Day off.....

So, here's the conversation this morning at our house:
Me ~ It's raining =(
Him ~ Yeah, that's how I knew it was your day off!
Seems like it rains more times than not when I get a day off lately. Oh well, I have LOTS of end of the month/beginning of the month "stuff" to do. Maybe the sun will come out and we can ride our bikes to the post office and mail the bills later!

I put up a picture of Day #3 of our Sizzling Summer Sale ~ that's Jan measuring fabric for a customer. It was a really busy, fun day. Thanks to everyone who came and shopped with us. Yes, we still have a little fabric left!

And this next picture is what I did last night. Tracey showed me a few things about preparing my hexagons, so I sat down last night and got some ready to sew together. We were just cutting scraps we had to try it out....wish I'd thought more about how I wanted these to look. Think I'll have yellow centers and make a few flowers in a couple of colors and put a neutral border around? Maybe I'll turn each flower into a pin cushion? That might be fun. Do you have any ideas?

Okay, washing machine just stopped....off to toss clothes in the dryer. Have a great Sunday!

Sizzling.....

No...the weather wasn't exactly "sizzling" today, but we are done with Day #2 of our Sizzling Summer Sale @ Fab-Etc. Just one day left. It's been lots of fun seeing so many of you the last few days! I just love all of the happy sounds of people creating!! One more day and then it's history for 2011.

What else is new? Well.....we are pretty excited about an English Paper Piecing Die Set we just got for the Accuquilt Studio. We actually have two sizes coming, but the first one arrived yesterday. What makes this unique, is that there are two dies in each set. One of the dies cuts the papers to the exact size and the other cuts the fabric to match the paper dies. There was a momentary break in the action this afternoon, so Emily and I quickly fired up the iron, grabbed the bag of 30's scraps and a sheet of cardstock and away we went. In less than 1/2 hour, we had papers and fabric ready to go. Tomorrow morning, Tracey is coming in to the shop to meet some customers for her quilting business. Wait! She has done this before! I'll get her to show me how to get those papers and fabrics prepped so I can sit in my chair on the patio and sew hexagons together this weekend =) Shhhhh.....don't tell her ~ okay? I'll post some pics to show you how I'm doing.

Tomorrow should be another fun day. Jan, Alicia, Diane and I will be having lots of fun cutting fabric for customers. The weather looks like it's going to be fabulous. If you get a chance, enjoy the sunshine and come pet fabric. What a great combo!!

Abundantly.....

This little project that Tracey did is called "Abundantly Blessed". I must admit, it just dawned on me as I sat down to write this why the designers probably called it that. It's a raw edge cathedral ceiling....get it, Carol...."cathedral"...."blessed"? Anywho, it's a really fun topper. You just sew charm squares together; layer them; quilt a bit; sew the cream on top; quilt some more and trim and wash. You'll have to take a look see in person next time you are in. And yes, we do have the patterns in stock.

Today ~ Jan, Emily and I got things moved around and set up for the sale starting tomorrow. I marked down a table full of Clearance fabrics in the back and we tried to make the store more navigable. John's going to come with me in the morning and help me get signs up and put up our "still shopping" table. Plus, I need to finish vacuuming the floors so we can mess them up again! I can't wait ~ getting to see all of the customers and their projects and the laughter just makes for one fun day!

Hope you got to enjoy the Vitamin D today.....we just got back from a ride with the top down. Went to Fairhaven to the bus (Fairhaven Fish Co.) right before closing to get some halibut and chips ~ can you say, "YUM!" Well, I still have a few loose ends to tie up before tomorrow, so I'll close. Hope to see lots of you for the sale! Night.

Winding Ways.....

