Our Annual Primitive Christmas Event | Lisa Bongean | Primitive Gatherings

Hey everyone, it's Christmas at Primitive Gatherings today. We are so excited. We have a little bit of weather, but we still have a lot of people here. It did not keep them away. We're having so much fun. It was hard to come over here and leave all the fun over at the gathering, but jump on. We have some prizes today. So while we're all jumping on and saying hi, I'm going to show you the prizes. We have a couple ornaments that we're going to give away, five of them. Sewing mends the soul. Life is so far so good. That's cute. I've never seen that one before. Shiny and bright. All love new scissors. And warning, if you see me with a seam ripper, now is probably not the time. We all know. I can't wait to show you what I'm going to do with a seam ripper coming up for Naughty and Nice. Speaking of Naughty and Nice, if you're looking for something to do, get away December 5th through the 11th at the gathering. We are going to have Naughty and Nice. It's a week-long retreat. We're going to have projects, it includes all the kits, instruction by me, daily lunches, dinners, Sunday brunch for guests, breakfast, lunch, if you're going to just come for the day. You don't have to stay. And we have behind-the-scenes tour of everything, local field trip, hmm, I wonder where we're going. Oh, hold on. Swag bag and a gift card for the quilt shop, all if you're staying here. Are we good, girls? Yeah, we're good. Okay, awesome. So come hang out with me in December when you need time to sew on all your projects. You don't have to work on my projects, you can just come and sew on whatever you want. But okay, so one of the main things we're doing this Christmas season is we are doing a charity for animal rescue, for a dog rescue. So I want to bring on a special guest for you, and he is very special. So come on, Mr. Jax and Nick. All right. So you all know that we had Jeter for years, right? We had Jeter for 10 and a half years, and then we went a year after he was gone. And on the anniversary of Jeter leaving us, my neighbor sent me this text about this dog rescue that had this guy here. So I sent it over to Nick, and do you want to tell the rest of the story? Yeah. Because I was kind of against it, right? Because I was having all this freedom, I'm able to go wherever we wanted to go, do whatever we want to do. But I know my husband missed his dog. Great, great. So I went and seen this dog, and why doesn't he want it? And they put you in this room, and then they opened up the door, and the dog, he'd come running in. And he jumps up in my lap, and he stared right into my eyes, and he wouldn't stop staring at me. And the gentleman says, well, what do you think? I said, I'll take him. I didn't talk to Lisa about it, I said, okay, I'm taking him. Because he literally is the splitting image of Jeter, except he's- He's a lot smaller. Jeter was 52 pounds, Jax was 30 when we got him, and I fattened him up, he's 37 now. Clearly he likes these bully sticks, this is what I give him when I take him up to the hunt shack. For the car ride. He's not very good in the car, or in the truck, he likes to sit in my lap, so. He's your lap dog. He is my dog, period. Yeah, this is mine. So I said, if you're going to get a dog, then you're taking him hunting with you, he is going to be your dog, right? And he is my dog. He still loves his mom too. Except the first time he went in the truck, we went somewhere to get some crawlers for fishing, and I had the window half open, and he decided to jump out the truck while the truck was moving. We were only going five miles an hour, but yeah. We'll see how he does in a boat next summer. So how did you, so what happened when you told the guy that you were going to take him, and what happened? Well, it was going into the 4th of July weekend, and because so many people, so many people shoot fireworks by ours, I'm like, I'll pick him up after the 4th of July. And then the next day you wanted to see him, and you said, we're bringing him home now. Well, because I went there, and he's got like a bite on his ear, a cut on his ear, I'm like, okay, we're taking him home. We're taking him home. He's seen his kennel days, right? Did you land a good home, huh? So with that in mind, we're raising money, so anybody who comes into the quilt show, we are asking for a $5 or more donation, or you can bring in collars or treats or cleaning supplies for the rescue that we have chosen. The rescue place will be here on Friday, and we'll have some cuddle buddies to get some doggie kisses from, or maybe you want to take one of them home. There's a couple puppies I saw that are coming. So that's what we're raising money for this year, because of reasons like this, and how good he is for our household, right, how good you are. I was depressed, I was mad, I was crabby all the time, and Jack's here has filled that void. I still kind of call him Jeter sometimes. Yeah, I've called him Jeter numerous times. Here, take yours, all right, go. Go? Go. So he has filled that void that... Right, so if you are missing your dog, maybe it's time