My friend Sarah has been organizing a very cool new sewing and quilting resource, Project 95 through the Fabric Shop Network. It’s a fantastic database of independent fabric shops — simply type in a global location and the site shows you the nearest stores, or you can use it to find online retailers, too. And if you know of one that isn’t listed yet, you can let the 95ers know so they can update the list (which currently includes thousands of shops, and counting). I talked to her a bit about it today and wanted to pass the details along here, too!

Sarah says:

Project 95: Fabric Shoppers United — Shop Independents is a worldwide network of independent quilt and fabric shops, e-tailers and design studios who have joined forces to promote shopping independents. By buying from Project 95 shops, you support that movement and join with consumers just like yourself to ensure that you will have access to specialized quilting and sewing supplies, no matter where you live. Even if you don’t have an independent quilt shop or fabric store near you, there are many independent web-based shops or bricks and mortar stores that retail to customers over the Internet.

The Flickr pool is our latest roll-out, and we hope that fabric shoppers can share images of their favorite stores or items that they’ve made using materials from independent shops. We hope that the pool can be a celebration of independents!

Here are some of my favorite photos from my local superstar shops Bolt and Cool Cottons as well as some of the pieces I’ve made with their wonderful fabric!

You can see more details on all these photos (plus lots of other folks’ finds) in the flickr pool! Please add your own pictures if you’re up for it, too — what are your favorite fabrics lately, and what have you made with them?

My Queen Bee hip holster is my go-to bag these days. It holds all the essentials and it’s lightweight, streamlined, cute, and hands-free (extra useful if you are wrangling a toddler, a couple of bags of groceries, or a box full of the complete 20-volume set of Make It Yourself… all of which I have had to wrangle in the last week). And even though yes, it is a hip pack, it does not scream 80s revival!! which is very important to me since I lived through the 80s the first time in middle school, with braces, and I just can’t go back. Anyway…

At Kate’s opening at Reading Frenzy last week, she was generous enough to live-draw a recent purchase or favorite small thing for each person there, so I got her to illustrate my hip holster! Thank you, Kate!

It is such a fantastic show! Be sure and stop by this month and check out all the daily drawings and banners and pennants and posters and zines. There is a ton of stuff to see, I’m going back this week for a second look.

And if you’re a hip holster fan too, they are all on sale right now! Mine is the sugarbush design, but I also especially like hello! and sprout.

p.s. While you’re downtown visiting Reading Frenzy, take a detour down the Couch St. sidewalk edging the Powell’s building, near the Orange Room — someone tagged a bike rack with this colorful striped knitting and it looks awesome! Bonus points for the cute little red tricycle that was locked up next to it on Friday.

When I saw a peek at this in Jenny’s flickr, I couldn’t resist zipping over to Home Ec to do a little fabric shopping… what an awesome idea!

You can find your own set of 10 vintage-sheet fat quarters right here. No two packs are exactly alike, and I can assure you that Jenny has the cutest prints ever in her collection! Just look at the super-sweet projects she’s made with them for Sew Darn Cute.

Home Ec also has lovely new fabric (Liberty and beyond), kits and patterns, and books extraordinaire. I just can’t wait to get to Los Angeles and see the new ReForm School in person…

Oh, and the classes are completely rad too.

Well, this has officially been the strangest December I’ve seen in twelve years in Portland and there’s still half the month to go. It was weirdly warm and pleasant (and dry – ???) for the first few weeks, and then yesterday morning, it switched up with a vengeance:

It snowed like crazy for the whole morning with some blustery diagonal winds for good measure. We stayed cozy inside and I made Christmas decorations and sweet potato biscuits, looking out the window every few minutes to make sure that yes, it really was snowing. It was so pretty! I was so hoping to get to Crafty Wonderland but not about to drive in this slippery stuff, and there was no way I could bring Pearl along in this cold either. So I headed out with my fearless neighborhood companions Caitlin and Erin, and we slowly but surely got there on the bus, with the baby safely at home and our treasures waiting for us in the Convention Center!

I’m going to write up a full review for CraftStylish tomorrow, but here’s a peek at what I found! I put notes all over the flickr picture to mention who made each piece, if you’d like to see. Tomorrow’s post will have all the details and links for each person’s work. Anyway, it was a great event, the crafters were troopers, and thanks to Tri-Met I made it over — hooray! I got to hold new babies, say hi to old friends, and admire some really lovely things, many of which came home with me.

Speaking of CraftStylish, I wanted to mention that I have a super easy project up this week: a freezer paper stenciled pillowcase project that’s suitable for a nephew or other superhero in your life. You can adapt this to any taste or style and it’s a very fun afternoon of cutting, painting, and button-sewing.

In a final bit of excitement, I’m happy to pass on the news that Ork Posters has released her brand-new Portland map print! Yeah! I have been waiting for this day for so long. We snapped up the green one, but it was a tough choice, I kind of wanted to get all four colorways… I’ll post a photo once it’s here and triumphantly up on the wall.

I stopped by Michaels last week to take advantage of that 30% off Martha Stewart Crafts sale and picked up a few things — a pinking-edged paper cutter, some cupcake liners in cute prints, and a sheet of little tiny felt animal stickers. I can’t find them on the site but man, they are so cute! There is a whale, a bunny, a bird and an elephant. I fancied up Pearl’s room with the menagerie…

Pearl’s room is definitely my favorite part of the house and I love all the things our friends have made and found for her! If you are curious about any of the other stuff in the pictures, I put flickr notes all over them, especially that last one. Whenever I finally hang my baby quilt on the wall for her, I want to take a bunch more pictures, too.

Now my only regret is that I really wish I had bought about five more sheets of those stickers to keep adding them to things for her as she gets older. If anyone swings by a Michaels and spots a bunch, I’d love it if you could grab them for me… since they’re not on the site I’m wondering if they’re on the way out.

