Changes

Many times you have heard me say that life is a series of changes and that we have to roll with the flow. Well, once again all around us is changing. Just look at the world around you! This year the dogwood trees and the oak trees are the stars of the show. How could they be any more burgundy than they are just now? As Bobby and I rode through the hills on the way to Shop Hop meeting in Asheville on Friday we were amazed at the blazing color even in a year of not such good conditions for beautiful fall foliage. How could anyone not love the autumn part of the year? Mother Nature is always sneaking up on us with some kind of beauty - thanks, Mother!

Sara

Special Closing
November 1, Tuesday, we will be closed. Unfortunately the new sidewalk at the shop is not as the engineers had anticipated it would be. The efficiency of turning rainwater from the front door and eliminating puddles didn't happen. Sooooo-now on Monday, Oct 31 the construction company is back to our front door to chop up the new sidewalk making way for a newer, re-engineered pouring of the section in front of our doors. They have been three weeks deciding exactly how they wished to do this: On Monday they will jack hammer the concrete. We will be open for business, but watch your step coming in. On Tuesday, November 1, we will be closed for the pouring of concrete. It will be suitable for walking on by Wednesday morning when we open again. Hopefully, this will be the last of the inconvenience for all of us; but we are thankful for the progress we are making toward a safer, smoother entry to Heirlooms & Comforts.

Special Event
Calling all who sew, embroider and machine appliqué! On November 18 (Friday) we will host Gail Dodson, a Husqvarna Viking Educator from the west coast, USA, in a special all-day trunk show and demo. For a $15 fee you will get unbelievable inspiration for machine embroidered and sewn projects, knowledge for how to use stabilizers and when to use different types of needles, tricks you can do with embroidery software, and we will buy your "lunch with the girls." Gail has an entirely new set of ideas for us coming from a different background than we have had before in our events. You will receive a bag of "goodies" from the world of stabilizing and embroidery and appliqué that is worth more than $25. There will be specials on various products that day as well. What a fun start for the holidays of 2011! Seating is limited in our classroom, so sign up early to take advantage of the opportunity to once again be inspired and have fun. Call the shop today.

H&C Feature of the Week: Clean Off the Bolt
At Heirlooms & Comforts this week we are featuring Clean Off the Bolt Week. For the entire week we will honor our regular procedure of 25% off any regular price fabric when you take all that is left on the bolt. When you take all that is left on a sale priced bolt you get an additional 10% off. There are some bolts on the sale table that have enough left for quilt backs. Take advantage of these bargains this week!

Glorious Day

We just returned from the fall meeting of the Quilters of South Carolina at the Pieceable Retreat 2011 at the White Oak Conference Center. There were 319 women and one man from all over the state of SC who met for three days of classes and convivial fun. This is a place and time when South Carolinians teach South Carolinians skills and techniques that they have perfected. The setting for this meeting was absolutely couched in the most beautiful weather you could imagine. The sky was brilliant and the temperature was moderate and the company was good. Any time that you are among good quilters, you are among good people!

Sara

H&C Feature of the Week: Inspira Needles
At Heirlooms & Comforts this week we will feature Inspira Needles in the carded packs of 5 or 10 needles buy one get one free (of equal or lesser value). These are the great needles that Husqvarna Viking makes that are our favorite needles for the machines of all brands. These are specially made and polished sonically to make them smooth and strong. All this week get buy-one-get-one on machine needles

Look at Husqvarna’s Web Site
We at Heirlooms and Comforts recommend that you go every week to the Husqvarna Viking web site to read about and experience special things that are going on with Viking. There are free projects and free designs that you can download. There are instructions for making various things and for special techniques. There is information about machines. And, there are coupons and special offers for your savings. Go to that site often; who knows what great thing could happen to you.

Retreat Time

The time of year for retreats planned for quilters has rolled around again. I was counting just the other day how many times Heirlooms & Comforts has been to Pieceable Retreat in Winnsboro, SC at White Oak Conference Center - seventeen with a break the year (?) a hurricane preempted us because the center is an evacuation point. That means every time QSC has met for Pieceable Retreat we have been there. And, we are going again this week. The retreat filled instantly this year with more than 315 quilt enthusiasts registered. We will be together for three days and "fun will be had by all", including learning new techniques and stretching our creative personalities. Join Quilters of South Carolina and become eligible for attendance next year - it is a real bargain for membership and the community of interest is uplifting.

