What is your Spring color?

Posted by on March 2, 2011

Here are several new Applique Cafe designs we’ve done in the past few weeks….

First, School of Fish.

Second, Easter Train.

Third, Beach Truck.

Fourth, Add a Birthday Hat.

Lastly (and listed just this morning), Sailboat Patch. (BTW, I believe the fish fabric is called Snorkel? I bought it at InTown Quilters in Decatur, GA).

Do you see anything in common with all of them, besides the fact that they are all very much color coordinated? I am digging ORANGE for spring!! I’ve always been a green fanatic! I love everything green (I took after my Grandmother!). G has green walls (and B did too before he got ‘big’). Sissy’s room is pink & green. I like green clothes, M’s green crocs and the list goes on and on! But, I also love orange for spring and summer (and Auburn football) and especially for KIDS!

I’m not sure if you pay attention to the menu on top of my blog? One of the reasons I changed over to WordPress was so that I could have this menu. Home is home (duh!), about is about me (I need to add a photo), recommendations is my list of software recommendations (Sew What Pro, etc) and as you see below, LINKS is my list of online fabric resources and also clothing blanks (tees and fancier stuff). I get this question a lot and have found myself copying and pasting this link on Facebook a lot lately (mostly people looking for blanks), so I thought I’d point it out! This list is miniature I’m sure to what all is out there! If you have a favorite fabric website, please share it with me! Blanks too!

And case in point, my website and blog are both GREEN with a hint of ORANGE!!

Here is a precious cute outfit I had made for Sissy. I also have orange gingham ruffle pants  ~ both pants and shorts match another top I bought from someone for like $10 to cover the monogram on and use for M. Check out sewhappyblog.blogspot.com. I’m almost afraid to advertise her b/c she may get too busy for me! Carrie was also behind the cute Sailboat Patch design and I can’t wait to see how she does it (with 1 fabric for the boat I believe).

So here are some of my favorite fabrics to work with. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these Fabric Finders 1/8″ ginghams! They are so soft and thick and are great for appliques! I also have many many many other Michael Miller Ta Dots (red, pink, green, etc) but I love these colors for spring also! Again, the Ta Dots are super soft and thick and GREAT for applique!

Do you have a blog that you can’t go a day without reading? If so, share it with me! I love my little blog list, but some people don’t post as often as I need want so I find myself wanting more on my list to read and “gain inspiration” from! It doesn’t have to do with embroidery or monogramming or applique! As I keep seeing on Facebook, TIA (Thanks In Advance)!!

Filed Under: Applique Cafe, Fabric, Shopping | Tagged: Tagged With: ,

Valentine Designs and more FABRIC!

Posted by on January 25, 2011
This week I have still been working on setting up my *new* computer. It took me until yesterday evening to get it right! I THINK everything is now on it and it’s functioning with my embroidery machine and software like it should. In case you didn’t know, Windows 7 is so cool, but a little bit of a headache for the older programs and software! I’ve been doing a few shirts here & there and have like 5 to finish up today. After those are done it’s CCE time. I haven’t gotten the first thing out for consigning. I have until Monday to get it all together. Plenty of time!
Here’s a cute Valentine shirt I did with the AC OWL. The customer wanted “owl be yours” or “hoo loves you” below the design. CUTE!
I also did this shirt yesterday on one of the Just Blanks shirts for one of my carpool peeps’ little sister. I have done this design twice this week and it’s from Embroidery-Boutique.
This is a great Valentine’s Day design! Who doesn’t love pink & purple!
Lastly, I got a goodie box this last week from TJs Fabric. What day is it today? I’ve blogged about TJ’s before and it’s a Pharmacy/gift/FABRIC store located in OPP, AL! It’s right off Hwy 311, so I always say if you are heading to Destin, FL or any beach near there and you travel 331, FIND THIS PLACE! GPS was invented for this reason! This past summer we stopped on our way to the beach and I only had about 30 minutes to shop (as Jeff and the kids were left in the car). Every now & then I get a surprise package from them and it’s like CHRISTMAS! I hope to make another trip down there with my camera. The good news is…. they are now selling a lot of their great fabric online! I believe their goal is to offer every fabric they sell online, but as you can imagine it’s quite a task to get it all listed. CLICK HERE to view the online store! Thanks to Teresa for the surprise and I hope you got my e-mails!! 🙂
You can imagine my squeals when I opened the box and found this!!!!
These are from the Riley Blake Quite Contrary group and it is even more precious in person!! My grandmother always loved strawberries so this reminds me of her! LOVE LOVE LOVE the bottom 2 on the right side too!
More cute fabric. This grouping is Riley Blake LOVE BIRDS. So pretty!!

The dots below are Oval Elements by Art Gallery and the chunky looking ginghams are Michael Miller. The top right circle fabric is from Riley Blake. All cute and I can’t wait to use them!