for you to get one as well. They are a lot of responsibility, but they're worth it. We love... I call him Piggy. Where does he sleep? Right between us. Right on my shoulder. Yeah. All right. Merry Christmas, everybody. We'll see you. Be good. Okay. Jack's time to go. All right, so that is what we're raising money for, for this Christmas season. It'll go till the end of the year, so come. If you can't come now, it's okay, our red and white quilt show will still be up till the end of the year. I just want to talk a little bit about the red and white quilt show. Like I said, we have 150 quilts. Everybody that has come in today is just like, they don't know where to look. They can't believe how many we have. They're like, oh my God, how do I pick a winner? So we're having them pick a viewer's choice. It is so hard. It was so hard for me to pick winners of this. It literally, like, I keep walking by a certain ones, I'm like, okay, I need to make up a new award because this quilt needs something. It's just so hard because you really know what it took to make them. And because you have categories and four winners in a category, we did first, second, third and honorable mention. And then we had four big prizes, best of show, judges' choice, best workmanship. Those were bigger than the blue ribbons, all right, and they're going to get big prizes with those. We didn't tell anybody what their prizes were, we're going to let that be a surprise. We'll tell everybody when we're ready, but just in case we add a few more. And there was one that was like so cool, so we gave that the most creative award, but we didn't really have that as one of our awards, but we just kind of make them up as we go along. So please come if you can. We will do some sort of walkthrough video of the show at some point, but we really want to kind of make it exclusive for a little bit. I don't know why, but just so it's something that you can't see online for a while. We want you to come. We want to see your smiling faces and come and hang out here at Primitive Gatherings. When you come for this event, or if you can't come, you know you can't come, we know we all can't come, but we still want you to participate online. So with a $40 purchase, you're going to get our free patterns. And Kaylee, I think, is going to put them up on the screen. We have a pincushion kit slash ornament kit. So it's either you can make the ornament or the pincushion. That is a free pattern and kit. And then just did a mat called All is Calm, All is Bright. You will get the pattern for that. And you're able to buy all the kits for them too online. So if you want the kit for them, they are on our website under new and then under Primitive Christmas is where you'll find all this stuff. And then we have the nine wreaths, which is this quilt. This is the Rudolph pillow that I'm still working on. Sometimes you just meet your limits. Your hands are sore. Your fingers have done enough. And I was just in no hurry to finish this one, but I will. And then we also have a runner that has kind of a modern kind of wreath look to it. That's also a pattern as well. So those are your four free patterns. And then we also have a bunch of other new projects, a couple of cross stitch ones, a lot of Butterfield Basin ornaments because we all know that they do Christmas so well and their ornaments are just so fun to make. We also have a beautiful reindeer quilt from Lullabotique that Jess has made and so, so cool. And what else do we have? The Rudolph pillow. Okay, the Rudolph pillow and then the letters for Santa. Jess has adopted newborn, not newborn, two year old toddler, two are going to be three pretty soon, I think in February. He just made a cute pillow for him. So if you have grandchildren or you have newborns in your life, that is so cool to put all their letters in the pillow. But also we have cookies at the gathering. So you get to see the trunk show that'll take you, or trunk show, the quilt show, that'll take you a while to see that. So Erica and Mick are making cookies for everyone. So it's so much fun over there. I wish you all could come, I really do. But I know y'all can't so we're going to try to do the best we can to make you feel like you can participate. Awesome. Do we have any questions at all, Miss Heidi? Do you have to add the free items to your cart or is it automatic? Any purchase during this time will have those downloads for you. You can't buy the downloads. You have to purchase $40 in other stuff to get the free downloads. I know somebody had tried to just get the free downloads. Doesn't work that way. But they automatically go to your cart. They automatically go to your cart, but we have to touch it first. We have to say, yes, we got your order, and yes, we're processing it, and then the downloads appear in your ordering cart. So if you've never done that before, maybe we can do a tutorial on that, on how to get that or something. We are going to do a tutorial on how to make this wreath. So Monday, probably, this is on our ticket to do a quick little tutorial on how to put together that wreath because, remember, Alicia did that, and it's