Phew!

We had a HUGE sale last week. We're not sure at this point just how many bolts of fabric went out of the shop, but we can tell you that it was a lot! There are stacks and stacks and stacks of empty bolts outside the back door. Getting inside the shop is sort of like going through an obstacle course. Thank you to all our wonderful customers who came and shopped, then shopped some more, and then came back yet another day to shop more.
That's Deb with our customer who won the "most repeat visits during the sale" prize, and perhaps "spent the most $$$ during the sale" prize. Speaking of prizes..... Today, yes today, we're getting the prizes in the mail to everyone who won at our last drawing. We didn't forget! We've been overwhelmed the past weeks, and today was truly the first day we have had to address getting your goodies out to you. If there are no interruptions, our big plan is to get them to the post office today. Thanks for hanging in there!

This is us on Saturday after the last customer had left the shop. We were exhausted, fried, crispy, toast, whipped, our dogs were screaming and our backs out after 3 + weeks of non-stop work getting ready for our shop re-do.

Please note, we are closed throughout this week to have time to change over the shop. We know we told many of you that, "yes, of course, we'll remain open after the sale". We seemed to have the idea that we could do a gazillion things at once and still deliver the customer service you deserve. Then we realized that birds do not preen their feathers while in flight, and they most certainly don't moult during flight! So we're taking a week to re-feather the nest and we'll re-open next Monday, June 22 at 10 am.

Birdy hearts to you all,
Angela

Our Web Site!

We're Sorry! Silly to not have a link to the web site.
Here it is:
www.YellowBirdArt.com
Come on over and do a little shopping!

Birdy Hearts to you all -
Angela

On-Line SALE!

As part of our big sale, we're offering on-line specials as well! We don't want you to miss out on the fun just because you can't get here! We’re excited to offer a different daily special each day now through Thursday! Each daily special runs from 12am through 11:59pm on the specified day, and on that day only. Sale fabrics have a 1 yard minimum cut.

Sunday, June 7: 20% off fabrics listed under the Oriental Fabrics - Alexander Henry Fabrics shopping category
Monday, June 8: 25% off fabrics listed under the Black and White shopping category
Tuesday, June 9: 25% off fabrics listed under the Oriental Fabrics - In The Beginning Fabrics shopping category
Wednesday, June 10: 10% off fabrics listed under the Children's Novelty Fabrics shopping category plus free shipping
Thursday, June 11: 15% off any kit (excludes Block of the Month)

Go ahead and place your online order and we will process the discount when we process your order manually here in the shop.

Happy shopping!

It's a HUGE SALE!

It's huge. It's big. It's awesome. It's the most extensive sale we've ever held!

Amy and I came home from Quilt Market with new ideas for Yellow Bird Art - great ideas - we hope you'll agree when it's all unveiled. We scoured all the crooks and nannys of the shop for all those wonderful little things we had been storing "for later". I bet each one of you know exactly what I'm talking about. You're all storing things "for later" too! So we decided to clean house to make room for all the wonderful new things that will be arriving in the next couple of months.

Believe it or not, this entire wall of fabrics is on sale. Gotta tell you that getting up the courage to put an "X" on the ends of those bolts was hard to do. We love so many of them! But reality in retail is that you have to move the old out before you can have any new things.In the past we rarely have put any oriental fabrics on sale, but this time we narrowed our eyes down to squinty little eyes and decided that some of these fabrics have just been "bad dates" for us. You know the "how to tell if he's into you" sort of dating advice that's part of the singles' thinking these days? Well, we decided to think of our fabrics as "dates", and asked the question, "So, what have you done for me lately?". Gotta tell 'ya, some of our beloved fabrics have been very bad, bad dates and have stood us up for all practical purposes! So, they're outta here!!
This is our lovely Marsha in her little birdy apron, just waiting for customers! Some of you live a driveable distance away from Yellow Bird Art, so I'm going to encourage you, urge you to fill up that car and get your little bodies over here right now!

