Twelve Moons...

This is a picture (taken by holding the camera over my head - can you tell?) of a project that Diane made for us before the Tour. It's by Robert Kaufman and is called Twelve Moons. When my sales rep showed this to me, I just had to get everything to do the hanging. It's very striking in person. About half of it is made from cutting apart a panel, and then the rest is different fabrics set in. It's such a simple design, but so effective! We made up some kits before the Tour, and then made a few more, so we do have some left if you're interested.

Today was good. Linda and I kept pretty busy. She's been helping me get the store a bit more Spring-like by moving a few things around. It's looking good. We got new magazines today and the fabric I ordered to help Meridian High School make some bags for a Career Fair they're having in a few weeks. Tomorrow Harriet and I are going to use the mats and rotary cutters to help them cut so they're ready to sew.

Got to run...payroll checks to write, newsletter to finish and a few odds and ends to tie up. Happy Wednesday!

Business as usual....

Well, the goldfish have all been eaten, the tables are back in the class area along with the chairs, and everything is pretty much back to normal after the Quilt Tour (well, as normal as it ever gets around Fab-Etc!) Now, I will have a chance to show you a few of the great things we've been working on in between getting ready for last week. This isn't a very good picture - don't know why I didn't get a picture before I put it up on the wall. Anyway, this is one of the projects from the Anka's Treasures book "On the Run". It's filled with some great runner patterns using different kinds of pre-cuts, or your scraps. We made this one from the April Cornell charm pack we have. Isn't it fresh looking? It's very spring-like!

It was a good day today...off and on crazy and quiet. I went around and tried to write down the new stuff so I could put it in the April newsletter - gosh, April - that sounds weird. How did that sneak up on us? And Sunday is Easter, believe it or not!

Well, I have some things to catch up on and maybe a little sewing time tonight? More of our new projects in the next few days - ok?

Quilt Tour Day 4....

Well, we've put another Quilt Tour under our belts! It was loads of fun. We had over 500 folks come through the shop the last four days. They all seemed to be having the best of times, too. This is a picture from this morning of Tracey explaining the ins and outs of our quilt. I left the quilt up tonight when we locked up and John and I will go back tomorrow and put the tables back up in the class area for the 4-H'ers on Monday. (They had to miss their regular meeting on Friday because of the Tour.) We'll leave THE QUILT up for a while for those of you who didn't get to see it in person that might be passing through. The pattern for our block is still available, but according to the "rules" we have to charge for it. It will be $1.00 starting Monday. Thanks so much to all of you for coming by to visit and see our version of the 2010 Smooth Sailing quilt.

Next week we'll be working on tidying up and playing with a few projects, including our block for the Shop Hop in June. Right now, I think I'll go put my feet up for a while and hit the hay early tonight. Have a great weekend!

Quilt Tour day one....

What a fun day this was - first day of the Quilt Tour! Lots of you came by and picked up the pattern for our fish block, ate a few Goldfish (crackers, that is), and visited with us for a bit. We're glad so many of you like our version of Smooth Sailing 2010. As usual, I forgot to take any pictures today...maybe tomorrow? We still have lots of patterns and goldfish, and we're giving away prizes with winning receipts, so why not pop in and see us. Tour is through Saturday, and we're open from 9 am to 7 pm.

On a family note....are any of you out there Sounders fans? Our oldest son, Pete is a fan. He even has season tickets this year. Pete's also a musician/producer. He had a band that was signed to a label over 10 years ago and they recently "reunited" for a few shows in Seattle and Europe and are playing some music together again. Well....they have a song "The Last Song" that is going to be played at the opening game tomorrow at Qwest field! Here's a link to an article and video about it. http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-413-Seattle-Soccer-Examiner~y2010m3d24-Emerald-City-Supporters-supply-background-vocals-on-Grammatrains-The-Last-Sound How cool is that?!?

Okay...I am tired. A bit of bookwork and then off to bed for me! Hope you can come by this week!

Something's fishy....

Yup, that's the Fab-Etc block....fish swimming in the sea! They're fun to make, in fact we made a few extra for our quilt. Their fins and tails are done with the "curved back piecing" technique.

