Happy Thanksgiving!

I wanted to take a moment out of every one's busy day to say Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day spent with friends and family. I am excited to eat and celebrate with my husband's family today and then head up to Cleveland tomorrow to spend some time with my family for the weekend. I love being so close to our families.When we used to live out in LA we could only afford to come home once during the holiday season so we are happy to be back with our families so we can spend time with everybody during this time of year. I hope everyone takes a moment to remember what this day is all about and give thanks for everything around you. I am thankful for my family and friends, my job and my prospects of my new career that are in front of me. I am thankful to everyone who stops by my blog to see what I have to say, I would love to hear how all of you spend your day today!

The Traveling Crafter: Charlotte, NC

Last weekend I was down in Charlotte, NC visiting my sister and her family. We had a great time hanging out, talking and not doing anything else. It was a great weekend. One thing I love to do when I am in new cities is to check out one or two quilt shops. They are never the same and they never have exactly the same fabric. I love walking through them and looking at all the fabric, I have been to dozens of shops and quilt market many times but every time I walk into a new quilt store I see some new fabrics that I have never seen before. I might only buy a fat quarter or, like this past weekend, I might buy 15 yards of fabric.

This past weekend outside of Charlotte we stopped at Mary Jo's Cloth Shop in Gastonia, NC. This is a HUGE store filled with any type of fabric you could imagine. Half the store is regular weight cotton fabrics for quilting and crafting. Another area of the store is all heavyweight and upholstery weight fabrics. There is also a huge section for just trims, ric rac and ribbon and anything else you could want.

The possibilities are endless and I think I spent the first half hour just walking around and looking at everything. The fabric was broken down into sections in some areas, batiks, polka dots, stripes, animals, and tons of other categories. It was a lot of fun just looking at everything and touching everything, then I came back to reality and noticed that my sister and her 8 and 9 year old kids were getting a little bored.

So I had to get a mission in my mind so I could concentrate on picking a few things out of the massive selection of fabrics. I concentrated on picking out a few fabrics that I could make some purses with for Bazaar Bizarre. The show is getting closer and closer. So I picked out a few fabrics and got a few remnant pieces as well and headed for check out. It was an amazing store and I had a great time walking the aisles. If you are ever in that area of the country you should make it your first stop. Where are your favorite quilt shops?

Obsession Confession: Fat Quarters

I have a confession to make... I am obsessed with fat quarters. I can't stop buying them, every time I walk into a quilt store. They are usually organized by color all by themselves on a shelf folded neatly in a row. They are addictive, I can never have enough and there are endless amounts of projects that can be made with just one fat quarter or a combination of a few.

So, what is a fat quarter? A fat quarter is a quarter yard piece of fabric approximately 18" x 22". A normal quarter yard cut from the bolt at a fabric store would be 44" x 9", a long skinny piece. The fat quarter is a half yard of fabric cut in half so you have a more versatile piece of fabric for a variety of projects. This picture shows the difference between a regular "skinny" quarter yard (at the bottom) of fabric and the top picture shows a fat quarter and a fat eighth.

I have a few fat quarters of my own in my studio at home...I counted them before I wrote this post and I have about 370 fat quarters. This may seem like a lot to some people but I bet there are people out there with many more (I doubt my mom could even put a number to her stash). These are my fat quarter shelves:

Along with the obsession with fat quarters comes the obsession with fat quarter bundles. These are sets of fat quarters in coordinating colors or a line of fabric from a specific designer. I have a few of these in my collection as well. The only problem with these bundles is that I never want to use them, they are just too pretty to break up. I just can't get myself to cut those strings and cut into those wonderfully coordinated bundles. I got the large Moda bundle last year at the sample spree at Quilt Market and it hasn't been broken up yet, maybe someday...ok, probably not.

So I have confessed, I love fat quarters and I can't get enough of them. I don't think this will change any time soon and I'm ok with that. There are more hidden confessions in my life that will come out sooner or later, keep in touch to hear about the rest of them and please feel free to share your own.

Projects and Presents

I have been busy getting ready for Bazaar Bizarre. Trying to get myself organized and get a list together of what projects I need to make and which items I want at the show (easier said than done since this is my first craft show). With Thanksgiving coming up as well as my vacation to Charlotte, to visit my sister and her family, I don't have much time to work so I will have to use every spare moment I have. Which also means I should probably take a break from the Twilight series. I am almost done with the third book and I can't put them down. Everyone told me I would get sucked in and I definitely have. I think I will finish the third book this weekend and then only allow myself to read at night, after my sewing is finished. We will see how well that works out. I have a list of what I want done but I am also thinking about putting together a few little gift sets with two or three items together. Since people will be shopping for the holidays I figure this is a great way to sell more items.

On to the presents portion of the post! When I arrived home from Quilt Market last week (read my recap and see the pictures here and here) I was surprised by a wonderful gift from my amazing husband. He got me a beautiful Rowenta iron and a great new ironing board. It is so wonderful to work with. Now, there is a little story that goes along with these presents. I had a basic iron before I left for market but about a week before I left I ended up needing a new ironing board because in my rush to finish up a project I may have accidentally fused some interfacing to my ironing board instead of the fabric it was supposed to attach to. Not paying attention, the interfacing was upside down so then there was glue all over my ironing board and I had no time to go get a new cover. But, in the end it worked out very well for me. New ironing board and new iron! Husbands are great!
I have lots of work to do in the next few weeks and not too much time to get it all done but hopefully it will all come together in the end and I will have a great show. I hope to see lots of you there!

Bazaar Bizarre

So I am back to the "real world" now after quilt market is all over. It was nice to be lost in the fabric and design industry even if it was only for a few days. Every time I come home from market or any other show I realize how much I really do miss the industry and how excited I am to try to make my own mark in this world.

On that note I have a very exciting announcement...I have been accepted into Bazaar Bizarre! It is an alternative craft show that I will be showing at in Cleveland December 13th and 14th. They have shows in a few different cities throughout the year. I went to the show in Cleveland last year and there was a great mix of crafters and I found some great Christmas presents for many people on my list. Here is the vendor list, it looks like there are lots of great people that will be there.

This will be my first craft show so I am trying to not get too excited about tons of sales and just consider it a learning experience no matter what happens, of course selling out would be nice too. It will be a great chance to meet some other crafters in my area and the get the feel of a craft show to see if it is something I want to continue doing. So I have TONS of work to do to figure out what I want to have at my table and then, of course, make it all. I will be very busy for the next month but I am very excited about the show.

Anyone else going to the show?