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Today, I am pleased to tell you about our sponsor Alewives Fabrics. In the words of shopkeepers Barbara and Rhea:
"Alewives has been selling fabrics to Midcoast Mainers for almost 40 years and for the past five years the shop has been owned by the Mother and Daughter team of Barbara Neeson and Rhea Daiute (who is soon to become Rhea Butler!). Barbara and Rhea carefully choose every fabric in the shop's collection, including quilting weight cottons, double gauze, voile, canvas, corduroy, flannels, home-dec, oilcloth and organics. Locals can shop at Alewives seven days a week all year long and those of you who are "from away" can shot at Alewives anytime with our Web Store!"
Rhea also keeps a shop blog, which can be found at Alewives Girl.
Alewives: We love that it is never the same day twice. We meet new people, open boxes full of gorgeous fabrics, challenge ourselves with fun projects and are never, ever bored. Owning a shop is a lot of work and we are always evolving: We know we won't ever sit back and say, "The store is perfect now, we're done!" And we learned a long time ago to 'never say never," because you just can't predict what is going to happen during the course of a day. But that's the best part of it, too, because the surprises we encounter are almost always pleasant ones!
Alewives: Well, it should come as no big surprise that we have been very influenced by Amy Butler. Her work is amazing, she changed what 'home-sewing' meant to a whole new generation. And it's not just the younger gals, either! Everybody loves Amy Butler. We are always so entertained/surprised when teeny little Maine ladies of a certain age (and a certain hair color!) walk in asking for the "Amy's." How can you NOT be inspired by that? And we are also huge fans of Kaffe Fassett and Denyse Schmidt, both of whom we got to meet in person. We are happy to report that they are as pleasant in real life as their fabrics are fabulous.
Alewives: Living in Maine, particularly in the Midcoast, inspires us. The sense of community here is like nowhere else and we are very inspired by the natural beauty of the area, with the ocean nearby. The shop is located near a waterfall, and every year in the spring thousands of fish (called Alewives!) come to this area to swim upstream and lay eggs. Sometimes it takes the fish two days of swimming to make it to the top of the falls, and when they get there, bigger fish, loons or osprey are waiting to catch them. But they do it anyway, all so they can safely lay their eggs. It's easy to draw life lessons from those fish!
Alewives: Since we are a Mother and Daughter working together, it balances out quite nicely, actually. We like to say that Barbara is the "Ernie" to Rhea's "Bert," the "Oscar" to her "Felix." And while there is most definitely a Mother/Daughter dynamic between the two of us (you know what we are talking about!), at the end of the day, we are also each others best friends, and pretty good business partners, too!
For today's giveaway, Alewives is offering:
"One of our brand new St. Brigid Turning Twenty kits along with a "seat" in our very first virtual Turning Twenty class! The bundle of 20 fat quarters is a mix of different weights and was inspired by St. Brigid of Ireland: the patron saint of newborn babies, milkmaids, printing presses and creativity! With the kit comes a seat in our virtual Turning Twenty class: an e-course for the absolute beginner who wants to dive into the world of quilting."
In addition, Alewives is offering a 10% discount on all in stock merchandise - including our new virtual classes - to all SouleMama readers through March 31st. To receive the discount, please enter "soulemama" in the promotional code field at checkout.
Thank you, Alewives Fabrics!
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To enter the giveaway, leave a comment in today's post. (One entry per person, please!) I'll close comments and announce the winners by 8am EST on Sunday. Comments closed! The winner is:
amazing! the fabrics and the virtual class are a super exciting giveaway!
Posted by: Mariko
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