Stashing

When I was packing to move house, I crammed a lot of extra fabric into the fabric crates willy-nilly and the crates were hurled into a closet in my new place. Once I had settled in it was time to take charge of the stash.

 

It took me a couple of days to fold and sort everything and place the crates neatly in the new shelves in my studio. Well, I have to admit this is not everything - I have a few larger crates for backing fabric and solids in the closet still, but at least I have things sorted so I know where to find what I want. And it looks kind of neat too, doesn’t it? 

Stitching along...

These last weeks seem to have been flying along - is the world spinning faster, or is it just me? I have been working on several different projects and started a few more.

With new fabric and inspirational books arriving I feel the ideas are popping up constantly, so I should probably write them all down before I forget.
My mum's birthday was a fortnight ago and I got her a new digital radio, which she was very pleased about, but of course I had to add something hand made at the last minute. So I made her a shopping bag from some retro looking fabric I had intended for her and which has been lying in wait for a couple of years... ahem.

I snapped a few photos just before I left for the party and realized just now that they aren't all that great, but they will have to do. I had been considering using the fabric for an apron, and kind of regret that I didn't, because that's what she thought it was at first, and she seemed to be happy with that. But, never mind, she liked it as a bag, and it brought back memories of her childhood visiting her grandma in the country, as I had thought it would, so it wasn't that bad.

Talking of bags, I have been thinking of making Noodlehead's 241 tote for myself for ever, and recent sightings have put that idea at the front of my mind again - I think I know which fabric to use finally, and that means that half the job is done already! Picking fabric for those sorts of things is a main reason for procrastinating for me it seems.

With new fabric coming in, I decided it was about time I sorted out some new projects and set down to make myself some new quilt kits to have at the ready for when the stitching itch hits. I got the first one cut and decided to stitch just one block to see what it would look like, and before I knew it I had chain pieced all my pieces together - so much for kits for later! The seams are pressed and I'm ready to piece them into blocks, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I'm still working on the hand stitching on my garden quilt and that's where I'm concentrating the effort this evening. If I finish, I have a witch to stitch for a new pillow - it never stops, does it? :-D

The next kit is also lying in wait - the fabrics are all picked out and the pattern sketched for a purple and turquoise quilt - a yummy bunch of fabrics that will be so great together with some yellow, grey and text fabric, I believe... Yes, I'll be happily stitching all through October, it seems...

Just lucky, I guess

I'm just amazed by my luck recently. No sooner had I shared my lucky win the other day than I got a message from Kristin that I had also won a giveaway on her blog. And I usually don't win anything. This time I hadn't even realized that there was a giveaway, I had just commented on how great it was to see pictures from the yearly outdoor quilt show in Sisters, Oregon, and not noticed the giveaway information. And look at this lovely prize I received!

There are lots of lovely cards with pictures from some of Kristin's quilts, handcoloured yarn and fabric and a cute hand-stitched tag/ornament.

The fabric is just wonderful. Pieces of lots of different fabrics in three colourways: "leaf", "sky" and "blossom"

Look at all the different textures: cotton, silk, chiffon, and more. I've just been sitting here sorting through them and stroking them for a while now thinking of all the possibilities. Combining them all in one piece? adding bits here and there in different projects?

I don't know yet, but I think they deserve some loving hand-stitching, maybe some ruching and folding here and there? Yes, I need to let the ideas marinate for a bit, but these lovelies will be put to good use, I'm sure.

And this ornament is for now hanging from a shelf on my desk so I can admire all the different coloured stitches while I'm on the phone.

Thank you so much, Kristin!

Lucky!

Will you look at this gorgeousness I picked up from the post office on Saturday! 24 fat quarters of lovely fabric in a rainbow of colours. And the most wonderful thing of all is that I won it! Yes! I entered a giveaway and to my shock and delight I actually won! Wonderful!
The giveaway was hosted by Katy @ I'm a Ginger Monkey and the fabric bundle was given by Pink Castle Fabrics. Thank you both!
The fabric line is Just Colors by Studio E and has soft tone on tone swirly lines. A very versatile fabric that I can definitely find good use for. If I can bear to remove the ribbon and separate this lovely bunch, that is ;-)

I just had to...

 I mentioned that I had used almost all of the lovely text fabric from Madrona Road (called Memoir) in that quilt top using the Novella charm pack (the top is finished by the way - hopefully the day is bright enough to take some pictures). I did a quick search and found that there really wasn't a lot of it left out there, but Pink Castle still had some, and I decided that yes, I had to save it! After all I hadn't even read the story properly before I cut into it...

 And as we all know it's a waste of postage to buy just one piece of fabric, so I did a bit of browsing, and found this great architect print by Yuwa...

... and a few other lovelies. So what if there isn't really room for more fabric in my sewing room - I'll just have to do some more sewing then, right?

I've got my work cut out for me...

