LATE RISER'S SALE

The EARLY BIRD might get the WORM but LATE RISERS get their BEAUTY SLEEP AND 20% OFF THE ENTIRE STORE!!!

That's right: you heard me... this coming Saturday, November 1 we will open 1 hour early at 9:00 and give you the customer 20% off everything in the store (excludes clearance fabrics, consignment items and food items). That means 20% off fabrics, books, notions, battings, rulers and mats... we're even taking 20% off of Gift Certificates and Class Fees!!!

And honeys, there is some guh-reat stuff in the store these days: Amy Butler's Daisy Chain line, Bali Batik Jelly Rolls (that we made OURSELVES, thank you very much!), lots of Kits (Turning Twenty and otherwise), Charm Squares, Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes, all kinds of Pre-Quilteds, 108" Quilt Backings...and that's just fabric.

Let me tell you about the books: all the hottest titles...Seams to Me by Anna Maria Horner, The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brockett, English Garden Quilts by Kaffe Fassett, French General Home Sewn, to name a smattering.

And patterns, too! The entire Spring and Fall lines of Oliver+S children's clothing patterns (great with our NEW 54" baby-wale corduroy!!!), some great new Quilt Patterns from Fig Tree Quilts, all of the Amy Butler patterns (of course) and if they get here in time, the new line of patterns from Heather Bailey as well.

Very exciting stuff, my friends.
I hope to see YOU there for the Late Riser's Sale.
Have good shopping!!!

XOXO

Rhea

Q&A

The following is an interview that I recently conducted with myself.

Question: What goes on at Sewing Lounge?
Answer: Oooh, that is a loaded question.


Q: Excuse me?
A: Well, lots of stuff goes on at Sewing Lounge. Mostly it's a time where we have an open studio and people gather around the table to work on their respective sewing projects. But...

Q: But...?
A: Well, it's kind of a "Girl's Night Out," so you can fill in the gaps.

Q: I see. (Clears throat) Ahhh, when does Sewing Lounge take place?
A: Every Friday night from 4:00 to 8:30 PM.

Q: What does sewing lounge SOUND like?
A: It sounds like a lot of people having fun. Laughing, yakking away, different cell phones ringing, the radio in the background, the rat-a-tat-tat of sewing machines. Lately there's been a lot of talk about the election, the Lobstermen's struggles, buying local. All kinds of stuff. People really "open up" and share things at Sewing Lounge, and I always say, what happens at Alewives, STAYS at Alewives.

Q: And what does Sewing Lounge SMELL like?
A: Well, I'm sooo glad you asked that question. As a matter of fact, it does have a smell. It smells like Sushi and Mojitos and hot iron. It's a good thing that Saturday is garbage day, because you only want to smell that combo for so long, you know?

Q: I hear you. And what does Sewing Lounge LOOK like?
A: Like you might expect: it's people's fabrics and projects everywhere, with a huge buffet spread out on the cutting table in the back room. And I mean HUGE. We're talking every type of sushi imaginable (my favorite being the Seaweed Salad) and a little "libations station" and a huge dessert/chocolate/candy area. It all somehow magically appears late Friday afternoons and we always say "Oooh, we have way too much stuff!" and then it's all magically gone by 8:30.





Q: Do people always sew at Sewing Lounge?
A: Nooooo... sometimes they just stop by to get in on some of the chocolate action and put off their grocery shopping.

Q: What words of wisdom would you like to give to someone who's never been to Sewing Lounge before but is thinking about going?
A: Very important: I would tell that person that the gals at Sewing Lounge are all different sizes and shapes and ages and the only thing we DO have in common is that we are all really nice and we all love new "Loungers" and we all love to sew. A lot of great friendships have been formed here, so if you're new to the area and maybe want to meet some new people this might be a great place to start. We're like the church of sewing: all are welcome, and every day is Sunday. As long as it's Friday.

See you in the not-so-distant future.
Look for my friend May Mitchell to be a "guest blogger" next time!!!

XOXO<

Rhea

Martha would approve...

Hey Ladies and Gents,

It's off to Portland I go tomorrow to help with the web site design!
A very exciting thing, indeed.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of our fabric covered pumpkins that we make around this time each year at the store.

