Creating the world around us, one stitch at a time

I've mentioned this on our Facebook page multiple times, but in light of Saturday's earthquake in Chile following the devastation in Haiti, I wanted to make a little plug for one of my personal favorite relief groups. Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders is "an international medical humanitarian organization working in more than 60 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe." They were already on the ground in Haiti before the quake; they were in Chile the day after. They have portable field hospitals that they take to some of the most dangerous places in the world, places other organizations are often unwilling to go, and they stay there long-term. So if you're looking for an organization where your donations will really make a difference, I definitely recommend MSF/Doctors Without Borders. I know many of our customers want to create items for people affected by the most recent natural disasters -- I can only encourage you to start crafting now, but to realize that anything you make won't necessarily find a home in Haiti or Chile anytime soon. So make things, with love, and save them until the time is right to send them.

It feels wrong to turn to business after talking about a natural disaster, but I did want to let you know that I added three glorious new fabrics today -- two splendid fleeces, in creme de cassis and fern, and our perennially popular naval stripe -- on a white background. Don't miss any of them. And definitely check out the new yard sale items, good through March 16. There are many green and lavender fabrics -- St Patrick's Day, anyone? -- and some other goodies as well.

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That's what some optimistic people claim, though looking out the window I'm not quite as convinced. (Apparently that apocryphal groundhog agrees with me -- and did you know that in Alaska February 2 is Marmot Day? Stick with me, folks, and you'll learn something new every so often!)

In honor of the warmer weather that has to come someday -- it does, right? -- we've put some marvelous springy fabrics and notions on sale. Ranging from bright colors like our topaz hemp/silk charmeuse and the excellent lime/periwinkle stripe jersey to the wonderful floral Garden Wide-Width Sateen, the fabrics are so much fun ... and the patterns are marvelously inspiring too: have you seen the petal dress and jumper or the pocket pants? (The pocket pants were such a favorite around our house when Theodore was little -- he would fill the pockets to overflowing and pretend to be a peddler, a magician, a traveller, a scholar, and so much more. They're easy to make and so much fun to wear!)

(And hey, for our Southern Hemisphere friends -- and those of you who, like me, are convinced that it will be cold forever and ever -- we have some warmer fabrics on sale as well. I'm still loving our fleecy white knit velour, and our pre-shrunk natural canvas is strong, durable, and wonderfully heavy. Try making a pair of canvas pants lined with flannel for yourself or a kiddo who likes to play outside ... toasty warm!)

This sale is only good through February 23, so don't miss it!

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The public radio show To The Best of Our Knowledge interviewed Carl Honore, author of In Praise of Slowness, about the Slow Philosophy and its growth worldwide; you can find the show here. I found his comments about the speed pendulum very interesting, how the world's quest for the future had led us to go faster, faster, faster over the past century and we're now working to reach an equilibrium in which we're valuing the right speed ... what musicians call tempo justo.

Honore spoke about how "slow" isn't just a speed -- that might be obvious, but sometimes what should be obvious isn't -- it's a mindset that can incorporate the entire lifecycle of a product, an action, or an idea. So people aren't simply making something to be thrown away, using slave labor, or flying to another country for a whirlwind weekend trip; they're paying someone fairly to create an heirloom object, or enjoying the journey as well as the destination. The parallels for sewing using organic fabric are obvious, are they not? So very many of our customers, both businesses and home sewists, are involved in the sustainability movement ... which is, I think, another name for the Slow Movement, the Green Movement, the Eco-Friendly Movement, etc. We're all working to end up in the same place, regardless of the name. (Long-time readers of our blog are familiar with our comments about Slow Money and Slow Food, of course, so really this is just more of the same!)

Learn more about slow movements at slowplanet.com. I particularly like the Slow Parenting concept; it resonates with what my children and my family need -- and with our planet's need for less driving, too. Of course, when I was young we just said we were too poor to participate in lots of activities, but I guess everything deserves a fancy name nowadays!

We've swapped out our sale items, by the way; you won't want to miss the goodies we have on sale for you now. Since Valentine's Day is in February, we thought you might want a headstart crafting. We thus chose some popular romantic fabrics and notions ... enjoy them! If you're not celebrating Valentine's Day this year, it's the perfect time to stock up on these fabrics anyway (they're wonderful for other uses -- nobody said they have to be used for holidays!).

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Just a quick note to let you know that our nickel-free snap tape arrived today, so we finally have both the Larger and Smaller Organic Cotton Nickel-Free Snap Tape back in stock. This snap tape is so very useful, which is of course why it's been out of stock; get yours now!

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