Monday, September 17, 2012

Science Camp!

Hi all!! Well, I have to tell you, I'm both nervous and excited to try out something new today and would like to ask your help if you can. Plus there's something in it for you!

Here's the deal....

My two oldest kids are in elementary school, 1st and 3rd grade. Every year our fellow 5th graders attend a local science camp, however, each student has to pay their own way. Want to know how much it is per student? Ready for it? $265 (gasp!)

This year our 5th grade class has decided to fund raise to help bring down the cost per student.


Here's how you can help. We're asking for donations of just $1. You can of course choose to give more if you wish. For every $1 you donate, you'll be entered for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate good for either our fabric or felt etsy shops. The $25 is good towards merchandise, it does not apply towards shipping costs, we'll pick up the tab for that. :) Even better!!

You will also receive a 5% discount coupon code in your email as soon as your donation is received. Depending on your next order, this discount could possibly equal your donation, so it's a win-win! Code will be good for a one time use through the end of this year.

To donate, just click the DONATE button at the upper right of our blog here.

The drawing for the gift certificate will be held on Friday, September 28th. Just two weeks away! You will have up to the end of this year to redeem it.

I know when our turn comes and we have a 5th grader, we would greatly appreciate the help. I won't soon forget the single father that spoke at our last parent meeting telling us about when he had to let his son know that he could not attend because they didn't have enough money. :(

Thank you so much in advance for your help in giving our students a chance to attend this years science camp!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Meet Teddy

Since it usually takes a holiday post office closure for me to take a few minutes for extra projects, I've finally sewn something for my son. Meet Teddy and his new sleeping bag!




This is his teddy that he's been loving since he was about 2 years old (he's 8 now). He's never had a real name, just Teddy. Recently Gabriel asked me to make a mattress, pillow and blanket for his teddy. Well, let's say I convinced him to go with a sleeping bag instead (all in one project!).

We dug around in my fabric stash and found this piece of Mod Tod that I thought was perfect for a little night time sack. I knew exactly how to construct it too. It's an envelope back style pillow cover! I first laid him down and took a rough measurement, as evidenced by all the extra wiggle room he has. ;)  I hemmed one short side, and just pressed the hem on the opposite side of my one long piece of fabric.




I then serged the long sides and turned it right side out. Next I sewed the short side down to the back leaving a small hole to stuff it to make the pillow. Stuffed and sewed closed! This is what the front looks like.



And here's the back...



And looking at the smile on his face in the first picture, I think Teddy is happy with his new sleeping bag. :)  Tomorrow I'll be making one for my daughter's bear who is also named Teddy, just a little lighter version.


A huge "Thank You!!!" to everyone who has been taking advantage of our labor day weekend sale. One day left to shop the greatly reduced prices!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Back to School

Well yesterday was our first day back to school, and boy was I exhausted by the end of the day! No, I don't home school, but just getting up early to take them after sleeping in for 2.5 months was hard!



I'm down to just me and Levi home now. Gabriel and Savannah were super excited to go back. Gabriel said, "Forget my shows, I want to see my friends!" And can I admit that I'm just as excited as they are to go back to school? Sure, I enjoy having them home, but I could use a break from all the bickering brotherly/sisterly love. ;)  I also love this time of year because it's leading up to my favorite season, Fall! I just love all the colors the season brings.





I'm also excited for the fabric lines coming this Fall! Everyone ready for some Jennifer Paganelli and Joel Dewberry??! Here's a few sneak peak pics. Happy Land From Jennifer P. is due to release in October. It has 23 prints.








Notting Hill from Joel D. is due out in November. It's a monster of a collection at 36 prints. 







We will offer both collections for preorder. Still deciding the best way to do it however. My preorder tab on the blog here was having technical issues, I'm sure due to user error. It has been removed for the time being. I may just do a blog post closer to release with the images of the prints here... 

Before I get too far ahead of myself though, we still have other great prints coming this month and next! We will be receiving all of the Riley Blake dots shortly. 




 Also due to release any day is Bella from Lotta Jansdotter for Windham.




 And for September we'll be receiving Rock n' Romance from Art Gallery!


We have more collections lined up for the coming months, so if you don't see something here and are wondering if we'll be stocking it, please feel free to ask!







Thursday, July 5, 2012

Preorders just got better!

We are now offering a 50% down payment option on our preorders!  See our preorder page here for the fine details.... 

You can also sign up to receive our periodic emails for new collections that are being offered for preorder or updates on existing ones. Just enter your email in the subscription box to the right!

We've also just added Heather Mulder Peterson's new line, Seaside Cottage, to our available preorders. Love these colors!












Thursday, June 28, 2012

It's Christmas (in July)!

We're getting ready for our Christmas in July sale! Both the fabric and felt shops will be 15% off the entire shop. And if you're a repeat customer, don't forget to use your coupon code for an additional 5% off.