Sorry, I just can't resist those bad puns! And it's not accurate either, because I'm the one who has been doing all the cutting. The thing is that fabric has accumulated (don't know how that happens...) and I really need to do a bit of sewing  to create space for it all - I have such big problems, don't I?

The thing is that I am great at making plans, but it takes more of an effort to actually do something about them, so I have come up with a new plan: I am making my own kits. The idea is that if I have all the pieces cut out it will be easier to grab a few minutes here and there and sew some pieces together, and voila, we have progress! We will see how it goes. I actually managed to prepare two such kits for myself yesterday.

 The first one is based on this Novella charm pack by Valorie Wells. The quilt is a simple one, as you can see above - the EQ sketch doesn't show the actual fabrics, but gives an idea of what it will look like. I have added a text fabric from Madrona road and some solids in light grey and robin's egg blue. I think it might work.

The next one is my "Dreaming of Italy" quilt. I have a selection of fabric that reminds me of Italy: terracotta, tiles, mosaics, vines, flowers, postcards - lots of warm colours set off by the azure blue of the sea. The EQ sketch gives the overall layout, but I'm going for a more random placement in the actual quilt.

I fell for this bundle of fabric on a recent shopping trip, but I don't really know what to do with it. Maybe a jumble of coloured squares in different sizes a la Kaffe Fassett? A checkerboard style quilt with solid white or grey? Or something entirely different? Any suggestions?

At least I have a few things to stitch while I'm mulling over this one.

X-ing off my list

I've had a pile of the new Lotta fabrics on my work table for a couple of weeks and started slowly adding more fabric to it without a real plan. Until I came across this tutorial. Fun quilt - why not use the fabrics I already had piled up? I took advantage of  the bright Saturday morning light and got to work rifling through my stash today adding more blues and greens. I think I have come up with something to work with here. I would like to use the text fabric as a feature, and so far this first version with the dark grid and text behind the crosses is my favourite.

 Or maybe lines of text crisscrossing the quilt? I'll have to make a few trial blocks I think...

And then I really must get to work on sorting my stash or coming up with a new storage solution...

But, really, nothing of this will happen this week - I have a big day coming up on Wednesday - half a century, oh my!

Sometimes...

 Sometimes fabric shopping can't be helped... Just look at these lovely ovals by Pat Bravo. This line had completely eluded me, but when I came across it in a blog-giveway (I forget where) and didn't win, I knew I just had to find my own set. I eventually found them at Fat quarter shop, and of course once you start putting things in your shopping basket, it is oh so easy to add a little something...

...like these from Bella by Lotta Jansdotter. I was trying to resist this line, having just finished a quilt top from her previous line, Echo (even as I'm writing, I see that there is something warped about my sense of logic- I loved the previous line, why shouldn't I buy this one? Duh.). I settled for these five, and I have some matching solids making their way across the Atlantic to my door as we speak. Oh joy!
Now what will I make from these? A set of new placemats for myself, perhaps? That will give me lots of scraps to play with later... Or another lap quilt with some text fabric and lovely polka dots perhaps? Or maybe both? Sometimes it's hard to decide...

Sweet sewing fabric

I must admit a weakness for text fabric, and ever since Sweetwater's fabric line Authentic caught my attention, I have been eagerly looking forward to each new fabric line from this great design team. So it is no surprise that I was quick on the trigger (or the mouse - but when it comes to internet surfing that's the same thing, isn't it?) when their newest line, Sew Mama Sew, became available and ordered a whole stack of fat quarters.

 I have been playing with them since they arrived - sorting them by colour, by pattern, stacking them up, spreading them out and just savouring them.

This is a particular enjoyment that my new-sewing friends would never understand. If I had told them, they'd just think I was plain weird! "But what is it for?" would be the question, "What are you going to make?". And, you know: I have no idea! For now they will sit on a shelf above my sewing machine so I can rest my eyes on them from time to time, and I'm sure an idea or two will come to me sooner or later.

And while I was shopping I couldnt resist two other sewing related fabrics. These are from Timeless Treasures. Aren't they fun?

Wordy fabric

As I mentioned I have had a bit of a shopping spree online, and here is some more of it. I really can't resist fabric with text on it, and I came across these fun pieces here on Etsy. Great shop with lots of hard to find fabric.

I got sets of fat eights in all colourways, so I have quite a selection to play with here. They also included some samples of other fabric in the packet that are big enough to use - so great! All the new fabric that's been arriving here lately means that I have to reorganize my stash to find room for everything. I'm also working on a plan to reduce my scrap heap, starting with the greens - more about that later...

All kitted out

 With all this fabric shopping I've been doing, I'd better get a bit more sewing done. There isn't a lack of plans either, but sometimes getting started, ironing and cutting and calculating seems to much of a chore - I just want to get to the stitching pieces together part, you know? So one day when I was in prep mode ( it might have something to do with the fact that I was bored with trying to get to grips with my scraps ...) I sorted out the fabric I would need for my next three projects and started cutting strips and pieces. First in line is a tablecloth with Malka Dubrawsky-fabric. I'm making corner log cabin blocks, improv style - which is quite a challenge for me. I tend to end up with some kind of system, making all the blocks the same anyway - we'll see how I fare this time.

