A NEW YEAR! A MARK IN TIME!!!

A new year is always a mark in time! So, yes, we have alot to talk about, right?..Lori and I are looking into 2008 with alot of vision and of course, questions. Will we have interest in our shoppe in a steady, reliable trend or will we see slow growth? We have no idea. We aren't worried about it. Since, we hope to bring to the shop what we need and what other want also, it may take time to sort that all out too. We have plans to stay focused on history, bringing it into our monthly sampler classes that we offer. In January it is the Underground RR; as I have said before you can "get onboard" at any time during the year. This past week, my daughter Leah and her gals were here to enjoy Christmas celebration. Her girls were very interested in our summer use of time..focusing on children, with Jos' Little Women in June and Little House on the Praire in July..Leahs' oldest girl Maddie has Juvenile Diabetes. We want to do charity quilting atleast one Sunday afternoon a month, if not more..and I told her I wanted to start out our special quilting with her..since she was my granddaughter I wanted her to feel special..so I told her my idea of JDRF quilting and making quilts for her first and her sisters Ellie and Caroline (CC), and then move on from there; her friends and group...also I needed her to name her "foundation", she thought for just a little while with a sweet big smile on her face and piped up...lets' call it "Maddie and Ellies' Quilts of Hope"...isn't that just perfect...her hope is that they will find a cure for childrens' diabetes soon...she wears an insulin pump, these are great, but they must have the tubing changed every 3 days..so she must endure a new needle poked deeper into her skin than an insulin shot; this way, the tiny catheter can be anchored to her pump and into her system....she really finds this a hard, difficult procedure and is very tense during it and puts it off as long as she can..plus it is invasive into "her"....so please pray for the "cure" and also for tubing changes. She also thinks, along with Ellie, that the Wounded Soldier charity quilting we also plan to do as "great"..Her little baby sister CC will be added as a subtitle in her quilting later...(cute)...She is only 9 girls! What a special gal..and her sisters are also unique! Why not? they belong to our daughter! ha ha....We also enjoyed our son Kevin and his wife Mindy and baby girl Coralynn...Cora could not get enough of her cousins and especially CC...Cora is only 18 months but we actually saw her "grow up" a little bit more being around these active, creative gals!..We connected with our son Steve and his wife Lori and kids; Andrew, Alyssa, Kirsten and Meg online with a video chat for a few minutes....it brought us all closer to hear them and see them so many miles away...our golden Shiloh is always a hit in any family activity, so she got stroked and balls tossed as usual, she loves her "kids"...so as you can see we are a family that is expanding here and also in Lebanon with our quilters coming one by one...
My sister Lori had her Christmas and I am sure stories to tell...her son Matt and his new bride Joanna returned from their honeymoon just before Christmas. Lori has an anniversary on the 30th of 25 years and we celebrated our 38th on my 58th birthday on the 27th...I know, I know!! STOP!!!
December proves to be crazy in these two families....so come and join us at Olde Glory anyway you can! Come and set up your machine any day,all day to complete or work on "something", we don't care what!! we will be soon posting our classes, etc, on oldgloryquilting.com...that is my longarm page but we will be also using it for our shoppe news...ok! got any comments? or needs or questions....let us know! we would love to hear from you!!! If we don't know you, you are just a friend we have not met yet!!
Have a safe New Year....come and join us at Olde Glory...January 2nd open for business or gatherings 8:30a.m.-4:30pm... open wednesday-saturday for now.
Happy and Continuing Quilted Blessings!! Karie

Amazing Grace, How Can It Be?

