Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Crazy Weather!

Well tomorrow morning we set sail to the Caribbean with our Shop Hop! Funny thing is we walked outside this morning and it was snowing! Talk about crazy.....huge flakes just a comin down. Of course none of it stuck because it's GA but it was still fun to see. A little difficult to envision the cruise attire we will have on this weekend but hey....at least it will be warm inside. Even though everyone's been crashing early we still feel exhausted. I guess it's that nagging little habit we all have of the mind not shutting down to rest. You just keep thinking of everything that needs to get done! Well I think we have rounded it all up quite well. Tonight after closing we will decorate and have it all ready to set sail. Once we get through the weekend our minds can finally shut down and we can sleep like little babies. Man won't that be nice..... Well off to make lunch and then try and finish a quilt to hang later!

See a lot of you tomorrow.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Just Announced!!

Can you tell by the hour of this post I was just too excited to wait till the morning!!!!

We just finished talking with Judy Coates Perez. You know those awesome painted pieces that you continually see in Cloth Paper Scissors and Quilting Arts? Well she's coming here to teach!! She will be here August 2nd & 3rd, 2008 teaching some great painting techniques. Here is a picture of one of the classes.....Mixed Media Fabric Painting where you create the cloth and then make it into a piece like these 3D Dream Houses that are the cover girls of this most recent Cloth Paper Scissors!!!!


**Copyright held by Judy Coates Perez**
Judy will also be teaching a class on Tsukineko Inks! I for one can not wait......I think I might be camped out in the basement for the weekend. I have a feeling these classes will fill up quickly so jump on them soon!!

3 days to go......



Well only 3 short days left till boarding!! We are so ready for 4 days in the sun....at least we're going to try to create a warm environment! Here's some of the fun we'll be having while at sea:

Bingo every half hour for great prizes.

Artist in Residence/Demos Feb 29th-Mar 2nd

Special Exhibit of Work by Local Artists

Announcement of new Challenge!

We also have a new project in the works. Once we have the details ironed out we will post about it. So keep an eye out for that announcement to see if you'd like to participate!! Hope you all have a great day and see you in a few.....

P.S. - The quilt is in its final stages receiving its embellishments so I'll post a pic on Thursday when we set sail!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Busy Day....

Well today we tried to do as much as we possibly can to get ready for shop hop. Just 5 short days away. We had a great time with Block of the Month demos first. Then we got down to business. Our great volunteer came in to finish stuffing all the goodie bags!!! THANK YOU! We also had a 5 yr old helper today.....my nephew. Here he is modeling the squid costume that a friend gave us for decoration for the cruise!



He also painted grandma's apron for her.

Then we had a t-shirt painting party. Lance drew out a design on paper and we transfered it to freezer paper to make a stencil. Here is his robot and truck! He is going to use fabric markers to paint on the face of the robot once dry.


Here are all the adult t-shirts!






Friday, February 22, 2008

Stuffing Bags.....

Just 6 days till our sail date so we spent the day stuffing bags. Well at least a wonderful customer/friend Margaret and I did while mom wrote up class handouts. Here is where we spent all day long folding paper, gathering items and stuffing bags.


You'd think that after 5 solid hours we'd have all 750 done and this box would include them all. Just kidding!!! This is only half of them!

Can you tell we are busting at the seams? We have taken to stuffing batting on top of the shelves. Oh well........


That's it for today!!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Altered Clothing Class

Yesterday Rebecca Reasons-Edwards taught an Altered Clothing class. I decided it was just too good to pass up on so I took it!!! I had been trying to figure out what I was going to alter for a while. It was closing in on no time to go to the Goodwill to find an item so I was really worried. Then for some reason I looked at the Ebay pile!! I found this great denim jacket that my mom had put there for me to sell for her. Can't figure out why she wanted to part with it and when I asked she laughed and said she'd been searching for it! So it got pulled out of the pile as the piece to alter. Rebecca was full of ideas and information for all on how best to alter their item but she also had us playing with t-shirts. Before we started on our piece we brought she had us alter a t-shirt as a way of getting ready. Here's my t-shirt that I painted with Lumiere paints through a stencil!! Guess you can tell I have sea/ocean/water on the brain as we close in on shop hop.




This was so simple that I could definitely see doing more t-shirts or using the technique on a piece.


So then it was time to move on to the actual piece we brought. I forgot to take a beginning photo but it's not like I altered too much about it! Here is the front of the jacket.


I hand stitched on with DMC floss a little thicket of bamboo!


Then stitched a strand of lanterns on.



Here is the back. I took a panel that my mom has had for 10yrs but done nothing with. So I took and put it on to the jacket. I then did a feather stitch around it in DMC floss to accentuate it.




Here's a close up.


I still have yet to cut into a piece which is my fear but after this I think I just might be able to!! I'm really pleased how the jacket looks. I kind of feel like I should do more but I also feel like I should keep it simple like the crane panel on the back.
Shop Hop Update:
It is just 7 short days till our sailing date! We have only a few more things to get in order for the start so I think we are in good order. We have a big "crew" coming in on Saturday to finish things up so we should have a breather at the beginning of next week!! That should be nice before jumping in for a long swim starting Thursday! When I announce all of the "Boarding & Departure" information on Monday in the newsletter I'll also post it here. We can't wait. Hope everyone is having a productive week!




Friday, February 15, 2008

New Things

Hi all,

It has been a busy day around here so I have lots to show!!


