Summer Sew Along

Hey there,

I just wanted to let everyone out there know that we will be hosting a series of what we are going to call "Summer Sew Alongs." What does that entail?

Good question, I'm glad you asked.

Sew Alongs will be held the first Friday of the month during Sushi & Sewing Lounge (so I guess the official title should be "First Friday Sushi & Sewing Lounge & Summer Sew Along"... yeesh, try saying THAT ten times), from 5:00 to 8:30 pm. Bring food (does not have to be sushi... can be anything you like) and we will all work on the same, smallish project. Summer Sew Alongs are free, but you will be responsible for providing your OWN book or pattern and materials or arrange to share with someone else. I shan't be making photocopies for anyone because I'm too pretty to go to jail.

And of COURSE you can still show up for sewing lounge even if you DON'T want to participate in the Sew Along. You are free to make or not make whatever you choose.

The first Summer Sew Along is going to be held this Friday night, May 1st, and we are going to be making the Amy Butler Blue Sky Sun Hat, shown here on the cover of Amy's book, Midwest Modern.

I recently made one of these numbers for our craft swap and it was soooo much fun. Making a HAT, can you believe it? Ohh, and sorry for the last minute notice of this event... It's not like I know what I'm doing here, I'm just making this stuff up as I go along.











The NEXT Summer Sew Along will be Friday, June 5th and we will be making the Summer Blouse from the book Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross.

Here is Summer Blouse girl looking all perky. Don't you want to make one? I've made lots and lots, myself.

I'm not sure what we will be doing in July but stay tuned and I will keep you posted. Any suggestions? I take requests! Perhaps I can get Iris to come and teach us how to make the Buttercup Bag. At any rate, we will be working on something small, fun and summery. An apron, too, perhaps?

At any rate, I can't wait to make another hat and I hope to see you there!

XO,

Rhea

Nothing to do with Anything

This post has absolutely no relevance to the store or to sewing whatsoever...

Just a warning...

About three years ago I was still in design school and our teacher had arranged for an alumnus of the school (who had since become uber-successful) to come in and talk to us about what it meant to be a designer in the "Real World."

I was kind of jazzed to see this guy and had prepared a whole slew of questions to ask him: Practical, hard hitting, important questions that I would be oh-so glad I had asked when my time in the "Real World" came.

At 1 o'clock-ish, in walks this absolutely gorgeous, dressed-to-the-nines, tall and statuesque Lenny Kravitz clone. I mean this man was ridiculously cool looking. I may have been from Maine (the land of meat-and-potatoes-men) and you may think that I was easily impressed by well-dressed, exotic-looking design school alumnii, but please remember that I did live in France for a year and the bar for exotic looking men was set pretty high. Take my word for it, this man was a work of art.

My teacher walked over to this fine hunk of delicious and clapped him on the back, shook his hand and introduced him to the class as a Butera School of Art alumnus.

The ex-student spent the next half-hour telling us about life in the "Real World" and all of the important lessons he had learned. He was giving us real nuggets of wisdom, too: meaty, gritty, substantial stuff. Years of his trials and tribulations were condensed for our benefit.

Then his speech began to wind down...

"Don't make the same mistakes I did," he said, " learn from me, listen to me, ask me anything you want to know and I will tell you..."

Immediately I shot my hand into the air.

"Yes?" he asked.

I took a deep breath and asked the question I had been dying to ask him ever since he walked into the room.



"Are those Gucci sunglasses?"


Silence in the room. Maybe a cricket was chirping in the corner as everyone turned to stare at me.

"Ahhhh, yeah..." Lenny replied, "any other questions?"


More silence in the room.

I looked around...

No one was asking anything.

Nobody was grasping this opportunity.

My hand shot up in the air again.

"Yes?" he asked, hopeful.



"Can I try them on?"





Years later and I still remember.



Are they not the coolest thangs ever?

(In case you're wondering, he did let me try them on... good sport, that guy.)



And yes, tonight I am all hopped-up on cold medicine.

See you again soon, sweeties!

XO,

Rhea

Messin' Around

Hi,

It's my day of and I am stuffy-uppy, toting a box of tissues around with me wherever I go (the really nice tissue, with the lotion in it) and cleaning my house, kicking up all kinds of dust (not helping the stuffy-uppy situation) and intermittently messing around with this gorgeous stack of fabrics that have been on my desk at my house for about a year.

Every time I see a nice orange/white/green (whether it be at Alewives or at another shop) I snag a yard or so. I think at first I thought I would make a Turning Twenty with them, but now they are telling me that they want to be a duvet cover. A big, chunky, piece-y duvet cover. Like, if Posh Spice's highlights wanted to be a duvet cover, they would be this one.

