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:

Thread and Hoops!

Posted by on January 3, 2011
I hope this doesn’t look too gross? Yesterday was New Year’s Day. In the SOUTH, we take the ham bone from the ham we’ve been eating every other meal for the past week, throw it in a pot and throw in a bag of BLACK EYED PEAS!! We don’t/didn’t do the “greens”, but hopefully the BEP’s will bring us good luck in 2011! If this picture didn’t make you shut down my blog, then read on…
Today I “organized” my thread on the floor. I have both 1000M spools and 5000M spools. I’m working on a thread order so I had to sort all the colors and figure out what I needed. I use mostly Poly X thread from www.kenssewingcenter.com (and I have a gift certificate to use) and also Isacord from www.sewingmachine.com (most of my 5000M spools are Isacord). I like both brands and my machine seems to like them too. I have REAL thread charts for both brands with real thread samples, so it makes ordering very easy. I’m trying to build up my collection of 5000M spools, especially on the colors I use most.
Isn’t thread fun??
Tonight I made a Walmart run for diapers (Mal still sleeps in them unfortunately) and a dust pan. I came out with diapers, a dust pan, an 8 pack of paper towels, a pack of hot dogs, a pack of Oreos, a turtleneck for Mallory, a sippy cup and this super duper soft fleece pullover for G. I didn’t even have a buggy so the dust pan was literally hanging from my finger and I had stuff tucked under every part of me that would bend. You know exactly what I’m talking about!! Anyway… this fleece top was $5.00. This is why I love what I do! I can add a monogram to a $5.00 fleece top and I have a cute soft warm fleece for my G! The stitching is all light blue.
And now we come to my new best friend, the 9×9 HOOP!
http://www.allbrands.com/products/abp26773.html
This hoop is from Allbrands and if you have a 6 needle Brother machine, then this hoop is a must! It’s not made by Brother, but rather by Durkee and is compatible with several Brother and Babylock machines (see listing). This is a photo of the hoop on my machine. As you can see, my arm is expanded as wide as it’ll go just about ~ this hoop is probably as wide as the XL hoop that comes with the machine. It clips on just like any of the other hoops.

Here is a picture of the hoop hooped onto a size 4T turtleneck. It actually works great for smaller sizes too. I use medium cutaway and the 15″ x 25 yard roll from sewingmachine.com is great for this hoop!

Here is the 5×7 hoop on top as a comparison. The 9×9 hoop is about the same width b/c the 5×7 hoop is also 9″ wide. But, as you can see, it gives you more room vertically. Even though the 5×7 hoop is really 9″ wide, your machine will only allow you to use 7″ horizontally. With the 9×9 hoop, your machine recognizes it as the XL hoop so while you have to watch your boundaries like you do with Fast Frames, it gives you more than 7″ to work with across the shirt.
Here is a picture of my needle position as far up as it’ll go. The top of my design will be here and the needle will not hit the hoop.
Here is the finished shirt. I did not put a name on this shirt, but as you can see, there is plenty of room below the cross to put a name. Had I wanted a name on the shirt below the cross with a 5×7 hoop, I would have had to hoop vertically which would mean my shirt would be sideways on the machine! We all know this is a pain!
I was turned on to this hoop by some friends on Facebook, finally ordered it and use it all the time! As my friend HBS says, it’ll make your 5×7 hoop jealous!
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Local Artists!

Posted by on December 27, 2010
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!! What did we do before Hobby Lobby? Here is a picture of our modestly small (our house is for sale) Christmas tree with our wrapped gifts underneath. I got the paper, tulle and gift tags all from Hobby Lobby (at 50% off no doubt). Every year I say “I’m going to use up all the random paper, and NEXT year I’ll do matching wrapping paper”. I didn’t use up all the random paper but I did wrap my presents to all match! It’s almost like fabric!! I love the red polka dot and swirly paper!
Here are a couple of Christmas gifts I got this year! The first is an Ex Voto necklace made by a friend of a couple of friends here in Montgomery. She travels all over to find pieces to make her jewelry and I was SURPRISED when I opened a piece from Jeff (thanks to KV for the suggestion and to my SIL for her help too)! Here is her blog ~ http://exvotojewels.blogspot.com/ and she is also on Facebook. The other side of the charm has initials engraved on it which aren’t mine, but that’s what makes it so interesting!
I also got this beautiful painting by Donnie Sasser. He is also a local artist and I couldn’t find any blog or website but there is info out there if you google him. His paintings are very popular here in Montgomery! I have another one that hangs by my door.
Lastly, the boys did an art camp last week with Abrakadoodle. In the summer they do art camps with the lady who runs the program here in town. They each painted these cute Christmas trees (with a little help I’m sure) and also some candy cane ornaments that were precious! I LOVE the artwork they do! In our next house there will be a wall of it somewhere! I have tons of paintings from the past 3 or 4 summers of art camps!
Lastly, I gave Jeff a painting of our house. A) because this will always be “our first house”. Meaning this is the house all 3 of our kids came home to and were partially raised in. B) because hopefully in the near future this house will sell and we’ll have the painting as a sweet memory! I meant to take a photo of it but haven’t yet, but you can see it at AMR Art. It’s the middle house with the wrought iron benches on the front porch. Amanda is also local and I have another painting she did in Mallory’s room I may have posted a couple of years ago, and I also have another plaque which hangs in my kitchen I got at a Holiday Open House. I also have one of her Cathedral Angel paintings which is also in Mallory’s room. I love her work and would love to have more of it (next house!!). (p.s.AMR Art is on my blog list below and she is also on Facebook ~ Amanda Roberson Art)

I took a picture of the painting (below) but Amanda’s picture is better than mine! Check out her blog!
I’m busy re-sampling some of our Applique Cafe designs and we also listed 4 new ones this morning. Sometimes a design looks one way and with a change of fabric looks totally different. Since I’m “off” this week, I’m taking some time to re-do some of our older ones that I think might be cuter with different fabric. We have several Valentine designs listed as well as Mardi Gras, which are both coming up soon. We’ll be working on new Easter designs as well! The NEW designs are featured on the home page!
Filed Under: Misc, Shopping | Tagged: Tagged With:
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