Crisp and Sunny

Crisp, sunny days and cool nights bring great delights with the season. Are you ready to cocoon with your sewing machine? Do you have the supplies needed for a cocooning? What about fabrics and patterns for making table runners for the holiday seasons and for making cuddle quilts and bed quilts? Now is the time for collecting these items to be prepared for a crackling fire in the fireplace and plenty of things to sew. Oh! Don't forget to have enough good, strong, new threads to make sure the things you sew stay sewn forever. Have you had your machine cleaned lately? A well-cared for machine makes the sewing process much happier. Include fresh, new needles for your project, too. Ensure simple pleasure of creating beautiful projects with good preparation.

Speaking of simple pleasure, what better fun than one boy and a big mound of fall leaves just piled up on a crisp fall afternoon? Simple delight for jumping with full abandon - never mind the dust and the minor scratches. Just jump in the middle.

Similarly we elders can "jump in the middle" of our sewing projects!

Sara 

H&C Weekly Feature - Clean Off the Bolt
At Heirlooms & Comforts this week we will feature Clean Off the Bolt week. You can buy all that is on a regular price bolt at 25% off when you take it all. If you choose a sale price fabric you can increase the discount by 10% when you buy all that is remaining. There are lots of skinny bolts on the shelves waiting for you to come in. Next week is the annual trip to Toccoa for the Quilting in Toccoa Fall Retreat and we take a lot of fabric to supply those participants. So, it is urgent that you come before the trailer is loaded for the last trip we will make.

Viking Educator Visit
Our Educator friend Barbara Moore from Husqvarna Viking will hold an all-day Trunk Show and Demo Event at Heirlooms & Comforts on November 13 starting at 10:00 AM. She will be featuring the Husqvarna Viking Designer Ruby DeLuxe and the exciting new Opal line of sewing machines while spotlighting the newest products and projects. There will be great embroidery projects and features, easy embellishments that can be accomplished by almost any machine in our line-up. As many of you know, Barbara has so many great ideas and methods for using H-V products. The newest embroidery collections from H-V will also be featured in this program. There are new feet to learn about, too. The tuition for this all-day event and your lunch and door prizes is $10. Sign up right away for a relaxed day of fun and fellowship while learning about new products!! Space is limited.

It is just two weeks before Barbara's visit; so, don't wait too long to sign up. Do it today to save your seat. Join us for the fun.

Changes

For a long time many of you have heard me say that life is a series of changes. I believe that strongly. As I looked at the natural world around me this early fall I was reminded of this truth with the leaves falling from the trees before they could give us the beautiful colors of autumn. I thought about how some years they float to the lawn into a carpet of multicolor. Not this time. They just dive-bomb.

I have spent the last 28 years working happily among the colors of fabrics, threads, and embroideries with wonderful co-workers and customers. These have been good years and I have a multitude of friends and acquaintances over this state and neighboring states. I have gotten acquainted with some "quilting stars" across the country and those have been enriching experiences - some better than others.

Now is the time for a change for me and my family as I have reached an autumnal stage in my life. I achieved what for me is a milestone age in August and find that I am ready for yet another change by altering my routine to semi-retirement and the freedom to travel and "Grandmother" those precious grandchildren who have entered the lives of Grandpa and me. Four of the seven live west of the Mississippi River and need to see us more often.

Those of you who have depended on Bobby's excellent service on your sewing machines don't panic! Bobby has no plans to give up his service customers. We will continue the Heirlooms & Comforts Husqvarna Viking dealership on a Concierge basis keeping special hours to serve customers who wish to have Bobby care for their machines and to purchase Husqvarna Viking products.

There will, we hope, be someone who will take the "baton" of the quilt shop and run with it for the future. As for Grandma Ballentine, the time has come for sewing, gardening, and travel. Those six little boys and Eleanor are going to see more of their grandparents Ballentine. This is a family tradition that we want to perpetuate.

Thanks for the good times, ladies, with Heirlooms & Comforts and the world of the quilt shop. It has been, sometimes, back-bending work, but most rewarding in friendships forged and fondly remembered. I wish to move out of this chapter of my life like the leaves of a colorful autumn floating gracefully to the ground, making a carpet of varied color even more intricate than before.

Maybe, as some persons have suggested, I will write about these 28 years - oh my! That would read with quite a variety of moods.

