Sue Spargo Workshop

We were excited to welcome Sue Spargo back for her third workshop at Yellow Bird Art, in October. We had a wonderful time making Sue's new Barrel Bag (the pattern isn't out yet, but look for it in the next month or two). The classroom was full of laughter and learning.

Deb and her Barrel Bag in progress.

Student work.
Carissa's bag.

The classroom.

Sue with her trunkshow.

Sue will be back next year, October 3 & 4. We'll be doing her Altered Textile Workshop. Students will applique some of the block ahead of time and then Sue will work with us to embellish with layers and teach about the use of ribbons, fabrics, velvets and wools to make each piece completely unique. The workshop is sure to be a great time and it's filling fast!

Quilts! Quilts! and MORE Quilts!

OH my goodness... do we ever have a ton of quilts! With 3+ years of making shop samples under our belts, we've accumulated quite a collection of quilts! Too many, in fact! That's why we're having a silent quilt auction this Sunday, 12/14/08. Bidding begins at 1pm and ends at 3pm. If you're interested in placing a bid on any of the quilts or quilt tops in the photos, give us a call at 563-538-4350 and describe the quilt (or quilts) you're interested in- we'll give you more information and let you know what the minimum bid is. We're also having a fun holiday open house at the same time- you just can't beat holiday cookies and hot cider on a cold day.

The Mary Engelbreit top, Friends are Flowers in the Garden of Life, is a top only- that means it still needs batting, backing, quilting and binding.

The black/red/cream christmas quilt is a top.

The red and blue quilt is a top.

This purple/lavender oriental print quilt is really gorgeous- I'll be sad to see it go bye-bye.

This quilt, Super Stars, is quilted McTavish style in the cream background. Oh man, is it ever cool.

This one is a top.

Another top.

Oh, Desert Stars- you are so pretty.

Coming up in the next post- 2008 Sue Spargo workshop pictures!

We love spring! And art quilts too!

We're back! Sorry about the long blog absence, dearies! We had the best of intentions for updating the blog more often, but, well... you know how that goes, right? May has been a time of reconnection in many areas as we say hello again to old friends: the sweet old rose outside my door that was saved from a friend's about-to-be-demolished-yard last summer is starting to come back with an abundance of burgundy leaves; the dear customer who's come back to town to enjoy another wonderful summer on the river; finding new life for old pattern favorites with gorgeous new fabrics. Stop in sometime and say hello!

This spring we were excited to display a selection of art quilts by our very talented friend, Carissa Brudos. Carissa finds time to create wonderful, textural art quilts, while working full time as an elementary school art teacher. Here are some of our favorites:



Carissa begins each piece with an original acrylic painting on canvas. She then cuts around the painted image and collages it onto the cotton background. The backgrounds are often layered with various fabrics and the entire piece is then heavily stitched.

She very generously suprised us with a gift of a Yellow Bird piece. It is SO gorgeous, and makes us happy every time we see it hanging in the shop!

Isn't she amazing? Thanks Carissa!

Cuteness We Can't Resist

We're all ga-ga over the new Kokka children's print fabrics. They're 100% cotton upholstery weight fabric and they are seriously too cute. Take a look at this little girl bear... she is so sweet.


And this gingham with little bears picnicking? Adorable!

This one is part of a line called Carmel Town, and it's so funny. The text says things like "A burning hot fried eggs is especially delicious".

We can't wait to make up a little childrens outfit or diaper bag with these. Doncha need some too? We'll have all these Kokka fabrics availabe for sale on our website SOON!

New fabrics... YUM!

We have amazing new japanese fabrics from Kokka in the shop. Amy can't keep her hands off them! We think she's in love.

Here's a sampling of the luciousness...
In the upper left corner is an upholstery weight cotton, then there's a lovely gauzy cotton print by designer Junko Onishi. The blue is linen and it's a gorgous panel by Nani Iro- it would make a great skirt or curtains. And then a cotton sateen print with a lush finish. Oh my!