 Next in line is a quilt using Lotta Jansdotter fabric - actually come to think of it, this was what started the whole cutting frenzy - I wanted to make those placemats for my sister (see the previous post) and had to make sure I had enough fabric for this quilt first.

Then there was this stack of Amy Butler squares I have had lying in wait on my sewing table since my Birmingham trip two years ago (!). The cutting didn't take that long once I got down to it, and now I have three kits ready for when the sewing bug hits. Wait, make that two - I just had to get started on those Malka-strips this morning - before breakfast even - they were lying there next to the sewing machine calling out to me (really, I swear!). At this rate I might have to start cutting more fabric before you know it. In fact, I realized yesterday that I haven't got any summery placemats of my own, and I have soem Hometown fabric that would be perfect...

Just as well I have three weeks off work :-)

Fabulous fabric

Yes, I've done it again - I've added more fabric to my stash. I'm living this fabulous FABLE-life, you know: Fabric Aquisition Beyond Life Expectancy! But who can resist it all? (And this isn't even all, I'll show more later...) I haven't got spesific plans for all of it, but then stamp collectors don't use all their stamps either, do they? Fabric just needs more storage space, that's all...

I had plans for this lovely Laurie Wisbrun-print though - in fact I have already used a lot of it - more about that later. I just had to show you the selvedge - how adorable isn't that? I  must find a way of working those fab cabs into a project. Luckily I have a bit of time on my hands right now as I've just started my holiday - three weeks of glorious days I can use for anything I wish. I won't let the weather get me down either - so what if it's pouring down outside: it's fabulous weather for sewing !

One of these days...

 ...I just might have to get a new flat to find room for all this new fabric I keep buying!

But who can resist those lovely polka dots from Michael Miller, Valori Wells' new line Cocoon and the reissue of Amy Butler's Gypsy Caravan? Not me for sure! Now it's a question of more storage or more sewing...

Hometown ribbons

Wouldn't you believe it! It has been bright and sunny for days, but on the day I finished my Hometown Ribbons quilt, and started taking pictures, the sky turned grey and rain started pouring down, so the colours aren't quite as bright as I would have liked in these pictures. But, the main thing is that my quilt is finished and I'm loving it!

Sorry if I sound too smug, but actually, it is the combination of fabrics I love most of all, and that pattern was so fun to sew! I started out with a jelly roll of Hometown from Sweetwater. I don't know what it is about that line of fabrics that makes me so happy - the text fabric, the polka dots, the colours? Everything, really. I combined it with some blue chambray from a local shop. It has the look of denim, but is soft and thin like the quilting fabrics, so they play well together.

I used an IKEA door fabric for the back and quilted echoing lines and spirals in the blue areas and a paisley/shell design on the ribbons. The pattern is "Fast Forward" by Jaybird Quilts.

Stash building

Look at these beauties! I just couldn't resist Reunion from Sweetwater and bought a whole stack of fat quarters + yardage of the black and white check and that lovely red - great for binding and borders respectively, I think. I have a pillow in mind for some of them, but I will need to come up with some ideas for the rest, and maybe some other fabrics to play with them.
It's funny, I never used to keep fabric from one single line together, but would sort them by colour and include them in among the rest of my stash to be used randomly. But recently I have found it hard to separate such groups and have come to use them together. Maybe I need to get back to being more adventurous, but I need to do some serious sorting and organizing of my entire stash to make that happen, and February isn't the right time for that. Too cold in my bedroom where I do my sewing, I guess.
And that's also why there hasn't been too much sewing either. I was beginning to hope for spring, and actually saw some daffodils sprouting their first green leaves out on the balcony yesterday, but wouldn't you know it: today everything was covered by King Winter's white blanket. Sigh. I'm so ready for spring and warmer weather.
Ah well, I have a comfy sofa a pile of quilts to huddle under, Poirot on TV and some hand stitching to keep me occupied. Not a bad way to pass a Sunday evening, really.

Runner up

 Those silly captions - sorry, I just can't resist it... Oh, well, here is the last item to be finished before Christmas, a table runner I made for my cousin. The photo is a bit blurry, but as I have already given it away (of course, it being a xmas pressie and all...) I can't reshoot. Learning how to take better photos might probably be a good new year's resolution...

 Anyway, it's made with the disappearing nine-patch technique, but with rectangles instead of squares. I used a group of fabrics I bought to use together in a project, but had forgotten all about until I started going through my "plans" box - my fabric is basically sorted by colour, but there is this one box where I have put groups that go well together and that might be used in a special, unspecified, project one day. It turns out that it is high time I went through it and made some more spesific plans so they get to fulfill their potential - there were lots of lovelies there, and there are more coming in all the time, so I must really make sure I don't forget about those. Well, it's the end of year and time for inventories and new plans, I guess...