New Teacher/Classes Announced!!!
Heidi Miracle-McMahill will be teaching at least two upcoming classes here. She's already on the schedule for these two! Go to www.fiberonawhim.com for more info and to register.
Wet Felted Vessels March 28th 10A-1P $35 Isn't this bowl absolutely beautiful. You'll learn how to make a bowl/vessel like this.



Watersoluble Wax Pastels April 18th 10A-1P $35
Heidi does amazing work with the crayons and is going to teach you the techniques of putting it on fabric and watercolor paper!

New Fabric
The 2008 Shop Hop Batiks have finally arrived!! Drop by to see them in person if you wish. Pre-Orders are being taken with delivery starting Feb. 28th. Countdown.....only 13 days left till sail date!


New Wallhanging
Here is a little wall hanging I've been working on with some of the new batiks that have come in. This is the turtle prior to any stitching.



Here he is mid-stitching. Like how I had to draw out the pattern I wanted on the center of his shell.


I have to finish stitching, bind and embellish him. He'll make his wall debut just in time for shop hop. Keep an eye out.....there just might be a woven background class hitting the schedule!! It was really easy to do and gives a great impact!
Hope everyone else is having productive days. Until tomorrow.......when hopefully I'll have some photos of the Vanishing Act Workshop that will be going on!



Thursday, February 14, 2008

Happy Valentine's Day

Lol...I feel like I should have a picture of a heart on here or something for everyone!! Oh well.....I'm sorry. Hope all of you have/had a great day. We had the best present of all arrive today......

The Shop Hop Fabric is finally here!!!! Nothing like sweating on it till the last minute! With batiks you never know what can happen especially with the unpredictable Indonesian weather but it is finally here! We are now at only 14 short days away from our "sail" date and we can't wait. It really just needs to get here already because all the days in between we are getting into trouble. Every day a new idea pops into our heads. Don't forget to ask us about our Treasure Hunt when you are in here for the shop hop!

The shop hop quilt top is finally done!!!! It has been handed off to mom for the quilting and embellishment. It hasn't made it very far from the chair I put it on on Tuesday night though! Looks like she's having difficulty thinking about exactly how to quilt it best. She has many ideas but is wondering how to work them all out. Doesn't help that we have 2 other projects we've started in this past couple of days that we want done for shop hop too!

With all the things I've checked off my list I still have one important one to do yet this week. We are putting together a "goodie" bag/envelope for Virginia Spiegel and Collage Mania! It will go to one of the contributing artists. If you haven't heard anything about it you really need to check it out at http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/blog/.

That's all for today!!

Monday, February 11, 2008

It's a Monday!

Hi everyone.....

It is definitely a Monday! Now that it is after noon and we're back in the business mindset.....at least we think we are I thought I'd post to let you know what's up!

I wish I could say I'm done with the Shop Hop quilt top but alas I am not. I'm trying to finish it up so that I can hand it off to mom for her to start the quilting. She will quilt it and embellish it to make it look fabulous as right now I'm just not so sure of it! Maybe that's because one of the blocks took me 4 1/2 hrs to complete as I'd never done the technique before! Lol....also didn't help that when all was said and done it was too small. Rather than make it again I just decided to add a border. I know, I know I'm not supposed to fess up to the mistakes for you to see but I'm proud I finished the block all the same.

We came up with so many more ideas for the shop hop over the weekend it is scary. Now it will just be can we get them all done and in place. We will decorate the night of the 27th so that is only 16 days countdown! Even more fabric just arrived this morning so now we are working on getting those into the system.

Online Sale of the Week: 2/11/08 - 15% off new Marcus Brothers Fabrics. There are some absolutely gorgeous white on whites and black on blacks. Simply visit www.fiberonawhim.com and the online catalog fabric section to see/purchase them.

I best get running as I've got to get a lot of stuff done today and tomorrow before the knitting group and Fiber Art Fusion meet here tomorrow. Gotta make sure there's places for them all to fit with all this new stuff here!

Saturday, February 9, 2008

More Fabric and Countdown to Cruise!!!

I can't believe a whole week has passed since the last post. I guess you can tell that we've been busy! Shop Hop is now just 3 short weeks away and we've been trying to get our boarding papers in order. We are so excited about our ideas that we our bursting at the seams and ready to set sail now. Lol....but alas we can't begin our cruise until Feb. 28th. Just as a tease.....you'll be boarding a ship full of fun, games, and prizes while you sail to the warm waters of the Caribbean with many sights along the way!


We've gotten in another shipment of fabrics....imagine that. These ones are absolutely stunning even though most are not "colorful". We just got in a selection of beautiful white on whites, black on blacks, and tan and creams!

Here's a few of the lighter colors.


The black on blacks.

And then more paisley and dots! We seem to be into them a lot lately!

More is still due in so don't be surprised with the rearranging the shop is undergoing because we have to find places for it all!

Friday, February 1, 2008

Finished Quilt Top!!

Yeah!! I finished piecing the quilt top for the batik shop model. I now just need to layer and quilt it. Hmmmm.....maybe I can get mom to say she'll quilt it after she's done playing at the Fiberella Workshop over at Atlanta Sewing Center!! This one was a really nice and easy pattern and is around 51" x 57". The pattern is called Habitat by Fourth & Sixth Designs that we carry.



Karla has made some progress with getting all the fat quarters rolled. That pile of fabric still in the bags is no longer sitting on our other cutting table. It is all nicely put away in shelves now. It is a beautiful rainbow of colors! That's the next shop model is to do a piece using these new solids! We'll see though as I still should be starting on the Shop Hop quilt.

Back to work now.....have a great day!