Here's a close up of another upholstery weight cotton by Junko Onishi. There's a beautiful scattering of silver metallic on the red flower petals. It's delicious. really.

Amy whipped up Cindy Taylor Oates Slouchy Bag pattern in a fun upholstery weight Echino animal print.

In our next post we'll show you some of the Kokka children's novelty print fabrics.

Have a wonderful day!

WOW! We are thrilled with the results of our first ever Quilt Challenge Contest! Last fall we issued a Bird themed challenge to our customers with the goal of helping you to stretch creatively. Each participant was required to purchase a pack of 5 fabrics and had to use some of each fabric in a quilt of their own design. We sold around 40 fabric packs and received 9 completed entries.

Now, let me assure you that the photos don't do the quilts justice. It's been a joy having the quilts hang in the shop for the last month and 1/2.

Without further ado... here are the entries and winners:

"Oriental Beaded Bird" by Mary Borreson of Sparta, WI. Mary won the $150 Viewer's Choice Award.

"Tweet Retreat" by Robin Watson of LaCrosse, WI. Robin won the $150 Bird's Choice Award.

"Three Brown Birds" by Beth Landas of Decorah, IA. Beth won a $75 Viewer's Choice Award.

"Golden Paradise" by Elizabeth McMullen of Richland Center, WI. Elizabeth won a $75 Viewer's Choice Award.

"Feathers, Fowl and Friendships" by Joyce Davis of Desoto, WI.

"Hoot" by Juanita Johnson of Sherman, TX.

"Peggy Rummel" by Robin Harmon of New Albin, IA.

"Tip of the Rooster Tail for the Big Birthday Year" by Marcia Washuta of Boscobel, WI.

"Korean Chickens" by Marilyn Zezulka of New Albin, IA.

Thank you to all of our Challenge participants!

Shop dogs!

We thought you might like to know a little about some additional staff members here at Yellow Bird, Tillie and Diego.

This is Tillie (aka The Little Princess), on Amy's lap. Check out those ears! She loves pina coladas, getting caught in the rain... oops! I mean, food, naps, toys, children and walks. Many of you have been welcomed to Yellow Bird by Tillie- she takes her job as Greeter very seriously (unless is she otherwise occupied by one of her other loves as listed above).

And this is Diego (aka The Beast). He is, without a doubt, one of the cutest dogs we've ever met, and one of the naughiest as well. He doesn't mean to be naughty really, he just gets bored, and well... he can keep himself busy if left to his own devices, but we're usually not pleased with the results. He doesn't have an official job title yet... we're working on crafting one to fit his particular energetic, high energy personality.

They both love treats, and we have a box of milkbones in the classroom. Let us know if you'd like to make a new friend next time you're in!

The Learning Curve

Well, if you read the previous post, you've no doubt formed the opinion that we don't have a clue what on earth we're doing. Well, it's not quite that bad, but we do tend to muck things up a bit as we learn..... Sound like anyone else you know? We've been on a bit of a handbag trip lately - thought you might enjoy seeing one of our new finds. Amy went to quilt market last summer, and found this delightful company called Goody, Goody. They make the most exquisite hand bags! The bags are made of silk with reinforced nylon bottoms and handles. All the bags feature hand crafted silk flowers, and they will just make you melt!

We do have a number of these bags in stock in different styles and colors, so give the shop a jingle if you're interested in giving one of these beauties a new home! You'll find our contact information on our web site http://www.yellowbirdart.com/

On the sew-it-yourself front, our newest love of a bag is Amy Butler's Frenchie Bag. We made up our shop sample in some of Kaffe Fassett's newest fabrics - always a shop favorite! The pattern is easy enough for even beginning beginners - if you can read and sew a relatively consistent seam, you'll be able to master this pattern. You'll find, of course, that you will become addicted to the ease of construction for this pattern, and will be making handbags to match this or that outfit, and naturally one for each of the girlfriends! Again, contact the shop, and we can get a bag kitted up and out in the post for you!

