New Cloth Paper Scissors just arrived!

Look what arrived today! I just love this magazine. It has the most beautiful and inspiring photography and articles. We have 5 copies and we've priced them to be competetive, even with the publisher, Interweave's website! You will be so happy when this magazine arrives in your mailbox. There are quilt projects, mixed media fiber art, paper projects, a new to me technique called encaustic, using packaing styrofoam to make cute painted houses, and that's just scratching the surface! Here is a list of projects from the magazine, straight from the publisher's website:

• Creating soulful collaged and painted figures
• A Beginner's Guide to Beginning
• Artist Profile: Lynda Andrus
• Encaustic Collage
• Color Wheel Journal Quilt
• Bird Portraits
• "Chubby Houses"
• Artist to Artist: Crystal Neubauer
• Fanciful Sculptures
• "Pass It on!: Mail Art Affirmations" Reader Swap
• Canvas wall art for collectors of odds & ends
• Drop Cloth Girls: Combine canvas, collage, and stitch
• Sailors' Valentine Reader Challenge Results
• Sailors' Valentine: Treasures from the Sea
• Building Upon Layers: Detailed design made easy
• Cloth Paper Scissors Mixed-media Pendant Swap
• Transforming papers to make a unique painting surface
• What's the craziest thing you've ever stamped with?

What a great value for only $7.50 plus shipping!! Yes, I know shipping can be cost prohibitive, but this is a publication that may not be available in your local bookstore or grocery aisle checkout. Think of it as an investment in your quilting and artistic education. Stop by our shop now and help us get to 150 sales before 2010! The 150th sale purchaser will receive something special in their package and it may just spur us to have a giveaway too! More to come soon!

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna

End of the Year Special

Time is running out! We are hosting an End of Year Special over at the shop and here it is:

Now through FRIDAY January 1st, ALL Patterns ship for FREE!!

You might wonder what sorts of patterns we have, well, I'm glad you asked.

Tote bag patterns

Such as this adorable pattern for the Abigail Tote by Serenditpity Studios

Garment patterns

Such as this cute pattern for the Scrapbook Jeans and sweatshirt. Just take ordinary clothes that your child already wears (and are COMFORTABLE) and embellish them a little to make them into something EXTRAORDINARY.

Quilt patterns

Of course, these are our favorites, we have patterns for using all of our fantastic precut fabrics such as jelly rolls, charm packs, layer cakes, fat quarters or just regular yardage!

Embroidery patterns

Fast and easy projects that can be whipped up in just a couple of hours. No light box needed for our Aunt Martha patterns because they are iron on transferable and reusable several times! Or build your embroidery skills with the Crab Apple Hill patterns that branch out into some more decorative stitches, the Gardener's Angels for the Seasons are my favorites.

Don't forget about our Books and Magazines as well (we'll pay up to $5 shipping on these).

So please stop by the shop and check out the patterns section. This special won't last so better get going!

Oh, and did you notice the new blue box over in the right hand sidebar? If you'd like to sign up for shop updates to be delivered directly to your e-mail inbox, please take a moment to enter your e-mail in the sign up box. This is an opt-in program and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Periodically, I'll send out notices of specials out to the e-mail list before I announce it on the blog, Twitter, or Facebook. Sometimes I might even have an e-mail only special! So please sign up and be the first to hear about our shop specials and updates. Also, if you're local to San Antonio, TX (or willing to drive) you can opt in to receive notices of our monthly Crafty Girls Workshop meetings. Thanks for joining us!

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna and Regin

The Crafty Girls

New Year's Resolutions

Yes, it's almost that time again. Time to say goodbye to 2009 and ring in the new year of 2010. I just finally got used to writing 2009 and now it's going to change! Personally, my main quilting resolution for the new year is to actually QUILT some of my quilt tops. I've managed to get several quilt tops done this year, but I always put the quilting off until later. So, even if it means biting the bullet and taking my quilt tops to a long arm shop and renting the machine, I really want to get them quilted, maybe in 2011, I'll work on the bindings. :-) I want to improve my machine quilting skills and there is a fabulous blog that I've been following that is super inspiring. Leah Day is working to design and post 365 different quilting designs to her blog! I've signed up to get a once-a-week update to my e-mail about the designs she's posted on the blog. It's a great reminder that I can go and see the new designs. I'd encourage anyone interested in any sort of machine quilting to check it out. She posts great short videos showing how to complete each design. I have some other resolutions for this blog and the Crafty Girls Shop but you'll have to wait to see those in the new year. So, anyone else out there thinking of quilting resolutions for the new year? Or are you still working hard on preparations for Christmas and the holidays? I guess I'm not as wrapped up (no pun intended) in the activities because I'm not hosting any family this year and we don't have any kids so we don't quite get into the spirit as much as some do. It is fun to read about what other people do to prepare though. I'd love to hear about your holidays and if you have any resolutions for 2010. Until next time.

Happy Stitches to You,
Anna

L'amour is in the Air

L'amour by Sandy Gervais

From what I've seen around bloggy land, everyone seems to really be getting into the holiday spirit, seems like it's just about the right time to start promoting Valentine's fabric!! Actually, we really liked this new line, L'amour, by Sandy Gervais, because even though some of it is seasonal, a lot of it isn't. We have many precuts for you, finally, a reason to purchase the book called Layer Cakes, Jelly Rolls, and Charm Quilts! We have some cute charm packs:
We've been told we have the best price on charms on all of Etsy.