And don’t forget, you have until noon tomorrow to enter to win the books in my last post — good luck!

My friend Jen of DIY Lounge and Knot Ugly Designs passed on all the details of the Secret Society Sale, which is going on this Sunday, 11/30. There’s a fantastic line-up of vendors selling everything from handmade chocolates to letterpressed cards. And best of all, the artists and crafters are generously donating 10% of their sales to the Oregon Food Bank. Admission is free, and they encourage a non-perishable food donation at the door, too. We’re definitely going to try to make it over there — looks like a super fun afternoon!

A few other cool things I saw:

Pink Chalk Fabrics is having a nice Thanksgiving weekend sale (including free shipping on orders over $25 in the US, 10-30% off some beautiful things, and a chance to win gift certificates galore — plus a portion of sales go to the Helpline House Food Bank).

and Martha’s having a sale, too!

If you celebrate Thanksgiving I hope you have a lovely and peaceful holiday. I’m excited to hang out with my family, cook some of our favorite things, and meet a sweet new baby this weekend!

We had some lovely visitors this week — Mr. and Ms. A-Go-Go came all the way from Los Feliz to hang out! We went to Burgerville, Knittn Kitten, and the Little Blue Waffle Wagon, got rained on, got some sunny moments, and took some pictures… they are awesome folks.

And here Jessica and I are with Miss Pearl. Man, I have some tiny eyes when I’m tired! To distract you from that particular feature, let me draw your attention to the sneak peek at my necklace, which is one of my favorite projects I’ve done for CraftStylish — the how-to will be up on the jewelry-making section this weekend.

Pictures of the Kitten haul to come… I found some great stuff, including 7+ yards of a vintage cheater print destined for a holiday gift project.

In one last bit of Thursday-ness, I wanted to mention that Rebecca Pearcy is offering 25% off any Chirp bag or wallet from her Queen Bee line. We were reading the paper this morning and I was horrified to see that a large manufacturer of children’s products ripped off off her beautiful bird design. Ugh! I am so impressed that she’s chosen to respond with 1) a good copyright lawyer and 2) by offering all Chirp pieces at a special discount for her customers through Saturday. I have a Chirp bag and wallet myself so I can attest to how lovely and durable they are — I’m a huge enthusiast! This one is possibly my favorite handbag, ever.

ps: thank you for the kind comments and emails about my sign getting swiped. I really appreciate them! I have a crafty plan and I’ll keep you posted.

I got a bittersweet announcement from Queen Bee Creations this morning: they are discontinuing their tote bag designs soon, so all the current ones are marked down 25%. On a happier note, they are introducing a lot of cool new stuff, but I’m sad to see the totes go.

Of course my diaper bag is my current can’t-live-without, but I’m looking forward to the days when I’ll leave the house with one of my smaller QB bags and a little girl who can proudly carry her own sippy cup! But until that day comes, my other totes will be patiently waiting (alongside their sisters from Totinette and Queen Puff Puff).

Anyway, if you also love the totes, now’s the time — when this current stock is gone, it’s gone for good. I’m excited to see what’s coming along next, but I’m really glad I have my favorites in hand — long live Queen Bee!

p.s. If you are in Oregon, Queen Bee (along with Crafty Wonderland and several other fantastic crafty organizations and companies) will be featured in a special episode of Oregon ArtBeat, airing at 8 pm Thursday, October 9 and repeating at 6 pm Sunday, October 12. Yay!

I just got an email that a bunch of stuff from the Martha Stewart line is on sale at Michaels this weekend. Cool!

And speaking of lovely crafty shopping, if you are in the Bay Area, Jamie Marie Chan is hosting an awesome grand opening party for her new Urban Fauna Studio. I wrote more about it over at CraftStylish today and all the details are on the store site — congratulations, Jamie!

photo by C. Jeong

We are staying low-key for the three-day weekend… Andrew just got back from the DNC in Denver and we have a babysitter tonight (!), two birthday parties to go to, and our first-ever block party tomorrow, too, so staying in Portland sounds like fun. But I thought while it’s still August, and still summer, I would post a photo from our third-wedding-anniversary trip to Mt. Hood a few weeks ago — our favorite place. We went around Trillium Lake with Pearl, who was a little champ on her first-ever hike, and it was the most gorgeous day to be up there… the perfect summer vacation compressed into four days.

I spotted some things I’m excited about this week and finally have a few minutes to post about them…

Etsy is offering a whole month of free, live crafty how-to video tutorials in their Virtual Labs. I wrote a bit more about it here and highlighted the jewelry-related ones — I think it’s such a fantastic collection!

Anda is teaching a tutorial on fusing plastic bags! I bought this whale pouch from her at last year’s Renegade Brooklyn

Queen Bee is having a pretty amazing sale: 25% off a bunch of their bags, through July 15. They have some very cool new stuff out and on the horizon, too. I have always loved my QB pieces but now that I am the proud owner of a marvelous Chickpea diaper bag, my affection for the whole line knows no bounds.

picking up my diaper bag at QB HQ, several long days past my due date

And coolest-site-ever Star Wars Kids Crafts got a sleek new makeover. I love Bonnie’s projects, I have bookmarked a few new ones for my nephew Julian’s visit next month!

Bonnie’s Yoda doll from her demo at Maker Faire 2007

Here in Portland, two of my favorite artists, Ryan Berkley and Justin Morrison, are both having killer openings tonight. Cathy wrote up a lovely preview over here with lots more info.

the family of cardinals Ryan created for us

Justin’s painting we got at the Buckman fundraiser

okay, have a nice long weekend if you are in July 4 world — I’m so excited about hanging out in the backyard, grilling stuff, watching movies, and drinking cold drinks… yay.