Last week we finally got a chance to catch our breath and try out a few things. One of the projects we've had on the "we really want to do" list has been to play around with some of the dies on the Accuquilt. So.....Emily picked out these two fabrics and using the Winding Ways die cut this little project out in less than 1/2 hour! Don't you just love the way it looks. It's been super busy around here since then, so we haven't had a chance to sew it together. But at least one of our customers that used this die has told us that they go together pretty slick. The die cuts off your "dog ears" plus makes notches for you to match up the two pieces. How cool is that? Thought we might get a chance to "play" yesterday, but alas, too busy again. (Not that we are complaining, mind you. We LOVE having lots of customers to help!!) With the Sizzling Summer Sale coming up Thursday-Saturday, this will probably have to wait until next week to get sewn together.

What else is new? We got a gorgeous group from Moda at the end of the week - Dogwood Trail. You guessed it....Dogwood blossoms....you guys are so smart! A few "basics" have arrived, including some white on white snowflakes and Fairy Frost in silvers. The latest "Stitch" magazine is here too and don't forget this is the last week to take 25% off ALL books and magazines as part of the Fabric-Etc Summer Reading Program.

Okay, clock is ticking. Best get ready to head over to the shop for another day of fabric fun....I LOVE my job!!

Stop! Don't toss that out.....

I mentioned the other day about the selvedge quilt that Tracey made. Well, this is a picture of it. Isn't it really cool?? It would make the most fun little topper or hanging for your sewing room. Or a great coffee table conversation piece. If there's enough interest, Tracey said she'd be willing to teach the class for us and even provide you with the marked foundation to get you started. So, "Stop!" Don't toss those selvedges in the trash....it could be the start of your next fun project. She says you should save about 1" - 1 1/2". And actually, both the selvedge with the writing and the one without are useful. Tracey found that having some of the spots without writing gave your eye a spot to "rest" in the quilt and came in quite handy. Let us know if you're interested in a class - would probably be later in the Fall. I know I've been saving selvedges and would be willing to share or trade!

Well, summer came today! I was sure it would be such a quiet day at the shop that I didn't even schedule any help. I had a list a mile long of tidy, tidy kind of projects, along with a quilt to square up and sew binding to. Was I ever wrong. It was a very busy day. Not much tidying got done, but I did get the binding sewn on and had lots of fun visiting with the customers!

What's your Sunday looking like? I cooked some potatoes and hard cooked some eggs tonight 'cause I have a craving for potato salad (nothing says summer like potato salad - right?) So, I'll be making some of that in the morning and doing a little laundry and tidying around here. Then, maybe some sitting outside and sewing binding or a ride in the classic Mustang convertible or a walk or bike ride in the summer sun? Whatever your day holds, hope it's super!!

Time in....

Break's over for now....it's back to the world of fabric for me! This is a picture of the topper Emily made - it's one of our Dollar Menu patterns called "Emily's Easy Tabletopper". We named it that because she made one for her Mom similar to this a few years ago. It works great to showcase larger prints and goes together beautifully. This one is made using a Moda group of Fall prints. Aren't they warm and inviting?

It was a fun day at Fab-Etc today. Jan has been quilting on that Floralicious quilt...it's looking really great. (She won a ribbon at the Fair a few years ago for her quilting....I love to call her the award winning quilter!) Emily found two fabrics and cut out some Winding Ways blocks using the Accuquilt....now to sew them together. They look really cool. I love how the secondary designs show through. And I was quilting a "quick and easy" baby/child quilt. Just have the borders to do and then binding. Yippee! Tracey popped in at the end of the day to drop off the quilt she made using selvedges from a book we carry. Think she may teach a class for us, so start saving and begging your friends for selvedges. It's a very fun project....pictures soon! And speaking of classes....looks like Jan will be doing a 60 degree runner class for a few gals August 9th. let us know if you'd like to join the fun - ok?

Okay...today has seemed like Monday all day, but it's Wednesday already...how did that happen? Guess that's what happens when you take a time out?!? Hope your week has been good. I'm going to go down and sew binding or work on my pressing matter from a few days ago. Have a super evening!

Time out....

