Laminated bowl covers for everyone!!!

Is this not the bestest, most wicked-good idea you ever saw?

























I cannot take credit for this one: not by a loooong shot.

This was brought to my attention by the fabulous Miss Liza.

























Instructions can be found here.


Laminated fabrics can be found here.


And contrary to popular belief, laminates can be washed and dried on the cool setting...


Who woulda thunk?


Have funny fun fun fun!


XO,


Rhea


PS

My shower this weekend was wonderful and I will post soon with pictures (of the appropriate stuff anyways...)

Oliver+S Trunk Show

View A of the Jump Rope Dress and the Ice Cream Dress


The Oliver+S Trunk Show arrived yesterday afternoon with samples of each garment from the spring pattern line done up in Denyse Schmidt's "Hope Valley" fabrics.
























View B of the Jump Rope Dress


This dress above is actually not part of the Trunk Show, but is one of our permanent samples from here at the shop: view B of the Jump Rope dress, which in my opinion is the cutest thing going.

If I was a little kid I would totally wear this version of the Jump Rope Dress with a pair of jeans and find someone to knit me a mahogany colored cardigan to go with it, and then kick through the leaves on my way to school, happy as a clam, but that is just me and my wild imagination.























Music Class Blouse and Pleated Skirt


The Music Class Blouse has been getting the most attention: it is so sweet and delicate with the pintuck details.

And both the blouse and skirt are super-wearable.

I can think of so many ways to use both pieces, either together or separately.





























School Days Raincoat






























Sketchbook Shirt and Shorts


The great thing about this particular Trunk Show is that if you like any of the samples, we have all of these patterns and fabrics in stock and you could easily recreate the look, or of course you could try your own take on the patterns.

If you are in the area and would like to stop by and see the samples in person, they are here through Labor Day, when they will be shipped back to the Oliver+S studio in NYC.

Have you been to Liesl's blog lately?

If not, you should take a look at her idea for an adult-sized version of the Ice Cream Dress... I love this idea and would love to see it come to fruition.

And, if you are a regular reader of this blog please stay tuned for a very big "Oliver+S-y" announcement coming soon...

The Fall patterns will be arriving in September aaannnddd...

It seems that Liesl would like to come and join us here at the shop and teach a workshop on one of the new Oliver+S fall patterns... and we, of course, would love to have her!

I really do have all kinds of tricks up my (Jump Rope Dress View B) sleeve.

XO,

Rhea

Another Museum Tunic: AKA One more thing that will make me look pregnant

First things first...

Listen up world: just because someone is chubby and/or wearing a garment with an empire-waist does not (I repeat NOT) make them pregnant.

I like to wear the empire-waist.

I do, so sue me.

I like the way it looks.

On every body.

Including mine.

I have been mistaken for a pregnant woman so many times that it is *almost* starting to not bother me, but do I stop making/wearing garments that totally make me look like I am pregnant?

No.

So I suppose I deserve what I get.

But, having gotten all of that off my chest...

I made another such garment today.

Let me rewind a bit.

This Sunday is my Bridal Shower.

See my pretty invitations*?
























With this important date coming up in just a coupla days, I knew I wanted to make (not buy) something special to wear.

I love my first Museum Tunic so much that when I visited my bestest bud Phiona at her shop in Burlington during my trip to Vermont a couple of weekends ago, I snagged some of the Square Dance in the Citrus colorway and a bit of the Pastry Stripe in Blue, as well.

I knew that this time I wanted the larger squares in the panel to be up near my face, because it looked so very nice on these two ladies, but unfortunately, that was not the way the fabric came off the bolt.

So, being the crafty gal that I am, I chopped off the top set of small squares and reattached them very carefully by trimming the bottom edges of each set of small squares to 1" and then re-sewing them with a 1/2" seam allowance.

That way when I reattached the set of small squares, it looked like four continuous rows that would make up the entire bottom portion of the dress.














































When that task was done, I had four new panels that looked like this:


















See?

You can't even tell that the bottom four squares in each panel are reattached, can you???