They are the easiest things in the world to do: Bust out a pumpkin, clean it off thoroughly, cover a section at a time with acrylic gloss medium (the same stuff we use for our floor cloths), slap on some fabric (cut any which way your heart desires), cover with some more acrylic gloss medium and voila! Instant fabric-y pumpkin!!!

As we Mainers say: It's a wicked good thing.

See you again soon!!!

XOXO

Rhea

A Quickie

Just a little post today:

For future reference, here is a list of reasons why going to Bar Harbor on a Hurricane-y weekend is a GOOD thing:

1. Plenty of parking.

2. You have a REALLY good excuse to stay in a hotel (as opposed to staying in a campground, where the bathrooms are conspicuously farther away than in a hotel room).

3. Unbeknownst to you, it just might be "Free Park Weekend," and your entrance fee to Acadia will be waived leaving an extra 20 bucks for...

4. No lines at Jordan Pond House (The restaurant inside the park). I highly recommend going there in the EVENING for a change, especially when they give you a seat by the window AND near the fireplace, and ESPECIALLY when they have peach ice-cream on the menu.

5. There will only be a couple of other people at the top of Cadillac Mountain who are as crazy as you are. If I had a dollar for every time we uttered the phrase "Ooh, I bet there's normally a very nice view from here!"

6. If the fog DOES start to lift (and honestly, even if it doesn't), the park is still pretty beautiful.

That's all for now. More to follow. Have a great week!!!

XOXO

Rhea

There's BOLTS and then there's BOLTS

Hey hey one and all,

Funny little story for you before I depart for a lovely weekend of camping in Bar Harbor (and, as luck would have it, the ONLY weekend in these last two months that they are forecasting RAIN):

Yesterday, when Oliver came home from work, he popped into the shop to say hello to me. His timing was impeccable, as there were a TON of new boxes of fabric that had just arrived. All of these boxes needed to be opened, unloaded and then broken down, and I don't know if you've ever noticed this but a bolt of fabric is HEAVY (Especially the 54" funky stuff that we have been ordering lots of lately). Sooo, I employed the doe-eyes and the pouty lips and the "blink, blink, blinking" of the eyelashes and successfully cajoled him into helping me with this whole process.

I am working away on my pile of boxes and Oliver is working away on his pile of boxes when all of a sudden I hear him say "Hey, I found a bolt!!!" I'm thinking "Well, I should hope so because I've just found 5 bolts of fabric in the box I've opened, myself." I look up from my box-cutting, expecting to see Ollie pull out a new bolt of fabric, but NOOOOO: Between his thumb and index finger, Oliver is holding a huge, rusty metal bolt that he found in the box.

You have to laugh. 100% of my daily recommended dose of irony supplied by this tiny, metal screw that somehow shanghaied it's way to Maine from MODA's HQ in Dallas, Texas.

Have a great weekend and think of Ollie and I as we set up our tent in the rain. If we need a bolt, I TOTALLY know where to find one.

XOXO

Rhea

Kaffe Fassett BOTM

Hello hello,

BOTM stands for Block Of The Month, by the way...

We have truly lost our marbles because we are going to tackle the "Post Card" quilt from Kaffe Fassett's book Quilt Road. But seriously, folks, I think this quilt is an excellent candidate for a BOTM project. It's big, it's intricate and most importantly...it's gorgeous. And it uses Kaffe fabrics. Sounds right up our alley, n'est-ce pas?

We will be making the Postcard Quilt "Round Robin" style. That means we will start with the center medallion design of the quilt and then each month add a border all the way around until one year later... voila!!! Le quilt c'est fini!!! And even though this may not be the easiest Quilt that we have ever tackled I do think that breaking it down into small increments is the key to it's successful completion. Again, this is where the BOTM format comes in handy.

How can YOU get in on this BOTM action??? Easy!!! There are three different ways to participate in the Postcard Quilt:

1) You can take The Postcard Quilt BOTM as a class, which means you will come into the shop every second Saturday of the month to pick up your fabric kit and complete your borders in a classroom setting. You'll get lots of extra help and tricks and tidbits of information. You'll also get to see the same people once a month for an entire year, which perhaps would scare the heck out of some people, but we think it's kind of neat.

