Decatur -- Illinois

I was a novice traveler, when we started Some Art Fabric 6 years ago I never thought I would travel far and wide to bring cool fabric to the masses. I also never thought I could back a trailer or drive 12 plus hours a day to get to a show or more likely, to get home.

This is so my life now and I want my children to see both how different and how much alike all people are, so on this first ever 3 weeks of shows with no going home I brought my oldest child. She is amazing! over the top and that is not just because I am her mother. She took to building the booth like a duck to .... , she is a charming sales person with skill. I could not have birthed a better helper if I tried.

March Madness

The quilt show season started with a BANG! the first weekend of March Some Art Fabric was on the move. The mobile shop is all over. Our first stop was in Watkinsville GA for the Cotton Patch Quilt Show. This is one of my favorite local guild, their show is amazing and they feed the vendor so well. This year they did a CD to purchase so we can enjoy the quilts all year long. Here are some of my Favs!!

On to the Sewing Expo, Some Art Fabric taught Sneaters and the I Love Your DNA quilt.

Castle Peep Quilt Kits & Summer Camp

For the Knoxville AQS show I made up the Castle Peep Quilt kit from Andover. It was a great hit and I have a few left in all of the colorways. The quilt kit shown in the pattern is in green, but there is also a red-orange-pink color way and a blue colorway. I made more of the green but sold more of the blue, go figure. It only takes about 30 minutes to make and looks super cute.

The kit includes all of the fabric for the 44 x 50 top and binding

• 1/2 yard of 4874
• 1/2 yard of 4871
• 1/2 yard of 4872
• 1/2 yard of 4875
• 7/8 yard 4876
• 1 5/8 yard 4373

I love the Lizzy House designs and this summer she is sponsoring a Castle Peeps Summer Camp with fun downloads and great ideas for her fabric. Run over and visit with her and then hop over to our shop and pick up your supplies so you can make some of the cool project she is sharing.

A "Very" Simple Quilt

Next month my nephew will celebrate his second birthday. Jacob will move from babydom to childhood and he needs a new quilt to go with his new status.

So what other fabrics to use than the wonderful designs of Eric Carle. There are now three fabric lines from Andover Fabrics showcasing this talented artist & children's author. I used fabric from all three to create this "very" simple quilt. This quilt & a kit with all of the precut fabric will be in at our booth in Knoxville next month. When I break down the show the "very" simple quilt & corresponding books will be on it way West to my delightful nephew. I hope he drags it through the dusty roads of his childhood and loves it dearly.


Eric Carle's newest line is called the Very Series and it has images from:

The Very Busy Spider
The Very Lonely Firefly, 1995

Featured in the panel:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, 1969
The Very Clumsy Click Beetle, 1999 
The Very Quiet Cricket, 1990

Two Great Tastes - Heather Ross - Valori Wells

This was a super quick quilt using Heather Ross' Far Far Away Double Gauze and Valori Well Free Pattern Urban Baby. I made in about an hour yesterday. It took me longer to figure out how many of each size blocks to cut and to fussy cut them then it did to whip up this quilt. I am mailing it off to my super quilter today for the summer shows!

Tampa Sewing Expo

 

What a week this was! Tampa was freezing, no joke, below 32º, not pleasant, especially for all the locals. The whole family went on this trip, which may never happen again. We had a big birthday to celebrate. The kids & DH visited the sites, while Oma, my other mother & I worked the booth ( I did get to run off to Busch Gardens with my kids one day).

One of our very dedicated customers brought us a Show & Tell. On Friday she purchased some great batiks & the Whimsey Bag pattern from Lazy Girls, on Saturday she had her bag finished! Thanks!

Visit us this week in Atlanta. We will have TWO booths, our main booth (930) with all the Melly & Me, Kokka, etc and a SALE booth (136) with over 400 bolts of our beautiful older fabric, 2 cutting tables. Be patient, I hope both booths are super busy so we can make room for new, fun fabrics. Amy Schimler has a new line I can't order till I make some space.

