The Calm Before the Market!

I think Friday is the official start of Quilt Market but if you check out those designer's blogs you'll get some sneak peeks into their new fabric lines. I've tried to put them all in one easy to find place for you over there in the left sidebar. But I really wanted to shout out about something new I just discovered.

http://delishmag.com/

Check out this totally COOL and as far as I can tell, FREE magazines for hip, modern women! I love that their tag line is "Live like you mean it." How appropriate is that!? And do you know how I found out about them? Somehow they decided to follow little ol' Crafty Girls Workshop on Twitter! It turns out that the editer of this e-zine happens to enjoy sewing and quilting! Go figure! Well, this is such an awesome zine that I can tell it's going to be a super big hit! I highly recommend you check it out and be sure you have some coffee (or tea or your beverage of choice) and a long quiet block of time because you'll get lost in the beautifully laid out pages and well written articles. This magazine has substance, really! So, please check it out and I hope you'll tell your friends. Hey, it's free! What do you have to lose?

In other news, I've been adjusting to my second full week at my new job and have noticed that my free time for sewing has been dramatically reduced! I used to spend the week keeping up the house and working on the shop and then found time in the evenings and weekend to sew but now my evenings are almost gone by the time I get home and my weekends have been spent playing housekeeping catch up. Does that sound familiar to anyone? We still have a 10% discount going on ALL Meadowsweet until the end of May, as well as the Buy One Get One 1/2 Price special on select charm packs. We still have Aster Manor and Boutique, which happen to be my favorites, so better grab some before I do! Just a note, be sure to check out the New Items link on the sidebar of our web store. This is where the MOST recently listed items will show up. We have some CUTE new patterns and a new book by Sandi Henderson! OK, I think that's enough of a plug for the shop now. I have to get to bed!

Happy Stitches,

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

NEW Fabric Roll Call

Simple Abundance.....check

Mill House Inn ...........check

Aster Manor ..............check

Rouenneries ...............check

THEY ARE HERE! YIPPEE!!

What types of precuts do we have?

• Charm packs (5" squares)
  
• Jelly rolls (2 1/2" strips)
  
• Honey buns (1 1/2" strips)
  
• Fat quarters (18" x 22" cuts)

And guess what else? We also have plenty of patterns to go with these precuts.

So stop on by our shop and say hello! If you can't purchase today, that's alright, just mark our shop or the item you {heart} with a heart and be sure to tell your loved ones where they can find that list. We're also happy to make up a custom gift certificate if you would like, in any amount, NO SHIPPING required on the gift certificates! Until next time.

Happy Shopping and Happy Stitches to You,

Anna and Regina

The Crafty Girls

I'm Back!! And there is a SALE in our Shop!

Hey Everyone,
I really missed posting on here. I haven't even been able to keep up the blog over on our website. I've been posting more on my personal blog, called Sew Good Sew Far, and I usually have mentioned shop updates over there as well. But I really enjoyed having a blog dedicated to the shop that I don't have to dig around to find. And I also really love knowing that at least 88 people are following my posts! So I've decided to keep this one up again, and do my best to post more often if I can. So, today's exciting news is that we've decided to do a little house cleaning before the fall starts. And by house cleaning I mean, CLEAN HOUSE because Regina's house is our shipping and receiving department and we need some room for all the NEW fabrics that are going to start arriving VERY soon. Yes, NEW fabrics, that's what I said. But before we can show those, we have to clean out some old sewing patterns and even some older fabrics that we have left over from our destash that we started in June. Please help us clean out our shop by visiting us on Etsy and viewing the items on pages 7, 8, 9, or 10. If it has the word SALE at the beginning of the listing title, it has been marked down 10%! I've put more than 40 items on sale, many for less than $5!! (Such as this, or this, or this.) Remember, we will combine as much as possible into one shipping envelope or box, so make the most of your shipping cost by purchasing multiple items! And while you're visiting, we wouldn't mind at all if you want to peruse the items on the front page that are the most recently listed fabrics that we picked up last Monday at the Moda warehouse. Yes, we made the 5 hour (each way) drive to go up to the warehouse so we could stock up on some basic solids that will coordinate nicely with the new fabrics we have coming in, as well as some prints we just couldn't say no to. As you are looking at the newer items, you might notice that the title says "YARDAGE AVAILABLE" and then the listing description says something about another website. It's true, we are expanding a little to allow you all to purchase more than just one yard, or as much as we might feel like listing, at a time. Our other site, that I like to call our sister site, is set up as an e-commerce shopping cart specifically so you can purchase yardage from the bolt! (Because who can ever just buy ONE yard?) We hope to expand it later to include more patterns and even kits, but at the moment we're trying to keep it up to date with the yardage listings as we list the fabrics on Etsy. So, please stop by and if you do decide to buy something, mention that you heard about the SALE from this blog (or from a friend who read this blog) and we'll send you an extra surprise with your order, how about that!? Gee, is that enough links for you? If you click on any of the links you should see some of the items I've picked out and think are hidden gems within our shop. Well, I hope you'll have fun visiting our shop(s) and that even if you aren't able to purchase something at the moment, you'll keep us in mind (and your favorites list) for future gifts for friends or projects for yourself. Until next time.