I took some "time out" yesterday and today to do some family stuff. We left Monday morning to go to our daughter Lydia's (who shares a duplex with our oldest son, Pete.) 14 yards of gravel were scheduled to be delivered and we were going to have some family bonding time spreading it in their driveway! This first picture is of our oldest grandson, Lukas, getting off of the summer school bus shortly before this big truck in the second picture arrived! As you can see, Pete has some ideas about the dumping of the gravel. And the next picture is Luke's brother, Benson, who looks like he's not too sure about all of this. But, as you can see, all 14 yards of the gravel ended up in a nice row on the driveway...waiting for us to shovel and rake. This next picture is Benson and his Grandpa working on the pile. But this trip wasn't just about gravel in the driveway. We were all getting together to celebrate Lukas' 10th birthday this week. After the gravel was spread, Uncle Pete grilled us some burgers and our other son, Dave and daughter-in-law, Nikki and two kiddos joined us for Luke's birthday party. (We are so thankful to have Lukas with us for another birthday. He was diagnosed with cancer shortly before his 2nd birthday. I know many of you ask about him....he's in his 4th round of chemo in an experimental study that seems to be holding things "mostly stable" for now.) I also had to put this picture of Luke and Benson's cousin, Cody who spiked his hair for the occasion - how cute is he?!? His baby sister, Ellie, was there too and Lydia and I were taking turns holding her when we got the chance. Today, we went back over to the house and Uncle Dave helped us trim down the giant laurel hedge to a more manageable size until the rain ended our fun! And here we are, home again, home again!

So, I took two days off! Harriet, Jan and Emily kept things running ever so smoothly at Fabric-Etc for me this week. I'll be back at it tomorrow....in fact, after all of that manual labor, I think I need to go back to work to rest up!! More fabric news tomorrow. Time out is over for now! (FYI...sometimes Blogger doesn't always put these photos up in the way I have them arranged here, so sorry if they got confused when I posted this.)

It's a pressing matter....

I wanted to show you a picture of Emily's tabletopper she finished last week, but rats, I forgot to take a picture of it on Saturday! I wasn't really ready for the unveiling of these yet, but you can see my WIP (work in progress). There are 12 very scrappy houses in this project. I have all 12 of them laid out and ready to stitch together. In fact, I did stitch one of them together. There are scrappy blocks surrounding the houses that kind of form a chain around them and then those green and brown ones go with some others to form a border of sorts. Problem? Well.....I get teased and even chastised sometimes for pressing my seams open. So, I've been trying to be very "quilty" and not do that unless a whole mess of them come together and might form a big lump! Sometimes, when I am doing scrappy stuff, I'm just not sure where the pieces will end up and which way I might want to join them to the next block, etc. This pattern, unfortunately, has no directions on how to press your seams on all of these scrappy blocks. I have left my houses in pieces and started making two-patches that will eventually be joined with their brothers and sisters to make the surrounding blocks, so I can maybe decide how to press my scrappy houses and scrappy outside borders. Now, if I'd have pressed the seams all open......okay, I didn't so I must figure this thing out. Whew.....that was a big explanation for why this is a WIP, I guess!! Hopefully, you will see it done soon and I can tell you how to press your seams if you want to make this. (Hopefully, I won't be sadly telling you how NOT to press your seams!)

What a gray day it was.....and the rest of the country sweltering in record heat! I had some snips I took off of my fuchsia to try and encourage it to bush out more. I stuck them in a glass of water on the window sill and low and behold they're getting roots! I was going to stick them in a pot today, but it just was too drizzly to get out there. So, I've been fiddling around with this and that. How's your weekend been?

This week we'll be working on a few WIP at the shop.....maybe even starting a few more! Pop in and say hello and check up on us if you're in the neighborhood. Think I'll head down to the sewing room and work on my pressing matter! Night all.

Floralicious.......

