Goodbye Blog - Hello social media!

Hi everyone!

Things have really changed since my last post in February.  To be honest, the lack of blog posts has been a casualty of all these changes.

Covid19 closed the shop in March for two and half months.  During those months we operated through closed doors doing online/phone orders, mail outs and curb side pick up.  Understandably my staff was also reduced from 8 to 3 members.  So we worked like crazy to keep things going.  But there were a few things that fell by the wayside.  The blog was one of them.

I did discover that many of my customers followed the shop on Facebook and Instagram.  These are both great forums for letting you know all the happenings at the shop.  And for those of you who are not social media followers, I've been sending out a newsletter from my website (you can sign up for the newsletter right on the website if you're not already receiving it) to keep you informed.

Many designers and bloggers have moved to social media to promote their businesses and so I feel now the time is right to do the same.

This will be my last blog post so do follow the shop on Facebook and Instagram.  Or go to the Periwinkle website: www.periwinkle.biz and sign up to receive our newsletter via email.

February 2020

Half Way Through February!

We have been so lucky so far with having a relatively mild Winter.  Okay that week in January was a little chilly but all in all it's been great!  We are mid-way through February and things here at the shop are ticking right along!

So what's happening here?

We've got some great classes happening:

And:

And:

And:  Baby Pentagon Balls

And last and certainly not least!:  A work shop with Ron Collins.  (btw there's still room for 2 more people!)

As always we've had some amazing fabrics arrive this month:

                          Anna Marie Horner Conservatory

                               Tesselations Twice

And a whole bunch of navy fabrics from Indigo Gatherings and May Morris to augment our ever popular navy fabrics section.

Our Bernina's continue to be popular and we love showing them off.  We will be adding a Bernina Q20 with a Koala Table to our showroom! 
It's a wonderful sit-down longarm.  The throat is 20" to be able to offer you lots of quilting space.  The table opens out to 71" to support you quilt.  And when closed the table is sleek, modern and does not need a lot of room.  Bernina longarms use regular sewing machine needles and if you already have a Bernina you might be able to use some of the same feet!  And best of all the education and servicing for both the Q20 and the Q24 (traditional longarm) happens right here!  No waiting on the phone to have your questions answered.  No ordering of special needles.  No trying to fix your machine yourself.  And 2" more throat space than it's closest sit-down competitor.  It's the ideal machine if you're short on space and don't want to stand for long periods of time. Our Q20 is currently on it's way to the shop.  We'll announce it's arrival with great fanfare.  And then you'll have to come and have a look!

Well that's it for February! It's been a busy, full month so far and we're looking forward to the rest of it!

January 6th, 2020

Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday season.  Surviving it counts too.  :)

We all had a good few days off and are ready to get 2020 on it's way!

We've been able to finalize our Build a Better Relationship with your Sewing Machine and Easy Precision Piecing workshops with Bernie and Shelley and we've got dates set and are ready for registrations.  You can find the dates on our website: Classes/Calendar and then check through each month. 

Shelley is also adding a couple of new classes:

She's teaching a class called Machine Applique the Apliquick Way.

If you've wanted to learn turned-edge applique now is the time!  The Apliquick tools help you to turn the edges of even the tiniest of shapes easier and faster than basting by hand.  You will learn to work with 2 Apliquick Rods in this class; 1 rod to hold large or tiny pieces and the other for turning the edges.  You will also learn about the Apliquick interfacing and adhesive in this fun class!

Shelley's teaching an introductory class on Hand Piecing:

 Get started on your hand piecing journey!  Working with the honeycomb shape and a square you can create a lovely Harvest Bales wall hanging, tablerunner or placemat.  This skills learned in this class will give you confidence to pursue more challenging quilts like La Passacaglia.

And she's also added a hand piecing class using the La Passacaglia pattern from the book Millefiori (1):

Kick up your hand piecing a notch while creating your very own beautiful La Passacaglia quilt!  You will learn how to select and prepare fabric for stamping and how to fussy cut working with the stamps.  You will also learn how to manage Y seams and seams where several fabrics meet.  You will discover how to press and twist seams so your blocks and rosettes will lie flat and much more!

The classes are up on our website and I've sent out an email to those of you on our Newsletter list.  If you did not get an email in the last day or so then you need to sign up for our newsletter.  How do you get on our Newsletter list?  Well you simply go to our website and find the box on the home page that has the Newsletter sign up.  We will also have some printed copies at the shop if you prefer.

We also have the good fortune of having Ron Collins teaching at Periwinkle.  He's got some great classes coming up on the 17th and 18th.  Pattern Alternations and Designer Techniques for Couture Results.    The descriptions are on our website.  Go to the classes tab, click on calendar, go to the 17th and 18th and click on each class for a full description.  Ron is an amazing resource for those of you that love to sew garments.

