Stop staring and start sewing!

Who am I and what am I doing here?

Ah yes!  It's all coming back to me....

Sorry for the absence but I really needed to tie up some loose ends and gather my thoughts (it's hard to gather thoughts when you're busy trying to decide on which ones to share).  But I feel like I've actually been pretty productive and have taken some time to be a mother hen and pull my little chickies back into my nest. 

So I've been taking lots of nice walks with this great guy.  He turned 9 a couple of weeks ago and I still need to put a party together for him.  There's a riparian preserve near his school so we've been stopping there a couple times a week to walk, bird watch, and do "dinosaur digs".  It's so liberating to be outside again after spending the summer cooped up.  He's a lot of fun and he really likes me (it's very mutual).

And I've been sewing!!  I put together this teeny tiny outfit for my friend Daria (she's the creative genius behind Boutique Cafe). She's expecting a little girl in December (she has four boys!) so I knew she needed something uber feminine.  She was in town this past week so a group of us online friends got together with her and had a wonderful lunch.  Joey didn't quite understand and he asked "Now just how do you know these gals?" and I said "Well they used to be my ebay friends but now they're my Facebook friends!"  Makes perfect sense.  It's always fun to spend time with friends who love fabric!

And today I spent nearly the whole day working on these flower girl dresses and I haven't been this happy in a long time.  The bride-to-be is a young friend of ours and she has a wonderful, unconventional style so I knew I could talk her into some fun fabric!  She is using fall colors (2 weeks until the wedding!) so this Laura Gunn print was just perfect and I was thrilled when she picked it.  I even made little diaper covers to match (didn't have enough fabric for full bloomers) since the girls are under 2 years old.  She had sent me pictures of some J.Crew flower girl dresses so those were my inspiration (they have beautiful wedding clothes).

The bow took about 2 minutes to make since I just ripped the fabric so I could have frayed edges and tied a narrow piece of fabric around it.  It's pinned on so if she doesn't like it she can remove it (or move it to another part of the dress).  This was a lot of fun and just the creative therapy I needed.

I even took time to play with some new software and I have one pattern nearly ready to put together in paper format.  I'm almost past the "I'm painfully ignorant" stage and moving into the "I might sorta have the hang of this" stage.  Soon.

But for now everyone is busy getting ready for the upcoming Quilt Market (next week! ack!) and there's a lot of hub-bub in the fabric world. Patty Young has a beautiful new line, as does Sandi Henderson and they are both amazing!! Paula Prass does too but I'm waiting for a better sneak peek from her (I'll grab some great pictures at market if she doesn't give us a better look before then!).  Meg at Sew Liberated has some beautiful new patterns and a book coming out and Heather Bailey has some new patterns and fabric (and a lot of other stuff going on).  There's a lot more and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and get the low down on everyone for my post market blogging.

Here are a couple of things you need to check out!  Monica (my favorite zombie) has a gorgeous free tutorial on her site and it's definitely worth making again and again (and sharing in her flickr group).  Heather also has a beautiful tutorial up for you to try.  And Amy over at Park City Girl is getting ready to do another Blogger's Quilt Festival and there will be lots of great prizes (Fabritopia is happy to take part!). 

I'm trying to do a decent inventory count here because I'm getting dozens of new fabrics this week (your favorite collections at close-out prices, yay!) and I want to have my ducks in a row.  Oh, and the Au.then.tic collection should be shipping out this week too.  Happy!

Back soon!  Have a wonderful week!!

The birds and the bees (and fabric and thread!)

We've been enjoying some beautiful 70 degree mornings out on the back patio lately.  It's still pretty warm during the day but at least the mornings are wonderful.  Our sunflowers are starting to fade a little but apparently when the petals wither the seeds pop out.  So this little guy (gal?) enjoyed a nice breakfast with me.  He looks cute but he's actually quite vicious.  He wouldn't let any other birds near any of the flowers.

The flowers with petals also have lots and lots of bees (so far no stings yet).  I love all the fun flying things that come to visit now that we have a garden in the backyard.  I sit out there with my coffee and my feet up on the table and watch all their buzzing about.

We're getting close to the end of our big sale and here's a very pretty stack that includes lots of customers goodies.  It's so much fun to see the combinations different folks put together in their orders.  I definitely bit off more than I could chew with this sale and when I got 10 days worth of sales on the first day I knew I was in over my head.  But we are catching up and nearly ready to sit a spell.  Whew!