And then without further ado (and because I'm going to be pretty busy tomorrow night getting the last minute "stuff" ready for Wednesday) this is the picture of the Team Fab-Etc Smooth Sailing quilt. We hope you like it. Ever since the group decided on a nautical theme, I just couldn't get the idea of a round quilt out of my head. The porthole idea just kind of evolved from there. Remember you can click on the picture and see it bigger. If you do, you'll see some of the "add-ons" we did. We put pilings under the pelican, added sand at the bottom, a beach along one side, a kite, some seagulls in the sky, a beach ball and umbrella, some flip flops on the beach, beach blanket and beach towel (thanks, Tracey!), a beach bag, some kelp and starfish, some Virginia Reel waves by the lighthouse, and of course the plane flying in the sky pulling the Fabric-Etc banner. Then, we enclosed it with a covered piping border and put some "rivets" made with buttons and brass painted washers! Team work has paid off once again at Fabric-Etc....the collaboration of the staff is what made this a fun project, and not work! We hope you'll get a chance to come and see it in person!

Okay....laundry going and quite a few odds and ends to attend to before Wednesday at 9:00. Have a good evening!

Crab cakes....

I don't know about you, but I LOVE fresh crab! Jan's family likes to go crabbing and she's shared some of their bounty with me before - yum! So....this is the block from the gals at Tangled Threads in Lynden. Well, the crab, the kelp and the spool are the block. I asked Diane to shrink the crab as much as possible so he'd fit the design, and she did a magnificent job! I shrunk the spool and kelp and he was awaiting his placement on the quilt. This was the very last block we did, and something about where we were going to put it just wasn't sitting right with Team Fab-Etc. Then, the Friday before we had to have it ready Harriet called and said she knew what to do with Crabby - he needed to be in a crab pot! What a stroke of genius!! Now, how to accomplish it? Jan and Alicia were up to the challenge. (Me, I wasn't even sure what a modern crab pot looked like.) In the matter of a few hours, they had found the materials and built a crab pot for him using the spool as bait! The purple starfish was Alicia's addition to the pot. Isn't it just the best?!?

Yesterday was kind of quiet at the shop. I managed to do a revision on my grandson Cody's curtains I made for his room at Christmas. And then his parents (our son Dave and his wife Nikki) are going to bring him by this afternoon to see if he approves! Yippee!!

We're on the home stretch now for finishing what we can before The Tour starts. Put the borders on the daisy quilt this morning and stitched the binding on the blue/yellow topper last night. Going to try and get some petals up on the design wall for Wednesday. So, the next couple of days will be spruce the place up time!

Hope your Sunday is lovely!

Anchored in place....

Here's the block from Aunt Mary's in Smokey Point. We shrunk it a bit and used a "real" cord. We secured it with fusible web, but it could be hand or machine appliqued. It was already set in sand, so that fit perfectly with where we wanted it in our quilt. I think I mentioned that I saw their quilt on Carrol's blog http://auntmarysquiltshop.blogspot.com/ It is really gorgeous!

I'm posting Saturday morning before I head over to the shop because we made a trip yesterday afternoon to Bothell to see our 6 year old grandson, Benson, in his "singing debut" as our daughter called it. He sang "Hey There Little Miss Ridin' Hood" in his elementary school talent show last night with a backup cd created by his Uncle Pete. I'll see if John got a good picture of him in his wolf hood and post it for you! What a fun night.

Harriet and Linda came in to the shop yesterday afternoon so we could take off. And then our Izzie came to work just as I was leaving. When I left they were busy bees working on oilcloth lunchbag kits, moving models, pressing petals for our Garden Party, pricing new leather buttons, and tying up 6 yard backs (we changed to 6 yards from 5....many of you thought that would be more useful.). They were going to clean up then and set up for Applique Society this morning for me. They are just the best friends/employees I could hope for.

Okay, I am off to fix John's lunch, get breakfast and head over to make coffee for the Society. Hope you have a glorious Saturday in the sun!

Take the wheel, mate....

Okay, we did take the wheel, made it a 6" block instead of 9" and set it in some sand. This is the block from Fourth Corner Quilts here in Bellingham and was one of the first blocks we did. Didn't Jan do a great job of piecing that sand in there? (The sand isn't part of their block...just our addition to make it fit our design.) Well, I just looked, and it seems I only have three more blocks to show you - Aunt Mary's, Tangled Threads and ours. And then, of course, our Team Fab-Etc version of Smooth Sailing for the 2010 Quilt Tour.

Let's see, what happened today? Well, Mr UPS brought the samples of the Shop Hop fabric. I am not thinking about the block that I have to have done by April 15th until after the Quilt Tour. Diane brought back the Twelve Moons quilt top she was working on - it is absolutely stunning. Wait until you see it! Linda started making a few kits to have for the Tour. I'm trying to think of how to rearrange things for next week and put up samples, etc. Tracey did three runners/toppers from a new Gathering Friends book. Guess what? They're made with Kansas Troubles fabrics! And they are wonderful, of course. I made some more petals for the Garden Party quilt...my 1/4 of a block turned out okay, but not as good as Jan's...think I need a thread or two adjustment in my 1/4".