American Quilter's Society - Knoxville Expo

Visit us next week were I will be relaxing (hope not) at the Knoxville Expo. We will be in booth 1233 & 1332 with our entire Kokka line and a bunch of other new fabrics.

Strip Club Quilting

I finally received my super cool June Taylor Strip Pro cutting tool (this item will be available as a special order only). It is a must have for shops and a cool tool for individuals. The ruler is deep enough to cut a 2.5 inch strip with out folding the fabric and wide enough to cut 8 strips in a go. It is hard to decide on the first strip set, the Paintbox series from Lonni Rossi just calls out for this.

Introducing our first in house strip set of Lonni Rossi Paint Box - 40 2.5 inch strips of fabulous fabric.

PLUS 5 inch charms of the same wonderful 40 prints. This charm pack is perfect for the free pattern Paintbox Pattern from Andover.

Andover has a great selection of free patterns.

October Quilt Events

In October Some Art Fabric goes on the road. We will be vending at a bunch of cool shows.

Look for us at:

Georgia Quilt Council Fall Convention: They are bringing in the big guns, Billie Lauder is the speaker. Saturday, October 11, 2008 at the Charlie Elliot Wildlife Center, Mansfield, GA. This is a beautiful place to visit and there will be classes.

The Georgia Quilt Show: Running October 16, 17 & 18 at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Georgia (home to Original Sewing & Quilt Expo for the past 10 years), Georgia Quilt Show is crafted to showcase the “best of the best” in quilt making. It brings quilt makers the expanded quantity, variety and depth they have been asking for into classrooms, the exhibit hall and quilt galleries.

Fall Fabric Festival: This is our big sale. One day only Saturday, October 25 at the Meadow Grove Club House. All of the quilt fabric is $4.00 a yard and additional discount given for finishing bolts.

Newsletter Highlights

Highlights from our "First to Know Newsletter"

When you join our mailing list, you get to be the 'first to know' about our new items and specials. This month we had a great deal in our newsletter for over 50% off of one of our fat quarter bundles. Can you find it in the store?

If you aren't on the list, you might want to be for the next newsletter.

Fabric Flash - September 7, 2008

September is National Sewing Month.

What's the American Sewing Guild doing this month?

ASG shares an excellent article on Sewing Green. You'll find a wealth of tips to use-up yourfabric stash, re-use buttons and "greening up" your sewing room.

Read more about it...

Fabric for September

Kaufman You've Got the Notions

Pumpkins Gone Wild

This isn’t just your average stack of pumpkins. These
pumpkins are adorned with dots, stripes, plaids, wearing
hats and making faces behind our backs. As they mock
us with their cuteness we can’t help but wonder
what kind of party they are having when we’re
looking the other way.

The entire line is vine ripe and ready for picking.

Great Deals Coordinated Bundles

Fat Quarters & One Yard bundles available from select lines

Fabric Bakery

Charms, Layer Cakes & Jelly Rolls

Hip & Fresh New Patterns
Lila Tueller

Block a Day - Amazing Quilt Project

If you are looking for inspiration this woman's blog is a good place to start. Lindsay Jean is creating a block a day from one of those calenders every quilter receives at Christmas. What dedication, what insanity.

Selvages - Block 1

Here is my second official block in the Selvages series by Moda. The first block was a filler 9 patch. These patterns are included in your order, along with a complimentary fat quarter. There is a new block pattern every month.

This block uses the new Paintbox Series from Lonni Rossi.

Magoo & Monkey

This past weekend I ran away to my mom's house. Odd choice, right. Well, when your mom has an uber clean sewing room with a view and she is willing to let you bring friends and even cooks for you, then it is the perfect spot to run away to. My mom hosts small sewing retreats out of her house in Blue Ridge GA, so she is a great mom to have (there are other reasons;0).

Anywho, I packed up a bag of projects and a change of clothes and sent the girls to stay with their other grandma. Man, I live the life.


Of course I brought more than I could ever finish in 48 hours even if I never slept, I finished a few things and I had a few visitors.