We have the scrumptious Jelly Rolls, perfect for tote bags and quick quilts:

And we have fat quarter bundles that we'll be splitting up into Short Stacks, don't forget you can always create your own Short Stacks by purchasing the listing called Create Your Own Short Stack. There are SOO many cute patterns out there that used fat quarters and these would make up into some CUTE gift baggies for your children's best friends for V-day or just for anytime. Fill them with cookies, candy, or some crayons and a coloring book. The pinks and browns are perfect girly girl colors.

If you need a little more inspiration, we have several books and patterns that are specifically made for precuts. We have an awesome book just about jelly roll patterns called Let the Good Times Roll. You can find the patterns for the precuts in the same section of our shop as the precuts you are searching for. So for example, if you are curious what other Jelly Rolls we have, just choose the Honey Bun/Jelly Rolls link on the right side of the shop home page. We want to make it super easy for you to find fabric and complimentary patterns in our shop. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna

Merry SITSmas to All and to All a Good Time

I hope everyone has TONS of fun hopping around blogland today! I wish I could join you but as it turns out, I have to work at my day job, bummer! Maybe I can catch up a little after work while I'm waiting for our cable guy to come and replace our box. A few weeks ago, the SITS girls informed me that Crafty Girls Workshop would be featured on SITSmas so I am so thrilled! I hope that we get a lot of fun comments and new followers and visitors. I believe that also means we're participating in the Giveaway that they mentioned, but I am not completely sure of the details. Just know that it's something very cool from our shop. I hope everyone is having prettier weather than we're having here in San Antonio, Texas. It's chilly, drizzly, and altogether just depressing. It's one day I'm actually happy I don't have a window in my office! So, I hope that if you stop by and leave me some comment love that you'll answer one little question for me:

Are you making gifts for anyone this year?

This could be baking, or putting together a mix for cookies in a jar (I love that one), or letting your kids decorate the wrapping paper, I want to know what you are doing! If you aren't making gifts, have you found some great deals somewhere that you can share? (I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet.) Thanks so much for stopping by and Merry SITSmas!

Oh, and if you have NO IDEA what the heck SITSmas is and just happened to come by today by accident, I recommend you check out the SITS blog. They are a great group of women who will always make you feel good with their blog recommendations or their comments.

Happy Stitches to You,
Anna

P.S. I forgot to mention that if you DO decide to purchase something from our shop anytime this month, please add Merry SITSmas to the message to seller and we'll add a little something extra in with your purcahse. Thanks!!

In the Holiday Spirit

Yeah, I know it's sort of late to be thinking about making Christmas-y decorations but I can't help it. Lots of people around blogland seem to be finding the time somewhere to make such cute things! For example, Jodi, over at Pleasant Home has created some of the CUTEST table runners ever and with just simple strips! She said I could borrow her picture to show off her work. She takes such awesome pictures too! See!?

She gives pretty great instructions on her post about this as well, if you want to whip one up before all the great holiday parties you're planning to host! (I'm not going to host any until I get some new flooring and my downstairs painted, but that's another story.) Now, how does this relate at all to my shop you might ask? Heehee, I have to relate it back, well, wouldn't this tablerunner look SOOO awesome done up in some CUTE retro fabrics like we have in our shop? How easy it would be to cut them into 2 1/2" x 11" strips and one short stack would get you A LOT of strips! Here are some of my suggestions for cute fabrics for this from the shop.

Riley Blake Retro Christmas Short Stack (1 of 3 choices)

or

for a more traditional look

Studio e Christmas Short Stack

Remember you should be able to get several table runners from each Short Stack and if you were to add in a little bit of our solid white, Moda Bella Snow it would be a perfectly quick project. I think the best thing about those Riley Blake FQs is that because they aren't so traditional and they have snowmen, you can keep the tablerunner out way into January! Fun! Thanks Jodi for this inspiration and thanks for letting me borrow your idea. This is what I call collaboration! Oh and don't forget, if you want a variety, we do have the Create Your Own Short Stack option too! Then you can get 3 of the Riley Blake and 3 of the Studio e or add in some from Anna Griffin or even some of the red, white, and blue stars for a jump on a July 4th runner. (The combinations are endless you know.)

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna

Charm Pack Winner!

Thanks to everyone who joined in our Sale-bration! It was so exciting to see our list of new blog followers and Facebook fans growing so much every day! I hope you will all keep in touch, because I have some great plans for this blog. There will be a lot more posts and they will actually have more substance than just what's new or on sale in the shop. BUT I think that's all I'm going to say for now about that. Without further ado...(drumroll please) the winner is:

Commenter Number 73 JILL!

Jill if you're reading this, I'll be in touch this afternoon to get your snail mail address so I can send that Aster Manor charm pack on to you. Oh, and by the way everyone, I guess as a sort of side effect of this giveaway, we've had a sort of run on our charm packs! We're down to just 3 of the Rouenneries line remaining and 3 of Simple Abundance. If either of those were your picks you might want to go grab them before they are GONE!! These were very difficult lines to get in stock so once we're out, that's it. The GOOD news is that we have some ULTRA cute fabrics coming in very soon that I really can't wait to tell you about. I hope you have a Terrific Tuesday!

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna

Take a Break for Some Java and a Quick Project!

I had a great time over the loooong weekend, just hanging out at Regina's house on Saturday. We sewed some items in preparation for a spring craft show, and also got to work on some REALLY fast embroidery projects. This is my particular favorite, look at the flour sack towel Regina embroidered:

Is that cute or what!? As it turns out we have a kit for this exact pattern, and the iron transfers include 9 different patterns in ONE set! The kit also has 3 premium, 100% cotton tea towels that have a blue band, but if you see a different color in our shop, you can tell us and we'll switch out the color of the towels. We also have plain flour sack towels that look totally adorable when you do a super easy blanket stitch along the bottom as Regina did on hers. Here is what the patterns look like. Click on the picture to go directly to our shop to see the entire listing.