The sale runs from 10-5 Saturday through Thursday (including Sunday).

Today everything on sale is -20%

Sunday -30%

Monday -40%

Tuesday -50%

Wednesday -60%

Thursday -70%

Items on sale are: fabrics, kits, ribbons, trims, threads, books, patterns, notions, and heavens - I just can't name it all. When you come in, you need to look for the X on items. If it is marked with a X, then it's on sale!

HURRY ON OVER!

In the Studio II

I have a small collection of items pinned to the wall by my sewing machine - its sort of an inspirational place. There's a photo of Amy and my oldest daughter, Penny, taken on a bloody hot day at Times Square, a small art quilt I began in a class with Susan Shie, photos of two of my favorite pets taken by a friend just before I had back surgery (so they could come to the hospital with me - little did we know that our hospital encourages you to bring the pet in to visit the patient!), a little oriental hanky folded into a kimono shape and other little things that bring joy to my day, and also inspire me to continue working on this dream of running a quilt shop that inspires others as well. Boy that's probably one good run-on sentence! The adjacent photo is of the top drawer of my sewing desk. It is often left open, and its where my most often used items are stashed. I've found that consciously making a place for the things I use in my studio and then always, yes always, returning the thing to its assigned place makes my sewing life so much easier. By nature I'm a stacker, and that just doesn't work well when you're working on a project with some sort of deadline, and you can't find the thingamajiggy no matter which pile you search in. It takes a lot of self-monitoring for me to do this, but the agony of the search, and then the periodic - let's just throw a grenade in there! - cleaning out takes too much time. Besides I end up in the living room wild eyed, hair on end, and completely irrational, just sure that DH has appropriated my seam ripper for some unholy oily wrench and hammer man-job out in his studio. Which he never, ever does....... It keeps the holy bonds of matrimony much less of tempest if I keep my studio organized.

Most of the time, not always, I'm the person who sews the garments and handbags for samples for the quilt shop. I'm making the adorable Lily Top by Pink Fig out of Sandy Henderson's collection by Michael Miller. Its going to be an amazing little outfit!

Then I thought I'd include a photo of the progress on the Bitty Dog pincushions by Bunny Hill.

I wasn't too sure if I should include it - it looks sort of like some sort of doggy dismemberment park. Speaking of which - I have the little grey herringbone Bitty Dog all ready for the permanent attachment of his teeny hind legs, and mystery of mysteries, one of the little hind legs has gone AWOL!Now, I searched the basket I had all the Bitty Dog parts in several times (I usually do hand work in the living room in the evening with my husband watching TV - only educational things of course, or movies of significant value....... are you laughing yet?). I took the cushion out of my recliner and dug around in the places you don't actually want to put your hand after owning a piece of furniture for 6 years, and only turned up lots of crumbs of mystery food, loose change, and the lovely surprise of a missing earring! Still no grey herringbone rear leg for the grey bitty dog. A bitty mystery. If you find it when you're cleaning under your couch cushions, send it on home, ok?

Birdy hearts to you all!

Angela

In the Studio I

I don't know about you, but I love seeing other folk's sewing spaces. I was fortunate that we had the space available after adding an addition to our house for me to have a nicely sized space just for sewing. I think I've used every bit of space that I can.

My ironing and cutting area are directly across from my sewing machine. My iron is a Rowenta steam generator, and let me tell you that this iron is amazing! It gets hot, something you may have noticed is sadly lacking in many irons, and the amount of steam you can generate takes wrinkles out immediately. Friends who hate ironing have fallen in love with this iron just because its so efficient.

I've been working on wool pincushions from the Bunny Hill pattern collection. Here's the first of three Bitty Dog pincushions. I'm also working on the Bitty Kitty and the Bitty Bird pincushions. We absolutely love pincushions!

Look for more photos of samples I'm making for Yellow Bird Art in tomorrow's post.

Birdy hearts to you all!

Angela

www.YellowBirdArt.com