Sue and I will be there when everyone arrives on Friday!

Sara

H&C Feature of the Week: My Embroideries
At Heirlooms & Comforts this week we will feature the special that is offered through October 20 at www.myembroideries.com. When you purchase $100 worth of embroidery designs from the web site and put in the special code of "50off100" at checkout you will get a $50 savings on the $100 purchase. That, my friend, is one-half price. You choose the designs you want and load your basket with them. Then at checkout you enter the special code (50off100) and select Heirlooms & Comforts as your dealer and you get a great savings. Remember you must choose and buy by the end of the day on October 20.

Closed Saturday
Heirlooms & Comforts will be closed Saturday, October 22, 2011, because of a noon kick-off time at the Clemson home game with North Carolina. Be sure to complete your shopping with us for the week on Friday so that you are not disappointed when you find us not open on Saturday.

H&C Traveling Time
Traveling time for Heirlooms & Comforts means that if you have been eyeing a particular fabric on the sale table waiting for a better discount, your time may run out. On Wednesday morning we will begin loading the trailer with fabrics and quilting supplies to go to the retreats. Most years those fabrics do not come back to the shop, especially the sale fabrics. You have Monday and Tuesday to get that favorite sale fabric before we move down the road with all the sale fabrics. Fair warning.

Deluxe Rebate
Beginning now there is a Manufacturer's Rebate offer of $500 on the purchase of a Designer Diamond Deluxe! That includes trade-ups. Come on in to Heirlooms & Comforts and get the details. We are ready to make the deal.

Me, Too!

All the other boys have had their chance at writing Grandma's letter to you; so, I said, "Me, too!" My name is Miles and I am Finn's twin brother. One great thing is that Finn and I do not "look like twins." I am just different and I love it. Grandma says that that is the way things get to be in the world of sewing and quilting too. Everybody's project does not look the same even if they are made in the same class. My daddy likes to be different, too. He even plays soccer still and he is getting closer to 40 years old. Grandma thinks that is pretty brave of him to tempt bodily injury that way, especially with the three of us to get grown and educated.

You know, Grandma and Grandpa were here in Texas recently to visit and help get our house ready to live in. I heard Grandma ask Mama some questions about our Christmas stockings so I guess that means she is trying to remember how she made those for the family last year so that she can make mine and Finn's match the others. Have you ever made quilted Christmas stockings? Grandma quilts them, she said, on her Husqvarna Viking Designer Diamond sewing and embroidery machine. That sounds like fun to us. My Nana has one of those H-V machines, too, and she gets things made much faster than Grandma does. But, everybody is different - like Finn and me. You really should see Grandma and the ladies at H&C if you don't have one of those H-V machines. They can show you how they work and you can buy one to make your Christmas stuff. They even have some previously owned Designer Diamonds that are priced very nicely for bargain buys.

Well, I need to go practice rocking on my hands and knees getting ready to crawl. I'm going to surprise Mama and Daddy one day and before Finn thinks of it I am going to crawl away from the quilt they put us on down on the floor. Then I will get away from them all and find some kind of mischief to get into. My big brother Naaman probably will help me get into something. I can count on that, don't you think? Go see Grandma and the ladies soon.

Miles Ballentine

H&C Feature of the Week: Notions
At Heirlooms & Comforts this week we will feature 30% off any one notions item of your choice. That means you can choose scissors or needles or thread or ruler, etc. at 30% off during this week October 10-15. In stock items only qualify for this promotion.

Streetscape
Pretty much the construction work has been completed except for some tweaking of the area just at the front door of Heirlooms & Comforts. The grass is growing in the "green spaces" and we have some of the flowers planted at the front of the shop. The stop sign is in place so that the intersection is safer for drivers and pedestrians as well. The crosswalk looks great and is designed to aid those who park on Banks Street or in the Handicap Space just directly across from our front door. There are numerous parallel parking spaces down Madden Bridge Rd. on both sides of the street all the way to the front of the Roller Mill. Bobby has placed steppingstones in the "green space" to help you get onto the sidewalk without getting your feet dirty. Hopefully, you will find these great safety improvements beneficial as you come and go at Heirlooms & Comforts.