I always feel like I am pressed for time and was sort of getting sad because I didn't know if I would have enough time to make gifts for my family this year. But I finished one of these designs in an evening and with this kit, there are three towels which is perfect for a set for a family member or, if I were to make up all three, I could pair them with some cute kitchen utensils for a great, easy, practical and home made gift! How about adding in a jar of hot cocoa mix? There are plenty of awesome instructions around the Internet for those. Wouldn't that be adorable with these coffee themed towels? We also have some holiday towel patterns in a kit that even includes the thread. Now how can anyone go wrong with that!? Well, time to get going, I have to get to work on my second towel for this week!

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna

P.S. The SHORT STACK sale has been extended so check out the 10% discount on all short stack bundles in our shop!

Black Wednesday SALE

So is anyone getting ready to hit the stores on Friday for the Black Friday shopper mania? I, for one AM NOT planning to do that. In fact, I've never been a 4 in the morning get the best deals, get out of my way sort of shopper. Usually, Regina, my husband, and I travel an hour north to Fredericksburg to shop the town, eat at our favorite Italian place (Pasta Bella), and go to the Country Peddler craft show in the afternoon. BUT after doing that for the last four or five years, we've actually been increasingly disappointed with the offerings at the Country Peddler show, fewer crafts and more kitchy, rhinestone studded purses and not so crafty stuff. So, this year, we're going to take a day off after Thanksgiving to rest (I'm going to hopefully learn to crochet with my sister) and on Saturday and Sunday Regina and I are planning a Sew-A-Thon! We're hoping to sew up some cute stuff to get a good head start on building a handmade inventory that we can sell at a craft show in the Spring. Yes, I said SPRING (have to start early because we want to do A LOT of sales). A thought just occurred to me (that happens sometimes early in the morning). What do you do in other countries since you don't have the "official" start of the Christmas shopping season the day after Thanksgiving? Perhaps this is why it is easier to focus on handmade gifts and the less commercial reason for the season in other countries. Well, that's just a thought, if any of you out there are in other countries, I'd love to hear what you're doing this holiday season. Alright, now, for the exciting part of this post, the...

BLACK WEDNESDAY SALE

10% off ALL

Fat Quarter Bundles

The prices have already been adjusted for you so stop on by and grab some goodies before they disappear! Why is it called Black Wednesday? Well, Brandy (sorry about that), over at The Buzz decided to set up a list of all the great sales that are going on from Etsy sellers starting the day BEFORE Thanksgiving. Perhaps you're like me, and you're stuck at work instead of able to be at home prepping for Turkey day (or perhaps you don't have the Thanksgiving holiday in your country, you can still benefit), but you don't feel like working, well, why not surf on over to our shop and check out all the great Fat Quarter bundles we have for AWESOME prices! Throw in one of our great patterns and you'll have a great gift for a friend who sews/quilts or a great gift for YOURSELF!

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Shopping,

Anna and Regina

The Crafty Girls

Do You have Unfinished Quilts?

If you have any quilt tops that you are looking to send to a better home, you should definately check out this blog: http://giveakidaquilt.blogspot.com/ They are looking for unfinished tops or even quilts that just need binding to finish and donate to children in the Portland, Oregon area. Given how incredibly generous quilters are, I thought I'd post this in case you are doing some Christmas time cleaning. This is not my personal cause, I just read about it on a blog that I read on a regular basis. I know there are so many great places to donate tops and quilts to, so here's another one for your list. Thanks! Please, please feel free to post about this on your own blogs and share with other groups and your e-mail friends or quilt guilds. Let's just flood her with quilty love! I was so touched by the description of this project. I don't live in a very cold climate and I know that when it's just barely in the 40s it's tough so I am sure that being in freezing temperatures is even worse. Children are our most precious asset and we should protect them, especially because they do not have the ability or means to take care of themselves. I hope you'll help me pass on the word. If you do find some tops you'd like to send to her, I'd really love to hear about it and I think it would encourage others, would you please leave a comment here letting us know? Thanks!

Happy Stitches,

Anna

100th Sale-bration

We did it! We reached 100 sales and BEFORE December! We have you, our wonderful customers to thank for it. So to show our thanks, we're giving away one charm pack of YOUR choice from the following:

Plus, we'll cover the shipping, of course. We have a lot of great patterns that use charms in the shop under the Charms/Layer Cakes section. International participants are welcome to participate in our giveaway, especially since many of our sales have been to International customers. Here's what you can do to enter the giveaway, you'll get an additional entry for doing any of the following:

• Leave a comment on this post, please tell us which charm pack you would choose.
• Blog about this giveaway on YOUR blog and then come back here and leave a comment telling us you did so.
• Tell your Facebook friends about the giveaway (come back and leave another comment)
• Tweet about the giveaway on Twitter (leave another comment)
• Become a follower of this blog (leave us a comment)
• Become a fan of our Facebook page (leave us a comment)

That's at least six different ways you can enter the drawing. By leaving a separate comment, it makes it a lot easier to tally the entries. You will have until Monday, November 30 to enter the drawing. I'll announce the winner on Tuesday. Thanks again for making this a wonderful beginning for our little online adventure. We have a lot of exciting plans for the future of this blog and our shop!

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna and Regina

The Crafty Girls

Create Your Own Short Stack!

