I Love Terrain

I've been colour-matching solids with my Terrain pre-cuts.

I love this fabric so much.  If I had any sort of fabric budget at the moment I'd be buying some yardage of my favourite prints before it all disappears.  Sadly I will have to make do with my layer cake and charm square pack.

All those solids come from my stash thanks to the Pink Chalk Fabrics Monthly Solids Club, I've only had to order 3 more to complete the look I want.  I'm using 12 of the fabrics from the pre-cut packs and have concentrated on the blue/purple/green colourways.  This is for next month's project.

Lucky for me, there is still a lot of my layer cake and charm pack left so I can still have lots of fun with this fabric after I finish this next project.

Of course there is every chance that I'll love future fabric releases by Kate Spain just as much, so I guess I shouldn't worry about missing out on beautiful fabric.

How do you buy fabric you love?  Pre-cuts?  One of everything?  Some yardage of a few favourite prints?  I've been buying lots of pre-cuts but thinking maybe I should change my tactics.

I [heart] Fabric

Just after I posted about my August solids arriving, my September bundle arrived from Pink Chalk Fabrics, along with the February bundle I'd ordered to catch up.

February was I Heart Pink and is a collection of Kona Cottons.  The September bundle is called Apple Cider which is more Kona Cotton and a Bella Solid thrown in.  I love the way the fabric in these bundles look together so I'm storing them together rather than separating them out into colour groups.

The day after the above fabric arrived, an order from Fat Quarter Shop turned up, which I'd ordered some time between the August and September solids club.  I follow them on Facebook and they're always posting about half price specials.  The other day I decided to click on it and found the specials contains some great blenders and other cute things.

The top two are Shipyard Organic range, the black one is from a range called Sketch, then all the rest are from a range called Smirk.  The last three fabrics are quite fun, yes they are cats all over the black fabric!

Also in the mail this week I got my 'participation award' from Lyn for completing her Retro Nine Patch.  It's some lovely fabric, buttons, a sewing machine brooch and some wooden dressmaker models.  I'll have to think of something really decorative to use those models for in my sewing room!  Thanks Lyn!

So lots of shopping recently but not so much sewing.  I do have a few projects underway....

Something for Halloween

And some chickens

Fabric comes to those who wait

After waiting patiently for a month, my August Monthly Solids Club bundle finally turned up from Pink Chalk Fabrics.  Apparently the Aussie dollar is doing so well at the moment that customs is backlogged with mail from everyone buying overseas!

This bundle is called Hot Summer Nights and includes Kona solids, with a few Kaufman Organic Cottons thrown in

And I just saw the September bundle on their website... can't wait for that one to arrive!

With the August bundle I also bought the March and June bundles to catch up.  So much lovely colour!  These are Sea Gem Studio (Moda Bella Solids) and a bundle of Kona Solid greens.

And Kathy included a lovely little present.  I already have one of these stashed in my fabric shelves, so now I can dream up a project which uses two of them!

I do so love colour and fabric

It pays to keep a messy house

Recently Amitie rang a giveaway, and they asked for tips on how to juggle life's tasks.  Random selection didn't pick me as a winner, but they decided to offer a second prize and picked me as their 'favourite comment'.  And my tip to juggling all life's tasks?


"I think my survival tactic is: don't do the housework!! I only do things that need doing, hence we have a walk-in-robe that you can't walk in because there are clean clothes all over the floor and stuff like that.

Means I'm a lot more sane!"

So now I'm the happy little owner of a jelly roll (or jelly-flat because it came as flat strips for easy postage) of Robert Kaufman's Treasures and Titbits 

Also recently I received an order from the Fat Quarter Shop of some Kona Solids charm squares, plus Kate Spain's Terrain and Me & My Sister Design's Amelia

The Aussie dollar is doing really well at the moment so it's great to order stuff from the US, but it's taking AGES, apparently because customs is overloaded with people buying online.

Yardage

Here is that post I mentioned that I found in my drafts and had forgotten to post.  It's over a month old now, but we all love looking at fabric ;)
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I buy lots of fabric, but mostly I buy pre-cuts.  I'm loving charm packs for their affordability, and I always bring home a bag full of fat quarters from craft shows.

This leads to a problem when I make a quilt because I don't have any fabric for backing or bindings.  I know I can do pieced backings and scrappy bindings, but sometimes you just want one big piece of fabric.  I most recently came across this when making my Wee Folk quilt.  I had to order some yardage of the fabric line, so decided that I'd buy up on some half and full yard lengths of fabric (to make the most of my international postage charge) so I have a stash of backings and bindings.

These all came from Skye Reve Fabrics.  I just love to see the way that different people package their orders.  Some come in zip lock bags, some come in individual bags, some come in one big bag.  Natasha wraps hers in paper ribbons!  So beautiful.  Plus she included two extra charm squares.  Who doesn't love a freebie?