Have a few "bookwork" things to do and then off to bed for an early appt. tomorrow. Have a great evening...one of the last ones of our "winter"!

Wearing 'o the green....

Since it's St Patrick's Day, I thought we should have a "green" block! This cute guy is the turtle block from Needle and I in Everett. We used two batiks for him. One for the shell and one for his legs, tail and head. Then, we decided he was looking a bit "flat". So we gently stuffed his head and tail and then used trapunto to puff him out a bit. We're pleased with him...hope you like him too!

Today, Jan and I had fun starting a new project! We had gotten a group from Moda called Garden Party and I had ordered it and the project sheets with making the quilt in mind. So, today we started playing with it. It's soft and very pretty. We'll be putting it up on the design wall so you can take a look in the next few days.

We got some oilcloth today too, but I didn't have time to take it out of the bags yet. Also, some notions and a few bolts of Asian prints from Kona Bay.

Another block tomorrow...until then, night all!

Are you crabby.....

I've been there a few times and they're definitely not "crabby" at The Quilt Shop in Anacortes! But their block for the 2010 Quilt Tour next week is a crab. Our Jan managed to do LOTS of math and shrink this pieced block to 50% of its original size - we love you, Jan!! Then, we decided that he needed some beady eyes and perhaps a little "plumping", so we add some trapunto. What do you think? Looks pretty good - right?

Today was kind of a quiet day at Fab-Etc. I didn't have to shamelessly beg Jan to quilt my topper...she just did it with a smile (although the chocolate bowl was pretty close to her machine!) It turned out really well, and now it's my job to sew down the binding. Oh good, a sit down job in my comfy chair!

I didn't get the borders on the daisy quilt last night, but got a good start before I left for the shop this morning and now I just have to do the outer borders. It's such a cheerful, happy quilt. Don't think we'll get it quilted before the Tour, but we should have the top to show off and maybe a kit or two?

My chair and binding project await, and I am definitely ready for them. Hope your evening is that enjoyable!

Anchors aweigh....

Okay, I just "Googled" that phrase 'cause I wasn't sure if it was "anchors aweigh" or "anchors away". Turns out that Anchors Aweigh is the fight song for the US Naval Academy written in 1906. But it also turns out that "aweigh" means its been completed...that is the anchor has been pulled up. So....it is kind of anchors away too. Okay, enough of that. This anchor block is from The Quiltmaker's Shoppe in Arlington. (Thanks, Tracey, for pointing out that I had relocated Granny's to Arlington for a few hours yesterday - oops!) Their block is appliqued onto a pieced background. We shrunk it to a 6" block. We had this jute "ribbon" hanging around that we made the rope out of - looks good, don't you think?

Monday, Monday...it was good! Jan W finished up with a few of her students that didn't quite get their sweatshirts done before the 4-H kiddos arrived Friday. The sweatshirt jackets were wonderful! My backordered spray adhesive finally arrived. Diane cut some of a new Asian group to take home and put the top together for us. Tomorrow Jan and I will be trying to figure out what to put on the back of a topper I finished yesterday, and then I'm going to shamelessly beg her to quilt it for me! Tracey is going to take our Quilt Tour quilt to the Pieceables meeting tomorrow night for me. They asked all the shops to bring them for "show and tell"! Very nice of them. Harriet and one of her aunts stopped by after a 90th birthday celebration for one of the other aunties. Her Aunt Gwen had some Dresden plates a woman had given to her and she was looking for a background to applique them onto. She decided on the green solid, which made them stand out. The lady doesn't know it, but Gwen is going to give it back to her all finished, as this woman lost most everything she had in a fire recently. What a nice lady, but then who would think Harriet would have anything but the nicest of aunties!?!

Well, I am tired tonight. I might see if I can put the first border on the daisy quilt in a bit. Otherwise, it's off to bed at an early hour. Have a wonderful evening!

A whale of a good time....

Look at these two....aren't they just a picture of fun? This is the block from Granny's in Stanwood. This is the second year that they have been members of the Tri-County Quilt Merchants Association. Diane "built" these guys for us and did it like the block from Lynda's - out of black and white UltraSuede. It's such a great medium for this sort of thing, plus the texture really resembles an Orca. Doesn't she do good work? I just counted, and it looks like I need to stay vigilant and do a block a day if I'm going to get everything up before the Tour, including the unveiling of our version.

