Thanks Everyone for making this anniversary our very best!

It was a wonderful, wonderful day!

Full of

giant balloons,

happy, crafty shoppers...

TONS of fabric,

flowers..

cookies...  and friends.

We are so blessed to have such an amazing crew of kind, creative people and a community that embraces and supports us! 

Thank you for 5 great years!!

♥

oh.. and one last photo.. from our friend Katie Lewis at The Red Kitchen

I just loved the shadow of our flags on the big balloon... so I asked her if I could share it ;)

We're 5!!!! LET"S PARTY!!

Join us for our annual celebration,

Saturday, March 9th from 10AM - 5PM.

This year we are making merry with a White Wedding theme. Inspired by the good days of Downton Abbey, spring beauty, lace dresses, linen suits and white pennants strung throughout the town.

We will be GIVING AWAY amazing amounts of delightful fabric as well as other door prizes for sewers! Prize winners will be drawn all day long. No purchase necessary. Just stop in for a chance to win!

Fabric Chain Garland

While preparing for our fourth year birthday celebration we are of course pulling out all the classic party decor.. our HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner, the cheery party bunting/pennants... But we also wanted some fresh trimming too and when Janelle mentioned this idea she'd seen I knew I had to give it a try.
It was, as I expected, extremely fun and relatively easy to execute. After a few trial and errors with the chain size I finally got the look I wanted... Here is what I did:

I used
12 different prints to make 6 pairings - 1/4 yard or 1 fat quarter of each
1 1/5 yards of WonderUnder
an iron
a rotary cutter and mat
needle and thread


First cut your WonderUnder into manageable more managable sizes.. 8.5"x11". The type I use is 17" wide so I simply cut 11" off and then cut down the center.

Next iron WonderUnder down onto one of your prints. Peel off paper backing and sandwich another print onto. With your rotary cutter, trim this new double sided fabric to 10" x 7.5" making certain that the WonderUnder continues to all edges, this will help cut down on fraying. Finally cut off 1.5" strips longways. This should then leave you with five 1.5" x 10" strips.

Continue this once or twice with each of your fabric pairings until you have a sizable stack of double sided fabric strips. I used 44 strips and ended up with approximately 11 feet of garland. 

Now take a strip and over lap the short ends about 1/4", sew together with a simple straight stitch.

Next take another strip and feed it through this first link.

Overlap the ends and sew. Continue in this fashion adding link to link.. building your fabric chain, paying attention to your colors and mix up your prints as you go.

I always love a garland... weather for a holiday or any day.. I think after the party this one will live in my room for awhile ;)

Happy crafting and hope to see you at our PARTY!!! 

This Saturday, 

March 10th from 10AM-5PM @ Sew To Speak

4610 N. High Street

Tomorrow's Birthday Bash!!

Happy Birthday Tea Party!

Saturday, March 19th from 10AM - 5PM

Yes, we're officially 3!! Our little shoppe has made it through it's third year and we want you all to come help us celebrate!

We will be hosting our annual shoppe party TOMORROW, Sat. March 19th from 10AM - 5PM.

This year's bash is a Tea Party theme, so there will be lots of fun gift ideas and tea party inspired sewing projects. We will be giving away tons of exciting door prizes for sewers, including lots of great fabric! Drawing prize winners all day long. No purchase necessary. Just stop in for a chance to win!

Fun

Well the Shoppe's second birthday party was a major success.

We had a very big turn out and gave away gobs of great fabric! It was such a joy to watch people as they came to claim their prizes. The whole shoppe team was able to be there (including helpers Anne and Martha) and thank goodness for that. We were all needed. It was pretty crowded and somewhat chaotic that day, but in the very best and most festive way possible.
My wonderful dad and sister brought us all a homemade lunch. We took turns, some helping customers while the others snuck away to enjoy the picnic style lunch they set up of us. It was so kind. Plus there were lovely desert and refreshments for all to enjoy, including these delicious and adorable mini cupcakes, homemade by our dear shoppe friend Anne. Anne is an amazing and generous baker, not to mention all around beautiful person. She and her husband are great family friends and Anne willingly makes a cake for every single birthday in our family!

Some customers even brought birthday cards, gifts and flowers! :) 

Sadly I didn't shoot many photos, but after the festivities died down a bit we were able to get our Anne to snap a great group shot of the Sew To Speak team.

From left: Janelle, April (me), Anita, Megan and Emily. Our sixth, Sheila had left a few hours before.

This last shot was taken a few days later.. with the space still adorned in our party decor.

I wish I had shot some pictures during the party to show just how jam packed it was. It would have been fun to share with you, but those of you who were there, know.
Thanks for coming out. And thanks for all of the kind happy birthday wishes via the blog, twitter and facebook too!

'til next time,
:) April

You're Invited

To a party! Wahoo!! 

This Saturday

March 27th

We will be celebrating the Shoppe's second birthday,

from 10am -5pm.

There will be lots of exciting door prizes for sewers, including fantastic (and hard to get) fabrics, books and more. Plus fun gift ideas for toddlers and other sewing inspiration. 

We will draw door prize winners ever hour. Come get your name in the hat early for a better chance to win! You don't have to be present to win. 

Just Blog For Blogs Sake...

...sigh...

My apologies to you, our loyal shoppe blog followers, and

"multiple times a day" blog checkers (Laura!).
I've been battling a bit of blogger's block.

So today I've decided to just get out of the way and let some

fabrics do the work.

Our newest arrival, Alexander Henry's In The Kitchen.

Super springtime and yummy, don't you think?

My mom claims the birdies on the brown background (Willow Wren) to be her favorite but I think the fruits are just too fun. I really enjoy the large and tiny coordinates.

I see a fresh new ironing board cover in my future and/or some grocery totes for my twin sisters who's birthdays are come up soon.

Also, I wanted to give you a quick heads up about our upcoming Shoppe Birthday Party!

The we'll be celebrating the Shoppe's second birthday, Saturday, March 27th from 11am -5pm. We will have door prizes for sewers and fun gift ideas for tots. Come early for a better chance to win!

Look for more info on this and another event coming via email in the later part of next week. You can sign up to receive our emails beside the owl on the bottom of this page.