By the way, what a great website ~ http://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/ ~ I’m always trying to figure out the name of Riley Blake fabrics so this is a great site to keep in mind. It’s so *pretty* too! There is a RB Blog too! How awesome! Why have I not found this before??
Today is a yucky rainy nasty day where I live and a good day to do nothing! But, I must sew (or applique)!!
Filed Under: Applique Cafe, Design, Fabric | Tagged:

More. Fabric.

Posted by on January 18, 2011
First of all this is one of my lovely assistants this morning. I like to take sample photos outside, preferably in good sunlight. Not so sunny today but better than inside. I had her hold the hoop up so that what little sunlight there is would shine on the applique! Don’t you love her pigtails?
My other lovely assistant (note For Sale sign above G’s head…sigh…see previous post). Owls are IN! We have 2 already and both are great designs. I’m loving this new one too which will be listed this week at www.appliquecafe.com! I also did this sample on a size 4/5 Just Blanks long sleeve ruffle tee (it has ruffles on the sleeves and bottom). If you’re interested in the shirt let me know! I have a box of these shirts (some short sleeves too) so I’m going to try to do samples on them when I can. Not sure what is in G’s mouth? Part of a cheese stick I think.
And now to my very (unplanned) trip up to Beth’s on Friday. I met a friend for coffee and then had 2 hours to kill and needed wanted some Spring-y Easter-y fabric, so I drove up and just happened to have my camera on me because I was heading to a Grandparent’s Luncheon at B’s school at 12:30. Perfect! Beth’s is sort of in Montgomery and sort of in Wetumpka. I’m really not sure and have not even noticed the address. I like to go there and also Caffco Floral Outlet all in one swoop. I get my clear bags from Caffco.
You may need to click to enlarge the photos to see the fabrics more closely. You don’t need to click and enlarge to see that Beth’s has EVERYTHING!! It is by far the best fabric store around these here parts! If you want ginghams, polka dots, Fabric Finders or basically any type of cute fabric, this is your one stop shop! Lots of dainty cute florals and as you can see (upper left) they also have all of the cute Fabric Finders team prints.
Polka dots and ginghams for days…. You can fill your fabric collection with every kind of floral or print fabric you like, but you cannot beat good ole ginghams and polka dots. I always tell people that appliques deal with such small spaces, so try to think that way when shopping. I have some BEAUTIFUL floral prints in my collection, but I always go back to polka dots, stripes and ginghams! Small florals work too!
These are NICE solids ~ (can’t think of the name/type fabric right off the top of my head).
Ginghams in every shade, color, size, price range you can imagine…
Fabric Finders team prints ~ Auburn and Alabama
I picked out a few dainty little florals, and then they told me about “upstairs”!! I had no idea upstairs existed, but evidently this is where the good stuff is! They have so much fabric that they can’t put it all downstairs ~ the lighter spring-y-er stuff was up here and I picked out several more… They also hold classes up there!
Click to enlarge if needed…
Did I mention they have fabric for days?
They also sell TONS of patterns, notions, buttons, blank bibs and burp cloths and other things, and if you look at the “cart” on the right side of the photo ~ in the bottom drawer they have tons of scraps which sell for 50cents each! It’s fun to dig through and see what’s in there! There are also a couple of classrooms to the right of this picture. They hold tons of classes. AND… Beth told me Friday they are also going to start selling  EMBROIDERY THREAD and some stabilizers! One stop shop!
Here are the fabrics I came home with ~ I’ve had my eye on this ric rac stripe!
I’ve never been a huge lavender or purple fan (except for that plum phase I went through about 12 years ago where I decorated my bedroom in all plum). Now that I have a girl I’m appreciating it more and these lavenders are so dainty and cute! I also like lavender with green.
Here are the floral prints I got and I just did the new owl in the paisley and it turned out CUTE! Again, applique = small spaces so the small florals work.
I thought these were both Spring-y and Easter-y. I saw the pastel tricheck on Facebook the other day so I was so glad when I found it!
I long for the day (hopefully soon) when I have a SEWING ROOM and I can organize all of my fabrics. I’m putting it off until then.
AC News: everything is 30% off (excluding gift certificates and “design on a dime” designs) until Sunday. I am working to sample a couple more new designs also so they will be listed ASAP. Reasons for this sale: everyone was buggin me asking for one, Auburn won the National Championship and we have EXCEEDED 3,000 Applique Cafe fans on Facebook!
Blog News: I spoke to a “guy” yesterday about the WordPress blog migration. I also got a quote from a guy who hosts one of the blogs on my list that I love. I’m hoping to work on this project and that the transition will be smooth with little “blog down time”. I’ll keep you posted…
Filed Under: Fabric, Family, Shopping | Tagged: Tagged With:
« Previous Page
Next Page »