Have you seen the movie, Amazing Grace? You should if you have not! It is great! Just let me tell you that we are open for business now. Our shoppe will be reopening January 2nd at 8:30-4:30 Wed. thru Sat. We were open a few days this past week, just to let the public know we are here!! 19 N. Sycamore Street, Lebanon Ohio 45036 513-932-2742. Whoosh!
We will be offering classes starting in January,the first being the Underground RR sampler quilt that will have 12 blocks in it to finish over the next year together. We have tons of ideas and want to be an encouragement to all we meet. There is also open sewing any day all day, unless a class is in session. We are offering 1800 Reproduction and 1900 vintage fabric, along with notions and finished quilts. We also have a longarming "arm" of the business to help our customers and families finally get that quilt top done!!so they can be using it. Check out oldgloryquilting.com soon for an update on our classes and events planned.
We also have a quilt frame up with a 1910 schoolhouse quilt on it right now, come in and set down and stitch on it with us! What an honor to help that hardworking woman from our past get her quilt done almost 100 years later; she even has it marked perfectly for us!
So, this is our announcement that we are here!!
We were waiting until my sisters' son Matt was married, we didn't want to take any attention away from Joanna and him.
We have been working hard for over a month now on the shop. There is still tons of work to do as my husband Gary is turning the attic of the 140 year old livery into a loft apartment for us. He will be working in Xenia in the ER as a nurse while I "work" in the shoppe, we will return to northern Indiana on the off days.
God is so totally in this , Lori and I are so "amazed" with His Grace!!
We have already started to make great friends and it is just exciting to see God "work"!!
..Our motto in the shop is Fun, Food and Flaughter...come in and ask us what that means!!
Have a very Blessed and safe Holiday!!

As Always! Quilted Blessings! Karie and Lori

Merry Merry Christmas From Olde Glory and Congratulations Matt and Joanna

Olde Glory Quilt Shoppe has just finished the first week of offering great 1800 Reproduction and 1900 Vintage Fabric to the public! What an honor to offer the past in fine cotton to our neighboring quilters and "want to be quilters'! God brought so many people in this week that reaffirmed that He really does want us to set this service up in Lebanon. We have meant serious quilters and others who just want to learn..curiosity also caught a few people and hey, we may hook them into the "habit" as they revisit us. What a joy!
My sister and I plan to keep the shoppe family focused, offering classes to Moms, Grammas, and kids too. Today, I am back in Northern Indiana, preparing for Christmas with family here and from Ohio, but Lori was in the shop for a few hours today by herself, ah pitty!, and a couple came in who actually ran a quilt shop in the Amish area for 19 years. They have now retired to Lebanon and family but offered great support and knowledge and previous experiences in the quilt shop world.
We are also introducing the longarm to quilters in the area too..this is a machine quilting that is handquided..you can see it at our web page oldgloryquilting.com...We can turn your attic heirloom pieced quilt tops into finished quilts!! ready to use!
Over all it was a good week, with older quilters stopping by to check us out, so they could inform their guilds and friends; younger women stopping by on lunch breaks and taking our flyer back to their quilting friends; older women (sisters) from Otterbein who just love history and love to quilt; even a woman who had a quilt shop dream but has never been able to see it come true...yet...and then the owners who came today!!
My sister Lori and her husband Gary married off thier oldest son Matt to Joanna on December 14th too..what a week!! remodeling part of an old livery in one month and doing a wedding too before opening up a quilt shop together! Is that a first....atleast for us it is!!
We finished some painting this week and worked on finishing some quilts to display. My husband is working on turning the attic area into a loft apartment for us to stay in when in town working at the shop and he at the Xenia ER...life is a trip isn't it?!!
Hope you are enjoying your journey as much as we are!!
As Always, Quilted Blessings!! Karie