Saturday morning at 7:00am my little brother showed up and wanted to sew. He looked through my bag of tricks and pulled out the Melly & Me pattern for a monkey named Magoo. He did not approve of my fabric choices, so he raided my mom's stash and hopped into tracing off the pattern. He is a bit of a hoot when it comes to sewing, he does not understand the need for a consistent seam allowance. I think he understands now. He did not want to read the pattern but soon fired me as the teacher cause I kept skipping important steps. He ended up with some skinny arms and legs on his Magoo.

To be honest I was a bit driven to finish a quilt. This quilt is a complete stash buster, I used the new ruler from Cozy Quilt (we should have them after the first of September) cut a bunch of 2.5 stripes from our remnant box and dashed out this quilt during my mini retreat. I started and finished the zippered pouch kit I received at Moda U in July ( I did a horrible job, I skipped a couple of steps on this too and had to unsew, very messy but I will revisit it). Lastly, I finished the pillowcase I posted on Monday.


Late Saturday afternoon, a good friend of mine came up to sew, she finished 2 tops, cut out a third and traced off some cute Ottbre rompers for her new nephew. Her top is a Jalie pattern made from our dotted Rayon Poly Lycra.



We had a rocking good time.

Disappearing Nine Patch

Well I found this great tutorial a couple of weeks ago and I have lots of charm packs.


I pulled together about 6 of charm packs and separated them into lights and darks, removed the heavily blue fabric. I wanted to make a red, green and yellow quilt in honor of all the cool appliqué I saw at Moda University last week.

I picked 2 focus fabrics which I used in the center block of all 20 block (10 of each green). I love scrappy but I like to draw the eye with something that is consistent. When I put the blocks together I did a pattern (D= Dark, L= Light, F = Focus)

D L D
L F L
D L D


Then I sewed together super simple 9 patches

After you sew them up you cut them apart (my picture of this did not come out) and then you switch them around.

I trimmed the new blocks down to 6.5 x 6.5. Then I sewed it all together again. This is the tutorial I used.

This was a great quick quilt and I love to trim stuff down cause my blocks are rarely the same size.

Moda U -- Day 3

Oh, it all ends too soon. Saturday was quiet, with even more gifts from Moda. Mark Dunn spoke to us after breakfast, he talked about the future and education.

Moda is breaking ground on a new facility intended to to support their Moda University and to be an outreach for all those interested in the future sewing generation.

Terry Clothier Thompson closed out the retreat with a short talk about vintage fabrics and how to sell them, identify them , and enjoy them. She had her Louisa May Alcott quilt there and the book. I love this pattern and it may push me over to the appliqué side. I also love all the history included with her patterns. After reading the book I started looking for more information about Louisa and her family and friends. Terry also talked a bit about her Fabric Camp in Lawrence KS. I hope to make it next summer.


I did not spend a lot of time on what Moda U is, mostly because it seems to be more of a philosophy then an actual thing. As I interpret it, the philosophy is about supporting all shop owners with the tools we need to make quilting fun and to engage our customers in the ongoing pursuit of the next quilt. I left the retreat excited, pumped up and ready to get sewing, which is good cause I have 3 new UFOs.

Moda University -- Day 2

Off we go to Moda! This morning is jammed pack. First up another gift box, this one was filled with goodies we would need to complete our inspirational project once we got home.

We started out in their computer class, met their web master and learned about Fabric Matcher. Please go play with this cool new feature. They have their newest collections as swatches and a bunch of the patterns they distribute. You pick your fabrics and your pattern to get a sneak at what your final quilt will look like. The program then generates a shopping list to help your find all of the things you need at your local or online shop, like mine. You can also enter to win their contest and receive your pattern and fabric free. Ya team. I could have spent the whole day playing with this, BUT we had to move on.

Next up: Cozy Quilts -- aka Daniella Stout

Who would think strips could be so fun (you should see what happened after supper). Daniella created over 50 designs for jelly rolls, along with a couple of cool templates, the stripe tube ruler and the 10 inch ruler. I am in love with her stuff and will be getting in some of her patterns and tools soon.

Onward: Terry Clothier Thompson

Of famed Kansas City Trouble. Terry is a world renown textile expert, she was showing off two of her templates, the vine line and the border line. Very cool additions to your tool box if you do a lot of appliqué.