There are quite a few stripes in there because I'm constantly inspired by the striped bindings of Red Pepper Quilts, so I thought I'd have a go myself.

Some of the fabrics in there match up with charm packs I have waiting to be used, but others were just fabrics that I liked.  There is a mix of Moda, Michael Miller and Riley Blake (and maybe some others) and it was interesting to see the different 'feel' of all the fabrics.  Can't wait to get in and use them, of course the first will be the Wee Folks quilt, which is the bottom fabric in the first photo.

And since I'm talking fabric, here is some more fabric porn for you.

Sophie has published the fabric guidelines for the next three months of Block Lotto, so I picked some up the other day while I was at the fabric store.  The basic guidelines for the three months are brights, African Violets, and batiks, so you can see a bit of each of them in there.... can't wait to see what blocks Sophie has picked for these months.  I'm loving that block lotto challenges me with fabric choices.  Even though I sometimes/often have to buy new fabrics for them, I only have to buy a small amount and I need fabric that I wouldn't otherwise select.  Of course I don't have to make any blocks if I don't want, but sometimes it's fun to step outside your comfort zone.

Catching up - Blocks

Starting to catch up on my blogging.. Here are some blocks I've made in the last two weeks.

First up the next two Barbara Brackman Civil War Blocks (I'm only 2 behind now)
25 Calico Puzzle

My photography on this one was a little to wonky to crop it down neatly as I normally do).  The fabrics for this one are from the June Block Lotto entry, and the tea bag wallet I made to go with my mug rug.

26 Barbara Frietchie Star

Another nice bright cheery one!  The fabrics are from the July Block Lotto (which I cut out with the sneak peek) and the pink is one I used on Lyn's cherry blossoms.

WOW, I've patchworked my way through half a year!

Speaking of Block Lotto, here is this month's block, a liberated checkerboard.  I think it has 'liberated' my brain, because everything has been a bit wonky lately.

I was going to make 3 pairs of blocks, but had a bit of a "oops" moment with the next two.

I still think they look rather funky, now I just have to find something to do with them....

While I'm catching up on blog posts... I had some more goodies come in the mail.  There was a bit of a mix up with hexies this month (due to an updated list being circulated).  Turns out the ones I got the other week I wasn't supposed to get till September, and today my real July ones turned up, all the way from Denmark.  The photo doesn't really do them justice, the colours are so much prettier than they appear here.

And now that I'm doing some paid work, I treated myself by signing up to Pink Chalk Fabric's Monthly Solids Club.  The first delivery arrived on Monday, which also included a May bundle I was able to order because they had some left.  I'm just disappointed that I couldn't sign up in the beginning because I'm sure I've missed some pretty bundles.  The May bundle is called "Pocket Full of Posies" (the purples/greys) and the July bundle is called "Cabana"

The purples already have a purpose.... I've volunteered to design a block for Jane's Desperate Housewife's Quilt.

My block is coming up in a few weeks, so I'd best get busy and make it!!

Phew! That ended up being a longer post that I'd planned....

I'm a fabric addict

who isn't?

I recently discovered the new Wee Folks range by Ingrid for Moda and decided I had to have some.  I usually end up buying these sorts of fabrics when they're on the sale table and at the end of their run.  For once I wanted to have something when it was 'new' and everyone was still excited about it!  So I ordered some and added some other things to the order so that it was worth the $14 postage from U.S., but then found out that the store I had ordered from was out of stock.  By this stage I was really looking forward to the rest of the order as well.... so I was forced to go ahead with that order (and switch in something for the out of stock Wee Folk), and then go elsewhere to get my Wee Folk!  This also meant that I could pick up a few Bella Solid charm packs to go with all the charm packs I have waiting to be used.

So here I am with lots of new fabric.
Wee Folk and Bella Solids from Green Fairy Quilts

Modern Workshop by Oliver + S, Ready Set Snow by Me and My Sister, Just Wing It by Momo charm packs and Rainy Days and Mondays by Melimba & Beccabury for Riley Blake fat quarter pack from 1 Choice 4 Quilting

In trying to find the link for Rainy Days and Mondays, I found all sorts of other Riley Blake fabrics. I really should learn to look past Moda when searching for new fabric.  I guess it just becomes easy because they're everywhere!

So now that I've got this Wee Folk fabric in it's prime, I figured I'd better do something with it quick smart too!  I've started my plan and here is a sneak peek

I have a vague goal of finishing it by the weekend, but we've got a pretty busy one coming up so maybe it will be early next week.  Actually I think I need to buy some backing and binding fabrics to finish off the entire project.  Oh, dear, what a shame, more fabric shopping!


