Showing some love... best spots in Atlanta

I've been meaning to do this for a while now....

A1 Sewing Machine Co. - I love them. They are such kind and sweet people. They have serviced my Brother sewing machine and my Singer serger. There prices are unbeatable. I paid $40 to have my Brother serviced and $50 for my serger. Well... I actually paid $80 but it needed the timing adjusted which is not part of any repair shop's list of services done in a basic "tune up". With by Brother, I needed it fixed FAST. The tension needed to be adjusted and therefore unusable. I had it back in less than 48 hours. With my serger, I was just eager to get it back so I could actually use it for the first time. I dropped it off on Friday and picked it up the following Wednesday. I could have had it sooner if I had told them that it was really necessary to rush it. No rush fees on either occasion either. They are the best and I'll always use them to service my machines. They also sell tons of great sewing machines at great prices. Brands like Janome, Pfaff, Singer, tons of embroidery machines, notions for all of them. They sell used/refurbished machines and vintage ones too.

Intown Quilters - A fabric shop located by North Dekalb Mall. Granted, there are many other quilt shops between this one and my home. I'm actually located a good 35-40 miles from them... but it's sooo worth the trip. They have EVERYTHING. All of my fave designers and lines. It's all organized so well. I've been to a couple of other quilt shops who CLAIM to carry suchinsuch designer... like this one up in Dahlonega... they claimed to carry Amy Butler... they had maybe four bolts of Amy, and none of them were the ones I was hoping to find. I know a shop can't carry every colorway of every line of every designer, but c'mon.... four bolts? Intown Quilters is great though. They may not have every colorway of every line, but they still have TONS. It's so well organized. Calicos are arranged by color, batiks by color, then the stuff like Ginger Blossom, Sis Boom, Amy Butler, etc. are all separated out by designer and line.... something that some shops don't do. The people are very friendly, helpful, and they offer classes. If you call and ask if they have a certain fabric or line in stock, they won't reply with "Who? Huh?" like some places... they actually know there stuff. I called one place and asked if they had Freshcut by Heather Bailey and they actually had no idea what I was talking about and said that Freshcut is patterns, not fabric. I got there and looked around, sure enough I spotted some Freshcut.

Soooo.... Two thumbs up to A1 and Intown Quilters!

And one more thing.... since I've already blogged once today I'm going to stick this in here.

Here's why fabric designers should blog:
Folks like me connect with them. I enjoy reading those inspiration filled blogs, looking at the gorgeous photographs, sewn creations, etc. There are some designers who don't do this and honestly I'm more likely to buy fabric from a designer whose blog I read than I am one whom I don't. It's that personal connection. And BTW... check this out... that's Jennifer Paganelli who left a comment here!! :-P

I'm off to celebrate my Birthday for the next... oh... 3 days.

I HAVE A SERGER! Love for bird fabric

Two of them actually!

The blue one needs a foot petal, they both need to be serviced. I was sooo stinkin eager to use it last night that I grabbed four spools of regular white thread out of my stash and threaded it. I don't have serger thread, and I intend to get a bunch, but I didn't get home with it until like 6:00 last night and didn't feel like driving or shopping. I used the white one. It worked fine! I don't have the manual for either of them, so I don't know what all it's capable of doing. I'm hoping and praying it'll do a rolled hem, mostly for things I make myself, but if not no biggie... a free serger is a free serger!! The blue one is supposedly more "professional" but I don't see the difference between them. This thing is so great. My sewing machine isn't terrible, but it is so loud and clunky sounding... plus it rocks my table whenever I try to go fast. This serger was like a dream! It just quietly humms as it stitches and cuts. It doesn't move the table at all and it goes so stinkin fast! I'm going to be able to finish things much quicker now!

So now for my birthday (which is coming in 14 days!!) I can get all of the other goodies I've been dieing to have.... I want a rotary cutter, cutting mat, pinking shears, and maybe either a ruffler foot or a gathering foot. I also need to have my serger serviced and a manual for it.

I've been really in love with fabric that has birds on it lately. My fave is Nuala by Sis Boom (in the girlfriends line). This little snippet here does it ABSOLUTELY NO justice!! The fabric is so freakin gorgeous.. I bought a fat quarter of it originally and saw NO pattern repeat... there are large birds, and little tiny details like a little spider web in the corner of a branch, acorns, all kinds of adorable stuff.

My second fave would be this one from Anna Maria Horners new Drawing Room line.... Oh I love it, but honestly I don't know what I would do with it. It's home dec weight, but I'm not exactly sure how heavy it really is. I'd love to have this as a wall hanging (like she had at quilt market)

Then there's this little Alexander Henry ditty. I would love to make something for my kitchen with this (it's part of the "In the Kitchen" collection... no, it's not home dec weight... same line as Apples & Pears).

We had a nice peaceful weekend. I didn't get much done craft/sewing wise, but I did clean house a lot in hopes that one day soon I'll be back into my etsy business. I got my business cards, magnets, pen, and stamp... pretty good. Cute, but the colors are more pale than I thought they'd be. Oh well, still a good deal. Alrighty.... TTFN!!