Silence

Silence ≠ inactivity.

Sorry for not including you in the hustle and bustle.  Those of you who blog know how the blog can sort of overtake your life.  (or maybe it’s just me!)  You’re constantly thinking of the blog, you take weird pictures of diet coke, you write and rewrite posts and throughout the day you mumble “blog about this”  and the post starts writing itself in your head.  I don’t know that my blogging silence was an intentional step in  regaining some normalcy in my life, but it feels kinda nice to know that life has gone on for you and me both even in my silence.  Now to catch you up is a near impossibility…so it’ll just be a couple of highlights.

Artisan’s Cafe:

This was my first year doing a craft show as Above All Fabric.  It was a ton of fun!  (I brought the anti-wrinkle spray – clearly I forgot to use it.  Geesh!  I didn’t realize I was such a wrinkled mess!)  I had one table (not enough room) to display samples, fat quarters, charm packs, ribbons, patterns…and kits.

KITS!!!!  I’ll blog more about kits soon – and you can keep your eye on my website for a new section (aptly named) in the next couple of days.

At the show, I had great company!  My friend Ariel helped man the booth.  She also helped in the preparations the whole week before hand.     I got to chat with my friend, Woolies who was “next door” to me.  She’s always a riot!  It was also fun to meet Gigi.  Those of you who are fans of Sandi Henderson will recognize the Pinks and Needles pin toppers.  Such a joy!  (A crafting night is in the works – so stay tuned for that fun information.)  Of course, this is not a comprehensive list – and so maybe I should have left it out….know that I enjoyed my time with all of you!  (and Lisa, I am loving my bag!)

Thanksgiving:  Where do I even begin?  It was a great holiday with great food, family and friends. And I successfully managed to take a few days off.  That is an accomplishment and something for which to be thankful!  (My gut instinct tells me many of you can relate!)  Now we’re out of pie – almost out of turkey, and I have to get back to the daily routine…and back to blogging!

Silent no more!

Amy Butler meet University of Arizona

Every once in a while my hubby manages to get tickets to University of Arizona events.  Last night was one of those nights.  He called mid-afternoon with the news “I have tickets to the basketball game!”  Fantastic – a night out with my husband is just what I needed.  What I also needed was a bag to carry at said event.  I mean good heavens – why would I want to be preparing for the craft show this weekend when I can be making myself bags? 

Luckily, I already had the University of Arizona fabric on hand.  Long long ago I had planned on making a bag for such occasions.  It just kept getting pushed to the back of the pile and never got made because other things kept taking priority.  Feeling very motivated, however, I decide to get that bag done in time for the game.  It helped that I had a crafty friend here too!  (And let’s not forget, it also helped me procrastinate preparing for the craft show.  I’m a last minute type of gal!)

Canvas would have been an easy choice for the lining of the bag – and something I had on hand as well – but it seemed a bit boring to me.  This print was the one begging to be used.  So Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain it was!  The next problem came with the closure.  I have magnetic closures on hand – but again…they just were not calling my name, plus I wanted to bring a little of the Amy Butler print to the outside of a bag….so a button was decoupaged with a scrap of the fabric. (not by me – that’s my friend’s handy work)  Perfect!  Now I had a bag to carry to the game.

The game – well it was exciting!  Sadly, the University of Arizona lost by 1 point with .8 seconds left on the clock.  I guess I can’t exactly call my bag a good luck bag.

Feeling Green

I have to warn you.  You should be prepared.  This post may bring that nasty green monster to the surface.

Look at this little beauty!

Okay – not feeling the jealousy yet? Maybe that’s cuz you don’t know what this little cutie is….

That’s right! It’s a grocery bag. And it folds up into itself for easy toting! And seriously, look at the fabric. I mean – could you find anything more perfect? It’s from Timeless Treasures. And yep, I have it for sale here – so you could cure your mean green streak and buy some fabric to make your own bags!

I used the pattern from Serendipity Studio. Her booth was super cute at Quilt Market. (And there are other patterns from her collection that I plan to test out soon!) I made the small size bag…but I’m thinking that later today the medium size will be made too. And what is even more fun is that the multiple sizes can nest inside of each other! Can’t you just imagine tons of fun fabric combos for this bag? Seriously, I’m gonna be the coolest person at the grocery store with my Dharma Reusable Bags. It’s okay that you’re jealous. I would be too.

