit envious) of the talents on display. Boy, do we have some talented quilters out there!
August is going to be another busy month. With a 2-week vacation on the horizon (almost literally) I’ll be staying late at the shop as much as possible to finish quilting what projects are currently in the queue. As a matter of fact, I just finished two of them yesterday and I’ll have another one done today, followed by one more on Saturday. Then, there’s only nine more to complete before August 16th. But please don’t wait till I get back to get your quilt tops to me. I’ll be ready to start the next project as soon as I return to the shop on September 2nd.
This trip is so lo-o-o-ong overdue. Tim and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary this month and in all that time we’ve rarely indulged in an occasional date night. To be honest, I can’t even remember the last time we went to dinner together. I feel a bit guilty saying we deserve this, but this time I think we do and we’re going to enjoy every moment of it. Who knows? Maybe this will inspire us to start planning our next adventure sooner than later.
And, almost last, but not least….. I’m sure a fair number of you totally understand the ins and outs of owning a business. I love what I do and thoroughly enjoy helping you create many wonderful quilts. But there is a lot of behind-the-scenes activity that keeps us on our toes. One of those things is managing the cost and volume of inventory we bring into the shop.
Many of our suppliers are still working through the effects of product cost fluctuations, late shipments and how tariffs impact their customers like us, Paisley Patch Quilts. So far, we’ve effectively been able to maintain consistent pricing on our in-stock fabric and notions and intend to keep doing that. However, we have decided to increase the price of our long-arm services.
As of September 1st, the edge-to-edge price per square inch is going from $0.015 to $0.020 per square inch with a minimum $45 charge. Other, more custom work will be adjusted accordingly. So, as I mentioned above, don’t wait to drop off your quilt tops. We will honor currently pricing on anything dropped off on or before August 30.
Finally, thank you in advance for your understanding and continued support. We certainly appreciate it. Take care of yourself. You deserve to be treated well and enjoy all the things that make you happy (like fabric ????).
As always, we hope you’re healthy, happy, and finding joy in each 1/4” seam.
Happy Quilting!
~ Beth and Kami