Remember these? We call them Short Stacks, sort of like a yummy stack of pancakes, they are smaller bundles of coordinating fabrics from various lines. The one shown above is from Aster Manor and we have 4 bundles in this group! We thought that with the economy how it is, you might want to grab some fat quarters but not necessarily an entire bundle of 40 which can run close to $100, so we decided to split them up. Well, it turns out that even though we created some really cute bundles of of fabrics, everyone has a different idea in their head of what fabrics they want and we've gotten many requests to pick and choose fat quarters from different bundles. Regina and I have thought long and hard about this, because it's a little more of a time investment to let people choose one or two FQs from different bundles because at that point, we'd have to rescan all the remaining fabrics and then change the listing for those bundles. But, we aim to please so we think we've come up with a compromise that will make everyone happy! That is why, if you look at any of our listings for Short Stacks, you'll see that there is a second picture that looks just like the first, except that there are labels on each of the different fabrics, just like this:

That way, if you look at this bundle for Aster Manor and decide you really only like the redish ones, you can tell us that you like AM-2, AM-4, and AM-9. And we'll know EXACTLY which ones you want! But to make this even easier for you (and for us a little) we're going to create a special listing called Create Your Own Short Stack (CYOSS), which will be for a minimum of 6 fat quarters. If you see the three red ones in the picture above and oh, say you see three more in another bundle, you can choose the CYOSS listing and in the MESSAGE TO SELLER section, just let us know which ones you want. Then you can process the sale through Etsy and Pay Pal, paying for 6 FQS (they are all priced the same at $2.75 each) and we'll pick out your FQS, package them up and send them on to you! Easy Peasy! But wait, there's more! If you decide you LOVE the bundle we've already put together, you can purchase it instead and in some cases, you'll even SAVE a little money! (There is a slight upcharge if you choose your own since we have to do the rescanning and reslisting.) The preselected bundles run between $2.50-$2.75 per FQ, so you can definately save some money if you like the entire bundle. So, does that make sense? We want this to be as easy and fun as possible for you! Oh, and if you want MORE than 6 in a CYOSS, we are happy to accomodate you, just send us a quick convo by clicking the "contact craftygirlsworkshop" link on the side of our shop. So click the following button (or look for it in our shop) and start shopping!

Happy Stitches,

Anna

General Shop Update

Are you ready? Thanksgiving is just under two weeks away! And Christmas is just a month after that, where DID the time go!? Our SPECIAL item today is a SUPER deal, a cute pattern for a stocking designed by Joanna Figueroa which is only $5, plus since it's the SPECIAL item, you'll get FREE shipping (EVEN INTERNATIONAL). We have two in stock, and we're only 7 sales away from 100! Wouldn't it be awesome if we reached 100 before the end of NOVEMBER! I think it would. Then we could do the giveaway sooner and you might get your surprise by Christmas! Our shop is taking on a Christmasy and holidayish feel. I always feel so cynical about the holidays because when I go to the store ON HALLOWEEN and I hear Frosty the Snowman over the intercom, it just grates on my nerves! Am I the only one that feels that way? Oh, and I think there should be a ban on music about snow in states or cities where it hasn't snowed in 20 years! But that's just me! Regina and I have decided we want to participate in the Black Wednesday sale for Etsy store owners which will be November 25th, the DAY BEFORE Thanksgiving. Maybe somewhere in between your preparations for Turkey day you can stop by the computer and check out the great deals we'll be having in our shop. I've moved lots of our Christmas items to the front page because as Regina madly listed LOTS of our new products all the Holiday stuff got pushed to the 4th or 5th page. That's OK, you can always go in and check out the Christmas section link on the right side of the page, but I thought I'd try to make it easier for you by putting them in the front. So that's the general shop update.

By the way, would anyone be interested in a quickie quilt along? I've just started a new project based on a pattern I created that uses 5" charm squares and a honey bun roll (1 1/2" strips). It's sooo easy and quick I bet you could get it done in a week or so! Something to take your mind off the stress of the holidays. Please comment if you are interested in participating! Until next time.

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna

Fall-ing Prices Treasure Hunt

Oh no, I think I've created a monster! I taught Regina, the other half of Crafty Girls Workshop, how to go into our shop and edit our listings. She's also recently learned how to list new items! This is GOOD for several reasons:

• She has time to list things during the day
• LOTS of new stuff will be added almost EVERY DAY!
• It takes some of the pressure off of me to do that side of things.

BUT she is sort of sneaky, she's been going in and CHANGING prices on our products! This is GOOD for you, our wonderful customers, and well, it's GOOD for us too, because we know we're going to be getting LOTS of fabric in over the next few months and we REALLY want to sell our products. SO, I guess it's a win-win situation. You get a good deal, and we move our inventory. Remember that magazine I talked about a post or two ago called Quilts and More? Well, it turns out that just as we got ours listed, the NEW issue came out for winter! But we still have 5 copies of the FALL issue! So we've decided to go a little crazy and drop the price, now it's only $5 (plus shipping)!! Also, the fall issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors is now only $4.50!! That is SUPER crazy! Even after shipping you're getting an awesome deal! In fact, check our all of our magazines, they are priced to MOVE! Now our charm packs of CURRENT fabrics, such as Mill House Inn, Aster Manor, Simple Abundance, and Rouenneries are now only $7.00 each!! (See I told you she's crazy!) And here's a hint, I bet you can find some great prices on the Honey Buns and Jelly Rolls as well! There are lots of other specials to be found in our shop. How would you like to pick up some Beach House yardage for only $6.99 a yard or Panache (which is super hard to find) for $7.99 a yard!! These changes are sort of subtle and you'll really only notice them if you read this blog or check our shop regularly. We're not shouting this out to the entire world (although we wouldn't mind if you send your friends our way). We have a goal to reach before December 31:

WE WANT TO REACH 100 SALES BY 2010!!

