Stash Enhancement

Not my fault.  The Hubz made me do it.  He insisted that we stop at Aardvark Quilts in Morris Plains  yesterday.  Insisted, I tell you!  So I forced myself to buy some lovely fat quarters with the idea of making ? with them.  Who knows, but they were calling to me.

What's on my design floor Monday 12/17/2012

"Rustic" quilting in progress.  If you look closely, you'll see some rather crummy hand quilting, but I like the wonkiness of it.  It I stopped and took out every stitch that was off, I'd never get past the first block.  anyhow, it's fun, and the baby will like it at some point in his life. 

Look at my new fabric purchases:

The first one is begging to be some sort of Valentine quilt.  The second one will be a card trick quilt, and I have no idea on the batiks, except that I'm in love with them.  All English paper pieced in something of other.

Warning!

Get that towel out; you're going to need it.

This post is heavy on drool.  Keep that towel handy as you salivate over my new fabric.  Don't say I didn't warn you, either.

The peachy/rosy/orangy colors.

The green colors.

Put them all together and you get cantelope, cucumber, honeydew, and other assorted sorbet colors.  What I did not show you is the soft off-white polka dot on soft off-white.  Figured it wouldn't show up well.  BTW, the colors are softer than what my camera is showing.  It really is pretty.

 Elder DD wants a quilt!  And not in black or gray or neutrals!  Whoopie!  The New Yorker likes color!  I always knew she was a classy dame!

So what to make with it all?  I have tons of fabric here, although I think I'll need more of that off-white.  Easy enough to get. Rail block with that off-white as one of the strips?  Some sort of diagonal strippy thing?  I have no idea.  Clearly it'll need white to keep it under control.  Otherwise it'll tend to look like the great pumpkin, only with more peachy tones. 

More sewing stuff:  here are the 2 doll quilts now at the hand quilting part.  I'm not terribly good at this.  Can't do the hand under the quilt thing because it hurts my hands.  So I slowly do a running stitch.  It's quite pleasant to do, although I have learned never to quilt through seam allowances unless I have to.  So far I can't seem to get more than 10-11 sts/inch, although going down to a size 9 between is helping.  Well, so it goes.  I'm certainly never going to enter anything in a competition.  I'm just doing this for the fun of it.

I started another doll quilt, also.  This is from a Schnibbles pattern, only I'm going to make it smaller for a doll.  I'm learning how to make flying geese.  Ack.  What a mess it is, except that I seem to be able to fudge it well.  Just don't look on the wrong side.  Next time, I'll really spray with more starch!

I have another row of geese to sew, and then add all the cute sashing in-between, etc, etc.




Here's my take on quilting:  I love picking out the fabrics and looking for patterns. I actually like some of the cutting out very much.  I love arranging the blocks, and then hand-quilting them.  The machine sewing part is OK; not my greatest love, mostly because I'm so totally inaccurate.  And basting the layers together is not grand fun, although on these little pieces, it's kind of pleasant.



I was chatting with the shop owner about how much I'm loving this craft even with my crummy cutting and sewing,  and she told me that she can barely knit.  So there you have it:  Different skills and some of us are great at one thing, and others of us excel at other things.  It's a challenge to step out of your comfort zone, and it keeps the brain alive.  Plus all those colors!  What can I say?  It's all about the color!


Knitting?  I'm working on the next shawl of the Light & Dark Lace Club.  I had this gorgeous border planned, but I know I won't have enough yarn, so I'll put the pattern aside for another shawl, and come up with a cute little guy.  Can't show you pics, BUT I can finally show you Arachne's Delight, the current shawl in progress.  I had the best time knitting it, and don't you love that adorable border? 

Arachne's Delight will go up for sale in Feb.

And that's enough of my blather.

I'm so good, I can hardly stand myself.

I haven't bought a single piece of fabric this week.  Not to worry though, or feel sorry for me, I have a bit of fabric and some books in the mail.  I have to make room in the fabric tub before I can buy any more.

Look at this combo that I got a few weeks ago for a certain ballerina in the family.  Isn't it darling?  I'm thinking a sweet little 2 fabric dress with the little flowers as the bodice, and the ballet shoes as the skirt, and maybe a jacket out of the ballet slippers, too.

There there is this fabric combination.  A little top out of the solid, and a jumper from the floral, and wouldn't it be fun to do a bit of embroidery over the flowers?  Maybe a bit of blanket stitching around one of the inner circles.  Or French knots.  I haven't stitched in maybe 10 years, and the urge is growing.

Knitting news:  Just to prove that I'm knitting something other than mystery shawls, here's what I just started this afternoon.  It's going to be the Mitered Cardigan from Knit one, knit all.  At this rate, it'll be finished sometime in the next year or two.  The yarn is Rowan's Felted Tweed, and I'm loving the woolliness of it.  I've wanted to knit something in it for a long time, and then I saw this sweater, and I love anything by Elizabeth Zimmermann, so the time is right.

And you know I cannot resist some lace, so here's a play bit of knitting.  It might turn into a shawl or it might get frogged.  I don't know.  I can't tell yet if I like the pattern, even stretching out the sample.  It's fun; what do I care.