just a little different. And I just want to make sure that you know you're doing it right and that there's no worries because you don't have any dog ears like you normally do on that when you put it together. So you can make a test block if you don't want to wait for the tutorial. But in a week or so, that should be done. All right. Any other questions? You want to come and sit down by me? You look so pretty today. Come on. And back to you. Not that you don't look pretty every day, but... Thank you. Yes. Dan had a question about if you are unable to print the patterns. We do have an option for you to put it into your cart for $5, and we will print those patterns and the calendar for them, and it'll go to them. That's super cheap. $5. That's what you said yesterday. So... Okay. That's what we're going to go with. All right. Because the packet's like that thick. Yes, it is. All right. So good deal for you guys. So if you can't print it and you want to purchase our printed packet, it is only $5. Trust me. That's a deal. All right? Because it is pretty thick, and there's lots of stuff in there. Yeah. All right. Anything else we want to talk about? I don't think so. I just got up here. So... Okay. So say they order the kit for one of your freebies. Does that count toward their $40? Absolutely. As long as they have $40 in their... Yep. In their cart. If you order a pattern or a kit for, say, the Rudolph quilt that we had, as long as you are spending over $40, does not matter what you are ordering, you're going to get those downloads. Automatically. You don't have to put it in your cart. That was one of their questions. Automatically in your cart. Okay. Awesome. Anything else? Maybe talk a little bit about the calendar and the fun book. Okay. I'll let you do that. That's your deal. Thanks. You're a baby. So right now, what you're getting is a calendar book for all the events that are happening in the gathering with us throughout the year. We have dates set for all of our clubs, any All Things Pumpkin we already have, All You Need Is Love is already up there. So you guys can kind of plan whether or not, when you're coming, and see what events we have going at that time or what clubs we have going. Right. Because I get a lot of questions like, when is Lisa doing a retreat? Yep. Right. And we have a new one in there. Yeah. So things like this are my retreats, Naughty or Nice or All Things Love Is All You Need or some of those things like we do during Valentine's Day or month or that type of thing. So we already have that in the calendar for you, and then your coupon book will be coming at a later date. We are switching a new POS system, new website, and we're still not sure how all those discounts work and such. So we don't want to give you a coupon book and have it not work. Right. That was the point of a whole new website, is to make sure that these coupons work for you. So what we'll be doing is we'll be sending that to you probably mid to end of January next year, and you'll get that through an email. Here's a PDF of what all is coming up for the year. Because we have all your emails from your orders. From your orders. You're all going to go into a database, and we'll send that to you at that time. Okay. I think you should tell them about yesterday. About yesterday? You know, like, what all... Yeah. Like, you know, the web guy that says he's got the stomach flu and can't help you. It was, yes. It was one thing after another. We were supposed to have fabric delivered. It wasn't delivered. So now they have to two-day air express us. We had patterns that were coming. They didn't get shipped out. So the pattern designer had to express those as well. We had patterns that were supposed to be here as well. That the UPS airline, or the plane, had mechanical failure in Utah. So apparently they never got on to another plane, and they're still in Utah. I went home looking for a drink or something, because it was just... And Heidi's like, I'm out of here. Jess is flipping her door. I'm going to go home to work on this post. I didn't get out of here until 5 o'clock. What's funny is, I said, it'll all work out, because we actually put our site live early last night. Just us. Let's just test it. Let's just make sure it worked. And it did. But we found that... It did, but it didn't. So I said, let's not wait till midnight. Let's just do it now. Let's just test it. Why do we got to wait till midnight? Yeah. So that all worked. So I got this text in the morning at 5.30, everything looks good. I waited, because I looked at it at 4 o'clock this morning. Oh, okay. So you waited to text me. I waited to text you, just in case you were sleeping. Yeah. But yeah, Amy and I were talking about how, like, the last three days have been so stressful, but then today it was like, eh, whatever. And I said, that's just because yesterday was like, okay, we got to get this done. We got to get this done. And today it's like, well, if it's not done, it's not done. There's nothing you can do. There's nothing you... I mean, we did the best we could. You know, a lot of things are out of our hands. And you know, you try, you