Can you help us get there? I think you can! If we reach 100 sales, we'll do a FABULOUS giveaway on here, lots of great goodies for the new year. Please tell your friends and go check us out, because there are lots of great deals to be had!!

Happy Shopping!

Anna

Crafty Girls Workshop

Allow me to introduce: Crafty Angi on Etsy

Way back, before I began my quilting and sewing adventures, I dabbled in the rubber stamp and scrapbook world. I still peruse the scrapbook aisle at my local craft store, because somehow, I think that scrapbook paper is a lot like fabric, just with a different sort of fiber. In fact, I've noticed that a lot of designers' patterns for fabric are also showing up on paper, such as Amy Butler, Sandi Henderson, Heather Bailey, etc. Well, I recently met a very sweet fellow Etsy store owner who does some amazingly creative things with scrapbook papers and we decided it would be fun to do a cross promotion for our customers. She has lots of cute, CUTE, things on her site that will be most helpful in this upcoming busy season. Look at this adorable photo ready album! It's already done for you!

It's a cute 6"x6" album that has 10 pages for you to add your holiday pictures to! I don't know about you, but I think it's worth it just for the amount of time it would take me to come up with the idea for the page layout!

Here is a little more about Angi:

Angi lives in Texas. She is a Mother, Public School Teacher, a U.S. Veteran and Avid Scrapbooker. The creative bug hit her years ago and she has been desiging and creating for family and friends for years.

What made you first want to become an artist?

A friend of mine invited me to scrapbook with her one weekend. That first scrapbook event was so much fun. After that I was hooked. (SMILE)

Please describe your creative process, how, when, materials, etc.

I get ideas from things around me. Beautiful flowers, butterflies, rainbows, the sunshine here in Texas, or just about anything colorful makes me want to capture it on paper and create. Being a mom also helps me design things for my own children. Once I show the designs to others, they want me to make it for them too.

You sell a wide variety of items. What is your favorite thing to create?

My favorite things to create are acrylic scrabooks and altered tins. I love to use colorful embellishments made of chipboard or those with 3 dimensional effects. Different rub-on designs, inks, and acrylic paints are also fun to add to my creations. Using high quality embellishments really make my creations "pop" and stand out.

Stay tuned.. more about Crafty Angi tomorrow!!

Happy Stitches,

Anna

P.S. Please check out and reply to the NEW poll in the sidebar.

Do You Like Our New 'Do?

Well, it was time. I turned another year older on Tuesday and decided it was time for our shop to get a little facelift and also while I was at it, why not revamp the blog too? Regina agreed that we needed something a little fresher and when we saw the aqua and red banner design we said "YES" that's just what we wanted! And wouldn't you know, I looking around at Hot Bliggity Blog where I got our previous blog background and they had THE PERFECT coordinating background for our new colors. So, I'd LOVE some feedback, what do you think? Is it fun and fresh enough? I know it's fall and most people think orange and black and brown and reds and golden yellows, but here in San Antonio, Texas, we're lucky if the weather stays a consistant temperature between Monday and Tuesday! We don't have a lot of fall foilage and we wanted to give our shop and our image of Crafty Girls Workshop a specific look. Well, WE love it and we hope you do too! I hope to hear some good things from you!

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna

Shop Update: Magazines!

We've just listed some great new magazines and some lovely Short Stack bundles. This is THE perfect gift for a Sewing Secret Santa gift. Just grab a short stack and a magazine to suit your buddy's tastes and you've got it all taken care of! For example:

PLUS

EQUALS: A great gift for a beginning sewista!

Do you have a young sewing enthusiast in your life? Someone who is interested in getting started but a little nervous about taking that first step? Why not pick out a fun and funky short stack from the Bloom and Grow collection or the Just Dreamy group and add to that the Fall issue of Quilts and More? I just can't say enough about Better Homes and Gardens' publication for the beginning sewista (or sewist), Quilts and More! The patterns are awesome and easy and always include more than just quilts. They have tote bags, pin cushions, pillows, table linens, and they always include a color photograph guide at the back of the magazine that explains terms that are used in sewing and quilting. That is a great go-to guide when you need a little reminder about cutting on the bias or how to put on binding. The Fall issue has lots of inspiration and a perfect pattern for using a fat quarter bundle.

Or perhaps you have some friends who are a little more experienced and would like to venture out a little more? Check out Quilting Arts for the artistic side or the Quilting Arts Holiday issue if you'd like to MAKE your gifts this year, you know there IS still time!

We've also got the Fall issue of stitch which has been all abuzz around blogland lately. Some of my favorite bloggers have patterns featured in this issue! This is a super duper issue and is jam packed with patterns, suggestions, ideas, and inspiration! The photography is amazing and it's a great way to stretch your quilting wings beyond quilting and explore the world of sewing. Our price on these special big issues is $4 less than regular retail because we know that we're an online store and you'll probably have to pay shipping, so we want to help out by offering a discount to our wonderful customers.

Last, but not least, we're happy to offer this commemorative issue of Quilt Scene that is all about the 35th annual International Quilt Festival that took place this year in Houston. 35 years and still going strong! This issue features all sort of wonderful photography of the quilts as well as projects that you can do and to inspire you in your quilting endeavors! We have 5 issues available and we hope you'll go grab one before they're all gone!

I hope you'll stop by and check out our new "magazine aisle" and perhaps consider adding a short stack to your order so that you can give someone you love not only beautiful fabric but the perfect inspiration to go with it! Until next time.

