Country Traditions Visits United Notions/ Moda Headquarters in Dallas, Texas

Arriving early in Dallas for the Pfaff Convention, Leslie and Kevin took the opportunity to tour the United Notions/Moda headquarters to see how all those wonderful fabrics arrive to our shop's door.

Article contributed by Leslie Main.

The property consists of three large warehouses, with two more currently being built. Our tour started with the offices of Moda where we met some of the designers and Moda executives. Moda's fabric designers often gather at the head office for designing and planning meetings. In the Archives Room one can find a 3 yard sample of every fabric Moda has ever produced! Wow! Rows and rows of filed fabrics. What a great stash! (Sorry, they will not part with any of this fabric, even if you really, really need just a little more to finish that masterpiece quilt. I tried!) The designers and artists use the archives to compare colors for existing lines and as a spring board for new ones.

Next we were taken to one of the warehouses where the fabric arrives in shipping containers on large tubes. It is organized by lines, then each tube is folded and rolled onto the bolt boards in 15 yard cuts. The bolts are wrapped and tagged, then stored until the whole collection line arrives.
When the collection is ready, it is moved to a third warehouse where it is organized by line and style number, waiting for the order fillers. Rows and rows of beautiful color, as far as the eye can see. Just about any quilter's idea of heaven! The order fillers, with orders in hand, roll carts up and down the aisles, picking just the right pieces to fill each order. The order is then boxed and labeled at the box machine and picked up by the UPS truck at the end of the day. Finally, it's on it's way to Country Traditions' back door!

As everyone does, we brought back a few momentos of our Moda tour! Be one of the first 10 individuals to come in the shop and mention that you read about our Moda Trip on the Blog and receive one of our special Moda momentos!!

Pfaff Convention Prompts Country Traditions "German Fest"

Article contributed by Leslie Main.


Pfaff Convention opened in Dallas with a German Country Fair theme. In honor of Pfaff's German heritage the company hosted the Fair, reminiscent of the Oktoberfest Fairs hosted in Germany. There was German polka music playing in the background, German food and drink to be tasted and midway games to be played.

The Country Traditions Creative Center specialists got their first look at the "new" machines as the main attractions of the night.
Kevin and Scott played all the midway games, winning Pfaff treats and useful machine accessories throughout the night as they learned about the new machines. Some of the funniest midway games were Ring Toss, Spin The Wheel (and answer a question) and, of course, the Machine Races, where each won their race! There was a Dart Shoot that proved harder than it looked. Hitting the targets in the different embroidery hoops was a real challenge for Kevin and Scott. The Penny Toss, using bobbins, and, of course, the cotton candy were Leslie's favorite things of the night.

Your Creative Center specialists had so much fun during this event that we decided to bring a version of the evening to you at Country Traditions!

Join us on Saturday, October 11 from 11:00am until 4:00pm for the Country Traditions German Fest Pfaff Fair. Meet the new machines, play a few fun Fair games and win a prize or two. It should be a "Great" Afternoon of Fun!

August Kit and Fabric Pack

Don't miss out on your Country Traditions complimentary "goodies" in August. Leslie has designed a wonderful kit for her Calendar Banner for September's use. It's great fall leaves in green, gold, red and rust. The Banner Block is 12"x12" and can be used on the Calendar Banner or alone as a small wall hanging. This Kit (pattern and fabric) is FREE with any in-store purchase of $25 or more.

The August Online Newsletter Block is now posted. It's for the month of August and is meant to give the feeling of sunshine and sunflowers as summer is in full force. Enjoy this free pattern in the Month In, Month Out quilt we're building or in any other project you wish. You can sign up for the Newsletter or read past issues by clicking here.

Holiday Recipes

What is a celebration without food? We're celebrating Christmas In July in the shop right now and I thought this would be a good time to share some of our favorite celebration recipes - foods that we make when we have a get-together. It's a perfect time to collect some new recipes and try them out as we enjoy summer picnics or reunions. And get a head start on our menus for Christmas parties. I thought I would start the ball rolling with a very simple recipe that I received from my sister. For many years our family would get together at Christmas and have a hors devours table as a simple but delicious fare after gift opening. We cooks each had our traditional favorites we would bring. Among my sister's specialities is a Crab Dip that is simple and delicious. I hope that you enjoy it.

Crab Dip

1 8oz. package of Cream of Cheese
1 can Crab Meat
Cocktail Sauce*
Assorted Crackers

Use a small bowl and soften the cream cheese by gently stirring with a spoon until it's smooth and softened slightly (you want it to be easily spread on a cracker but still firm enough to hold it's shape. Place cream cheese on a serving plate and form it into a round, dome shape (your preference to shape but I usually make it about a six inch circle about 1-1/2 inches tall). Open can of crab meat and drain. Gently flake. Cover the cream cheese with the drained, flaked crab meat. Cover the crab meat with a light coating of cocktail sauce. Serve with crackers.

* I personally don't like pre-made cocktail sauces. I make my own. This is one of those recipes that I don't measure, but I usually take about 1/2 cup of ketchup with a 1/2 teaspoon of bottled horseradish. This is adjusted to taste - I like a little "zip" to the sauce but not overpowering. You may wish to double this to 1 cup ketchup to 1 tsp horseradish, depending on the preference to how much sauce you prefer.

John C Fremont Days Parade

Downtown Fremont was the hub of activity the weekend of July 12-13th with John C. Fremont Days. Country Traditions enjoyed the festivities and welcomed all visitors Friday and Saturday with Cool Deals on the Mezzanine on Pfaff machines and served up "Creative Juice" (bottled water) and homemade cookies to visitors. On Sunday we had our "Picnic and Parade" with hot dogs and watermelon while we enjoyed watching the annual Parade go by. It was a fun-filled weekend and we encourage everyone to come to Fremont during John C. Fremont Days and stop in and see us!

Sew Much Fun! Kids Classes Great Success

June brought Kids Sewing 101 and Sewing 102 to Country Traditions. Scott was the instructor and he had a class of 4 for Sewing 101. They made 4 projects (pillow case, duffle bag, FlipFlop pillow and table topper (shown) and watched five "Let Me Show You" demos given by him during the course of a week. They also took home their very own sewing machine! Everyone enjoyed the class so much they all went on to join another student in Kids Sewing 102 the next week! Kids Sewing 102 was for the more advanced student and over the course of a week they each made a quilt. From chosing the fabrics, learning how to rotary cut, design layout, piecing and then layering and quilting, each one did a beautiful job of designing their own quilt. The photo shows the students wrapped in their quilt when it was in the layering process and just ready to be quilted.

They were all excellent students and we hope they all go on to make many more quilts! Great job, guys!

Kids Sewing 101/102 is available every summer for kids 12 years old or older.

Class Date Changed

Due to a conflict in schedules we've had to reschedule the X-Block Excitement class to July 31st. This is a fun class with a unique spin on making an easy block/quilt look quite complicated. With the use of an

X-Block ruler you'll take a simple nine-patch and put it on it's ear, so to speak. It will look like you spent hours cutting various shapes and stitiching them together. And the remnants of cutting the blocks are used in the borders so there is no waste at all! Sign up today for this fun class. $19.99 And remember, during the summer months we are giving DOUBLE Class Cash for taking classes. This "cash" can be used at our Holiday Affair Auction on December 13th. Class Cash is only for class participants, so your "cash" will be worth a lot during the auction.