June 2009 Archives

I live on a small island. We have one gas station, one grocery store, and a handful of other shops. There are two traffic lights. Mostly Camano Island is residential. But, we do have a small treasure that most people know only online. My friend Laura owns and runs Over the Rainbow, an online fabric store. She has converted the barn behind their house into a wonderland of fabric, with bolts lined up in an array of colors, shelves bulging with the likes of which only a true fabric lover could love and wish for. She and her daughter Mandi work in a tiny office processing online orders, and then they cut the fabrics to fill the orders. Laura's mom, "Meemaw" does the bookkeeping. And when Laura isn't in the shop, she is out taking care of her animals: alpacas; donkeys; rabbits; ducks; chickens; dogs; and a resident cat or two.

This is the ground floor, just the front...can you even imagine!

This is upstairs in the loft (that would be hayloft)...lol...and just one section...

When Amy was here a few weeks ago, I knew that I wanted her to see it. And truly, it is overwhelming when you walk in...where do you start? Within minutes, I had lost Amy to the lure of the bins of triangle folded fat quarters...she had maybe 20 of them which had caught her eye.

If you go to their site, Over the Rainbow, you can see photos of the animals on the farm, and photos of her family. Her newsletter is full of news about fabrics they have, and those they will get. They run sales that are to die for. And, their shipping rates are the best..they will cram as much fabric as they can into a Priority envelope. Over the Rainbow was the first shop to carry our first pattern, "A's Strips", and, they have seen the quilts for the next patterns we are in the process of completing. Thank you Laura and Mandi for your support!...

Amy was here last week for a short visit. While we worked hard on our Here2There projects, both planning and sewing, we managed to work in a walk on the beach.

My beach is only accessible at low tide and is full of little rocks. I have walked on the beach many times, but never really "looked" at the rocks. "Wow! Look at this one!" We filled our pockets and little baggies with those that caught our eye.

The colors were amazing: moss green, jades, soft oranges, golds, pure white, and black. Some were smooth and round and others had shells attached. Each one held the warmth of the sun and fit the requirements for a perfect touchstone.

We emptied our pockets and baggies when we got back to the house and admired our found treasure. Some were arranged in a bowl with water and others were arranged on a little ceramic tray. And some found their way home with Amy.

We're excited to announce that our first pattern is now available! The pattern for A's Strips was designed by Amy based on a random/free-form quilt I made her last fall. Amy loved the lines of the quilt and set out to standardize it and make it a Here2There original.

The cover photo shows Amy's version into which she spliced in photo transfers of birds from our sketches. The pattern gives detailed directions on personalizing the quilt, an extension size, and even a Jelly Roll adaptation.

My friend Judy Irish tested the pattern for us. This is her version using all Kaffe Fassett and Westminster fabrics. As you can see, the pattern works in a range of colors. We love the brightness of this version.

The above photo (left) shows a 40-strip Jelly Roll by Moda (purchased at Over the Rainbow, which Amy got to visit in person last week) and A's Strips pieced from the Jelly Roll. The Jelly Roll version uses all of the strips, plus an 8" strip of (at least) one more color for the larger rectangles. The pattern is fast to work up. The Jelly Roll top was pieced in one evening.

The pattern will soon be available in other places. We've introduced it, however, at here2there.etsy.com with free shipping during the month of June.

Let us know what you think!

Pink and orange is definitely a favorite portion of the spectrum for us. This is the next in a series of collaborative pieces finished in recent weeks. This one features bird sketches by each of us.