Happy Stitches to You,

Anna

Only 10 Days Left to Grab Some Bargains

If you've checked out our Etsy shop lately, you might notice that the Destash/Books category has the most items of anything in our shop. That is also where you can find some pretty darn good bargains on fabric. Well, in about 10 days, most of those items will no longer be listed in our shop. You see, on Etsy, when we list an item it stays active for four months at which point it "falls off" the listing unless we choose to pay another listing fee for that item. Since it's now actually Fall and most of the items in that category are rather Summery and Springish in nature, we figure if they haven't sold by November 2, we can wait a little while before we list them again. So, if you've visited the shop and you've ever put a heart on one of those items, indicating that you REALLY REALLY liked it, you'd better stop by again and grab it before November 2. There is a slim chance some of that will be listed again in the Spring, but since most of it was from our personal stash and we had actually pre-washed it, we'll probably just incorporate it back into our stashes again. Here's my little confession, there are a couple of items I sort of hope won't be grabbed up by you guys (although I'd be happy if they were too).

For example, this awesome bundle of 1/4 yd cuts, 9 pieces of Sweet by Urban Chiks. It's a bargain for only $22.50, it's been viewed over 200 times and 10 people have put a heart on it, but no one has grabbed it! I really have no idea why not, it's adorable!

Check out this cute bundle of 1/4 yd cuts of Snippets by American Jane. You can get 5 quarter yard cuts for onlu $12.75! That is totally worth it! If you were to add that cute onesie pattern you could quickly turn these into some adorable little dresses for a baby. I strongly urge you to take another look at our Destash group and see if there is anything in there you just can't live without. If you place your order before 3:30 today, and payment is received, we will get it into the mail today! Otherwise, it will go out on Monday (the post office isn't open on the weekend, unfortunately.)

Or, if you prefer to get the newest, hottest fabric that is just fresh from Quilt Market, check out the new items I've just listed this week. I've posted some patterns, and many, many short stacks of fat quarters. Remember that you probably know several people who wouldn't mind receiving fabric for a Christmas present. Think of your guildly friends or your grandchild or niece or nephew who wants to learn to sew. Perhaps all they need is one or two fat quarters and some guidance from you to get started. You can grab up one or two of those short stacks and easily have a great gift or stocking stuffer for your loved ones.

Oh, and speaking of stocking stuffers. We just got 5 copies of this great pattern to make stockings for Christmas! The coolest thing, I think, is that we actually have the EXACT fabric that was used to make this pattern, and even though it's in Christmas section, it's part of our destash so the prices are really good. So, if you purchase that fabric, we'll send you the pattern FOR FREE!! Here's a peek at the pattern:

I think it's super duper cute! I also think that there is just enough time to get yourself one of our Christmas bundles and make up these cute stocking for family and friends. I don't have any children, but I have three dogs and this year I need to make a new stocking for our newest addition. I'm thinking this would be just about right for her stocking. So hurry over and get it, we only have 5 of those patterns to give away!!

Until next time.

Happy Bargain Hunting,

Anna

Need Some Fall Inspiration?

I don't know about you, but I am totally addicted to magazines. There is something about the glossy pages and the possibilities for inspiration that draw me to the magazine aisle of my bookstore. Well, we are happy to announce that The Crafty Girls Workshop is now going to carry some great new magazines! We've sort of been vetting a few different publishers in the last couple of months and at Quilt Market we signed up for the minimum order (still testing the waters here) for the magazines we think YOU, our customers will enjoy. One of those, in particular, is Cloth, Paper, Scissors. This magazines does more than just talk about fabric and quilting, as the title suggests, it will help you stretch your creative wings and try some new ideas! The photography in the Fall issue is simply amazing. You know, I never thought I might want to make a felted wool skelaton before, but after seeing those in this issue, I might just give it a try! Here is the cover:

And even though it looks like there are only Halloween ideas in there, don't be fooled, in fact there are A LOT of non Halloween articles and projects to try. We only have ONE copy at the moment, but we have 5 more on order (in fact, I believe they will be arriving on Monday) so if you'd like a copy and the one we have is gone, please convo us on Etsy and we'd be happy to take you pre-order for it. Click the picture above to visit the listing for the magazine. I hope you'll consider taking a walk on the artsy wild side and try out a new magazine. There are more to come. I hope to feature them in the next couple of days. Until next time.

Happy Spooky Stitches to You,

Anna

New Fabrics and New Patterns

Check out these new fabrics we got at Sample Spree from Art Gallery fabrics! Their new line, called Girly Girl is all the rage and we've ordered bolts of almost every fabric in the line! While we wait for it to arrive, we've listed some of the 1 yard cuts we have, just to hold you over until it's all here. Take a look!

(Click each picture to go directly to the listing)

Aren't they just so fresh and yummy? These are from the Cool Girl colorway but we have some coming from the Sweet Girl colorway very, very soon! We have these combos ready for you to purchase right now! They are 100% cotton and have a lovely feel to them. Now check out the adorable patterns we picked up at Market too!

JUST TOO CUTE!!

(Click the picture to go directly to the listing)

These are the patterns we have listed at the moment with lots more to come tonight or tomorrow. The patterns are from Pink Fig Patterns and as I said in the last post, kids' clothing patterns were all the rage at market. I really wish I had a daughter that I could dress up in these adorable clothes! I don't think my dog would really let me place dress up with her. And all the people I know who have kids have boys! But, we did get some cute boy patterns too. We only have limited quantities (one each) of these patterns, but we can certainly order some more if you want them. Feel free to convo or e-mail us with your pre-order!

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Happy Stitches,

Anna and Regina

Short Stacks Now Available!

