New Clubs & Website Changes

Alright.....we have changed around quite a bit of things on our website and also added a few great new things.

First, we now offer FREE domestic shipping on orders $100 or over. Doesn't matter what you buy....heavy books, lots of fabric, or whatever else heavy you can find!

We've introduced 2 new clubs to our website.

Our first club is our 2500 Inch by Inch Club. The goal is to get to 2500 inches of quilting cottons/PFDs purchased in one year. You will get 250 bonus inches just for joining. Then you will get prize packages at 500, 1000, 1750, and 2500 inches. If you make it all the way to the 2500 inch club you will earn extra priveledges such as early access to sales, credits and more. Each month there will be a fabric collection/style that will earn you either 50% or 100% more inches. For the rest of February Lonni Rossi's Asian Harmony line will earn you double inches! This means if you purchase 36" (1 yard) you will get credit for 72" (2 yards). This club is free.

Our next club is our Undercover Club. This is our version of a block of the month club that will make contemporary lap quilts. You will become an undercover agent with your first mission in Australia. You will receive your first assignment on May 1st. This mission will include 6 total assignments. The deadline to finish the mission will be November 1, 2010. If you can provide proof (pic) of the completed mission you will be entered in to a drawing for a prize package!

You can find information on these clubs on our catalog page of http://www.fiberonawhim.com/ or you can find FAQs about these at http://www.fiberonawhim.com/about.html. If you have any other questions about these clubs don't hesitate to call us at 404-705-9164 or email us at fiberonawhim@yahoo.com

Happy Stitching!!!

My 12 Connected Challenge Group Piece "La Puerta"

Late in 2009 Sue Bleiweiss posted on QuiltArt about a challenge group she was organizing, so many members responded inquiring about joining in, that she wound up assisting in the organization of several groups. It was a 2 year commitment, requiring each challenge member to make a small quilt every 2 months, based on a word. At that time I was struggling to find time to be creative so I gave it some thought prior to making my inquiry, however I thought it would be a great way to "make" myself set aside time to work. How many times are we told to go into our workrooms to make the work, make the work, make the work. Our first word was "sanctuary". My piece is named "La Puerta". Sanctuary, this word brought many images to mind. The immediate images were of my personal places of refuge; such as the forests of northern Minnesota where I grew up or the warm beaches found along the Gulf Coast. They are also where I typically turn for inspiration and I wanted to use these challenges to stretch myself. So I went back to contemplating the word, its definitions and synonyms; hoping for a light bulb moment. One definition kept creeping back into my thoughts; "any gateway marking an entrance or exit from one place or state to another; at heavens door". For years I have taken photographs of doors, for me doors are the passage way by which we take refuge. Immediately a wonderful photo of a cathedral door in the El Socolo in Mexico City came to mind and the phrase from the definition "at heavens door" popped into my head. How could I create this piece and stretch myself? That nagging question played over and over in my mind, during daytime hours and even while I slept.

Finally I pulled an ugly fabric from my stash, using 1/4" tape I laid out a grid for the building wall on the wrong side of the fabric. Then I used watercolor pencils and textile medium to shade my blocks, after drying they looked like a wall. The door needed to look rugged, hand hewn, so I used brown packing paper, crumpled and flattened numerous times to break down the fibers, coloring it with shoe polish gave it a worn leather look.


Embroidery and embellishments were used to give the piece dimension and the look of age. I love it when someone looks at a piece of my work, see's the overall composition, moves in to take a closer look, discovers small details and becomes excited by them.
Please check out the group's blog and follow along with our 2 year adventure, our next word is "color". Hmmmmm!!!

New Arrivals

Sixteen lovely bolts of Australian fabric just rolled in today!!! Here is just a peek at 8 of them. Check out the other fabrics at www.fiberonawhim.com.

Fiber on a Whim's first online class!!!

We have been asked so many times about offering an online class so we've finally listed one. You can find extensive details by following the link below.

http://www.classschedule.net/cgi-server/schedules/classdisplay.cgi?account=fiberonawhim&action=display&record=9778

Brief Description: 4 week online class starting March 6, 2010. If you've always wanted to try water solubles but have been a bit hesitant this is the class for you. You will be guided through Vanishing Act #1 by Jan Beaney as you learn which product is best for you for what techniques. Each week you will have various examples to work through on different products. The last week you will be assisted in choosing one of the examples and creating a more finished piece of art. A kit is included in the class fee. It will provide the harder to find materials and allow you to try more products without the expense of buying more than you might want. You may either register for the class that includes the book or for the one that doesn't (if you already own it). Either way you will need the book for the class.

We hope that several of you join us for this class. We will be announcing a few more classes as in the next couple of weeks.

Recent Work

So I've already broken the resolution of attempting to post once a week to this blog!!! That doesn't mean we haven't been working though. Here are bits of some of the things:

Mom is currently working on a piece that has a deadline of Jan. 31st. Here is a little snippet of the beginning of it.



We taught a class at a local guild this past Thursday. The workshop was for small landscapes. These are some of our examples.


This one is of silks, home decs, and sheers.

This is all quilting cottons done monochromatically.

This one also turned out to be monochromatically but she didn't intentionally do it.

I worked up even smaller scaled landscapes!

This is what I've been working up knitting wise. This is a purse that I have just finished the base of. I have to embellish it with another yarn in the holes and seam it up.

Here is a slouchy style beret hat that I've almost finished for mom. I ran out of yarn and had to go get some more. Now I can finish it up.

This one is also going to be for mom. It was recently in Interweave Knits Fall 2009.

Here's the first bit of it. I'm just starting the pattern of it with the cables. We'll see how far I can get in the next couple of days on all these projects. I'll post again soon.

What we are working on.....

Both of us have gotten some work done during this "lovely" weather we are having. Here is a little taste of the pieces.

Of course Jan is back to her handwork. She is having a blast with this piece and funny enough.....purple is not one of her normal colors.


I'm working on another confetti style quilt. It is only about 20 x 24". Here is the base of it.

Then here is a little snippet of a corner of it with a bright pop of color. We'll see how this turns out as I'm not working from any photograph just an idea in my mind.

New Year!!

Well we made it through 2009 thankfully. We are hoping that 2010 is less of a bumpy road personally than last year. We are both hoping to get more art done in the new year. We are also hoping to post more about the things we are doing or receiving in as well. Here's a few things that rounded out last year and began this one.


Two days ago we had a business trip up to North Carolina. Good thing was that it ran us right by Mary Jo's in Gastonia. We went in with the list of plumping up our blues and yellows as we do not buy much of those both personally or for the store. We thought this would be the best opportunity to stock the stash for future use.



You can see we veered off course just slightly! You can see a decent amount of blue but this pic doesn't really show any yellow!! We felt a little bit better upon realizing Mary Jo doesn't buy a lot of yellow either. Hmmmmm......we will have to hunt harder. Lol......now we know the question is coming......Why are you out buying fabric when you own a fabric store? Who knows maybe it is just for excuses to stop at stores like this one!

In the month of December I had two t-shirt quilts that I was hired to make. Here are the photos for them. Both are two-sided and about 50 x 50".

I really liked how this first one photographed.

For this one I was told her favorite color was purple. I decided to do a log cabin and run like colors together to build it out. I think I could have done this a little bit better with blocking out the colors to make a better pattern. Lol.....only part that matters though is that she loved it.

We are in the middle of working on several projects and have many new products due in. I'm making a resolution to post at least 2 days a week. I'm hoping for more than that but trying to be a little realistic with myself!!! Happy New Year to all.