The whole collection started when our MODA rep gave me some leftover fabrics from a trade show. That doesn't seem fair, now, does it? I have a whole store of fabrics at my disposal and people still give me free fabrics. It's kinda like when designers give celebrities free clothes.

BUT, don't hate on me... did I mention that I'm stuffy-uppy? It's bad. I sound just like Kathleen Turner. I've been pounding SoBe's like they are going out of style (so, no change there from my regular routine) and sneezing all over things. I went shop-hopping all over the state with Jessica yesterday (more on that later) and I probably left a trail of sick people in my wake. If you saw me yesterday and you are sick today, you can blame Jessica... she drove me.

Anyways, that's all I got for now. What d'ya think? Duvet cover with a nice, super-poofy duvet inside? Stay tuned...

XO,

Rhea

PS see how pretty the light is today?
And, no, none of these ramblings were Nyquil induced. This was all me.

Two posts that are not posted here

Hi there,

Wanna read two new posts?

Here's one from Iris over at CraftingMamaLibrarian. There she goes, making us look good again. I was psyched to see her at the sale with her camera and was secretly hoping to see this post on her blog. Lo and behold, there it was.

The other is one of my posts about my exploits Shop-Hopping with Jessica. We went from Portland all the way up to Rockland, hitting seven different quilt shops along the way. I'm in charge of the Shop Hop blog, so I felt it was my duty to go out there and shop. You know, in the name of the blog and all.

Very fun.

See you again soon!

XO,

Rhea

PS That's me wearing my Birthday hat that Ollie gave me. It was the very first present I got on my actual birthday and also the most favorite thing that I got and I have pretty much been wearing it steady ever since. It came from Chris and Bernie and I love it lots. Those are some flowers that Ollie gave me, too. He's how do you say... le keeper?

30th Birthday Sale

NEVER in all my 30 years (I can say that now!) have I seen ANYTHING like the store on the day of my 30th Birthday Sale. We were packed in tight from the moment we opened in the morning to the moment we closed an hour late. I have to admit, I was not expecting that kind of turn-out, but it was a very pleasant surprise.

We saw lots of our friends, like this gal, who gifted me a pair of her fabulous earrings (Thanks, Chris!) and made new friends, like this gal (Hi Ellen...I love the young ladies owning their own business!) and lots of Mamas out with their new babies, the youngest of whom was only five days old. That's hard-core.

A HUGE thank-you to everyone who turned out. It was a very special day for me and I can truly say it was unforgettable... followed by a much needed glass of Prosecco and dinner out at this place and then a total nose-dive into bed.

I also have to say Thank You to Jessie and Rina who worked very hard all day long and to Jessica who showed up of her own free-will and pitched in, even though it was her day off. We are very lucky to have you three at the store!

Aaand, I suppose I should thank my Mom, Barbara, not only for owning the store but also for doing all of the hard work 30 years ago!

Shamelessly exploiting your 30th birthday? I highly recommend it.


















See you again soon!

XO,

Rhea

Swapped!!!

Hi Guys,


Hope everyone had a nice Sunday, because we had a GREAT Friday.

In the end, there were 21 swappers and they brought their A-game.

There was so much swip-swapping going on, it would be impossible to recreate it all in blog form.

Instead, I am going to let the pictures tell the story here.

Sorry I couldn't get everybody's photo up here... there was just too much going on for me to get good photos of everything. Plus I was very busy eating all of the yummy food and drinking all of the yummy wine and planning all of the yummy stuff I was going to steal.

A few details:

I made an Amy Butler Blue Sky Sun Hat that went home with the lovely Miss Suki Bradley. I was glad that she got my hat, but also glad that it was swapped a couple of times first. Totally making more of those and blogging about it later...

I went home with Meredith Fossett's framed Mary McFarland-style fabric landscape. I love it.
I. LOVE. IT. You can see my extreme love for this inanimate object in the photo. I know it's wrong to be in love with (quote/unquote) "things," but if my house is ever on fire I ain't comin' out without this picture.

My neighbor, Jane, opened the landscape first and as soon as I saw it I knew it had to be mine. I told Jane not to get too attached... but in the end the landscape was swapped a couple of times and I had to steal it from Rina, which was even MORE fun!

Pam Hardy pulled the lucky number 1 out of the hat. After all of the crafts had been opened and swapped and stolen and admired, she went home with Nadine Raley's gorgeous beaded necklace.

I was so proud of all the crafts... and all the stealing!

These ladies were not shy about taking what they wanted and hey, that was the whole point.

If you missed out on it this time, don't pull that again.

We are doing another swap this Summer. I'm thinking August and will certainly keep everyone posted as soon as we nail down a date.

Start planning your craft NOW!

Thanks to everybody who came, because in the end, that's what made the Swap successful.

See you again soon,

XO,

Rhea

Summer Blouse #2

I can't help myself...








...I've unleashed my inner Martha AND my inner Tyra!!!