Our Sewing Heritage

Given my pasty white skin, freckles and red-hued hair some people find it hard to believe that my mother's maternal family is from Mexico. Even harder to believe is that when my grandfather was re-stationed away from the Arizona-Mexico border and given a new assignment in Alaska (where my mom was born) all of the Mexican family followed them. My great-grandmother, great-grandfather, two great uncles (one w/a wife and family), grandmother, grandfather and uncle suddenly found themselves in a much cooler climate.

My great-grandmother, Bertha, was the unbelievably talented lady in that bunch. Her sewing and knitting skills were unmatched. Lucky for me and my mom she wasn't bad at teaching her craft either and lived until I was 20 years old. While I do not know this to be true at all I always imagine her immediately getting to the task of making winter coats for the family's first Alaskan "arctic" winter.

While she may not have made coats for the entire family, however, she did manage to hand knit and embroider one magnificent coat while living in Alaska. It turned out so beautifully she entered it into the Alaska State Fair and took the Grand Marshall prize that year. That same coat has been hanging in my mother's sewing room since I was 15 and reminds me of how much wonderful talent I am surrounded by.

-Andrea

Recent Finds

We sorted through our stores this weekend and managed to take several pictures of found furniture we have yet to start work on. Given all of the excitement over the settees lately we are posting a couple below that we will be refinishing soon OR if one really strikes your fancy email us (address on our sidebar) and we'll customize it just for you!

The settee below is small, approx. 44''(l)x16''(d)x32''(h), and the bottom cushion will be filled with down. If the settee is not claimed we will give it a french make over with the fabric used on the settee here.

This is a beautiful antique settee we just found on Saturday! The wood is mahogany and the piece is much larger than it appears, approx. 60''(l)x24''(d)x42''(h), a beautiful carving of a woman's face is at the top.

After this weekend all of our special order aprons from Swiss Days will be in the mail and we will start work on the furniture above and so much more - can't wait!

-Andrea

Better After Feature

We're being featured again at Better After-thanks so much Lindsey! We love her blog and find a lot of inspiration over there. If you have never checked out her blog before now is your chance! Our Anna Maria Horner chair on her blog is HERE and you can see more pictures of the chair taken by the talented Carly on our blog HERE. Thanks so much for stopping by and we so appreciate all of the supportive comments-they really keep us going!

-Andrea

Before & After

Did you know that when we started this little Fiber & Fire adventure the only furniture we did was "quilted furniture"? Reupholstering in bright funky colors/patterns and painting wood in goodness knows what colors didn't really appeal to us at the time. Now of course we like to mix it up and we tend to find ourselves all over the place but the quilted pieces always leave their mark on us a little longer. So without further trips down memory lane let me introduce you to this floral catastrophe. This is the second chair we've found lately that had a nice large slash in the back fabric. We aren't really sure if people have resorted to their furniture for anger management therapy or what but even minus the fabric incident on the back that floral pattern just had to go!

It is no secret that mom is the talented quilter in our bunch and while sometimes we find vintage quilt tops to upholster with she took one look at this chair and decided she would be making the quilt to adorn this wing back.

We think it came out great and apparently quite a few people at the festival agreed because we got TONS of great comments on it. Only one person could take it home though and we're so glad that it found a home with someone who is just as nuts about the chair as we are!

We're joining a party over at somewhat simple here and miss mustard seed here.

-Andrea

French Chair Available

This antique chair is a found piece that we have worked hard on transforming into something chic and beautiful. The fabric has a stone color antique French document and bird motif printed on a flax cotton blend giving it the look of canvas without the severe feel. The sides, back and double welting are finished in the same fabric without printing. The chair is approximately 36''h x 28"w with a 19'' seat depth. The seat cushion has down feathers and is removable. Exposed wood has been left untouched due to the antiquity of the piece. Priced at $450 chair is currently in Salt Lake City, UT and can be picked up, delivered within a reasonable range for a reasonable fee or buyer can arrange own shipping. If you would like to see the chair in person please email at address in side bar.

This chair was also chosen as one of Miss Mustard Seed's favorites from a Furniture Feature Link Party here.

-Andrea

Happy Labor Day & Goodbye Swiss Days!

Happy Labor Day everyone! We've been hitting the snooze button all morning after a very labor intensive weekend at Swiss Days. THANK YOU to everyone who came out and met us-we had a blast! We met so many amazing people and we are overwhelmed by all of your kind words and support. We hope to be at Swiss Days again next year but in the mean time let's keep in touch-a girl can never have too many great friends! To everyone who is interested in what pieces we have available to be customized we'll be taking a lot of photos this week so please drop us a line with the type of frame you're looking for and we'll shoot over some photos of the goods and we can start dreaming up the possibilities. To all of you living in the Salt Lake Valley area of Utah I'm thinking of having an open house of sorts before Christmas highlighting new quilted furniture pieces and funky reclaimed pieces that we finish between now and then. Does that sound like something anyone would be interested in? Dropping in for some good food, good conversation and taking a look at some seriously awesome found furniture in the Sugarhouse area?

-Andrea

Move In Day

Yesterday afternoon we were busy moving into our booth at Swiss Days. We will be selling this Friday & Saturday from 8am - 8pm each day so if you live in the area we would LOVE to meet you! Below are some picture for you to witness the chaos for yourself.

Furniture was everywhere, aprons were bursting out of boxes and eventually we just had to admit not all of the furniture was ever going to fit in our 10'x15' space. We're fine with that though. Mostly we're fine we made it up to Midway at all. The truck pulling the trailer blew a spark plug 48 hours prior and the dealer wasn't able to vacuum out the metal shavings and replace the plug until the day before we needed to climb the mountain. Oh well, that's how life goes sometimes. I'm thinking by now our bad luck must be over with-right? right?! (knocking on wood now.)

-Andrea