Hope your Saturday was good. We had fun at Fab-Etc. Tracey and I got to cross quite a few things off of the "to do" list yesterday. Thanks, Tracey! Some folks came in and learned how to scan their fabric for use in their EQ software....quite a few "Wow!" moments.

How's your Sunday looking? Me? I'm still on light duty, so I'm slowly working my way through piles of clutter, laundry and the top of my desk! But on the fun side, I'm putting together a topper from an Anka's Treasures book using a charm pack from April Cornell. We agonized over where to place everything last week, but it was worth it...it's turning out great! Hoping to get it done next week so we can have it up for the Tour.

Hope your day is good!

Toss that thing....

That's what we did with the Fabrics Plus life preserver block....we "tossed" it out on the beach. Fabrics Plus is located in Anacortes. We wanted to make this block smaller and 3-D. Somehow, Jan managed to do it and it came out looking fantastic! She is so good!!A few of the other shop owners happened by today on their own Quilt Tour. I got to see some pictures they had taken of the other quilts - wow! Everybody's was soooo creative. I think you'll really enjoy this year's Tour.

It was a very busy day at Fab-Etc today. Jan W had session #2 in her sweatshirt class. They are coming out great. The gals will be back Monday morning to finish up. And then this afternoon was 4-H. Our Izzie is making a very cool prom dress from silk shantung - it's going to be gorgeous! Freight? Got Eclectic Garden group from In the Beginning fabrics, some Kwik Sew patterns, notions, batting and new ribbons for the cash register - hooray! We can finally read what it's printing!!

Tomorrow will be another good day. Velina will be teaching how to scan fabric (it's just a drop-in, so don't worry if you didn't sign up...you didn't need to!) Tracey and I will be eavesdropping and learning what we can while we work.

Okay, I am done for tonight. Have a fantastic weekend!

Sittin' on the dock of the bay.....

This is the block from Calico Creations in Mt. Vernon. He's a cute paper-pieced pelican, as you can see. He was pretty easy to make...I made him smaller and he is "sittin' in the dock of the bay" in our quilt, as you'll see later on. We had quite a discussion as to what color he should be. Harriet said the ones she saw on her trip were this gray color. Others said they should be white, although we all agreed that this sort of rusty-orange colors was best for his beak. In the end, it came down to that this color showed up best in our design.

Last night was KT Klub and we had a surprise for them - the latest collection from Kansas Troubles had just arrived. It's called Butterfly Garden and is pretty spectacular to us KT lovers! There are about 24 bolts, charm packs and layer cakes.

Today, Jan and I got to overthinking a spring tabletopper - hey, it's what we do best! Think we finally "got it". It's made from April Cornell's latest group in blues and yellows using a pattern from one of the newer Anka's Treasures books. And then Mr. UPS brought two bolts of batiks and two bolts of flannel. We also got a great magazine yesterday with vintage quilts and their directions and "remakes" in contemporary colors. Tracey said today it was the best magazine she's gotten in a long time!

Hope your week is going well! More blocks to come this week.

Sailing, sailing over the ocean blue....

This is the sailboat block from Folktales in Lynden. I'm not sure you can tell from the picture, but the sail is 3-D and fun to make. We left it full-sized for our quilt. We added the button portholes, the flag, red stripe and the sun on the sail - just for fun! Jan and I worked on this block....see her signature needleturned waves at the bottom?!? She's the best! What's that rope coming from the side of the boat, you ask? You'll have to wait for the answer to that question. We moved our Quilt Tour quilt today to the wall where last year's quilt has been hanging. It looks good in its new home!

Today was a good day at Fab-Etc. Linda helped me do one of my favorite things....clean up the back room after Fat Tuesday! Since I'm still on "light duty" she climbed the ladder and moved some of the boxes. She is the best at convincing me that I really don't have to save ALL of those great boxes for future projects. It looks sooooo good in there now.

We got some fabric today. A spectacular sunflower group from Clothworks - WOW! (And if you're reading this on vacation, Theresea...yes, I cut yours first and have it tucked safely away.) Another fun group came from Riley Blake, too. We have a Kwik Sew pattern on order for a little girl's dress that would be great made from some of these prints.

Okay, day is done. But first a special thanks to Julie from Keepsake Cottage for mentioning our quilt on her blog. If you go to http://keepsakecottagefabrics.blogspot.com/ you can see her finished quilt - she's not teasing you like I am and making you wait for the finished project. Night all!