(Ps. Yep – now that we’re in the house – definitely will be doing more sewing too!)

Life after the house

I’ve been thinking a lot about the things that will occupy my time now that we’re in the house. I have several thoughts, as usual, and I intend to share them with you periodically while we continue to unpack boxes.  (The end is in sight!)

A little of this…

Moving the Fabric

Part of me feels badly for having been away from the blog for so long now…but I know that logically this makes no sense so I try not to let the guilt get to me.  Things have definitely been busy around here.  I’m quite certain there is a little gnome or some (hopefully cute) little creature bringing more and more boxes to the house.  No matter how quickly I unpack and sort and organize – the stack of boxes just keeps getting bigger! Anyway, moving is not exactly the funnest or most creative thing to blog about….thus my lack of posts.  But then I thought – I can show them the move of the fabric…..  (for proper reading of this italicized phrase you need to have the kinda creepy shaky voice and the little periods should make the dun dun dun sound)

THE CAR

My numbers could be off – but I think it took my brother-in-law 4 car loads to get the fabric.  I’m also fairly certain that he was cursing my name as he moved each bolt.  I even heard some mumblings about him hi-jacking the fabric to fund a new vehicle for himself. 

THE KIDS

Unloading the fabric was super fun if you’re a crazy fabric addict like myself.  The whole family helped, even the littlest, although it appears no photo shows him helping.  Kyle got really strong and was carrying 3 bolts at a time when the fun came to an end.

THE PILE

The bolts were then piled in the center of the room.  This picture, surprisingly, doesn’t even show all the bolts!  That picture was taken at night and is much too dark – so this will have to do.  Then the racks were set up and the sorting began.

THE RACKS

All the bolts of fabric have a code on them – so everything is placed in order of the code.  Pretty fancy, eh?  This wall has 3 racks, I have 3 others in the room as well my cutting table and shipping supplies.  I also have another rack outside this room that gives a home to the extra bolts. In this picture they are seen on the floor still wrapped up in plastic…that was just their temporary home until their friends were all sorted and organized!  At some point (aka when the room is clean) I’ll get some shots for you of the entire Above All Fabric area of my house.  And just in case you’re wondering, my husband doesn’t complain too much. 

Tweet Tweet

I decided to join the flock over at Twitter.

You can follow me by clicking on this link.

(Or if that doesn’t work, you can go to  http://twitter.com/AboveAllFabric )

Updates on sales, new lines of fabric and the like.

And I’ll return with a real post sometime soon. 

Projects for the home

I have so many blasted things I want to do now that we’re in the house.  Probably, however, I should concentrate on getting all the boxes unpacked first.  We’re getting there.  I can’t understand how we have so much stuff – and we have gotten rid of a LOT too. 

The other day I showed you little bits of a couple projects.  These were things I could do quickly to give me a little break from the boxes.  Now I’ve taken proper pictures of the finished results – so I can share them with you!

My hubby built me this cutting table. It is GREAT because I don’t have to bend over to cut the fabric. We used a desk top from a discarded desk and some 2 by 4′s. So it works like a charm but it doesn’t look so pretty. Or I should say it didn’t! (I’m going to be honest…I now only want pretty things…so an ugly cutting table is a problem in our pretty new house.  Silly?  Shallow?  Probably – but that is where I am right now.) What a difference a little fabric can make. My sewing machine was dropped during the move and is now out of commission. Good thing my serger still works! I serged all the edges and stapled it to the underside. Now my cutting table has a nice pretty skirt. Makes me think that she’ll be able to stay in commission for a bit longer.

You may recall that my husband (the rock star) built these totally awesome closets.  On  a trip to Ikea, I found these little boxes. I thought I would buy one to see if it would work as storage in the new closets….but again – it’s not very pretty. So I jazzed it up a bit with some mod podge and a charm pack of woodland bloom fabric.  Now it’s a pretty box for someone’s closet. I have a better idea of how to do it next time, and since we have LOTS of little nooks to fill with boxes, I should have plenty of chances to practice until I get it perfect.

There you go! A couple of my quick projects for the new house. Now – I must return to unpacking boxes!

Jack

Took a time out from unpacking and sorting to do a little creating….

(Playing with fabric is good for the soul. And it makes ordinary things pretty too.)

After all, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!