You never know.  You know the things you always dream about but think, could it happen? You never know when that dream could come true!   We are so excited to have been a part of helping someone’s dream become a reality!  It’s one of the many perks we experience as we work in our industry.  We meet people, hear their stories, and sometimes, we ask the right question at the right time and BOOM!

We had the pleasure of working with Trish from Ivy Thimble Quilt & Gift Shop in Victor, NY on a very special project.  We want to share this story with you.   It’s a great feeling to work as a team here at Quilting Treasures.  It’s even more rewarding to work with our extended family, our quilt shop customers, who share our passion for fabric and sewing/crafting/quilting/making.   This story is a great example such team work. We are proud of this collaboration and  we asked Trish to share the story of how her dream of having her own fabric collection became a reality.

I opened Ivy Thimble Quilt Shop in April, 2003 in a shop of about 1200 sq ft. with almost 800 bolts of fabric. Today, Ivy Thimble’s home is just over 5000 sq ft with over 4000 bolts of fabric and two long arm machines that are quilting customer’s quilts non-stop! We offer a wide variety of fabrics.  We have a room full of reproduction fabrics, a room of colorful blenders and geos, a large selection of 30’s, batiks and novelties as well.

In January 2016, Kevin Driscoll visited my shop on one of his many trips to western NY. Out of the blue he said, “What does Ivy Thimble want to do differently this year to make it a good year?” I thought for a bit and said,“I’d LOVE to help design my own fabric!” Kevin, being Kevin (who has the attitude that anything can be done) said, “Let’s do it!” I knew he was asking too much. I had been told that the minimum quantity needed for printing was over my head for the size of my shop. We kept talking and by the end of his visit, we were working on Ivy’s own NY fabric! I sent him away with a list of motifs to be included on the fabric design – grapes for our wineries, our famous Finger Lakes, snowflakes of course, and most importantly, IVY THIMBLE to be scattered all over the fabric. I gave him strict orders that I could only do this IF I received the fabric BEFORE the Row by Row Experience started (in June). I knew if I was going to sell the fabric, I had to have it for the summer months with all the summer tourists. He promised that he and everyone at Quilting Treasures would do everything they could to make it happen. Within a week, I received an email from Felicia Gallo and Janet Andersen with a preliminary design to approve for them to move forward. In mid-February, while at my shop’s annual retreat, I received an overnight package from Felicia with the design on paper. The excitement continued to build! Next, I made a trip to NYC to visit my daughter and while there, she and I met with Janet, Felicia and Cyndi at the Quilting Treasures’ office in the Garment District. They were amazing…They gave us a tour of the design office and even shared with us some of their upcoming lines. That day, I gave final approval for the fabric to go to strike off. And the race began!  The push was on to ensure delivery to my shop of over 135 bolts of fabric to arrive no later than June 5! I received the strike-off shortly after my trip to NYC and then by mid-May received just over 200 yards of both colorways to begin making samples for our big debut in June. I was in constant contact with Tom at the Rhode Island office who kept me updated as to where my fabric was and when he expected it in “his hands”.  Tuesday morning, June 7th, our FedEx delivery man backed up to our back door with a TRUCKLOAD of boxes!!

This was a very special delivery, indeed, as it was Ivy Thimble’s very own NY Fabric design arriving at their store!  How exciting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kevin and everyone at Quilting Treasures made our dream come true!!! Ivy Thimble’s fabric had arrived! Friday afternoon, June 10th, we closed our doors and began transforming the store into IVY THIMBLE’s NY FABRIC by Quilting Treasures. We had a huge banner hanging outside over our front door, signs made by Quilting Treasures on our door and hanging from our ceiling. A table, filled with samples and pre-cuts were right inside the door. Facing our customers as they entered the store, were bolts and bolts of our fabric accented with Quilting Treasures’ gorgeous line of Color Blends! We went home that night so excited for Saturday morning to come…by 3pm Saturday afternoon, we had over 350 people through our door that were so excited to see our BIG SURPRISE…more importantly, they were proud to be a part of something so special. The fabric continues to be a big sell for everyone that comes through our door. I’ve shipped the fabric to quilters who have relocated to other parts of the country – Florida, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, California and the list goes on. We started a contest on our FB page for customers to enter – they can make anything out of our shop’s NY fabric, we post it on our FB page, we ask everyone to “LIKE” the item and whoever gets the most likes wins!  We will announce a winner each month. In October, we’ll have a GRAND PRIZE WINNER! So far, we have a few entries but each month we’re getting more. We, ourselves, are making new samples all the time to keep the interest growing. Of course, there’s the usual table runners and bags…we’ve also incorporated it in our Row by Row, selling t-shirts and aprons with our fabric, and have made numerous lap quilts with it that customers are giving as holiday gifts to family and friends who no longer live in our area.

As I started writing this story I got excited all over again! MANY, MANY thanks to EVERYONE at Quilting Treasures!!! Kevin started the ball rolling and rolling it did from Janet/Felicia to Cyndi helping me with marketing ideas to Tom making sure it arrived at Customs and got to him to prepare it for its trip to Victor, NY!!!!

Some of the projects… so many great possibilities!

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And…check out the fabrics… so fantastic!  What do you want to make?  What’s your favorite motif?

If you are in western New York, make sure to swing by and visit this wonderful shop.   Congratulations to Trish and the team at Ivy Thimble Quilt & Gift Shop!  We wish you continued success with your wonderful fabrics!