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I love winter and usually enjoy every minute of it but this one has been unusually cold and wet and long. I'm ready for a break and I'm getting one next week. Mom and I are heading out Tuesday for AQS Lancaster. Chris gets to stay home and cook and eat without my dietary restrictions for 5 days. He's probably looking forward to stacating as much as we are looking forward to vacating!

But I'm not the only one who needs a break. You do too! So while I'm away the blog will be hosting 6 days of giveaways. I cleared out some of my hand dyed stash so check in on the blog and enter every day for the Spring Cleaning Giveaway.

If you've been doing some stash cleaning you can join in as well. I'll have a link up on the Monday post for you to host your own Spring Cleaning Giveaway. You can grab your blog button and get the details here.

Bancroft Snow Dyed

Appalachian Spring Gradient

Tabor

Abundance

Shop News!

While we are away there's going to be an adjustment to the normal shipping and dyeing schedule. Here are the details for the next couple of weeks:

Custom orders (including Shades Packs) will be dyed March 19 and ready to ship March 23.

All other orders placed between March 10 and 15 will be shipped March 16.

There are a lot of new fabrics in stock this week. The 4 above are just a few of them. You can see exactly what's new here and here or see everything in the shop.

What's Going On

Check out the progress and participation in all of these 2015 events. Join in at any time!

<div align="center"><a href="http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/field_trips_in_fiber/big-dream-project/" title="Big Dream Project"><img src="http://www.typepad.com/services/asset/6a00d8341c1b7353ef01b7c729f81d970b-200pi" alt="Big Dream Project" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

I have 2 Big Dream projects. The mosaic wall is moving along well and I'm really happy with the progress so far. The new symmetry quilt with start soon now that I've finished my workspace clean out and found a convenient home for my symmetry fabrics. I hope you are making progress on a big dream project of your own! The link up for the Big Dream project is here.

<div align="center"><a href="http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/field_trips_in_fiber/working-in-a-series/" title="Working In A Series"><img src="http://www.typepad.com/services/asset/6a00d8341c1b7353ef01b7c729eb22970b-200pi" alt="Working In A Series" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Here's the February link up post for Working In a Series. My shibori series is underway and having a deadline is really helping me make progress on a series that I've been wanting to do for years.

<div align="center"><a href="http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/field_trips_in_fiber/ufo-busting-2015/" title="UFO Busting 2015"><img src="http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/photos/miscellanous/ufo-busting.jpg" alt="UFO Busting 2015" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

The March linkup will be posted to the blog tomorrow (first Friday). Between projects started, projects finished and projects trashed, I'm down 2 project so far in 2015. That's not great but it's better than how I started the year.

Tip - Organizing

I know that I work better when I am mostly organized and don't have too many piles of things around to distract me. I need breathing and thinking room so I try, with some moderate success, to keep my craft areas acceptably organized. A fellow blogger hosting an organization prompt that I am finding really helpful.

Bonnie publishes a prompt each week for something we can do for 15 minutes to spiff up our creative spaces. Her theory is that we can actually make a lot of progress in 15 minutes. In my own case she is right. I don't' mind giving up 15 minutes and I'm making good progress. If you think this will help you, check out her blog.

Customer Gallery

Have you made anything from fabrics that you have purchased from me? If so, you have an opportunity to win your own personal 25% discount code on non-sale items for shopping in my shop! I have a Flickr group for customers to share photos of completed projects made with my fabrics. You are welcome to share any projects in process as well but only completed projects are entered into the drawing. Each month I draw a winner from the entries for that month. The winner receives a personal 90-day 25% discount for shop purchases.The winner will be announced here in the newsletter each month. You can see all of the customer projects in the Flickr Group. All other entries for the month will receive a 30-day 15% discount!

This month's featured customer quilt is from Barbara at Cat Patches. Barbara is very prolific and makes a lot of wall hangings and small projects with the help of her cat, Smitty.

Aspen Trees uses hand dyed fabric in the border and for some of the leaves. You can see lots of detail shots on her blog.

Barbara wins the 25% 3-month discount. Be sure to check out the other great projects submitted by customers and add yours for a chance to win the discount next month.

I'm Sponsoring

Check out these projects that I'm sponsoring this year.

Fat Quarter Drawing

Each month I draw the email names of 5 current newsletter subscribers and post them here. As a subscriber you are automatically entered. If your email name is listed below Email me with your name and address and I will send you a free fat quarter of hand dyed fabric. I will not be sending any notification beyond this so if you miss it you miss the free fabric. You also must contact me from the listed email address.

The winners of this month's free fat quarters are:

kathygarringer@____.com

caldermom@_____.com

comlisajohnson@_____.com

enid@_____.com.au

hduceg04@_____.ca

Inspiration

Photography is a great source of inspiration for all of us. We get composition idea, subject matter ideas and color ideas. Photographer Martin Pfister satisfies all of that with his mystical photography. His photographs of mushrooms were featured in this article. He accomplishes his mystical feel by illumination the mushrooms with LED lights. I think you will enjoy his portfolio.