I normally don't enter blog drawings (I pretty much have all the fabric I need!) but I was so happy to find out I won a drawing for thread on C & T Publishing's blog!  C & T publishes all types of great crafting/sewing/knitting books (and they're just nice folks!) and Coat's and Clark has some great new threads out (and a terrific new blog) and they've revamped their spools too (much nicer!) so I couldn't resist trying for this beautiful package (50 spools!!).  Did you know Coat's and Clark owns Westminster Fibers (which includes Free Spirit and Rowan)?  There's your trivia for the day.

I've got a great tutorial planned so don't go too far!  A lot of folks asked which pattern I used for my skirt.  It's actually a pattern that I re-worked to make it simpler and faster (I made two in one day recently!) and I'm going to show you how to re-work a pattern for yourself.  Very spunky and versatile!

And run over to Gock's Frock's blog because Kristen is giving away one of her amazing skirts (scroll down the page a bit) and I think there's still time to try for it! 

Oh and I almost forgot!  It's my 2nd blogversary!!  Here's my first post and introduction (if you want to know how to pronounce my name, it's there!).  Still having fun!

Snazzing it up for a wedding

I made this skirt a few weeks ago and I really like it because you just can't go wrong with cute fabric (that's my motto anyway).  But I'm going to a wedding today and I want to look a little more zippy so I've decided to spruce it up just a bit.

Here are the trims I've picked out of my stash.  I know the blue is not a perfect match but that's what I like about it.  I'm not using a lot and it will give it a nice contrast instead of just blending in with all of the other colors.

Okay, this is more like it!  I'm not falling all over my self about it but it's definitely an improvement.  The lace is a little old fashiony but I think the blue trim helps keep it from looking too blah.  See those shoes?  They cost me 2.50!!  The blouse was 19.00 on sale at J. Jill which is not a steal but it matches a lot of my new skirts so it's definitely a find (and I used a gift certificate so it was basically free).  Sorry about the frown (I'm concentrating!).

Easy peasy and cheap too!  Okay, time to go get ready!  I hope you're having a great weekend! 

Laboring on Labor Day, and that's okay

Still working hard here but remembering to do this:

Cut, stack, pack, repeat often.

And then we get to have friends over for ice cream sundaes! Hard work should be rewarded!

Happy Monday world!  And Happy Labor Day to my fellow Americans!

Swamped baby!

I just wanted to pop in and say "hi".....Hi!! I decided to have a massive sale (biggest ever) in the store to clear up some space here before Quilt Market next month and I underestimated the response so we are totally freaking out a bit overwhelmed here but I didn't want to just disappear.

Besides, I got a wonderful gift in the mail 2 days ago and I've been wanting to show it to you! Scott Hansen, my pal over at Blue Nickel Studios, asked for my address stating he wanted to send me a little trifle (he was very clear that I should expect a "trifle" and not a "truffle", which is also nice as long as it's the chocolate kind and not the mushroom kind because that would be a disappointment to get a mushroom in the mail when you're expecting chocolate, don't you think?).  I was thrilled to receive a super artsy envelope (drawings on both sides!) and inside was a Mary Engelbreit envelope (Scott's a huge fan too) and in that was a miniature calendar with pictures of the mountains of Washington State (did I tell I got to watch Mt. Saint Helens erupt in 1980?). Totally appropriate and such a thoughtful gift.  But the best part is the holder he put it in. This amazing quilted pocket goes in my "most treasure items" collection. One, because it was one of those acts of kindness that reached me at a time when it could not be more appreciated, and two, because Scott's going to be a super famous published quilter some day and I'll have an original creation which will be worth thousands on ebay to cherish.  Thank you Scott!

Dude can quilt.

I have one more pretty picture to share.  This is The Grotto in Portland.  It's a Catholic church that is carved out of the side of a mountain.  We used to go here a lot when I was growing up, especially for Easter Mass.  It's really one of the most beautiful and serene places I've ever been to.  If you live in Portland and just want to go somewhere to be quiet and reflect (regardless of your religious affiliation, seriously they don't check to make sure you're a card carrying member because if they did they would see that my card expired over 20 years ago!) this is the place to do it (you could probably even bring your hand stitching with you!).  Ignore my thumb in the upper left corner please.  Beautiful.  Moss covered steps and mile high trees all around.

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!  Don't forget to sew something and if you don't need anything then sew something for someone else and make their day!