try, you try, and then when it's like, oh, well, you just do what you can. So not to worry, we're pulling it off. Yep. All right. So good job, Jessica, and my whole staff. Yeah. You did a fabulous, fabulous job to get this, you know, and we didn't know how much time that red and white quilt show was going to take. And we've learned a lot, you know what I mean? So next year I might have to ask for some volunteers to like type up descriptions and, you know, things that people can do to help us. Because even I had a couple people come up to me and say, hey, you know, I thought about just coming down to say, hey, you know, what do you need help with? Just hanging that show was, you know, a monumental task. But it's hard because, I mean, I got to sit there and go, okay, yes, here, here, here, here. And you can only do so much at a time. It's like when we set up a booth. You put it up and then you're like, nope, can't go there because I got to put this one here. But I wish they all could have got awards because there were so many that didn't, that I wanted them to, but yet there's only so many. So if you won, we will let you know. We will put out a list of our winners, okay? Coming soon. All right? Because we just want to keep it close for a little bit. Close at hand. Close for a little bit. All right. Okay. Thank you. Go back to my lunch real quick. Go back to your lunch. Erica made lunch for all of us today, so that was fun. All right. So if you have no more questions, I'll pick some winners. Talk about that quilt behind you a little bit. This was a pattern we had for last year. And this was my Yuletide Gatherings flannels. And I'm sure this pattern is still available. I think it was called Treelot? Treelot, yes. Treelot. Look, I remember it. It's so hard to remember the names. So many. But yes, Judy Brown did this for us last year. And she was going to give it to her charity or auction it off. I'm like, hey, Judy, I'll pay for it. I'll be your charity. Do you want to talk about how the make and takes are going? Oh, yeah. Okay. So the make and takes at the retreat house are so fun. So we have Jess's tree is going super fun. You get to pick out what color wool you get to make. And there's this really pretty red wool down there for like a red pine. So some of them are making red trees. And it's super easy. Nothing that we make are really, really hard. And if you want kits for them, the directions are pretty straightforward. And we can probably do some videos on those as well, Kaylee, okay? So put those on our list. And then we had the cute little bottle snow caps and scarves. Again, it literally takes less than five minutes to make those. All it is is one zip up the long seam of the hat. You clip, clip, clip the ends about two inches in, and then you tie it, and it makes the little hat. And then you fold up the cuff on the hat, and then you fringe the scarves. And that was super easy as well. And we had like seven different fleeces to pick from. And then we also have cross stitch. There's some ladies down there with Kathy, who are making cross stitch for the first time and having a blast. And then you have the queen right there to help you get started and do it right the first time. So the back doesn't look like a bunch of knots like mine would have when I was in high school doing it. And then we also have the Santa, the rock painting. I hope I get a couple kids that want to paint some rocks. My little Santa was so cute and so fun. And at one chair, you paint the hat, and then you move to the next chair, and you paint the face. And then you move to the next chair, and you put the eyeballs on. And then the next one has the nose, and then you put the little ball for his hat. And then you put your name and let it dry for it. And it's done. It's super fast and super easy, and all the rocks are different shapes. So your Santa could look a million different ways. None of them look alike. So that was fun to try the painting. And then I pulled out the red and white Mod Podge ornaments, because I was going to do all of my employees' names on a red and white. But they are having so much fun down there doing the red and white Mod Podge ornaments that look like quilt blocks. That seems to be the most popular one right now, and those are $5. So if we have any of those left, we'll put those on the site as well, too, because those are super cool to do with your grandkids or even with your adult friends, right? Just Mod Podge on those ornaments. And we have not a lot of them left, but we're just trying to get rid of what we already have. All right, any other questions or things I should talk about? Yes, I did. Under New, our New button, and then Primitive Christmas is the next button you would press. And then everything in there is all of our new stuff. If you want to go shop other places on the site, you're more than welcome to, but I do tell you that we have lots of the stuff that's under the Primitive Christmas, and that's how you're going to get your order the fastest, at least in the past, because we have bins of this stuff already pre-cut and ready, and the girls just go pick, pick, pick, throw