And a lovely new year.....

Well, if you've found our blog and been wondering just what is going on since there hasn't been a post in a month.... All we can say is that time has been not flying, but zooming by. We promise to do better!

That's a photo of the birds at Yellow Bird Art... from left to right: my mom, Angela- in the store visiting- and her dog, Tillie, Barb, Sue, Sandy our assistant manager, and me. Bolts of new Kaffe Fassett fabrics have been arriving in what seems to be a steady stream. Our UPS delivery man, Kim, is beginning to think about taking up quilting, he's here so often!

One of our biggest projects as of late has been working on getting fabrics onto our web site, http://www.yellowbirdart.com/ for purchase. We'll have new Kaffe fabrics, new patterns & kits and some really unique gift items. We have stacks and stacks of more new fabrics to scan and send off for up-loading, so be sure to visit our web site often.

Quiet Day at the Quilt Shop

Today was just a quiet day at Yellow Bird Art. There were a few customers, but mostly we were able to get a lot of the "behind the scenes" work done today. Not to say we don't love hearing the bell on the door announce a customer - we love our customers, even when they're just stopping by to say hello and visit for a minute. We selected fabrics and patterns for new shop samples, collected exciting new fabrics to feature at our web site - http://www.yellowbirdart.com/ -, finished our Winter 2007/2008 newsletter and got it off to the printer, and even got some sewing done for some samples of a new fabric line - Michael Miller's "Kitschy Chicky".

Another new line of fabrics that we're all crazy for is from Art Gallery Quilts. The samples we saw at Market were the actual art works. We fell in love with the extremely fine hand of the fabrics, and oh my, the art work was glorious. We ordered 5 colorways of the Kanji prints - you'll love them too, and a nice selection of a variety of other prints that we thought worked well together, and would also be great with Amy Butler's line of fabrics! We'll have these on our web site as a bundle. I've had wonderous thoughts of handbags, artwear, and of course quilts using these fabrics! All the "Birds" at the shop share our thoughts that there simply aren't enough hours in a day to make all the projects that are rolling around inside our minds.

One of the difficult parts of running a quilt shop is defining what the personality of your shop will be. We began the shop two years ago focusing on oriental fabrics, Kaffe Fasset's fabrics, batiks, and quite a few Moda lines. We also carried a nice collection of reproduction fabrics, and homespuns. Our thought was that the reproductions and homespuns represented the history of quilting...... and we believed that was important. Well, sometimes what you think customers will purchase, and what they do purchase are indeed two altogether different cats. Our workshop last weekend with Sue Spargo (www.suespargo.com) helped us clarify things a bit. Sue told us that when she first began her business, her father (an ex-businessman) told her that she needed to focus - clarify what she was doing - not to just do a bit of this and a bit of that. So, we decided to focus as well. After 18 months of debating on whether to keep or clear our reproductions, we decided to clear out the beloved reproductions and homespuns to make room for the fabrics our customers love, and buy. It is a business, after all.

We think many quilt shops happen because someone quilts, loves fabrics and quiltmaking, and somehow pulls together the resources to open a shop. Exciting, very exciting - gets the adrenalin going at the speed of light! Then you find out that its a business. And if you don't make the right business decisions, you're not going to be a business much longer. Amy and I have been working diligently this past year in learning how to DO business. It's not easy, and sometimes not much fun. Now, it is fun to buy new fabrics, find incredible new pattern designers, or a notion that will actually make quilt making or garment making more efficient or easier. But, you have to be able to pay for all those things - preferably on time. And there's just a huge list of things you need to pay, hopefully including yourself. Mind you, this is not whining - we both love our quilt shop, especially the customers who brighten our days with enthusiasm and creativity, and we're even learning to like the organizational process of business. It feels good to know you made a solid positive decision that's going to keep the doors open, so you can get more fabric, and see the expressions of joy on the faces of your customers as they see new colors and patterns in that silky piece of fabric! And then we all begin dreaming again of the fabulous new things we can do with those fabrics!