We will also be doing a facebook giveaway every week in July, so stay tuned!

Thinking of Christmas sales reminded me of the black Friday sale at Joann's last year. Ya, we braved it...

While standing in line at the fabric cut counter, I noticed there were so many gals lined up with two carts full of bolts overflowing out of them also waiting. Their turn comes, and the person at the counter almost always asks, "So, what are you making?" Being that I was standing around for an hour overhearing the same question, I was surprised to hear how many were making things for charity! I thought for sure they were all whipping up last minute gifts for the grandkids.   

Now we always donate used or unwanted items, but I'd never thought much about making something new to donate. With the fabric shop nicely stocked now though, I may jut have to reconsider. :)

I'm curious to know how many others do (or don't) make items for donation. I'm trying out our first poll on facebook with this question. So, if you could (please) click the link below and vote a quick "yes" or "no", that would be awesome. :) Don't worry, it's okay to say no, cause hey, sometimes we ARE the charity!


https://apps.facebook.com/opinionpolls/poll?pid=ACBCVxeVp3w

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Camping!

One of our big summer plans this year was to go camping. So last weekend we went on what must have been a record setting heat wave in the area. It was 106 degrees... yep, you read it right, one-zero-six.

I'm not a water person what-so-ever, but that Saturday, I couldn't stay out of the lake (up to my knees anyway) just trying to stay cool. And I'm not usually so whimpy, but my body was telling me it had had enough. So just as we were winding down the second night, I asked my husband to take me home. :(  I took our youngest son also because it was one of those days where the weatherman cautions you to stay indoors, especially elderly, children and pets. Good thing we were only an hour away from home!

Despite the heat, we all had tons of fun at the lake, chasing bubbles and making smores. My oldest son asked if next year we can stay 3 nights and 4 days instead of just 2 nights. We offered up Disneyland instead next summer as an option for 3 nights and he said he'd rather go camping! What the?!? Well, that would be the cheaper option for us....

These are our kids below. Levi is 3 years old, Savannah 5 and our oldest, Gabriel, is 8. He really is just a fish out of water. :)


Levi and Savannah



Gabriel





Tuesday, June 12, 2012

A Little Felt Inspiration

I am sometimes asked through our felt shop, "I love the shapes, but what do you do with them?" Well last week a customer posted a blog about the wonderful felt creation she made that was so beautiful and inspiring I just had to share!


With a simple leaf shape in just the right colors she was able to create an amazing art piece for her room. Visit her page and see what her inspiration was!

Or how about adding some pieces to your handmade items for the perfect finishing touches resulting in one of a kind creations like these adorable hats from jerribeccahats.

That leads me to another question that's being asked more often now that we are stocking wool blend felt in addition to polyester. So what's the difference??? Oh, and also, Which is better?? Another felt customer answers that for us in a greatly detailed and super helpful post.

Funky Friends Factory, Which is Better?

The end result is, well, depends on what you're using it for! So let your imagination run with just these few ideas and whether it's artwork, softies, hats or hair accessories, we've got you covered in the felt shop for all your project needs. :)


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Vintage Summer

                                                         American Dream quilt pattern

"aahhh summertime... picnics, fireworks, flowers and fun. a recipe for sewing success with this fabulous fabric collection in a color palette of red, white and blue."

That's what Blend Fabrics says about their new Vintage Summer collection, and I think it describes it just perfect. This collection has really captured me, a new personal favorite. I love that it has red, white and blues for 4th of July, yet it's not literally stars and stripes and fireworks. Anything you make with it (and I can think of tons) can be used year round. And the vintage feel brings me to sit back and daydream about the summers past and the new memories we'll be making this summer...

Which reminds me, we've chosen the Paris & Company FQ collection for our newest giveaway on Facebook. Love the cool ice cream prints that collection has! Visit our Facebook page and click the big "S" towards the top to enter to win.

Click the link under the quilt image above for the pattern, and find the entire fabric collection in our etsy shop!



Friday, June 1, 2012

Lots of Firsts

This month Sprightly Fabrics turns ONE!! We're so happy we've made it to this amount of success and of course we owe it all to our super awesome customers and friends! A huge thank you for supporting us throughout this past year of our growth and learning experiences.

We are hitting lots of first milestones right about now. Among them, our first anniversary, first 1,000 fabric sales, first blog post, and we're only one friend shy of our first 100 Facebook friends! :)

With reflecting on the past year and planning for the future, we're making a couple of changes and improvements to how we do things. First, we're committing to keeping your favorite fabrics in stock longer. Second, you'll now see a coupon code in the auto reply message when you order (and also printed at the bottom of your mailed invoice) for 5% off your future purchases! If you've ordered with us before, please message me for the coupon code before your next order.

Thank you again and be sure to keep up with us here and on Facebook for more exciting things to come!!