Allow me to introduce you to a new idea we had, Short Stacks! What is a short stack? It's a bundle of some of our FABULOUS, DELICIOUS fabrics, pre-cut into Fat Quarters (18"x22") and beautifully coordinated just for your shopping pleasure! You don't have to think much, just see the one you love and buy it! We've kept these bundles close to 10 cuts, some have 9 some have 11, but they all have plenty of fabric to get you started on a lovely quilt top, or to make several cute tote bags, or pillows or table linens, without totally breaking your budget! It's up to you! Plus, right now, the Short Stacks we have are in the Mill House Inn line of fabrics (SOOO beautiful) and we DO have coordinating yardage which you will most likely need for borders, backing, sashing, or lining your totes. So, stop by the shop TODAY and get a short stack while you can! I am sure they are going to sell like hotcakes (hence, the name, short stack, get it? That's a little pancake humor there.)

Hey, did you notice? There's a NEW Secret Item over there!!! ------------------>

Remember, FREE Shipping on the Secret Item (even international, that's like saving $5!!)

Happy Stitches,

Anna

To Market To Market

As you probably know, Regina and I went to the Fall Quilt Market this weekend. Wow, are we tired! Three intense days of break out sessions and sensory overload really can take it's toll. So, it's going to probably take us the rest of this week to get stuff loaded on the shop site(s), BUT we have A LOT to share and are SUPER excited about the direction we're going to go with all this new information! We also got our hands on a lot of samples of new fabrics that are not quite available yet, but we will make these samples available to you, and if they seem popular, we will DEFINATELY order more. Here are some teasers of what HOT trends we saw at market:

• CUTE Kids' garment patterns
• ADORABLE ways to embellish store bought clothes
• Altered and mixed media in quilting is HOT HOT HOT (think: painting on fabric!)
• Think outside the blocks
• Funky, bright, and beautiful fabrics abound

I hope to cover each of these plus more in future posts. In the mean time, please visit our shop and help us clear out our current inventory. We have A TON of new stuff on order and would LOVE to have lots of space (in Regina's spare room) to put the items when they arrive. There are still many, many things in our sale "bin" and don't forget the Secret Item over there in the side bar. FREE shipping, even International, if you purchase that item, and if you buy something else along with it, we'll cover the shipping up to $5 on that as well. Until next time.

Happy Stitches,

Anna and Regina

Crafty Girls Workshop

Quilt Market is Approaching!

On Thursday Regina and I will be leaving to go to the Fall Quilt Market. Do I realy need to say it? We are SO excited! To share our excitement about the new products, patterns, ideas, fabrics, and fabrics and MORE fabrics we'll be seeing, I'll be posting a NEW secret item EVERY DAY, or sooner if that item sells. So help us clean out some of our inventory and get READY FOR QUILT MARKET!! Oh, and I think we'll be getting some awesome preview goodies at Sample Spree, which I think we might be willing to share with our fabulous quilting friends, that's YOU! So be sure to check back. I'm taking my new, PINK, mini laptop and my camera so that I can post pictures of the behind the scenes. I am totally excited to meet some quilting celebrities, maybe even Amy Butler or Joanna Figueroa! Or maybe even Bonnie and Camille who designed Simple Abundance and Cotton Blossom! Wow, that would be awesome! I wonder if they would look at me funny if I asked for their autograph! Hey, look------------->
I just posted a NEW secret item right now! Remember, if you purchase the secret item, you'll receive FREE shipping, (and if you order more than just item, we'll cover your shipping up to $5!) If you live outside of the US, you could be saving a bundle! Back tomorrow with some more Christmas gift ideas.

Happy Stitches,
(and happy shopping)

Anna

Giveaway Goodness

Here's at least one giveaway I've found today. I'll list some more here to make it super easy to go and enter!

On the Fritz blog - a cute blog about being a young army mom, she's giving away MARY KAY goodies!! You can still enter for the next couple of hours. So far only 4 people have entered so let's just attack her with bloggy comment LOVE!!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

It's Raining!

Rain rain, I hope you stay,
I really want to sew today.
If you stay I don't have to mow,
Rain, rain, please don't go!

How's that for a great poem!!!!

It's raining and grey and yucky outside, but that's fine with me! I'm going to play with several different sewing/quilt related things I've been brainstorming (haha, no pun intended) about all week while I was "stuck" at work! Lots of ideas rattling around up there! Anyone else doing some fun sewing today?

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Warm Wooly Projects for Winter

Yes, it's only the beginning of October and we've only just recently officially started Fall, but now is a great time to settle in and work on some fun and fairly easy wool felt applique projects. I'd like to show you some of the adorable patterns we have in our shop right now that, if you purchased today, you could most likely start them next week!

This cute Santa table mat pattern would make an adorable addition to a table top.

These cute stockings can be whipped up in no time flat and would add some warmth to any hearth for the holiday season. Look at that cute red and white striped binding around top edge! I live in Texas and a few years ago I decided that since we don't ever have snow here, I'd start to bring my own snowmen to my house. I think this snowman stocking is just so cute!

And look at these Santa wool patterns. This pattern has many different ways to create Santa. You can do one on a burlap or osnaburg background and frame him up, or create the cute Seven Santas table runner, or even create some 3 dimentional Santas to guard the cookie plate on Christmas Eve! Perhaps you aren't in the mood to stitch up some Santas but you'd still like to try some wool applique, check out this lovely Baltimore Penny Rug pattern we have. Isn't it beautiful? I think this would be a great way to learn since the motifs are about the right size to learn the applique process.

And last, but not least, look at this amazing wool applique quilt! The finished size is 48"x65" so it's a really great size. It would be beautiful hanging on a wall or decorating a bed and it certainly would be warm! We don't have a lot of need for this in San Antonio, where the high today is 87 degrees, but these beautiful motifs could be broken up and put onto decorative pillows, a sweatshirt, or even a lovely wool totebag.