it in your envelope, and out the door it goes. Are we already shipping yet or not? Some things. Yep. Some things. Okay? Awesome. So I think that's all I have for you today besides the winners of my six little presents here. Five ornaments and a pound of caramels. I'm having one of these for dessert. I just had some awesome pulled pork and macaroni and cheese for lunch that Erica made for us here for all of our employees, and I'm going to have one of those caramels. Okay. You got all my winners here? Aren't you so efficient? Six or five? I'm hoping they're all easy to pronounce. Six or five? Six. Okay. Yeah. She picks easy-to-pronounce names or not? All right. Jan Kurth, you are So Much Fabric, So Little Time. Donna Rinesmith, you are Warning, Seam Ripper Time. Eva Kolar, you are Shiny and Bright Scissors. Wendy Nystrom, you are Sewing Men's The Soul, that awesome sewing machine. Valerie Hoffman, you are Life Is So Far, So Good. And Lori Rasmussen, you are the caramels. Awesome. So thank you for stopping in for our quick live today. Thanks for meeting Mr. Jax. He's so much fun, and I'm so glad that my husband has a dog now so I don't have to listen to him mope around the house. But he does take very good care for him. When I let Jax out, I just open the door and be like, okay, see you later. Not Nick. Nick puts all his clothes on, walks outside with him, and sits there and watches him do his business, and then comes back in. All right. And do we have a button on our website that they can donate? Yes. Okay. So come back here and talk about the donating thing. I didn't talk about that. One quick thing. I don't got it all straight. We have puppies coming tomorrow. Puppies! Come get puppy kisses tomorrow if you can. Yes, they're so cute too. Okay, so if they can't come here, how can they donate? If you can't come here, you can go in the Primitive Christmas event. There is a product for donating to homeless pets, and when you donate $10 or more to that, you will get $10 automatically off of your purchase that day. So what we did is we partnered with a local dog rescue out of New London, which is just down the road, and they are completely non-profit. They go completely on volunteers. They don't get paid. And let me tell you, the shelter that Jax was at is no longer in business. So that just goes to show you how hard it is and how much they struggle. So if that was the case, we would have went to Jax's shelter, but they're no longer here. So these girls have both got dogs from this shelter, and I met her yesterday. One of them yesterday. Yeah, and they're going to have sweatshirts and stuff for their rescue too. So I said, please bring me a sweatshirt like yours. I want one. They have four new puppies that are coming that are absolutely adorable. So it's tomorrow from 1 to 4, they'll be over at the retreat house, and we're just excited to do this with them and partner with them. So hopefully we can raise bunches and bunches of money for them to give them just a boost start on the holiday season and make sure all of their puppies get Christmas presents. Yes, exactly. And there's a lot of people that are actually bringing in things too when they're coming to the store. We have a box, like you would for Toys for Tots, to bring in items. Right, and didn't they have a list of things they were looking for? Do you know them off the top of your head? It was... I actually saw one that I didn't put on was cleaning supplies. Cleaning supplies, bedding, leashes, collars, toys, treats, food, brushes, anything that a dog would need, bowls that will help them out. Because like I said, the fosters don't get paid. Everything is just volunteer and they try to supplement any food and things like that And I'm sure they're using their own money sometimes. Yes, I'm sure. Yes, absolutely. All right. Okay. Thank you. Good job, everyone. All right. Sorry, I forgot about that other thing that you can donate as well, even if you can't walk through the door. So, I'm going to sign off now. Hope you get your order in. Hope you get your order soon. We're going to, trust me, try to get them out as fast as we can. Hopefully, we don't have to order too much stuff and they won't take too long. But we appreciate all of your business and I want you all to have a great holiday season. Thanksgiving is coming up next week. We have a bunch of closed days. We close like the day, like at one or something like that on... We close at two on Wednesday and then we're closed until the following Monday. Okay. So, I don't know if you heard that, but two on Thanksgiving Eve and then we're closed all the way until Monday. I want my people to have a great holiday season with their families, not have to worry about Black Friday and all that, so they can do that somewhere else. But we're not doing that here at Permanent Gatherings. We're doing our big event now and we so appreciate you hanging out with us and participating in our events. We truly appreciate you and we hope you love the patterns that we've made for you this year. Okay. So, go get yourself some free patterns or if you've already done so, I thank you so much. Bye now.