Back at It!

As you might have heard, Cedar Rapids and the surrounding areas are recovering from serious flooding. We are fortunate in that our home and business were not directly affected by the flooding. Yet, as many of you watching the news feel, we are unsure of exactly what we can do to help. Among our family and staff we have urged people to be optimistic and hopeful and find what we can do to be pro-active in the changes around us.

To that end, it is no surprise at all that people are coming in to our store for fresh ideas and for the opportunity to escape the media by sewing and playing with fabric and color and design. I have personally been working with several collections of fabrics in reds, orange, yellow and pink....yes, I mean ALL TOGETHER. It sounds nasty but it has been a whole lot of fun.

However, when you are at the new store, you can see how one would get playing with these colors once you start looking at our color wall. I love working with a wall of colors with Fossil Ferns, blush, Moda marbles and batiks. There are so many things to choose from. Now, they have fat quarters cut out of everything. So, wehn I was playing with my orange, yellow and pink and reds, I just went to the candy dishes of fat quarters and picked them out. Isn't that just what picking fabric is all about? Picking from the candy dish of colors.

Have you ever read the book, If You Give A Mouse a Cookie? Well this little plate of cookies is my journey with munching on cookies and being inspired!

I saw this great plate of cookies at our recent Grand Opening at the store and it inspired me with some new color ideas. Our friend Kim made these cookies. They were so artful we didn't want to eat them but when we did....they were so yummy we wanted to eat all of them! They were butter, sugar cookies and were dipped and hand decorated. Watch the store for the quilt that will bloom up from this plate of cookies. Maybe when I make the quilt from this inspiration, I will remember the cookies and have Kim make us some more!

Well, I am off to work more in my red, yellow, orange and pink collections. Think fried egg with ketchup! Naw.....it is much better than that!

All the Best to You!

jill