2) You can participate in the BOTM by picking up your fabrics on the second Saturday of every month here at the store and then complete at home, at your leisure, or...

3) You can participate via mail-order! No matter where you live you can get some Kaffe Fassett goodness once a month in your mailbox. No decisions to make, no fabrics to shop for... it all comes to you. That's a first for us and a great opportunity for those of you who are "from away" to get your Alewives fix.

Hmmm... what else should I be telling you? You can choose between 2 colorways: either choose Hot Reds or Cool Blues (or both!). Hot Reds will be those very "Kaffe-y" reds and pinks and magentas, while Cool Blues will be periwinkles, turquoises and lilacs. I'm psyched to be choosing the fabrics for this project and luckily we have an amazing source of Kaffe fabrics at the store to draw from.

Everyone will need the book Quilt Road, which is of course available at the store, and you will need to hook us up with some information (Credit Card number, e-mail address, phone number, color choice, etc.) but other than that you can sit back and piece, piece piece to your hearts content. This won't be the easiest thing you've ever done but I know it won't be the hardest, either. I equate this project to reading a really good book: you don't read it to be finished quickly, you read it to be somewhere in the middle. In other words, this project is all about the process. It's about enjoying the piecing and always having something to fall back on. Hopefully, one year from now I will be sitting pretty, with my own completed quilt top and pictures of lots more that I can post right here.

If you have any questions at all then feel free to e-mail me at the store or even to call us (we love the phone calls!) The BOTM action starts Saturday, November 8th.

Hope to hear from you soon and check out the new fall classes and workshops listed on our website's class page.

Talk to you soon!

XOXO

Rhea

Quilt Shop Baby

Hello, hello...

Well, today is certainly "brisk" here in Maine.

I'm torn between my love of the cold weather and my fear of the oil bill.

It would be great to crank up the heat just for a little bit to take the chill off but not so great for the invoices to start rolling in.

Still... five little minutes wouldn't hurt...

But enough about my love/hate realationship with the cold.

I have something MUCH more interesting to blog about today and that is our unofficial Alewives mascot and his name is Reuben the Dog.

I "inherited" Reuben (a handsome black lab of 6 years old) when my boyfriend, Oliver, came into my life. I would love to be able to take credit for Reuben's calm, laid back manner and killer smile but it is all Oliver's doing. What can I say, the guy is a good Dad. When we first started dating and I was introduced to Reuben I knew exactly who I needed to make a good impression with: Not Oliver's family, but his dog. Luckily, Reuben liked me from the get-go (Bacon in your pocket will do that every time...) and we have been buddies ever since.

Reuben is a great guard dog. He will bark when people come to the front door of our house, but he wags his tail vigorously all the while. He's just waiting to make sure people are there for friendly reasons. What kills me is when I come home, especially later on at night, Reuben is so excited to see me that he runs and gets his "Duck" toy and brings it over to show me. It's like he's saying "look at my toy! Now that you're home let's play!" I do not know why but I find this to be the most endearing thing in the world. It reminds me of something I would have done when I was a little kid.

Reuben is also very smart. He has figured out how to open doors by their handle (not unlike the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park) and has been known to let himself outside. Once he exited through a plate glass window, but that's another story, and not one of his prouder moments, so we'll save that for another time.

Every once in a while I bring Reuben over to the store with me. He will never be a full time shop dog, because I understand that some people have allergies and some people are just not "Dog" people (including myself at one time: funny the changes you make for men, don't you think?), but a couple of times a week Reuben hangs out at Alewives. He loooves it there. He is admired by everyone he meets and each new customer that comes through the door has "you look like you might pet me" potential.
The cutest thing is when he flops down on the floor and goes to sleep, raising one quizzical eyebrow if he hears a noise, and then dozing off again when he decides it's nothing worth his attention.

I still love cats, but having spent quite some time now living with Reuben, I find that it is so true what they say: You just can't beat a Lab. So, if you see me out walking Reuben or happen to be at the shop when Reuben is there as well, rest assured that he is the biggest, friendliest goober that you have ever met and he DOES accept bribes.

See you soon with new classes and fall photos!!!

XOXO

Rhea