A Letter to Amy Butler

So summer is coming to an end. It is truly a bit cooler (here in the south, 93 degrees smells like fall). And while I'm so anticipating my new fabric lines coming in soon (Heather Ross, Far Far Away, and oil cloths! and Girly Girl), I don't think I'm ready to leave behind all the great lines that were released earlier this year. I think I came to the party late and, although my sewing room is full ( okay overflowing) (okay drowning in) bolts of designer fabrics. I finally came to grips with the fact that I truly needed to own some of those fabric lines I had missed out on. You know, before I became a fabric mogul.

Let me back track here. When I placed my first order for fabric, I knew exactly what I wanted:

Amy Butler, Belle. Amy Butler, Lotus. This was early in the summer and I didn't understand that to have a full compliment of fabrics, you must get in at the beginning. Otherwise you end up with two or three or four great fabrics and some companions, but not necessarily companions to the great centerpiece fabrics you had drooled over. Not really sloppy seconds, but not the powerhouse line you had thought you were strategizing with the precision of a five star general prepping his arsenal for one hellacious battle. Yes, folks, I wanted to blow you away with my matching Amy Butler prints.

So imagine my surprise, when I called to place my order and was told by the very helpful customer rep, "You know Belle and Lotus are closing out, right? We're not going to be producing them anymore. Don't have that...don't have that, no,no, no, "

Quite shaken I said, in my modulated business owner voice, "I see. Okay, let me, er, think this over and get back to you with a-- hmmm, revised order."

"Great. We close in 25 minutes. Remember, it's a holiday weekend, so we will be back in the office Tuesday." I brightly reply, "Great! No Problem!" OH Pooh.

So I gathered my very business-y manilla folder, my shiny new credit card, my laptop and spread everything out on the kitchen table. Ok, let's think about this: This is available, what goes with? What if they're out of that? Maybe a third choice for good measure?

I don't know why I was determined to gather all of my very first bit of inventory on such a time constraint. By sugar, I was determined to place that order by 5 o'clock EST on That Friday!

Anyway, that was my first order, and since then, I wrote to Amy about the ending of those two lines. Side note: I haven't sat down to write a letter of complaint to anybody since my now 13 year old was loaded on the wrong bus the first day of school she was 6) and driven all over God's creation. But I needed Amy to know how I felt about Belle and Lotus going away. Almost as bad as the first incident, right? Her somebody (assistant) did personally respond. She said they were very disappointed as well. But Amy was working on a new line (YaY) soon to be released! Something about "Love".

So to bring closure to myself, for all the lines I missed out on before I was a fabric mogul (BFM). Heather Ross's Mendocino, some hard to find Pop Garden, would love some more pink coriander from you-know-who, cherry wallflower. Oh, sigh. I haunt clearance sales, I pay little, I pay dearly, I buy from people like me. Yes, I buy more fabric. Because I need to own it.

And I welcome Fall--and Love.