One of the stages of my life was as a high school English teacher. That experience left me with a love of the poetry of Robert Frost. Contemplate this conversational poem from him:

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Be on the lookout for more information about the change of hours for Heirlooms & Comforts. Classes and events are not altered at all for the next few months. We have business as usual for some time yet.

Sara 

Barbara Moore
Our Educator friend Barbara Moore from Husqvarna Viking will hold an all-day Trunk Show and Demo Event at Heirlooms & Comforts on November 13 starting at 10:00 AM. She will be featuring the Husqvarna Viking Designer Ruby DeLuxe and the exciting new Opal line of sewing machines while spotlighting the newest products and projects. There will be great embroidery projects and features, easy embellishments that can be accomplished by almost any machine in our line-up. As many of you know, Barbara has so many great ideas and methods for using H-V products. The newest embroidery collections from H-V will also be featured in this program. There are new feet to learn about, too. The tuition for this all-day event and your lunch and door prizes is $10. Sign up right away for a relaxed day of fun and fellowship while learning about new products!! Space is limited.

Opal 650 and Opal 670
These two new machines from Husqvarna Viking are designed, engineered and built by Viking and are the "darlings" of the line-up right now. They are great machines with features that most enthusiastic sewers wish to have on their sewing machine. Bobby has become a fan of this model for its style and grace. He thinks this is a great engineering coup for Husqvarna Viking and a great buy for our customers. It is lightweight for taking to class or to workshops. This is the ONE that we have been wishing and waiting for. Come in to try it out; you'll love it. There is a terrific introductory price on each of these Opal models, too.

Mark Your Calendar

Are you a Mac computer user? Do you already own an embroidery machine? Great news for ALL Embroidery Machine owners! TruEmbroidery embroidery software for Mac computers will output the final design in the proper format for almost all embroidery machines on the market today. The ease with which this program can create embroidery designs from clip art, original drawings or revisions of off-the-shelf embroidery is amazing. Monogramming is simplified; quilt borders are really fun; the possibilities are almost limitless with just a swipe of the navigation pad. For those who have Apple phones and iPads this is a natural. If you have 5D Professional and want TruEmbroidery, there is a special provision for you. This is the only full-featured embroidery program specifically designed for Mac computers; and it is available to you from Heirlooms & Comforts. Call the shop at 864-639-9507 to get details regarding when Cheryl Keith will present a demonstration of the program for you to learn about this terrific tool for design in embroidery and quilting. There are really good perks for pre-sale orders (details at www.husqvarnaviking.com). Offer ends October 18, 2012.

Sara

H&C Feature of the Week: RA Thread
At Heirlooms & Comforts this week we will feature Robison Anton Rayon Thread in colors that are in overstock. A number of great colors are currently overstocked and we are offering only these colors at 35% off the regular price of $5.95 each spool. There are limited quantities of these colors and the offer is good while the supplies last.

Mark Your Calendar
Our Educator friend Barbara Moore from Husqvarna Viking will hold an all-day Trunk Show and Demo Event at Heirlooms & Comforts on November 13 starting at 10:00 AM. She will be featuring the Husqvarna Viking Designer Ruby DeLuxe and the exciting new Opal line of sewing machines while spotlighting the newest products and projects. There will be great embroidery projects and features, easy embellishments that can be accomplished by almost any machine in our line-up.

As many of you know, Barbara has so many great ideas and methods for using H-V products. The newest embroidery collections from H-V will also be featured in this program. There are new feet to learn about, too. The tuition for this all-day event including lunch and door prizes is $10. Sign up right away for a relaxed day of fun and fellowship while learning about new products!! Space is limited.

Closed October 20, 2012
Heirlooms & Comforts will be closed on October 20 for a noon home game at Clemson. Be sure to collect up all the supplies that you need before Friday afternoon so that you are ready for the weekend. Thanks for understanding our position.

Follow Up

Last week I wrote from Tucson, AZ about Cheryl, Bobby and I being there for the Husqvarna Viking Convention. Now we have been to convention and our heads are spinning for several reasons, not the least of which are the great products and ideas that we discovered with Viking. Read further here to see what some of those are.