Mommie news:  I went to the doc yesterday with a UTI, and talked to him about my mom and how very frail she was.  He asked if she was eating, and I said yes.  Her aide cuts up her food, or anyone wandering by also cuts up the food, and then she eats.  I actually got weepy with him, and believe me, I rarely cry.  I guess I'm i the letting-go process.

scrapperjen  and Scrabblequeen- Weepy is helpful for me.  What I love is the connection between her and her great-granddaughter.  It's just charming to see.  Thanks for all your words of support; they help so much.

Nope, not me.

I will NOT look at more fabric. I will stay away from quilt shops and Joanne's. I will NOT look at Hawthorne Threads, or E-Quilter, or Fat Quarter Shop. I will not even think of checking out Charmpacksplus, or Green Fairy Quilts or Fabric.com or Fabric Depot or Hancock's of Paducah or Missouri Star Quilt or anyplace else. I will stay away from Etsy fabric shops. I will NOT buy anything any more!  I will not add any more online shops to my list.  I will behave as a responsible adult.

You believe that? Sigh. I have an entire tub plus innumerable zip lock bags of fabric. I need Fabric Anonymous. I'm not looking, you bad enablers. Did you read that? No fabric for me any more.  And forget responsibility.  I'm 67; I don't have to act as an adult any more.  I will be a curmudgeon.  and not buy any more fabric.  Did you hear me?  No more!

Did you notice that innumerable has 2 "n" and only one "m"? I do love spell check; it's like recommendation. That one has 2 "m". why? The English language is such fun to spell. Good thing that I love it dearly. Wouldn't want to have any other language as my mother tongue.

I'm doomed, totally doomed. Doomy doomy doomy doomed!

First I had a fabric, thread, and stitchery collection. I still have it even though I'm not doing any of that lovely stuff.  But someday.....

Then I had a yarn/knitting book collection.  Still have it of course, although I'm putting a lot of knitting books in tubs today because I need the shelf room.

Then, my bad sister visited, and got me crocheting, so of course, I have a crochet book collection.

And now?  Doom, ladies and gents, Doom!  The worst kind of obsessive compulsive disorder there is:  fabric collection.  Shoot me know.  I'm totally addicted.  At least once or twice a week, I haul out all my bags and admire my ever-growing collection.  This is sex at its rawest!  (Uh oh, now I'll get the dreaded not suitable for kids reading injunction.)  I have to look at it, fondle it, drool over it, pair it up with matching or mismatching mates.  It's a sickness of the worst sort, and it's all Miss P's fault.

Miss P:  are you reading this? You had to visit me in April and bring me The Quilt.  You must have planned this wicked behavior forever.  Says your gram:  if an 8 year old can do it, so can a 67 year old.  Well, now you're 9, and taking a break from sewing, and your poor, lonely, much-maligned Grammie is totally caught up in fabric and sewing.  I'm doomed, I tell you, doomed.

Let's get to the meat, ahem, fabric of the matter.  Saturday, Hiz Hubboness and I went into the city (aka New York for those poor unfortunate folks not lucky enough to live near the city) for a trip to The City Quilter.  We took the train of course, got out at 32 St, and walked down to 25th to The City Quilter.  Oh my gosh.  Fabric.  lots of fabric.  my favorite fabrics of all:  batiks.  And the best part?  Competitive prices.  New York prices can be higher than out in the burbs, but not this store.  And they will cut a 1/4, 3/8, etc cuts of fabric.  So, for the great price of $25 and change, this is what I scored:

7 pieces of fabric, each enough to make doll clothing for less than what an outfit from the AG store would cost.  And they are quality fabrics!  I may use them for quilts or for doll clothing.  Doesn't matter, at that price I can always buy more.  And if the fabric is no longer there, there are tons more to choose from.

I'm very lucky in my location.  I can drive or take a 2-stop train ride to Aardvark Quilt Shop in Morris Plains, and they have a ginormous selection of fabric.  Beyond amazing!  Also nicely priced, and they are lovely people, to boot.  And I can drive about 45 min to a Joanne's, although I'm so lazy that I don't do that unless I can convince the Hubs that he wants to take me.

And then there is the internet.  Online shopping is fabulous.  Here's what I scored this week.

All bought from sewfreshfabrics on Etsy., and at incredible prices, even with the shipping!  Are they not weird and wonderful.  I think they are for quilts just because of the size of the prints, although the last 3 might be OK for dolls.

And then more from Sew Fresh Fabrics:

Don't ask what I'm going to do with these, but they are so cool!

And finally, these pretties bought from I can't remember where.

So I think I maybe have enough for the rest of the year.  Yep.  Not.  But I haven't ordered any fabric yet today.  The day is still young, however.

Off to tubify more knitting books, and then move the quilting books to the empty shelves.

Scrabblequeen   - I swore way back when that I was never going to sew again.  Famous last words.  The neatest part about this all is that the fabrics are now showing up in my head as yarn colorways.  This never ends, does it?