Since the Citrus colorway is so deliciously sheer, I did add a layer of white voile to my panels, but this was as easy as placing the voile on top of the dobby and didn't require any other special treatment.

As with my last Museum Tunic, I inserted a 6" rectangle of the Pastry line stripe (also lined in voile) down the middle, but other than that I stuck with Anna Maria's directions.

Here is what the fabric looked like this morning:























(Those bottom two fabrics are a future Birdie Sling and have nothing to do with my Museum Tunic, by the by...)

And here is what the fabrics looked like tonight when I was all done sewing the dress:



































































I have to admit that I am very excited for my shower...

Not only do I get presents, but I get the day off from the shop as well!

And hopefully no one will assume that I am pregnant.

My Grandma is going to be there and I would rather not be responsible for her having the Big One.

XO,

Rhea

*Thanks so much, Kristine, you know me the bestest and I love, love, LOVE these invites with the birds! Even though you thought your Maid-of-Honor days were over and you swore up and down that you would never be a bridesmaid again you have been such a good friend to me and I fully intend to leave you my collection of CD's, all of my scarves and back-issues of Country Living magazine in my will!

Now carrying Stitch Magazine!

Here's a surprise for you all:

Alewives is now carrying Stitch Magazine.
























With patterns running upwards of $16 these days, each one of these magazines is such a deal: jam-packed with patterns, ideas, projects, interviews, articles, reviews... all the things we love.

The next issue of Stitch comes out on September 14th, and we will be carrying it here at the shop.

In the meantime, the current issue and all 4 back issues are available at the shop and online, although we are running super-low on the premier issue, which seems to be a lot of people's favorite.

Update: Oops! Since writing this post, we've already run out of the premier issue!
























Me, I like the Bright Ideas issue (Spring 2009), with the improv log cabin pillow on the cover.
























(Of course!)

Enjoy!!!

XO,

Rhea

Garment fabrics are here!

Waiting for Ollie to come home and bring me a smoothie.

Thought it might be a good time to announce that we now have soooo many garment fabrics that we thought it would be a good idea to round them all up and give them their own page.

So, there you have it...

Voiles, lawns, corduroys aaannnddd...

A new selection of wool shetlands (just in time for fall!)

as well as...

Cotton jersey interlock knits!

The knits up in the shop at this time are all from Michael Miller, but very soon they will be joined by Liesl's knits from the new City Weekend line for Moda.

I'm especially excited to launch this new Garment Fabrics Page because for me it marks a successful new transition for the shop:

I would not categorize us as a "Quilt Shop" now (although quilting cottons will always be our number one love), but instead, we are a true "Fabric Store", with lots of different options.

I can't wait to bust out my ball-point needle and sew something tunic-y up from this!

(Very Audrey, don't you think?)

See you again soon-ish.

XO,

Rhea

Follow me on Twitter!

Hey my ladies!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am now on Twitter...

























Wanna follow me?

That would be divine!

(Full disclosure: I have NO idea what I'm doing!)

XO,

Rhea

In which my whereabouts are revealed and Rhea meets Rae (and Liesl, and Heather, and Denyse)!

Now I am back safe and sound from my mystery 48 hours away and I can reveal my whereabouts...

On Saturday Ollie and I traveled to Vermont where we met up with Liesl Gibson and Heather Ross and Denyse Schmidt for dinner at the Blueberry Hill Inn.

I know, right?!?

Liesl invited me to come and meet them at the Inn a few weeks ago, but with our Clearance Sale going on, I had just not thought it would be possible.

However, in true Alewivesgirl-fashion, those last few nights I lay in bed wide-awake thinking what a great opportunity this was and how much I wanted to meet up with these ladies and at the last minute I decided to push the envelope and see if I could get someone to cover for me.

That someone turned out to be my business associate (MOM) and it was her birthday weekend, so THANK YOU, Mom for working O.T. on your birthday... wasn't that a nice present for me to give you???

