Tammy Tadd Designs

Although it's tucked in a business park, Tammy Tadd Designs is anything but business as usual. Pink and green, the shop's signature colors, abound. "Most people don't expect to see how bright it is," owner Tammy Tadd says.

Front row, from left:

Rene Gorbold, Nan Kein, and Laura Smith; second row: MaryLynn Mapes, Laura Weaver, Laura Fenwick, Melanie Grubbs, Vickie Genz, Sherry Massey, Tammy Tadd (owner), Velda Grubbs, Mindy Maxwell, Sue Hewlitt, Violet Major, and Deanna Carls.

Displays of fabric-from boisterous bags and aprons with attitude to quilts of modern sensibilities-fill the shop. Polka dots poke fun at cheery checks, plaids play nicely with coordinating paisleys, and flowers bloom beside 1930s reproduction prints. Tammy says the feeling is whimsical and fresh but not necessarily contemporary.

Customers can dig through luscious fat quarters loaded in a wheelbarrow painted pink and green.

Tammy Tadd Designs offers a range of stitched objects and embellishments to personalize them. Tammy's newest excitement is a line of bright wool in solids, houndstooth, and herringbone patterns, used in Woolen Posies. Bold jumbo rickrack is a customer favorite, as are bundles of 11-inch squares called Taddles, which customers can cut into 5-inch charm squares.

Customers can pick a piece of pink and green fabric "candy," 5-inch charm squares rolled and rubber-banded. In such a cheery place, classes and events are natural happenings. Programs such as National Cupcake Day, Word of the Week, and Super Bolt Saturday are dedicated to keep up excitement. Yearly coupon books are offered yearly in support of the American Heart Association. Other classes offered are Quilting 101, UFO, Girl's Night In, and Oh Sew Fun.

Three-dimensional kites soar in Come Fly with Me, a simple-to-sew wall hanging. Rickrack tails add the perfect finish.

In Come Fly with Me, the pinwheel blocks are machine-quilted in the ditch and the quilt center is accented with a meandering scroll pattern. A wavy line is quilted through the inner border, and a floral design is quilted in the outer border.

Combine four A blocks and eight B blocks to make this fun jungle version of Come Fly with Me. Using the Safari So Good collection from P&B Textiles, fussy-cut specific animals for the B blocks.

Many of Tammy's original patterns are on display at the shop. Tammy started designing her own patterns in 2000. At her first International Quilt Market, in 2003, she introduced 23 new patterns and quilts. Since then, she has designed two fabric lines, published seven books, and just released her latest collection of 10 patterns, A Tadd More.

For more information about Tammy Tadd Designs, visit www.tammytadddesigns.com.