Happy Stitches to You,
Anna and Regina
The Crafty Girls

Destash Sale

I hope you all had a fabulous July 4th weekend. I had Friday off from my full time job and was able to spend most of the day scanning in some NEW items for the shop, almost 100 new items in fact. After spending a few months madly sewing like crazy (Thanks Regina for your lovely creations) the Crafty Girls have come to a conclusion, the people who read our blog and visit our shop already know how to sew! And all you wonderful visitors probably would rather purchase fabric and patterns instead of pre-made items for gifts. SEW, that is the new direction we are taking in our shop. To start off, since we don't quite have the capital to just run out to the Moda warehouse and buy bolts of fabric (although it is very tempting, let me tell ya) we've decided to DESTASH our own fabric. Now, there are several advantages to this, first of all, Regina and I are pre-washers. Meaning we pretty much always wash any new fabric we bring home. This is an advantage for you because when you purchase fabric from us, it is a particular length AFTER being washed/pre-shrunk! I don't know about you, but I've been very frustrated lately when I have purchased fat quarters (18"x22") and gone home, washed them and then found out they were actually closer to 17"x21" after washing! If we sell a fat quarter in this destash, it's AFTER washing, so you're getting a better deal. We've also gone through our sewing and quilting patterns and found several that we've never used, and no longer need to keep around, so we want to make them available to anyone who would like to make good use of them, and the price reflects that. This is a DESTASH sale, so the prices are very good, we didn't even mark any of our fabric over $8 a yard, now that's a steal! Some of this fabric is still out on the market but difficult to find, so you might want to check us out and snatch it up while you can! Oh, and did I mention that we have several charm packs for sale? I still have a few more to get listed today, but I've posted the ones I thought would be relevant, including a couple of Christmas/Holiday packs. Remember, it's time to start thinking of making gifts for your loved ones for the holidays. Our charm packs are a steal for only $7! OK, the down side, shipping. Yes, the cost of shipping is going up and it may seem pricey to spend $4 on a pattern and have to pay $2 for shipping, but we are willing to combine shipping. We'll even set up a custom listing for you on Etsy if you want to purchase multiple patterns (and fabric, and charms). This will make it easier to get a specific cost for the shipping. With the new flat rate postage boxes, it is a little easier to figure shipping costs, but it's to your advantage to purchase multiple items so that you actually save on shipping costs. So, go take a look at the new items in our shop. We still have more to destash, these items are really only the beginning, plus we will have some BRAND new patterns to list very soon! Thanks for visiting!

Anna
The Techy Crafty Girl
P.S. Tell your friends too, the sooner we sell this stuff, the faster we can get new items ordered to offer to you all.

New Items Listed

Yes, we took a week off but there are now three new items listed on our shop! We have a new adorable tote bag made with the popular blue bird fabric designed by Tina Givens for Free Spirit Fabrics. (Click on any of the links below the pictures to go directly to that listing.)

Blue Bird Tote Bag

That blue ric rac just adds the perfect touch to this bag!

Vintage Apron

Next is a fabulous apron made with the cutest Snippets line from American Jane for Moda. It is a modern day approach to a vintage style with ric rac embellishments and a blue and white checkered lining.

Country Apron

And last but not least (this is my favorite) an upcycled denim apron. Regina (the master seamstress) took a denim skirt that was headed for the trash and added some cute country charm by putting a pieced row of squares along the bottom with some vintage looking lace trim! There is a pocket on the front which is handy for keeping track of your timer and it is lined for extra protection from spills.

These are all FEATURED items in our shop this week. If you purchase any of our featured items, we will send you a special surprise with your order. Also, if you are purchasing this as a gift for someone special and would like a card made to go with it, just let me know and I'll include one at no extra charge!

Thank you and happy shopping!

The Crafty Girls

Anna and Regina

More Items Listed

We've listed several new items in the Etsy shop today. I'm sort of torn at this point. We've been listed on Shop Handmade for about a month with zero sales, but I listed several of our items on Etsy on Friday and this morning found out we had made a sale! So, we are considering switching over to Etsy permanently. But for now, we will have several items listed on both. Thanks for visiting and shopping with us. Please note, we are willing to make custom items if we feel we have the skills to make them, so please don't hesitate to contact us about custom orders. Also, if you live in or around the San Antonio, Texas area, we can arrange to meet you to deliver any item you purchase. That will save you the cost of shipping. Just send us a message on either Etsy or Shop Handmade to let us know you are local. Well, I hope you will visit us soon.

Happy Shopping,

The Crafty Girls