Saturday evening the three of us had an unbelievable experience at a local Mexican restaurant that was featured on the Food Network show called Man vs. Food. El Guero Canelo is a place where those of Mexican descent as well as their friends who have no Mexican heritage go for true ethnic food. One of those specialties is called Sonoran Hot Dog! There was a Spanish-speaking-only performer singing his heart out and LOTS of people negotiating the dining room; so we decided to eat outside where there was less commotion. Soon a white, well-used pickup truck pulled into the parking lot. As it cooed to a stop we heard a sound like "Maa-aa, maa-aa". Each of us looked at the other wide-eyed and then realized that we were hearing goats in the back of the truck! The additional backup music that began then was Native American drums!! Somewhere across the busy street there were Indians having some kind of ceremony or practice because it continued for the duration of our meal. We could hardly believe what was around us - great Mexican fare and personalities, goats in a run-down farm truck, and Indian drums. Live entertainment for our evening meal. We laughed heartily at our "good fortune" until tears ran down our cheeks.

Sunday at lunchtime, after having taken in the very intellectually heavy tour of Biosphere 2 (a scientific project of sustained living conducted in the late 1980's and 1990's), we decided to have our noon meal again at El Guero Canelo since Bobby missed getting the hot dog on Saturday night. Well, this time all the ethnics and their friends were coming in after Mass and Church for a quick Mexican meal. ALL the children were there too. Bobby thoroughly enjoyed the Sonoran Hot Dog, as you can see. We then rode through the desert highways until almost the border to Tubac, AZ, an artist colony, where Cheryl and I did some holiday shopping among the jewelry and pottery. We did a lot of wishful window shopping too. Unfortunately the Quilt Gallery was not open that day.

Then it became Monday and we started Husqvarna Viking Convention. Each of the next four days was filled with new techniques, new program modules, and service techniques. Now we just have to disseminate all this to you. In the next few weeks we will try our best.

Sara

H&C Feature of the Week: Fall Fabrics
At Heirlooms & Comforts this week we will feature Fall Themed fabrics at 25% off original price. Think apples, leaves, acorns, pumpkins, sunflowers, etc. Make great items for accent in you home or the home of a friend or two. Fall is just getting cranked up, so you can be ready when it hits us full steam ahead with 25% off this week on Fall Themed fabrics.

From Convention
A number of things were spotlighted at Husqvarna Viking Convention for 2012.

There are three new feet for your H-V sewing machine:

• Multilined Decorative Stitch Foot for sewing evenly spaced lines of decorative stitches found on your machine;
• Echo Free Motion Stitch Foot for sewing free motion quilting around an appliqué or a motif in the fabric;
• a Changeable Decorative Stitch plate for the Interchangeable Dual Feed Foot.

We will be able to demo these when you come into the shop. They are very useful.

Software

• 5D Stitch Editor Plus is an upgrade for all modules of 5D Embroidery. Cheryl has been certified for teaching and selling this upgrade and finds it very user friendly. At class on October 18th she will demonstrate this upgrade and explain how the package is to be sold. You don't want to miss this class if you can possibly be there.
• Also there is the new TruEmbroidery for Mac computers for which Cheryl is certified to teach. For those who have or who wish to have a Mac computer, this is a powerful program for designing embroidery. She will setting up a demo on this in a few days, so be looking out for the announcement of this time.

• A third program that is available for your pleasure is 5D QuiltDesign Creator with which you can create a quilting design to be sewn in the hoop on your embroidery machine or on your longarm machine. This program takes the guesswork out of making a design proportional to your border length or block size.

Sewing Machines

• Opal 650 and Opal 670 Husqvarna Viking sewing machines are ready for shipment. We were able to sew on these models at convention, and we find them to be outstanding models. Opal 670 has a touch screen, automatic thread cutter, bobbin thread cutter, and 200 built-on stitches with an 8" clearance in the bed of the machine. This is a machine that weighs only about 18 pounds, so it is very portable for taking to class. Opal 650 has 160 stitches and has a touch pad for selecting stitches.
• Ruby deLuxe is now updated to have the Deluxe Stitch System that portions the amount of thread that goes into the embroidery stitches and the decorative stitches. The front of the machine is redesigned to be very attractive with its red frame, and there are a few new stitches added to the menu.

Okay, I will be quiet for now. But, you may find me going on and on when you are in the shop about all these new items.