On January 13th we'll begin our annual UFO challenge.  You can enter to win a Fat Quarter Bundle with each UFO you finish.  You must bring in a photo of your UFO in it's "before" stage with the finished quilt to enter.   Minimum size to be considered is 20 x 30 inches.  And of course quilts larger than the minimum requirement will be accepted.  You will also have the opportunity to win your purchase back if you purchase your batting and backings at Periwinkle.  We will close the challenge on Valentine's Day, February 14th and do our draw.  So a great opportunity to get some projects done!

As has been our tradition, every January brings our Staycation Beach Party!!

  This year our party will fall on Local Quilt Shop Day which is Saturday, January 25th.  We'll have fabric and product markdowns, goodies and draws for door prizes.  Bernie Tobisch will be at the shop demo-ing the Berninas.  If you've wondered about these great sewing machines now is your chance to find out about how they work and the amazing things you can do with a Bernina.

  This is our opportunity to thumb our noses at winter even if it's been a mild one!  So put us on your calendar and come join us for a fun day.

And that's it for January happenings!  Have a great month and see you soon!

December

December!!

And here we are in December already.  I don't know about you but I'm still wondering what happened to August!  But here we are getting ready for another festive holiday season.

There's been a lot happening around Periwinkle. 

We've celebrated another fabulous quilt show put on by the Saskatoon Quilters Guild.  Periwinkle Quilting was a major show sponsor.  We sponsored the Saturday morning Trunk Show with Terry Rowland.  She gave a fun presentation and her quilts were nothing short of amazing.  Her talent and interpretation was inspiring!

The quilt show was followed by our annual Periwinkle Retreat at Shekinah.  There were 53 of us gathering to sew and share our talents.  The timber frame lodge is the perfect setting and the food as always was plentiful and tasty.  We will do it all again next year!

And finally we have launched our online shop!

This has been in the works since September.  We converted our shop to a Point of Sale system (computerized our inventory) and the system also allows us to have an online shop.  So many of you who can't come to the shop easily can now shop online.  It's something that we've been working toward for the last 3 years.  And it feels so good to have it up and running!  There is some primping that still needs to be done.  And we have many many more items to put in the online shop.  I imagine it will always be a work in progress.  https://www.periwinkle.biz/shop.htm

 So now we find ourselves with Christmas fast approaching.  We've got the decorations up and the music playlist set to Christmas Carols.  With all the holiday hussle and bussle do take some time to stop in.  The beautiful fabric and hanging quilts are sure to help you find some peacefulness during this busy season.
Wishing you all a joyous holiday in what ever way you choose to celebrate.  And our very best wishes for everything that is good in 2020!

October

October!

I think I'll just resign myself to sporadic blog posting while we are implementing our changes here at Periwinkle.

 Our move was the first change.

 Adding the sale of Bernina Sewing Machines was the second change.

 We've added a Point of Sale system so that we can computerize our inventory.  This gives us the ability to track your rewards points so you don't have to carry the punch cards any more; we can keep track of your purchases and help you find a certain type of fabric you may have bought previously or if you need another printed receipt we can do all that for you.  It also makes the day to day functioning of the shop a little easier.

The last big change that will happen in the next few weeks will be our online shop.  Having the new Point of Sale system will enable us to have a big beautiful online shop. 

In turn, this will allow you and other customers from all over the world access to our shop any time.


Funny story: we had a few days where our online shop was accidentally visible.  We're still not sure how this happened and our POS provider isn't sure either, but I digress.  The funny part was that two people managed to place orders in that short period of non-advertised shopping.  So I think this bodes well for when the shop actually launches!




In the meantime we are preparing for the upcoming quilt show in Saskatoon.

We are very pleased to be able to sponsor the Trunk Show.  Terry Rowland is the special guest and will show some of her wonderful quilts and talk about her quilt journey.

Tickets are still available.  Just email: tickets@saskatoonquiltersguild.com.  You can also learn more about Terry Rowland on her Facebook page.

In addition to our Trunk Show sponsorship of the Saskatoon Quilters Guild show we will have a booth set up in the vendor's mall.  The shop itself will be open Thursday evening (Oct 24) until 9pm, Friday (Oct 25) until 7pm and Saturday (Oct 26) until 6pm.   We hope to see you there!

Well I will keep this short and sweet. 

Wishing you all a lovely Thanksgiving long weekend.  There is much to be thankful for in spite of a seemingly crazy world.  As always, thank you to our customers who make Periwinkle a fun and inspiring place to be.

Patti