How's your Thursday? I know....where did summer go? Well, I thought you could use something bright and cheerful to look at today! This is a pattern we've had for a while called "Sidelights". A week or so ago, I got to thinking that maybe the new fabric line from Benartex called Floralicious ~ fun name ~ would look good made up like this. I think it was last Wednesday before and after Tea Party that Jan and Emily put their cute little heads together and came up with most of this. Then, Alicia popped in last Friday and helped us finalize the choices. Isn't it just fun!?! Makes you want to smile even if it isn't sunny and bright outside. It's just up on the design wall, but I think Jan may have an idea or two about how to quilt it next week ~ we'll see!

Emily and I had another hoppin' day here at Fab-Etc. Lots of customers in the sewing mood! Not much freight ~ just the three newest titles from Martingale Publishing (That Patchwork Place). Didn't get much of a chance to peruse them, but I guess I better, since they're 25% off and might be gone soon!

Tomorrow? Well, I'm caught up on my fabric scans for the virtual fabric flash drives, and I'm going down in a few minutes to sew the last two borders on my tree quilt. Emily finished the binding on her tabletopper today. I've been playing with some houses and have another quick and easy (!) kiddo project in the works, so we'll see what other kind of mischief we can get into tomorrow. Guess we need to set up for the Applique Society meeting on Saturday and I could find batting and a back for the tree quilt. At any rate, it'll be another fun day at "the happy place" as Tracey likes to call it! Pop in if you're in the neighborhood!

More finished.....

As promised, here's a picture of another finished project. Except, as I wrote the word finished, I just remembered that there's a spool of red thread in there with the mini iron 'cause I needed to stitch the handles once more by machine. So, I guess we'd better say almost finished to be totally accurate! Anywho....this is the smaller version of the Iron Caddy pattern I showed you a few weeks ago. This fits your smaller travel size or craft size irons. And just like its big sister, opens flat to provide you with an ironing surface. Pictured with it is the new Dritz travel iron. Hey, guess what? It actually heats up and even has a little steam to go with it....imagine that? An iron that heats up! Okay, I am being a bit facetious, but some of you may realize that a few of the mini irons don't really heat up much. We tested this baby when it came in and it gets pretty darn hot. Back to the finished part ~ we have the patterns for the Travel Iron Tote and we also have a couple of the travel irons in stock. [BTW...don't you just love that fabric? That's the Artful Home line by Anka's Treasures (Heather Mulder Peterson). I still want to make something bigger with it.]

Yesterday was BUSY at the shop! I had a sales rep who carries lots of lines, which left our Emily alone at the counter for a lot of the day and she was kept on her toes helping customers with me jumping in at the crazier moments to help her out. Thanks, Emily ~ you're living up to the Fabette professional image (inside Fabette humor!)

We got some batiks yesterday because we certainly wouldn't want to run out of them! Okay, so they can't fit in the racks yet, but we're working on that! Today, Jan, Emily and I are going to tidy up and then work on a few projects we've got "in process". If you're in our neighborhood, pop in and see what's cookin' on the design wall! Okay, off to find appropriate clothing and then to the shop. Happy Tuesday!

Finished.....

Remember how I said I actually finished a few things? Well, this is one of them. It's from the book "Strip-Smart Quilts" by Kathy Brown. When we got the book here at Fab-Etc, we all did the usual - scan through and see what we liked and didn't like! When we got to the page with this quilt, we all said ~ wait a minute ~ we have that fabric!! Yes, this fabric is called "Ella" from Red Rooster Fabrics. And I made this quilt just like the one in the book, except that I wanted it to be a square instead of a rectangle to fit on my round table. You could make it bigger or smaller quite easily. It was really fun to make. It's done with strips (duh - Strip-Smart Quilts made with strips!) and I used a Companion Angle ruler. Went together in a jiffy and looks great, don't you think? Tracey did a fantastic job quilting it for me. But, then, Shop Hop happened before I could get the binding sewn on, so I sewed it on to the front and Linda just pinned it to the back for me so we could hang it up. Didn't lay exactly as pretty as it does now, but folks got the idea. And did it ever feel good to FINISH something! Oh, and if you're interested, we still have some books ~ and we're also having a Summer Reading Program with books and magazines 25% off in July!