Last but certainly not least: Laundry Basket Quilt -- Edita Sitar

She demoed raw edge appliqué using one of her striking floral designs and gave us a great list of pro and cons for which fusible she prefers for her work. She also shared a great pattern for making a book cover that is very similar to mine but even better because the front has a beautiful clematis design on it.

This day is no where near done - We still get to meet Professor Kelly. She runs Moda U at a quilt shop in Waco TX, and we spent the next hour having a mock Moda U meeting. What great fun: Fabric Jeopardy, Name that fabric category, infomercial about "new Products", an announcer and door prizes. I wish I lived closer I would be there every month.

Wine & Cheese and time in the "lab". This is my first mention of "The Moda Lab", this is their mock store, which is full of great display ideas. This is the holiday display.


Dinner and a Cabaret
To protect the innocent I will not go too far into this but there was a woman, hanging off the ceiling ala Cirque du Soleil style and a Moda employee, cash and a cummerbund. If they post pictures at the Moda site I will share, but I put my camera down.

Sleep...

Moda University -- Day One

Well, Moda U was an all out blast. We spent three days learning new stuff and meeting new people.

Day One

Thursday: We meet up at Moda in Dallas TX, had a bit to eat and were separated into sororities. I have never pledged a sorority, I went to art school. It was kinda fun to have house moms. We were off for a tour, my tour groups was lead by the man himself, Mark Dunn. The tour should be a post all in it self. They do all of the packaging right there on the Moda Campus, design, pack and play. After the tour my sorority received the first of many goodie bags. We were to alter and create a new look for our bag.

After play time we went upstairs and met Mark for a brief talk and introduction to the designer Moda brought in to educate and inspire us.

First up: Laundry Basket Quilts, Edita Sitar. She designs quilts and batik fabric for Moda. Her work is beautiful and her talk was about reason people quilt. Apparently there are a bunch of them;-). We have her Pathway Batik line, which is a wonderful collection because it has those hard to find light batiks. Edita is loves to combine batiks and prints. She mostly does appliqué and we will have her Shooting Star pattern with templates in soon.

After the lecture we had snacks and then supper. After supper we had a wonderful show featuring a great Elvis impersonator, cute. I was not close to the front and I was glad. Elvis zeroed in on Edita and proceeded to embarrass the crud out of her. Off to the hotel for a night of slumber.WAIT : they were picking us up at 7:45 the next am. I thought I was on holiday;-)

First Sight from Michael Miller -- Free Pattern

I love this new line. Research says babies respond to black white and red. My last baby quilt used this idea and the quilt was striking.

Michael Miller has designed a great new line, First Sight, that has an Asian Anima look with penguins, fish, crabs. The line includes a panel and black white and red dots and stripe coordinates.

BEST OF ALL Michael Miller has a

Free pattern to Download.

Malibu Monkey Goes Australian

This may be one of the brightest quilts I have creates recently. I used the new pattern from Melly & Me, Billie and the Malibu Monkey line from Moda (with some Splish Splash and some By the Beach). The colors are great combo of primary, dots, diamonds, beach balls and strips and then just a hint of the monkey madness, laying about on the beach. The quilt is a stripe quilt and I was able to finish it in 3 short sets. The top has not been quilted yet so it will be off to the quilters later this week.

Starting Selvages: Moda Block of the Month

This month we are starting Moda University's New Block of the month program called Selvages. Last night I made the first block, a double nine patch. The nine patch is a filler block which is made every month, you need 12 nine patch blocks for the entire quilt.

For the next 13 months we will be sending out one of the block patterns and a free fat quarter with every purchase over 15.00. Selvages will make a great scrappy quilt or you can pick a focus fabric / line you want to play with. I am going to use a bunch of Lonni Rossi Fabric for my samples, partly because I love her fabric and partly because I had a bunch of strips left over form the other LR quilt I am working on.


We created a flickr group to share your blocks or other projects. Please sign up and post some pictures. Maybe we will have a block challenge and see what you can do with your free fat quarter.