Leapin' Orcas.....

Next to the Two Thimbles two-masted ship is this leaping Orca block from Lynda's Quilting.....just up the road a piece from us. We also shrunk him a bit so he didn't overpower the two boats close by. Lynda had used a black rope, but we took the liberty of making it kind of rainbow-like to fit our design. We tried to make it look like the sun shining through his "splash". We had some UltraSuede and Diane "built" him using that. Makes him look great, don't you think? You'll have to look up close when you stop by.

Yesterday was another day filled with EQ classes. Velina's quilt was beautiful and a great design using the Laurel Burch horses and her EQ6 software. Think she took it home to finish and then I get custody - yippee. Next Saturday from 10:30-1:00 she's having a "drop-in" clinic for scanning fabric. If you're interested, just show up with 4 fabrics, your laptop AND MOUSE and she'll show you how to scan, make files and integrate them into your software.

Linda and I tidied up a bit, finished packaging our last Gracie's Garden Sampler Block of the Month, and I tried to take it easy. We do have a couple of "leftovers" from the BOM that we put into kits for $60 if anyone is interested - has the patterns and all the fabric for the top and binding.

Today? Well, got to get some grub in here, so John is going to go grocery shopping with me. Doing laundry one load a day. Have some tax stuff I'm waaaay behind on. Think my Mom would like to go get some fish for dinner, so we'll join her. Hope your Sunday is a good one!

Ahoy....

Sailing close to the Calico Country boat is this two masted ship from Two Thimbles! We shrunk this block a bit also to fit our layout and Jan once again needleturned some waves for us. Harriet added the happy red flags at the top. We then embellished with the cording and the silver "whatevers" - we aren't sure what they are, they just seemed to perk it up a bit, don't you think? It was a fun block to make....

Today was a great day at Fab-Etc. Jan Weaver had the first session of her sweatshirt class - the "destruction" phase. Judging from the fabrics folks had today, there will once again be 5 gorgeous sweatshirt jackets! We got some new books from Martingale. Didn't have much time to look at them, but maybe Saturday?

Tomorrow we have our EQ classes. I got a sneak peek at the project Velina designed this time, and it's very cool. I get custody of it after the class, so you'll have to take a look at it. Her students are having a great time learning the "ins and outs" of EQ6 each month. It's an amazing program. We even used a few things from EQ to do our Quilt Tour project.

Enough for tonight....I'll put another block up over the weekend for you to see. Enjoy your weekend!

Sail on....

We're going to just sail on across the quilt to the Calico Country (Lynden) block. Isn't this a darling little sailboat? We "shrunk" the block to make it fit into our design and then hand appliqued it down, except for its UltraSuede mast and flag. Then, Jan needleturned the waves gently lapping over the side. Pretty fun!

Tea Party was great today. And the only freight we've gotten this week are some notions and a few batiks, a couple of 30's prints and some other "basics". They're being easy on me! But, I have to tell you that our UPS driver took a look at our quilt this morning and thought it was pretty cool. At lunchtime a gal came in that told us she was his wife; they'd just had lunch; and he told her she needed to come over and see it! We felt really good that we could impress "the guy in brown"!

Well, still playing catch-up in a major way, so I'd best write a few checks for those pesky bills they keep sending me. Have a wonderful evening!

A funny thing happened.....

A funny thing happened....well, okay, it really wasn't funny at all, but isn't that the way you start out stories like this? What happened after the Saturday night with the empty laundry room floor? Well, Sunday at 2:30 a.m. is what happened. I woke up in lots of pain and ended up in ER at St Joseph's Hospital with a SEVERE kidney infection. (I put SEVERE because that's the way my doc finally got me to realize I wasn't going to be getting well in 24 or fewer hours!) So....it's not been a lot of fun the last week and a half. I am slowly recovering, and a few other things have cropped up along the way, but I am much, much better!

Team Fab-Etc pulled together when THE QUILT came back from being quilted and we got it finished and hung by the Monday deadline! As promised, I'll blog the blocks up until the event March 24th. If you've been into the store, you've seen the finished piece, but I am not divulging it in its entirety until the end - ok? This is the block from Keepsake Cottage in Bothell. Isn't it great? And we were soooo proud of our "beam". It's made from a yellow silk chiffon that's been hanging around the shop for a while....it worked perfectly, don't you think?

Okay, as you can imagine, I am way behind on everything, so that's all for tonight, folks. I'll try and put another block up tomorrow.....Tea Party Wednesday, so another full day for me!