Today was another happy day at Fabric-Etc. Emily and I were hopping helping customers. Alicia popped in for something and helped us arrange, rearrange and obsess over something Emily and Jan started after the Tea Party Wednesday. I think they may finally have it to where we like it and can start sewing! The 4-H group met this afternoon with some young ladies having a lot of fun creating.

Hope your weekend holds at least one or two fun things. I am at the shop by myself tomorrow. The Baltimore Halloween class is happening in the morning and if it isn't too busy, maybe I can get a few things sewn on that "presents" quilt I showed you earlier. I also brought home the Paris In The Fall quilt so I can FINISH something else ~ it also had the binding just pinned to the back for Shop Hop =)

Have a super weekend, whatever yours has in store for you! I'm going to show you at least one more thing I've finished too. (Just promise not to ask if I've started anything else ~ okay?!?)

It's a tea party.....

It is the first Wednesday of the month, so you know what that means. Yup, Tea Party Wednesday as Jan likes to call it! We had such a fun time. I always wish I could record all of the happy voices and laughs and play them for you here. We get to see "Show and Tell" (aka "Bring and Brag") and got to hear about adventures everyone has been having. And of course, there's Jan's fantabulous scones (recipe linked on our website). Oh yes, and a spot of tea!

What else? Well, Emily and Jan are playing with the new group "Floralicious" and the pattern "Sidelights". It's still a WIP (work in progress) that we'll be obsessing over choices for at least a few more days =) Our dear UPS driver brought a single bolt of silver Christmas cardinals from Hoffman. We're also fiddling around with some Lakehouse fabric we got last week, but have to wait for the next few bolts to arrive before we do anything definite!

Haven't the last few days been just glorious weather-wise? John and I had a burger in the sun after work tonight and travelled in the classic Mustang convertible. Ahhhhhhhhh............ I needn't say anything more. I'll have pics in the next few days of a few things I've actually finished. Yes, you read that correctly - I actually finished something. Hooray! Does that mean I can start three or four more?!?

Happy Independence Day......

Happy Independence Day to all of you in the United States and Happy Fourth of July to everyone! I commented to John this morning that it was so unusual to have "summer" on the 4th of July instead of the 5th of July (Pacific Northwest humor!) We were enjoying our morning beverages (me=coffee/him=tea) and looking at his latest retirement project - staining our fence and the boards I have my potted plants on next to the garage. He asked me if I'd seen my "volunteer" behind the garage. This first pic is my "compost" barrel. (I'm not a really great composter, but I like to put my veggie scraps in this old garbage can and turn the dirt as much as possible. My potted plants seem to like it each year.) Anyway.....every summer, my Mom would always grow Portulaca (Desert Rose) and share with me. They seem to come back every year and the seeds have gotten in everything. So, somehow this guy decided to "bloom where he wasn't planted" and found a way to soak up the sun. He's pretty far down in the barrel, so I am going to have to leave him there I think. The other picture is of one of my pots of his brothers and sisters waiting for their board to dry so I can put them back up. They are beautiful when they bloom during the day and close up at

night. Always reminds me of my Mom. Been missing her a lot lately - Shop Hop was hard this year. It was always one of her favorite things to be the night stamp station helper. She loved seeing all of the people and giving her little "speech" about our block. She would have loved seeing that volunteer Desert Rose poking out of the barrel!

What are your plans for today? I brought a binding home that I've been sewing on. I brought the fabrics for a house quilt project I started making roofs for. I baked blueberry buckle yesterday, Greek orzo salad and Harriet's yummy marinated carrot dish "Copper Pennies". So, think I might just kick back, play a little, wash a little, work a little, sew a little. Should be a little bit of heaven day! Hope yours is a safe and fun one!