Olde Glory Gazette

Olde Glory is the oldest clapboard home in North America, I was thrilled to find that fact out, since we are opening soon at the our Olde Glory Quilt Shoppe in Lebanon, Ohio at 19 N. Sycamore Street.
Voices from the past echo through my thoughts these days. Shadows of quilters inspire us!
Setting up a quilt shoppe is a big job and seeing the reproduced cotton prints from the 1800's and some even from the late 1700's excites this quilter! We actually have some old quilt pieces that have their own stories laying inside the 140 year old thread placed one stitch at a time on one civil war piece we found in Shipshiwana, Indiana. I bet, that quilter may have been taking a brief but much needed break in her afternoon of constant kitchen duties to keep her family fed or maybe, the winter months had set in and life had slowed down and time with the needle was easier to find. You quilts could then shout out these stories everyday in the fabrics that we are offering. Also, since I had started a small quilt shop in the mid-1990's, I also have my own historical batch of "orphan fabric"; they seem to mix well on the shelves with their "sister" prints from the past.
Crowding a old wooden ironing board, we also offer vintage prints from the 1900-1940's. Do you like to iron? I do. Somehow, it is relaxing to let your mind wonder as the hot steam presses fabric to a crisp, smooth appearance..Maybe, those hot summer days as a kid taking turns "working" to the bottom of the bushel basket of "sprinkled" clothes has something to do with that, a secure old feeling.
Facts about our shop include over 270 bolts of cotton quilting fabric from the 1800-1940 periods, notions to help you sew and quilt, a stash of books that patrons are welcome to read to acquire pattern ideas and inspiration for their creation. There will be lessons and also open sewing in the gathering room at the back of the shoppe, unless there is a class scheduled. Quilts are hung up with care and for sale. We also have a quilt frame with a quilt from the 1910 period that all are welcome to put stitches on until we get it "finished".
As all quilters know, we always have more ideas than we know what to do with and also quilt tops not yet quilted, so we also offer hand-guided longarm quilting for those who want machine stitches done. To help you create those attic heirloom treasures.
We are opening for a few days before Christmas and then reopening on January 2nd at 8:30 a.m. to 4-30pm...Our first month of classes will include Beginners' Quilting and The Underground Railroad Quilt Club will start with the first square. You can join at any time of the year to "get onboard" with the block of that month and then continue on. We will offer a new quilt to do almost every month. No "ticket" is necessary for the Underground Railroad, just come in and sign up, pay a deposit and check out the time that the classes will be set up. We will offer morning and evening times to accomadate everyone.
As we grow, our Gazette will also offer more news, recipes, pictures and antidote's of interest!
Thank you for stopping by!!
As Always, Quilted Blessings!!! Karen S Flick and Lori A Kesner

Preparing

Preparing the way! That is what my sweet husband has been diligently doing! We spent another couple days in Lebanon at Olde Glory. He finished the cedar shakes around the "gathering room" door on the side entrance and framed the windows inside and out. Lori and I, of course, painted. We did the windows on Friday, it was warm enough to paint outside too so we finished the New England Green around the windows and doors also, hung our US flag, and put the OPENING SOON banner on the building to draw attention as families come today to enjoy the special Christmas Carriage parade..I guess it draws 80000 to the little town every year...and we had wanted to be open for it but!! we could only do so much in a 3 week time! and do it right..so I called Lori and suggested that we open after her oldest sons' Matts' wedding on 14th passes!...we would like to get one week in before closing for the week of Christmas and then reopen in January with hours and lessons...we are planning to be open wed. through saturday 8:30 -4:30...that way we can also enjoy quilting and family on the other days..we are also offering "open sewing" every morning...gals can bring their machines and set up on our big harvest table and just sew "whatever"..we are also going to offer yarn in the future for the "sit and knitters"...and a couch nearby....If if am rambling, sorry!!..my mind is just "pumped up", lets say!
Thursday, I painted our little office upstairs where Lori and I are setting up our sewing areas. I was able to get this fabulous blue that looked like "heaven" to me..well, the previous owners smoked and so when I painted the walls the ceiling was miserable. So, you know it! it is ALL blue now and Lori and my hubby Garys' reaction was, " gee, it's like a little bit of heaven up here"...I am going to add clouds when we return and eventually paint a colonial scene on one wall...We keep saying, Great minds think alike!...
How marvelous paint is!!! just a happy little "painters daughters" here.
We are back in Indiana until next week, but today,Lori is busy tearing out an old wall from the attic; the building may be over 140 years old, an old livery, anyways; she is putting it up inside the side door above an old planked wall...not painting the higher level but painting the lower area that is now grey...it will be antiqued yellow....I can't wait to see it!!..she is learning how to remodel and taking to it "rightly well"....heehee...then she was planning on finishing the Christmas wreaths with ribbons and hanging them on the windows facing the parking lot that will be jammed today and then this evening for the "parade".
NEXT YEAR!!!
For now, just want to keep our shop simple, a gathering place, a place to find God or worship Him with us! A building that will produce orphan quilts, JDRF, and little Hanna quilts too.... Also, a place for children to come to learn history and to be taught how to sew and explore quilting also. Guess I am a little visionary tonight!
So, I will take my rambling brain off this page and plan my next few days, binding quilts, cutting fat quarters, piecing quilts, longarming, making candles, ....OH, do I have to cook too?...
Quilted Blessings!!! Karie