Tree hugger....

Okay, call me a tree hugger, but I really enjoyed playing with this project! The line of fabric is called "Jovial" and you can't tell, but the project is three dimensional. The little pinwheels are made with 3-D prairie points and the trees are loose too! (You also can't tell, but the borders aren't sewn on yet.) The pattern calls for something like 36 trees, but with Shop Hop breathing down my neck and not having a huge area to display, I went with 16 trees to hug. We still have all of the fabrics. The glossy patterns are sold out, but I'm trying to get more. You can also download the pattern for free at the Moda website. http://www.unitedntions.com/ It's under Fun Stuff....Free Patterns....Quilting.

Well....I wrote all of that and a bunch more last night before Blogger went down. Grrrrr....lost the rest of the post this morning when I tried it. What was it I was saying that was sooooo important?

Oh, I think it was that Emily was working on a Fall runner using her Emily's Easy Table Topper pattern from the Fabric-Etc Dollar Menu. And Jan's been playing around with some 60 degree runners and hexagons to tempt you into using some of the great new stripes we've gotten.

I'm taking a few hours off this morning. 10 or 11 days in a row has me feeling all of my 63 years! Looking forward to the Independence Day holiday (we are closed July 4th). We don't have any big plans - how about you?

It's a gift.....

Well, we survived Shop Hop 2011 and lived to tell the tale! It was loads of fun, as always. There were over 1600 "hoppers" through the store in just five days. Whew! This was one of the projects we had on the design wall during Hop (well, it's still there now 'cause it isn't sewn together yet.) The fabric line is "Flurry" from Moda. There's a free pattern at the Moda website. It was really easy and a lot of fun to make. Their project is bigger, but I decided to make mine with just nine presents - after all, there are nine of us that work here at Fabric-Etc! Alicia says she's going to make tags for them. Fun, huh?

We are kind of in recovery mode after that many folks through the shop, but Emily, Izzie and I did manage to get most things kind of back in order. We have "leftover" block kits that are for sale @ 92 cents each ($1.00 with tax). Shoot us an e-mail or phone call if you're interested and we'll mail one out to you. Plus, we have a few kits left for that tumbler bag with our block I showed you a few days ago and patterns for both the bag and the wall hanging we designed.

Hope your weekend was good whether you were hopping or not. The weather seemed pretty darn nice every time I got a chance to step out the door! Well, I confess to being tired after eight days in a row at the shop, so I am going to finish a little paper work and head for my pillow soon. More "fun stuff" soon! Night.

Ready or not......

Well, ready or not, here come the "hoppers"! We moved things around, got the stamp station ready and tried to make the place a little more presentable (but I still have quite a list for "we'll do that in the morning"!) It will be a really fun five days at the shop.

This is a picture of another Fabette collaboration project. Diane had this idea and started on it. Sadly, her husband lost his struggle with a blood disorder turned leukemia. So, we HAD to finish it for her. We changed, rearranged and tweaked until we came up with this....she hasn't been in yet, so we really hope she'll like the finish to her start! We do not have kits for it, but do have a pattern.....it's mostly Hop fabric, but it would be cute in so many different fabrics. Wouldn't it be a fun addition to your sewing room? It's hanging behind the counter with its bag friend from yesterday.

Okay....I've been printing, printing - newsletters, passports, patterns and now I have to do some signs. So, I am going to "sign off" for tonight. Hope you got a minute to enjoy the glorious first day of summer we had! Night all.

I'm still here.....

Sorry....I AM still here, just been so busy getting ready for Shop Hop! We got the kits bagged up nice and early - not sure if that was a good thing or not! It seems that it meant we felt we had all kinds of time to "create" fun things before Shop Hop. This bag is one of them. We used the Tumbler Bag pattern we came up with a few weeks ago; added our Shop Hop Block and Shop Hop prints and voila. We've cut some kits and it's created quite a stir. Of course, since it's Hop fabrics, we cannot sell any of them until Wednesday, so we've been taking pre-orders for the kits. Give us a shout/e-mail if you're interested in purchasing one. They're $22.95 and include everything - even that great Fabric-Etc emblem that Alicia digitized for us!

My head is spinning with everything we want to get done to set up tomorrow. We'll be taking down almost all of our models and rearranging things; setting up a stamp station; clearing the decks for customers. I'll try and post some pictures of some of the new things we've been "playing" with for you. New fabrics have arrived - mostly "Ho, Ho, Ho" stuff! Those lighted seam rippers have come in and are selling like hotcakes!

Yes....I know.....it's late...but I have clothes in the dryer and the dishwasher to run and some patterns to print and.......life will slow waaaaaay down next week - right? Hope you're set to enjoy the summer sun headed our way in the Pacific Northwest! I'll post more pics tomorrow - promise!

Done....

