Mark your calendars. The Row By Row Experience officially starts June 21 with a theme of water and ends September 8. NotJustQuiltZ is a participating store.

It’s simple to participate. Visit www.rowbyrowexperience.com and look up the list of shops by state. Each participating shop will have a free pattern for a 9 ½” h x 36 ½” w row. They will also have kits of their sample row. Collect all the patterns you want from whatever state/city you visit. When you have at least 8 rows and have make them into a complete quilt (quilted and bound), bring the quilt into one of the shops and if you are the first to bring in a completed quilt with 8 rows, you will receive 25 fat quarters! If you bring the quilt into a shop whose row is included, you’ll get an extra bonus. Remember, while you’re collecting your rows, look for the fabric license plates offered by many stores—they are so cute! Just think what a license plate quilt would look like…

On Sunday, May 3 NotJustQuiltZ is pleased to welcome Diablo Valley Quilters for their special “Road Trip to Niles”.  What is a road trip, you ask? If you belong to a quilt guild, ask a board member to call Norman at 510-797-6579 to arrange your special day. What do you get? All members who tell us of their membership and show a valid membership card receive 20% off all purchases at NotJustQuiltZ (except sale merchandise), and 15% off at Color Me Quilts (except sale merchandise). Several of the merchants are offering gifts or discounts, too, such as the Hawaiian soap and candle shop, Niles Ice Cream Shop and Joe’s Corner. Remember, it’s one day per year per guild, so schedule your “Road Trip to Niles” soon.

Sunday, May 17, from 10 to 3, will be the Niles Wildflower, Art, Garden and Quilt Show. This year the quilt challenge voting will be held at NotJustQuiltZ and will feature a black and white, plus one color item that will also need to contain a reference to Charlie Chaplin. That is because this year Niles is celebrating 100 years since Charlie Chaplin and Broncho Billy opened their film studio Essanay Studios in Niles. The winners are chosen by viewer’s choice, so please come in on Sunday, May 17 to vote. The show will also have a garden tour, vendors and, of course, lots of quilts to see. Don’t miss it.

Judy Neimeyer paper foundation piecing classes will begin on Sat. May 23 and Sun. May 24. There are 3 possible quilt patterns which you can view in the Classes section of our website. We are pleased to have Victoria Johnson, a Certified Instructor for Judy Neimeyer quilt patterns as our instructor. Paper piecing enables you to get exact points and make very complex looking quilts all while learning skills to advance you to more difficult quilts. Victoria’s energy, attitude and no UFO policy will give you all the tools for success. Sign-ups are now open for the 3 classes. Happy quilting!

We found a way to offer all of the great deliveries of Aboriginal fabric by offering an Adult Easter Egg Hunt on April 4. The fat quarters were offered at a special price of $2.50 each and the yardage at $10 per yard. Ron made up a terrific Easter basket with eggs filled with candy and some surprise gifts from NJQ. Don’t miss next year. (see pics)

We’ve had so many blessings—this week a couple of ladies came in who were visiting from Canada. Every other year their husbands have a conference in San Francisco, so they tag along. They had just returned two months ago from Melbourne, Australia, where they had visited the M&S Textiles plant (who make the Aboriginal fabrics we sell). The owner gave them a tour of the plant and even invited them to dinner at his home. We spent a wonderful hour with them sharing details of their trip. They couldn’t say enough nice things about the owner. Inside, I just turned GREEN with envy! They looked at our selection of Aboriginals and even found some they had not seen before. They asked about our online store and when it will be active. As you can guess, it made my day.

April 18 and 19 found us on the road again, although this time it was a little closer to home—at the Amador Valley Quilt Show in Pleasanton. The guild’s volunteers did a great job as usual. It ran like a well oiled machine. Can you believe they had over 140 door prizes or approximately 1 door prize per 10 attendees. Mark your calendar for their next show in two years.

Rest? Right. Today we received 26 new bolts of Aboriginal fabric. Nancy just asked, “Where do you think we’re going to put all these?” I just smiled. March, of course, is Quilters’ March Madness Shop Hop from March 4-8—5 wonderful days! (See our basket winner). I’m still looking for that rest…More batik from Moda and Princess Mirah.

Next up was the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Guild Show on March 14 & 15 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The show organizers had volunteers to help us unload and take our merchandise to our booth. What a treat! They also helped us on the way out when we shut down at the end of the show. The volunteers also came around with water just when we needed it. Thank you, Ladies, for a great show. When you are a small family business like we are, stress can overwhelm you. Without all the help we have received, we would have been unable to achieve our first quarter activities and goals.

On Friday, March 20, some of the company took a break and attended the San Francisco Guild Quilt Show while Willy and I (Norman) held the store open. We received two more boxes of Aboriginal fabric and one had 400 fat quarters, the other 1 yard cuts. Truly a blessing, I guess?

No rest for the wicked at we were off again this to Watsonville on Feb. 21 and 22 for the Pajaro Valley Quilt Show held in the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds. Once again we were greeted with open arms by the area quilts. What a great group! The volunteers again were awesome. They even brought us fresh homemade pie on Sunday. YUM!! There was terrific energy, lots of new friends and yes, even some old ones. Door prize winners are shown here. Then back to the shop to rest…