But, as fabulous as it is to make your Mom work on her birthday while you go on a little mini-vacation-of-sorts, let us get back to the topic-at-hand...

First of all, let me just say that they are all three (Liesl, Heather and Denyse) not only insanely talented and beautiful and creative and clever, but they are also some of the nicest, most sincere (and funny!) ladies you will ever meet.

In short, they are exactly how I imagined them to be.

Even though I had met Denyse before, I had never met Heather and despite a lot of internet/phone correspondences I had never met Liesl in person before, either.

So of course I was a little nervous but most of all excited... it felt a bit like I was going on some kind of "internet-tri-state-area-celebrity-sewing-blogging-date" thing.

But any nervousness I felt quickly dissolved upon meeting the ladies/taking in the gorgeous scenery at the inn/having a glass of wine.

Just to make you totally jealous, the Inn served Oliver and I the most wonderful dinner we have ever had, during which I sat across from Rae Hoekstra (yes, the Rae of Made by Rae and the Buttercup Bag fame was there as well!). She and I had a great conversation that made me realize how lucky I am to have a built-in "real-life" community of "sewists" to come home to.

Apparently, that is a bit of a rarity around the country and I am much more fortunate than I realized.

Everyone at Blueberry Hill (Liesl, Heather, Denyse, the "Sewing Campers" and even the Inn staff) made Oliver and I feel so welcome and I came away from the weekend with SEVERAL priceless memories.

Ultimately, even though I had brought my camera, I made the decision to not take any photos as I was enjoying the rhythm and flow of the evening way too much to disturb it with a round of picture-taking.

And even though I had dragged my now well-worn copy of Weekend Sewing across three states with me (tissue paper patterns busting-out and all), I never asked Heather to sign it, but something tells me I will get another chance to ask her.

So I would like to extend a huge thank you to Heather (who is quite possibly the funniest person I have ever met) and to Denyse (whom it is always lovely to see... she is one of my favorite people), but especially to Liesl, for presenting me with such a great opportunity in the first place.

I have such wonderful memories of the evening, not the least of which was spending time talking to and connecting with Liesl... I got some great "scoops" on upcoming Oliver+S projects, I asked her lots of questions and was very flattered that she had questions for me as well.

I think we have a great connection and I am really looking forward to seeing Liesl -and all of the ladies- again soon.

I don't quite know how they did it, but I went to the inn excited and nervous to meet three people who are by all means celebrities in my world, and by the end of the evening, they were so gracious and kind that I came away feeling like I was the important person.

Thank you, ladies!

Thank you, Mom!

Aaannnddd...

Thank you, Ollie, for driving with me across three states just so you could have dinner with a LOT of women who were talking about sewing!

(We're talking major brownie points.)

XO,

Rhea

Mystery Trip

I am off for the next two days on a last minute Mystery Trip...

The trip will involve "Blueberries" and "Hills" and "Oliver(s)" and 14 hours of driving... woo hoo!

Tell you all about it on Monday.

In the meantime did you know that yesterday was National Skinny Dipping Day AAANNNDDD National Filet Mignon Day?

What an excellent combination!

XO,

Rhea

Craft Swap Reminder

Now that the Clearance Sale is in full swing, I feel it is my duty to remind you all that the Craft Swap is Friday, August 20th at 6:00 pm sharp... also known as one week from tomorrow!

If you haven't signed up yet there is still time to do so, and a week is puh-lenty of time to whip something up for the Big Swap.

If you've never been to the Craft Swap, what are you waiting for...?!?

We want to see you there and steal your stuff!!!

If you have any questions about the Craft Swap, if you want to know how it works or you want to sign up (because all participants MUST sign up ahead of time), you can call me at the shop (207 563 5002), or you can e-mail me (rhea@alewivesfabrics.com).

XO,

Rhea

It's Here!

Clearance sale starts today and runs through Sunday during our regular business hours...

My business associate and I hauled a couple hundred bolts into the classroom last night and for the next three days these goodies will be just $5 a yard (fabrics must be bought in half yard increments) and there are lots of patterns and kits and books on sale, too!