Okay....I tried to get Blogger to upload my photo, but it seems to be taking the day off! Will try again. Seems somewhat apropos, though. I just got through saying to my husband a few hours ago, that I was sitting there in my chair on the patio telling myself that it was okay to be sitting and doing nothing. I confess, I seem to have a problem with relaxing lately. Could it be that fast approaching Shop Hop breathing down my neck? Hmmmm...... I need to do a better job at letting go, don't I?

Anyway, the picture, which I will post soon, is of a batik quilt done in black background and jewel tones. It's the same quilt we did 5 years ago, only in 30's prints with a snow white background. Couldn't get much different, could it? I'm not as thrilled as I thought I'd be with the outcome, but it still looks good. Maybe I've just had my nose up too close to it lately.....you know, the "can't see the forest for the trees" thing?!? Betsy from Nautilus Longarm quilted the first one five years ago and she's going to do this one too. I'm hoping to hang them both for Shop Hop and call it the Tale of Two Quilts or something....

Hope you're enjoying your weekend. John's got a retirement project going - building a shed attached to the back of our garage. So, I've been "on call" to hold things like levels and boards and shovel a bit of concrete in a hole. Fun!

Going to try the picture one more time, then fix some dinner. I'm looking forward to a great week playing with fabric at the happy place!

This is hot.....

This is a project I've been working on over the weekend. It's a great iron caddy. See the button? Well there's another one just like it on the back side of this. What you have when it's unbuttoned is a flat surface to iron on! That's right - it's insulated with Insulbrite and has Teflon as the lining. So that means you can fashionably tote your iron with you; open the caddy and commence to iron on the Teflon lined caddy. When you're done, just cool the iron a bit; fold up your tote; button in your iron and away you go! Pretty great, huh? We have the patterns at the shop as well as the Insulbrite (pattern comes with Teflon, but we have more if you want to make more than one.) There's also a travel iron size caddy that I want to try out next.

Whew....we got more fabric again today. Mostly Ho, Ho, Ho stuff but also a cute group from Benartex called Florilicious. It's bright and fun and homeless at the moment! Need to do some serious fabric squishing. We worked on samples today in between customers and sales reps. Emily is working on a version of my tumbler tote that incorporates Shop Hop fabric and our Hop block. Jan and I were the cheerleaders and Jan was the "Quilting Mama" consultant. (I know, we really DO have too much fun at work!)

Okay...got to get back to work. Have some orders to do and I'm supposed to be writing directions for some of these fun projects we've dreamed up! Have a super night.

She's an angel....

So, now that it feels like Spring outside with the hope of summer to come, I was sure you'd want to think about Christmas! Right? No, not really, but I thought I should show you one of the two Advent calendar panels we have right now because they are selling rather quickly and I can't get any more. This angel is so sweet and the other one is a really cute train. So....you've been informed!

How's your Sunday? So nice to see sunshine, isn't it? (Anyone reading this that's not been in the Pacific Northwest this Spring....we've had a record dark, cool, damp one, so sunshine is much appreciated!) John's been on a pressure washing mission this weekend. WOW...who knew our little patio area could look so nice. I'm sure it made my planters feel so much happier that they'll take off and bloom like crazy! =)

I think I'll take turns doing inside and outside things today. Going to be sending an e-mail update later,transplanting some marigolds, stitching a bit on an iron caddy pattern and finishing the hanging sleeve on our angel. Got dinner in the crock pot and a trip to the grocery store may be needed, but all in all, what a great Sunday. Hope yours is good too!

More tumbler fun.....

Haven't had the time to blog yet this week! At Fab-Etc, we've been on a marathon of getting ready for our "bag stuffing" party tomorrow morning. We've been cutting and folding and stacking and stamping and printing. Then, tomorrow, as many of the staff that can make it are going to stuff directions, and fabric into 2,000 bags and put them to bed until June 22nd - hallelujah! This picture, though, is one of the things I've been playing with when I need a break from all of the Shop Hop fun. Remember that great tumbler quilt Jan was making and then we kitted after Nikki quilted it for us? Well, there were "leftovers" from the project. Some were just odds and ends of the pieces from the large tumblers we cut for the kits. The light bulb went on for both Harriet and I about the same time - we could run them through the Accuquilt Studio on the smaller tumbler die - WOW! Hmmm....what would we do with them then? I know, how about a bag? So, I've been fiddling around with the smaller tumblers and came up with this bag. It's pretty darn fun, don't you think? The plan is, after we get the block kits done, I'll write up the directions, maybe cut some more tumblers and fix a few kits for anyone that might be interested. We may try it out of a few other prints as well. Maybe even Shop Hop prints? Okay....need to focus until we get those Shop Hop block kits put to bed in the back room!

Did you hear about the possibility of sun and warmer weather this weekend? Yippee! And even on Sunday, my day off! Think I'll try and get all of the "inside" work done in the next day or so and maybe have a few "outside" things I can do over the weekend. What do all of you have planned?