Whimsy Cottage Blog

Hope Springs

  Life has been crazy - the store's been busy and my other life has been busy with the move to a different house.  But the thing that's making the biggest impact on me is the weather.  The snow's almost gone.  It was 55 degrees outside when I closed the store at 5:00 today AND it was still daylight.  So instead of working or packing boxes, I drove home, loaded the dogs up and took them for a walk at the park.  I've forgotten this is possible...that the days DO get longer and warmer and snow-less. I feel rejuvenated and the dogs are beside themselves with glee.

Many fun things are happening at the store.  All those orders I placed at the Houston Market in October are showing up.  I love when I open a box and am happy with what's inside.  It does happen that I open one and wonder what I was thinking to have ordered such bizarre stuff...  So, here are pictures of wonderful new fabrics and trims.

This is ric rac made from gathered bias - and it comes as just plain double-fold, bias trim, too.  We have both.

This is Prince Street - made from the City Girl collection by Benartex.  We've kitted it - including pattern and binding, it costs $40.

And these are gorgeous, giant prints -

Ginger Blossom is a wonderful collection from Michael Miller - very retro and in great colors.

And, it appears I didn't take a picture of my new 30's bolts - there are 5 or 6 of them.  I don't really do 30's, but these made me laugh.  They're traditional designs, but HUGE - like Aunt Gracie on steroids.  Come see.

It's President's Day

Our Mystery Sunday was a week ago and I realize I haven't said anything about it.  What a fun day - serious sewing and eating.  Several quilts were completed during the class and others have shown up during the week.  Here are the wenches, who ironed and ripped all day long without a break (except to eat). 

And I took pictures of completed quilts, but I'll offer this again, using the same quilt, so I probably shouldn't show it, right? 

Happily, I'm waiting for the birth of my first grandchild...well, I've been doing that for a long time.  The difference now is that my oldest daughter is pregnant and due mid-April.  Because they're not finding out the sex of the baby, they decided to do the nursery in their wedding colors, aqua and lime green.  So here's what I came up with for a quilt and we'll paint the room to match. 

For those of you waiting for the Enchanted Autumn quilt kits, I'm cutting daily.  There are 83 fabrics in it, so it's really slow going...

Acronym, Schmacronym

Do you ever look at your house or your sewing room with new eyes and wonder how it got that way?  Like when you return from a long vacation and your neighborhood looks different and walking into your house, you see it as a stranger would?  I've been trying to do that at the store...I think it needs some shaking up. 
So, when I realized this is a Leap Year, I thought I'd have a sale to do that shaking and work toward a better balance of fabrics. I thought I'd call it something cute for which the letters L, E, A, and P were the acronym.  Now I've spent hours on that effort and am most disappointed in the results. 
Large Enormous Ample Pfabric Sale
or maybe what it isn't:
Lackluster, Exiguous, Abysmal, Puny (peewee, petty, petite or pint-size) Sale
But, I think the sale itself is a good one:
Starting today, Feb. 8, thru Feb. 29, Asian, Black-and-White fabrics and Westminster Fibers (that's Kaffe Fasset, Martha Negley, etc.) fabrics are 30% off (min. 1-yd., please)

Even Newer and Pretty Things

Bags, Cow Girls, Gorgeous Classroom (says webmaster) and a trip to the City Center...

New Fabrics

Moda zaza's, Wizard of Oz and some Valentine's goodies...

...blaah, blaah, blaah

I haven't blogged in a long while, I see.  Next year, when I wish the holidays to be over, I'm going to extend that wish through January, to make it get over quick, too. For me, the first month of the year brings my birthday and my oldest daughter's, and inventory at the store.  This year it also brought, enjoyably, looking for a new house and settling my youngest daughter into the U of U and making a quilt with very pointy stars for a class I'm teaching in March (Barbara McF and Rebecca are helping applique them down...I wouldn't get it done without them).

So, today is February and it holds much, too.  On the 10th is the Mystery Class, a first for us.  The 14th is Valentine's Day.  And it's Leap Year, so we have a February 29th.   We'll do something special for that - check back here for details.  In my other life, I'll be moving to my new house (it's an old one) and putting this one on the market. 

Many new things are at the store - so much to look at, fondle, carry around and match up. Lisa made an adorable apron that comes with adult and child sizes in one pattern;  Barbara H. made two new bags - one is out of yo yos...and we have the yo yo makers in three sizes and they turn out gorgeous ones!  Buy a maker and get a free pattern from Blackbird Designs for the purse.  I ordered reg. sized ric rac in many colors...happy, big spools.   Come check it out!