Meet Newest Associate
At Heirlooms & Comforts we are happy to introduce you to our newest associate on the sales floor. Carolyn Harris is a resident of nearby Fair Play in Oconee County. She and John live on a working farm where they raised a daughter and a son. Carolyn worked for a number of years with the Clemson University Extension Service in Oconee County, which gave her experience in a diverse group of specialties. One of those specialties is the discipline of sewing, both clothing and home décor. Carolyn possesses great expertise in handling fabrics and in quilting. She produces wonderful projects and is especially talented as an instructor. She can teach any skill she has developed over the years, as many of you have experienced in the classes she has taught at Heirlooms & Comforts. We are extremely pleased that Carolyn is spending some of her retirement time with us at Heirlooms & Comforts. Come by to welcome her.

Classes
Fall classes at Heirlooms & Comforts are now on the web site in several formats and are easy for you to print out if you wish to have reminders of the schedule. To hold your seat in class you must complete registration with tuition payment. We will give you a copy of the instructor's class supply list and you can receive a 10% discount on those items when you purchase them at Heirlooms & Comforts. Call soon to register.

Class Listing

New Voice

Finn Ballentine here. I'm the smallest of the Ballentine boys, but don't underestimate my strength! My twin brother Miles was pretty nice to let me be the spokesman for this newsletter. But, you know, it works both ways. I'm nice to him too; I even let him gnaw and gum my foot when they put us on the quilt on the floor to play. His tooth is not yet breaking the gum like mine is. He may be four pounds heavier than me, but I'm getting teeth first and he better be on his best behavior or I'll have a weapon for him. Really, though, I like playing with him and sharing time with him while Mom is tending to our older brother Naaman (2 yrs.) You know Naaman just might have a good idea about only using the word NO so much and I think Miles and I will note this for when we get to be two.

Grandma and Grandpa (Naaman usually calls him Bobby unless Grandma insists that he say Grandpa) came to Texas for a week to help my family move to our larger house. We just needed more space to be comfortable as a family and, boy, did we get it. There is even a room that Grandma and Grandpa can use when they come again. This past week Grandma watched us with the help of our Aunt Sissy while Dad, Mom, and Grandpa did all kinds of jobs at the new house. Our Nana and Poppy live just five minutes away, but they were moving into that new house this same week. Sissy let us all stay at her house when the furniture left our little house.

I hope that those nice ladies at Heirlooms & Comforts were able to take care of all your requests while Grandma helped here. My brothers and I enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa in Texas. Now they are back in South Carolina with my cousins and at their work. We Ballentine boys put our heads together and decided that they should come more often to visit because they play games and do things that Mom and Dad don't seem to have time to do. Please don't get mad if they start to do that more often. We love it. Grandma has a really great smile when she is playing with us and we like to see that. You know how patient Grandpa is when he is working on your machines? Well, he is that patient when he is teaching us to play games too. That really is nice!

Finn

H&C Feature of the Week: Clean Off the Bolt and 50-off-75
At Heirlooms & Comforts this week there are two features: Clean Off the Bolt all week and 50-off-75 from MyEmbroideries.com.

As usual we have our first full week of the month event for clearing the bolt -- take all of a regular price fabric on the bolt and get 25% off or take all of a sale price bolt to get an extra 10% off the original price. We had a number of skinny bolts ready to cleaned.

The second great feature is MyEmbroideries.com is having a special event from Oct. 3 until Oct. 6. When you spend $75 or more with MyEmbroideries.com you will receive $50 off and you must use the code 50off75 when checking out after making your selections. How about that -- $75 worth of embroidery designs for only $25. You should be sure that Heirlooms & Comforts is selected as your dealer when making this purchase. Great week for saving!

Exception to Normal Saturday Shop Hours
At Heirlooms & Comforts on Saturday, October 8, we will close the shop at 1:00 for the Clemson Homecoming Game with Boston College. October 22, 2011 shop hours will be announced at a time closer to that date. Other Saturdays in October are normal hours of 10:00 AM till 3:00 PM.

Classes
In case you didn't notice last week, the class schedule is on-line on our web site. Peruse it and make your choices. We are ready to roll. The process is to complete registration by paying your class fee to secure your seat in the class. We print out a supply list for you and help you make your choices for the class. It is all fun and a great learning experience for all of us. Look over the schedule for fall and give us a call!

Class Listing