Finally, I get to show you my new fabric collection from Studio E Fabrics.  The fabric collection will be available through quilt shops nationally soon, so check with your local quilt shop to see if they will be carrying it.  The quality of the printing of these fabrics is simply breathtaking.  I was concerned whether they would be able to capture the watercolor feeling of the artwork and yet not looked washed out or flat.  When I received the samples for final check I was thrilled.  The translation to fabric was just about perfect!

I was introduced to my “fabroholocism” directly through my family line.  We had a huge hall closet and a deep cabinet over the top of our clothing closets absolutely stuffed with every type of fabric imaginable.  Whenever we had a quilt to make we simply went “shopping” in our closet.  That little girl would never have imagined that she’d one day be creating fabrics for other “fabroholics” to enjoy!

Like many of you, I grew up in fabric shops.  I spent every Saturday afternoon with my mother and grandmother scouring the fabric section of my local TG & Y or Kmart store for some wonderful fabric to take home with me and make an exciting new project with.

I returned to my love of crafting and sewing when I became a mother.  At one point in my life I had a newborn daughter, a husband that was out of work for 16 months during the recession of 1980-81 and had to run my home budget including gas, food, diapers and clothing on $50 a week.  Trust me — $50 wasn’t much even then so it wasn’t easy to do.  But one of the ways I made it tolerable was to shop my local Yardage Town fabric store weekly and grab up their $.98 a yard remnants to make matching clothing for my daughter and I.  Had I not gone through this terribly difficult period in my life I wouldn’t have the career I have today.

Tough times = opportunity to grow.  Tough times force us to use our wits, our talents, our creativity in ways we wouldn’t do if we had an excess of funds and could just run to the store and buy anything we wish.  Tough times can be blessings in disguise — and introducing this fabric line today reminds me so clearly how valuable a gift and blessing was hidden in the brown paper wrapping of my early financial struggles.

So if you’re struggling financially, ask the Lord to show you how to find the blessings hidden in your struggle.  Be of good cheer, the Lord is there to show you the way through this difficult stretch of the road and He has a way to give you a gift in a brown paper wrapping too if you’ll accept it, open it and put it to use!

SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY: Prov 10:22  The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.  NIV

PRAYER:  Lord, I’ve been around enough wealth in my life to know that some “blessings” can really be a curse and bring great sorrow to a home.  Thank you that I can trust your blessings.  No blessing you’ve ever brought to me has had a hidden trouble within it, but many “troubles” you’ve allowed in my life sure have had hidden blessings within them.

I want to especially thank you Lord, for those hidden blessings that have been wrapped in the brown paper of struggle and suffering.  So many times when I look back at my life — the days I thought you had abandoned me to a problem that was too great for me to handle, you were really sending a blessing I couldn’t yet see.  Please help me to remember those days of the past each time I face a new struggle since I sure seem to forget easily!  AMEN