I made 4 dozen cookies Tuesday night.....

it's Thursday, and I ate the last one for breakfast this morning. No kidding.

No, I didn't eat all 48 of them by myself. I had a little help, times four.

So tonight I decided to make more. Because they were really good. And I don't make really good cookies very often.

It's not for lack of trying. It's just that Grandma Judy gave the baking skills to all her other grand kids. Me, I got nothing but eating skills. Lots and lots of eating skills.......and this Kitchen Aid mixer.

This is the Kitchen Aid mixer Grandma used through my childhood. I'm pretty sure that it was her guilt over my lack of baking skills, and her fear of my children growing up never seeing me make a homemade cookie, that persuaded my grandma to give me her mixer a few years ago. It still purrs like a kitten, so there was no reason for Grandma to part with it. Maybe it was just her desire for a shiny new one and my obvious need for any baking help I could find. Whatever it was, I ended up with this beauty.
Sure it's dented and dinged, but it made a lot of mean cheese balls in it's time, so it's earned the right to be a little worse for wear. Now, the mixer makes it's home in a lonely corner of my pantry cabinet, only seeing the light about once or twice a year when I have delusions of knowing how to bake.
Like this week, when a craving for homemade chocolate chip cookies began to plague me, and Luke was nowhere around to make them. Seems he thinks that moving out gave him the right to not make me cookies anymore. The nerve......Now I have to resort to torturing my hand-me-down mixer.
However, thanks to a recipe from my

"Favorite Recipes From Quilter's" cookbook, my cookies turned out great. I should have know when the first ingredient was shortening! A staple in Grandma's cooking, of course my mixer was going to love it! So did my family, apparently, as evidenced by my very empty cookie jar. Who can blame them? It's not very often my baking results in something so....edible.
So now, my cookie dough is chilling in the fridge. Isn't it pretty?

By the time Charlie gets home from work, the house will smell like delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and Grandma's mixer will have one more success under it's belt bowl.
Now, I'm off to finish cutting pieces for my next quilt while I wait to taste test my cookies.

Have you heard about my crazy new pricing?

Have you heard about the new pricing at Crazy for Quilting? To make things simpler, and more affordable, and just more fun, all fabrics in the shop are now either $7.99 or $9.99 per yard! That's right, even the brand new stuff, and this isn't just for a sale, it's for all the time!

Regular cotton fabrics, 44-45" wide: $7.99/yd
Batiks and Flanels: $9.99/yd

The new website reflects the new pricing as well. Now you cannot afford not to shop with us, and why would you want to miss the great selection and friendly service anyways?

What's New, Besides the Website

Finally! It looks like my new website will be up by the end of this week. That means I'll be spending my Sunday at the computer, madly uploading every last item I can squeeze into the product list. Some of them are brand new to the store, so I thought I'd share a few previews here.

First, the new quilt from Moda's Birchwood Lodge fabric line. This quilt goes together quickly, since the entire center is preprinted! Kits are available in the store, and will be online as well.

How about these great Fall prints? I love Halloween decorating, at least as much as Christmas decorating. Of course, my birthday is the day before Halloween, so that might have something to do with it. This fabric line, Haunted Hallow II, from Red Rooster, is just the right mix of Fall, Halloween, and rustic style that I love. It has a great panel, and once the website is online and running smooth I might find some time to play with it and make something fantastic!

Last for today, the Twister tools and book. This is a new technique I have yet to try, but I keep hearing great things about. I have a fat quarter collection from the 1990's that I have never broke into, from a fabric line I've long since forgotten the name of. Maybe I'll have to test out the Twister on it....

New Name for the New Year!

My new logo is done, and I've unveiled it on this blog above! The website is in progress, I hope to see it up and running within the next month. Right now, whenever my home page opens up it has a very sad, dejected, "This site is closed" message. Hopefully not for long!
Revamping a website is hard work, even when you hire someone else to do the geeky, technical part! I already feel like I have spent days entereing merchandise into the new site, and I haven't even finished the patterns yet! That's right, I haven't touched fabric, notions, kits, or any other catagory besides patterns and I'm already whining.
I know it will all be worth it in the end. The new site will be much better organized, prettier (very necessary, wouldn't you say?), and more fun to spend time looking at. I can hardly wait to see what you all think!
Until then, you will have to wait patiently, or just visit me in person at the store! New fabric is arriving this week, watch for a preview here on the blog until the new website is up and running.

New Year, New Name, New Website

For 2012, I have decided my shop's website needs a refreshing upgrade. To that end, I am in the process of having it redesigned and reorganized. I have high hopes that it will be wonderful and fun! I am even changing the name of the store to go along with the new look. Watch for the improvements to show up sometime in February or March, and don't panic if the current website dissappears for a while! Bookmark this blog now, and you can still visit me while the new site is being finished.
The new website's address will not change, so as soon as it is up you will be able to access it again via the same address, www.crazyforquilting.com.

In the mean time, my mom, my husband, and I are spending some time in the next few weeks reorganizing the store itself, and doing a major inventory overhaul. Visit us after the first of the year, Thursday - Saturday, to see how it's going. I'm sure there will be many items marked down and added to the sale area, as we make room for new merchandise in the coming year!

Along with this overhaul, I am also re-organizing my quilting calendar. This will allow me to be more accurate and more on schedule throughout the year with the long-arm quilting. Right now, quilts can be booked for March. With my new scheduling, quilts will be done within 1-2 weeks of my estimate, instead of 1-2 months. I am excited about being more organized and on-target, and I hope you all are too! If you would like to view pictures of my quilting, please visit the store's Facebook page, here.

Phone Troubles

If you've tried to call the quilt shop in the past week or two, you probably didn't reach anyone. Why? Because I make a brain-dead move and neglected to follow up with my new phone system to ensure I had set it up properly. The result? No one trying to dial the quilt shop could get through.

Great........As if the for-sale sign in the front yard wasn't enough to make people think I was out of business, now I've really gone and done it!

In my defense, I've had a super busy couple of weeks learning a whole lot of fun stuff at my new job.

But still......is my face red?

Anyways, the phone is back online. And, "YES!" I'm still in business!

Cabana Batiks Are In the Store!

The new batiks from Moda arrived today! I haven't carried batiks for quite a while, as in a few years. So, even though I'm not a huge batik fan myself, I do appreciate them and I am excited to have them back in the store. This new line from Moda has some beautiful jewel tones. It will be followed up with another shipment in December of Tropicana Batiks, also from Moda.
The batiks in stock now have been uploaded to the website, so have fun drooling over them here!