Monday, September 22, 2008

Sad News!

It is with heavy hearts that we write today’s newsletter to all of you. As some of you know we’ve had many obstacles in our personal lives this year. Unfortunately, they do not seem to be coming to a close in fact they are getting worse. These obstacles are starting to demand a lot of attention and it is making it difficult on us to be here at the shop as well as focus on those. So we have made a sad decision to close the brick and mortar portion of our business. We simply can not man/focus on it like the customers deserve. We will STILL be in business though. We are switching to focus on the website and traveling to do shows. This will allow us the time to hopefully straighten out what we are going through. It will also allow us time to be advocates on issues we now feel strongly about and volunteer to help others in the same situation.

On our website we will still carry those hard to find items for art quilting. We will be carrying the same variety of fabrics as we’ve become known for. We will venture more into the altered art/mixed media arena. We will no longer be carrying yarn and knitting supplies though. As of today, September 22, there are several items marked down. Those items that we are clearancing out are 40% off and all other items that we’d like to thin down on are at 15% off.

Our first shows are going to be the Georgia Quilt Show in Gwinett, GA October 16-18, 2008 and Houston International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX Oct 29-Nov. 2, 2008.

We thank you for your support over the past 3 years and we look forward to many more years working with you all.

Sincerely,
Kristin Rodriguez & Jan Girod
Fiber on a Whim

Sunday, September 21, 2008

We made it!!!!!!

The 2008 Atlanta 2-day Walk for breast cancer is now behind us!! Man am I sore.....imagine that. It was an amazing experience. It's the Journey, the organizer, couldn't have put on a better event. The crew running the whole thing was absolutely amazing. They were always there to make sure you were doing alright, well hydrated, well fed, wanted a ride, cheer you on and more. They made sure that they were in very festive outfits......if I can find some good pics I'll post them at a later date. Let me just say one of the motorcycle crew members had a very entertaining helmet. Every time we passed him he would salute us and bow so we had a full on view of that helmet! To some it might be seen as offensive but in light of the event it was great!!! The Atlanta Marriott Marquis was absolutely gracious/generous for putting us all up for the evening and feeding us well. Also so many companies deserve thanks for all the food, water, and sports drinks they donated. It's nice to see that companies still see it in their hearts to do things like that. Let me tell you they are places I will be happy to bring my business to in the future for all that they did.

Now as for the walk and how much we accomplished........yesterday was the 20 mile day. We only made 13 miles of it before we waved our white surrender towels.....lol. Let's just say....Karla had only been able to get in training walks of 5 miles while I had gotten up to 13. So Karla did an amazing job far surpassing her farthest walk before yesterday. Now in my case your probably thinking I should have been able to do more. Well......I thought I should have too. Only problem was that I was practicing on "kiddie hills" which could not prepare me for the hills we encountered yesterday. So we were absolutely ecstatic to see the B'rest Stop at the Landmark Diner on Roswell Rd yesterday when we could say take us back to the hotel.

As for today.....the 10 mile day. We started out a little stiff with Karla's knee already yelling at her. Remember she did 8 miles over any walk she had done before so this was to be expected. We were doing a great pace and enjoying the scenery of downtown Atlanta that we were walking through. When we got to Virginia Highlands though the sidewalks made it tricky with uneven pavement due to the tree growth. We were about 3.5 miles in when Karla went down hard. Now your probably thinking she must have tripped on a root. Nope she tripped on the grass! When your body gets as tired as it does doing this type of thing your sense of perception goes out the window. So when someone tries to pass you you over compensate to make sure you are out of the way. Well that is when Karla met the grass and went down. She bruised her knee pretty bad.....and not the one that had been yelling at her before. She was a trooper though and got the nurses to clean and bandage it and we kept going. We managed all 10.5 miles today!! Yup they overshot us by a 1/2mile.....lol. Then we had to somehow manage to pick up our luggage and walk to where mom had parked the car. That was another 1/2mile so all in all we walk 24 miles this weekend. That's a lot.......

It was truly an amazing experience to see the people lining the roads cheering you on. The one that I think really touched people was a woman, currently fighting breast cancer, who made her husband bring her out to the route. She was in a spot all by herself thanking everyone that walked by. She was so choked up at one point that her husband had to take over thanking everyone. That type of gratitude really lifted your step when you were 7.5 miles in with another 3 to go. At that point you are simply telling your brain to put one foot in front of the other with a hope that your body will take you there. Walking in to Centennial Olympic Park and across the finish line was absolutely breathtaking. We by far were not the fastest ones and there were still people lining the way in and cheering you on. The comraderie along the way is something you truly wish we could aspire to more in this world. I certainly hope that my body will allow me to do this again next year. I might have to work on Karla a little bit but even if she says no way I think she did a great job.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Birthday Celebration and other photos!

Well our birthday party has now rolled to a close. How sad.......... here are some photos of what we had been up to.


This is the main door prize. Ticket #805713 won. As far as I can tell it was an in house purchase so check your tickets and give us a call 404-705-9164.

Here were some of our mini door prizes. These were what we pulled from the most recent Cloth Paper Scissors and man were they fun to make!!!


Here's what little bit of the round robin is completed. It still needs more stuff on it so we might just leave it out for a couple more days.


Also here is a finished photo of the doll mom was working on on Labor Day. The previous photo was an in progress one. This doll was inspired by an article in Stampington & Company's Handcrafted Vol. 4 by Penny Collins "Cheetah". Mom had a lot of fun with the feathers can you tell? I think she had originally had the vase prepared to donate then saw the article and ran to the garage to dig through the box to find it. Never thought I'd hear her tell my dad how thankful she was he "didn't" do what she'd asked!!






Saturday, September 6, 2008

Shop Hop Challenge Winners

We emailed the winners on Sept. 3rd so here is the announcement. The winners of the 2008 Fiber on a Whim Shop Hop Challenge are:

1st: Rebecca Keeble
2nd: Elleda Rule
3rd: Julia LaBauve

I'll include this news in our next newsletter on Monday but those are the winners. I'm not going to post up pictures of the pieces since they will be on display in an exhibit at the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo at the Gwinett Center in October. Those three and several others will be a part of the exhibit. Thanks to all artists who participated in this challenge. We loved seeing the differences in the pieces.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Yet another play day.....

Since yesterday was Labor Day we took the opportunity to play. Here's what we came up with.....

I spent the day with the machine. I made this tote out of some fabric I found at Ikea and then some simple black fabric. This pattern was one from Quilts and more Fall 2008. It looked bigger in the picture so was surprised at how tiny it is. Guess I've gotten too used to carrying Amy Butler's Birdie Sling bag. Needed one that was more fall like though!!


I also made this bird out of the same magazine. It just looked too cute and I had to try it. This was a simple project to complete and I think it turned out great. Although if you look closely the bird looks like she might have fallen out of the nest as a baby and hit her head!! Lol......have to work on a more smooth curve!


Mom spent the day fighting with this. Don't know quite yet where she is going with this so will have to wait and see. We just kept laughing about the mummy she was making as she was stitching on it. Now she's working on giving her flesh. Hopefully today she gets a little further with her.