A Taxing Time....

I admit it...I can be such a procrastinator. Every January I have such good intentions of getting the W-2's and 1099's done right away, and having all of my ducks in a row for the folks that do my "end of year - sign the IRS forms for me in case I am ever audited" stuff! But alas, once again, here I am at the end of the month scrambling to get it all together - although I did manage to get it pretty much done with a week to spare - only because the Anniversary Sale is the end of this week. (If my tax guys are reading this, I'll be calling soon for an appointment!) So, that's my latest excuse as to why I haven't been blogging lots lately.

Anyway...when we last spoke, I promised to try and get a picture or two of what we've been working on. This quilt is made using a pattern in the latest American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. We still have a few copies at the store. Diane saw it and liked the pattern. So we decided to make it, since it looked "quick and easy" and is made using one of Diane's favorite fabric groups - batiks! Didn't she do a great job? It's been causing quite a stir and that's why we only have a few more copies of the magazine left! Take a look at it when you come by.

What else has been going on at Fab-Etc? Well, we got the silk thread rack finally last week - it looks great. The newspapers for Shop Hop are here, and we finally got more brochures for Sew Expo. We are working hard to be ready for Fat Tuesday on February 24th and of course, our Anniversary Sale the 29th-31st of January. Plus, Team Fab-Etc has a good start on this year's Tri-County Quilt Fest "Sky's the Limit" quilt! When it gets closer, I might consider "blogging" some of our interpretation of this year's star blocks!

Well, I better be thinking about heading for bed pretty soon. Going to be a big week, and unfortunately, I still have some 4th quarter tax stuff left to finish this week. Have a wonderful Monday, and we hope you can make the sale at the end of the week. Tracey and I will be there until 8:00 this Thursday night, so if you want to shop in the evening, we'll be there!

Our Needleturn Queen....

I love to call our Jan the "Needleturn Queen". And when you come in next time, just take a look at these snowmen - snowmen made from fabric and not that white stuff we had last month - which is the only kind we want to see! She has been working on this project for a while now, and gave me "custody" while she's in Hawaii. It's a Bunny Hill pattern and came out really cute made up in Kansas Troubles fabric. There are some great little intricacies built in to the design. I do feel much better now about the basket of what I thought looked like decapitated snowmen...but a customer set me straight that they were just a basket of snowballs! You'll have to take a look. We're almost out of patterns, but more are on order! Oh, and BTW, our Needleturn Queen is teaching her Beginning Needleturn class coming up in February, and since she won't be back from Hawaii until Monday, there will be no Applique Workshop this month.

We had just a great day today! Lots of "show and tell" or "bring and brag"! Barbara brought in this wonderful quilt she made for her husband. It was so cool the way she used prairie points in the border. Izzie and Emily got all of the BOM kits ready - more than a week ahead of schedule - hooray!! Diane came to "play" today and finished a batik top made from a new magazine we have. It came out really well! I got the binding sewn on a red/white Irish chain I've been working on. Harriet put a Valentine border with ric rac on some Huck toweling that came out fabulous!

Well, you guessed it...laundry is ready to go into dryer! More fun tomorrow with the Applique Society in the morning and some serious cleaning of the mess in the back room? Will try and get pictures of some of those new things we've been working on. Happy Friday night all!

I resolve to....

Okay, this is what I put in the latest e-mail update: "I confess at 60 years of age, I've finally realized my own abilities, and no longer make any hard core New Year's resolutions!" But that's not to say I don't have some "goals" I focus on - right? I have been trying really hard to finish some of those projects that have been hanging around the shop for too long. And we know that lots of you have been saying you want to use your "stash" for your projects. So, to that end, we put up this sign and filled the top of the bookcase with some patterns and books that are kind of "scrappy stashbusters"! And if you come across some great ideas, let us know - okay?

Well, Harriet and I had lots of fun today! First we worked a lot on the Block of the Month kits, and made quite a bit of progress. And then Izzie came at 3:00 and got the bags for the kits all ready. So my mission is to finish cutting the kits so Izzie and Emily can have a bag stuffing party Friday afternoon! We had lots of fun customers today as well. It's just so great to see some of the projects you all are working on, although I do get jealous sometimes. If I could just squeeze a bit more time out of each day.....

Later in the afternoon, Harriet and I put the chicken quilt top up behind the counter, along with the new Laurel Burch Secret Jungle panel. Oh, and we got the tickets in for Sew Expo, too. And, a really cool koi print with a couple of companions, and a couple of great prints in browns and blue from Alexander Henry came on the UPS truck.

Got to run - I brought home a few of the BOM pieces to cut here, plus I'm working on a new charm pack pattern. And, guess what? No laundry tonight. Have a wonderful evening all!

Charmed, I'm sure....

You're right, I have been very lax in my posting in 2009! Sorry about that. It's partly because I am trying hard to finish a few things that I had begun working on a while ago. I took this picture last week of a charm square pattern that I started in the Fall. Emily and I picked a background "like in the picture" on the pattern, but when I made a couple of square in square blocks - yuk! So, it got chucked into a box. I dug it out a couple of weeks ago and am proud to say that it now has borders and is over at Nikki Crisp's house waiting its turn to be quilted! Hooray!! And the red/white double Irish chain is living (with borders) over at Betsy's waiting to be quilted. And the chicken quilt only has to have the last checkerboard border put on and then it's ready for quilting. So, even though it isn't a great excuse, that's my story. (That, and I need to get Christmas off of the walls at the store and have to have something to put in its place.)

Weather....wow! I know lots of us were saying "just give us the rain back" when we had all of that snow, but this isn't exactly what we had in mind either. Hope none of you suffered any significant damage. Our basement at home stayed dry (that's where my sewing room is) and only a damp ceiling tile at the shop, so we were very fortunate.

Not a lot of freight this week - poor UPS/FedEx folks - will they ever catch up? But, the Marines did land, along with the Air Force - the Robert Kaufman fabrics. Got a few other "basics", but that was pretty much it. Tomorrow the Saturday meeting of the KT Klub happens, so that will be fun. And then I am going to do my best to get the borders on the chickens and Emily and I were looking at the "Bali Bag" as a possible project.

Have a wonderful weekend!