I hope that you'll think of wool in a new way after reading this and see what patterns are out there. It really is fun to do, I think the best part is that felted wool doesn't fray, so you don't have to worry about turning the edges under, it even lends itself perfectly toward the folksy not so perfect look. (Which I totally love, wonky is beautiful you know.) Please let me know if you have any questions about wool applique. It's one of my favorite techniques and I'm happy to help you out if you need it!

Happy Stitches,

Anna

Kitchen Decor - Always a Great Gift

If you're looking for a gift you can make that is fast and comes out looking great, think about making some embellished Flour Sack Towels. There are so many easy, fun, and fast embroidery designs available, many of them free or very inexpensive. It just so happens that we have some great patterns in our shop that would be the perfect addition to some useful and inexpensive flour sack towels (which we also carry.) In fact, look at this cute pattern to make a set of 12 holiday flour sack towels.



And if you like that, you can even get the entire kit! It includes the red fabric with white polka dots and ALL the DMC thread you need to finish the embroidered designs, oh and the towels, of course. The red ric rack is up to you, unfortunately, we had some trouble sourcing it but these towels will still be adorable without the ric rack. That leaves it open for a little more creativity.

Or if you'd like to make something a little less holiday oriented, we have a lovely Flowerpot Tea Towels/Floursack Towels stitchery pattern available here. I think one of the best things about this type of pattern is that it can be used over and over again. What a great housewarming present this would make!

I'd also like to mention a faraway friend of mine who lives in Australia, Jenny of ELEFANTZ, she has a fabulous blog, and she also designs the prettiest patterns that combine embroidery and just a little bit of super easy applique. You can purchase her designs from her Etsy shop and there is a very good chance that we'll begin to carry them later on this year (especially if we hear from YOU to say you'd like us to offer them.) Remember that kitchen decor, especially soft and large flour sack towels embellished with a little embroidery or fabric, make a wonderful gift for the holidays, birthdays, and especially as a house warming present. I hope you enjoy this idea and will check back again soon for some more holiday gift ideas.

Happy Stitches,

Anna

P.S. Don't forget, there's still time to pick up that SECRET ITEM with FREE SHIPPING!! That would make a great gift for someone as well and it's already finished!!

The Cat's Out of the Bag

I just added a new line to our shop announcements, and this is what it looks like:

Pssst...visit our blog to see today's SECRET ITEM, if you purchase the SECRET ITEM, you'll get FREE SHIPPING, even INTERNATIONAL!!

Or something to that effect. So, that's what I'm going to start doing. But instead of clogging up this oh so important space here in the middle, I'm going to add a little widget over there----------> in the side bar called SECRET ITEM and underneath I'm going to put a picture of the item and include a link, so it's SUPER easy to get to it! Now, the best part is that if you read this blog, or visit my shop, you'll know about the SECRET ITEM but those who don't, might not get the FREE SHIPPING deal. But, feel free to tell your friends, because in the days leading up to Quilt Market (NEXT WEEEKK YEAH!!!)the items might just get better and better! And we do have multiples of some things, so there is a chance that even if you don't get it right away, we might have some more. So, sign up to follow me if you don't already, or you can even subscribe to this blog in a reader and get updates EVERY DAY! Remember there will be a new SECRET ITEM every day!! (Or that's the goal at least)

Are you as excited about this as I am?? PLUS, did you know that we always offer FREE shipping for purchases of $100 or more? Yep, we do!

Oh, and one last thing, IF you happen to fall in love with the SECRET ITEM of the day and IF you happen to fall in love with something else, IF we can fit all the items into a flat rate, priority envelope ($5) we will ship the ENTIRE order for FREE! What a DEAL!! Now, since I just thought of this idea, and I'm just starting it NOW, I'm going to go and post that new SECRET ITEM and you'll have an EXTRA few hours to find it, because I'm going to keep it up until 12:00AM Friday October 2 (at which point it wil turn into a pumpkin, haha) Hopefully that will give our wonderful customers in other countries time to find the SECRET ITEM.

Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to share the excitement in the comments!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

P.S. Following me on Twitter, MIGHT just be a great way to find out right when the new SECRET ITEM is posted. Hint, hint.

P.P.S. Actually, I'm feeling sort of CRAZY, so I think I'll try and do something fun. How about this, if the SECRET ITEM is a one of a kind and it SELLS right away, I'll post something NEW! So it could be any time of the day! A great reason to follow me on Twitter or just check back often!

One Pattern, Endless Possibilities

Isn't this pattern adorable? It's sooo cute and versatile and reusable in so many ways! You can use it to make little onesie dresses for your daughter, grandaughter, neighbor's children, best friend's baby, the list goes on and on. It only takes a standard onesie and 1/2 yard of fabric! Look at all the cute options we have right now for sale that are already cut into 1/2 yard pieces!

Here is a cute bundle of Snippets by American Jane.

It's getting harder to find this fabric. But it happens that we have a 1/2 yard bundle!

Check out this lovely group of holiday fabrics from Sandy Gervais!

All 1/2 yard cuts, there are 11 fabrics in this bundle and they are already prewashed for you!

These are just a sample of the many fabrics we have that would be super adorable made into little onesie dresses for your (or your friend's) baby. I think I'll try and make up a few since I have a friend who is having their first baby girl in October. Her name is going to be Lily and we happen to have some adorable fabric called Lily Pond that would be perfect! I've also started adding the patterns from our Etsy shop to our New shop, so that you can purchase yardage for a pattern at the same time you buy the pattern and the precut fabric, it's your one stop shopping destination! I hope you'll stop by and check it out! More gift suggestions tomorrow!

Happy Stitches,

Anna