It would be really Smurfy if we saw you there!

XO,

Rhea

Clearance Sale starts this Thursday!

It is that time of year again for all of our brick-and-mortar customers...

Our Midsummer's Clearance Sale starts this Thursday at 10:00 am.

Lots and lots of our fabrics will be on sale at just $5 a yard.

There will also be books, patterns and kits available at quite the discount.

(Sorry, internet customers... I won't be able to include you in the sale this time around, because all of the fabrics that will be on sale are not even up on our site, but you will have your moment in the sun soon, I promise!)


XO,

Rhea

PS... that photo above is a picture of my little sister Johanna at Pemaquid Point from a shoot we did earlier this summer for the new Quilt Shops of Maine brochures. The quilt is by one of my students, Kim Thompson, and the pattern is called "Lucky Stars" by Terry Atkinson. Isn't that quite the composition???

Wedding Watch: Invitations Done!

I finally, finally, finally got my invitations out the other day...

I am such a nerd that I sent one to Oliver and myself because I wanted to know what it would feel like for all of the other guests who will be getting one in the mail.





















Being a fabric store kind of gal, I really wanted to incorporate fabric into the wedding as much as possible, so I "borrowed" a favorite image from Laura Stoddart (for personal use only, Laura... please don't sue me... I'm your biggest fan!!!) and added some text in Illustrator, then printed the finished file onto muslin sheets.


























Next I zig-zagged the muslin to a card stock backing and then did a little more zig-zagging at the bottom to really show off the variegated thread I was using.

I left the edges with long threads hanging out and I purposefully didn't make the zig-zagging too "perfect."

Hopefully this will let my guests know that they are in for a very laid-back, casual-type wedding.





















The ceremony and reception are being held at the Jordan Pond House in Acadia National Park.


I figure now that President Obama has been there they are probably ready for Ollie and me.



In other wedding-y news, Jessica is getting married today.

Remember when she got engaged???

(I do.)

I must say she got some guh-LOR-ious weather for her big day.

I am going to wear my Museum Tunic to the ceremony this afternoon... yay!!!

Congratulations, Jessica and Jon...

I am very happy for you both and hope I get a similarly glorious day when it is my turn!

XO,

Rhea

Requiem for a fat quarter set...

Sad but true...

You are all gone...

You were nice while you lasted Milk & Honey fat quarter set and I will miss you very much...

But now you have moved on to that great sewing studio in the sky...

And Arizona, and New York City, and Quebec, and Kentucky, and all those other places we sent you...























We will have to see what I can come up with next to top you...

Farewell, Milk and Honey...

I will never forget you!

XO,

Rhea

Back from the show

Another year, another quilt show done.

We are back and I am Ex. Haus. Ted.

Lots of trips back and forth to Augusta.

Lots of lugging things around.

Lots of schmoozing.

Lots of selling.

Lots of meeting up with people I only see once a year.

(You know who you are!!!)

And for all my complaining and exhaustedness, I have to admit that I kind of enjoy doing it.

But Mom and I are by no means what you would call "show people."



The booth looked like this:









































There you can see my La La Log Cabin quilt in the background.

Yes,... I finished (with a LOT of help) my La La Log Cabin.

The free patterns are finished as well.

Those of you who placed orders over the weekend (and from now on) will have a free La La Log Cabin "pattern-ish type thing" included as a free gift with your order.

Here's a close-up of the quilt where you can see Barbara's lovely machine-quilting:



















So, now that I have shown you what the booth looked like...

Here is what the shop looks like today:














































I don't know what it is about a messy shop that makes people want to visit us but I am going to remember that this is a good trick on slow days.

If you are one of the people who visited us over the weekend or today I am so, so sorry.

And now I believe you are all caught up with the Quilt Show.

In other news I find the new Iphone commercials really, really annoying.

Also I am the proud owner of a brand new really kick-ass eyelash curler and mascara.

I have the next two days off (thank goodness) and will probably spend them chillin' like a villain.


See you again soon!

XO,

Rhea