Post 4 of 9

This week I'm grateful for....online shopping!

Okay so I'm being a bit shallow this week... but I love it!
I have been able to source fabric for a total of four quilts from three different stores, and am able to compare across all of them at the same time.  Not only looking for a good price, but comparing colours and patterns before I commit to buying anything.  It would be hard to do that at three bricks and mortar shops.

So what have I bought?

From BugFabric.com I got all I need for the dinosaur quilt as well as a few extras for the puppy quilt, and the border fabric for my Birdie Stitches.





From Fat Quarter Shop I got the Kona solids I need for the puppy quilt, and Kona Colour Card, plus I got the white fabric I need for the stitcheries on Tail Feathers.

And finally I will get from The Quilter's Store the other bits I need to complete Tail Feathers (border, binding and some applique bits).  I don't think I'll be starting this quilt very soon but the Honey Buns I have for it are from the Clementine range by Me and My Sister (for Moda) and I want to get the yardage before it is no longer available.  I haven't clicked 'checkout' yet because I want some discussion with my creative consultant.

All this and I didn't have to pester my husband to drive me across town ;)

What are you grateful for this week?

Puppies in colour

I was so pleased with my photoshop efforts on the dino quilt, that I decided to do the same for the puppy quilt using the fabrics I have chosen.  This also helped me work out what colour solids to use.

 

The main print is Hot dog, the colour 'Spring' by Hoffman Fabrics.

The white in the nine-patch blocks is a coordinate from the same range.

The green in the nine-patch blocks is part of the AlphaBuddies collection by Andover Fabrics.  

The puppy is going to be in flannel.  The pattern suggested making him out of minky but I couldn't find the right colours so I decided flannel would still give the fluffy effect slightly.  

The dark brown is Handspray by RJR Fabrics.  This was also the print I used for my elephant quilt, but in flat cotton, not flannel.  

The light brown is from a range called Bunny Luvdesigned by Bonnie Sullivan for Maywood Studios.  

The ball is the marble fabric from my stash.  I couldn't find an image of it online, so I cropped a photo of my civil war block, hence it comes up a bit dark.

The sashings and cornerstones are planned as Kona Solids in Pistachio and Kiwi but I haven't got them yet.

The puppy does have eyes and a nose in black and white, but I forgot to add them to the photoshop image.

I was hunting around online last night working out what fabric I need for this and the dino quilt, and also found a few bits and pieces I need to finish the Birdie Stitches quilt, as well as some fabric to go with the honey buns I've bought for Tail Feathers, which I'd like to get while it's still available.  I totalled up $230 worth of fabric, across three online stores (including postage and a Kona Solids colour card, and backings for puppy and dino quilts).  I want to buy it now as some of the fabrics are end of runs etc and wont last forever, and I might as well get everything I want from each store in one go to save on postage... but still, I'm not quite sure if our budget will stretch that far right now.

For all this planning I've been doing lately, I haven't done much sewing.  This means I'm behind in my Civil War blocks, and I don't know what fabrics to use since I haven't used any this week!!  Oh the dilema of having to stick to my own rules.

I have caught up on the Retro Nine Patch though, I'll post about that soon.

We all love beautiful fabric

but what do you do with it?

I see lots of fabric that I want to buy because it is just so pretty (or interesting, or colourful, or whatever), and sometimes I do buy some of it if I have the money but then I can never decide what to make from it.

My first thought is that I want to make something for myself, after all, I bought the fabric because I like it, but that would ultimately result in me just shifting my stash from the sewing room to the rest of the house.




This came about because two years ago my husband bought me some nice fabric for Christmas, and I put it in a box saving it for something 'special', not wanting to use it for gifts because he had given it to ME.  Consequently that fabric was still in said box until last night, when I decided I'd better dig it out (and a few other pieces I'd been savouring) and pre-wash it ready for use.



I could use it to make something for myself, but if I make something as a gift for someone else, I'll still get the enjoyment out of sewing the item (which, let's face it, is the really fun bit of great fabric), or even better, if I make something to sell, I can use the money to buy MORE beautiful fabric!




What do you do with fabric you love that you bought just because?  Do you make things for yourself?  Or do you have the enjoyment of using the lovely fabric but then give away or sell the finished item?

From this....

To this:

I thought 14 and a half metres of fabric would look a lot bigger...

After overlocking all this fabric the other day, I thought it would take me an age to iron it, but it didn't.

Now I have to decide what to make with it all!  I'm thinking I might use some of it for next Civil War block, and the last pile down the end already have a purpose picked out, just have to get around to it!

My Creative Space

The other day I received some more fabric in the mail, and sat down to overlock it ready for pre-washing.  Then I decided that I should did out some other fat quarter bundles I'd had sitting around since last year and get them all pre-washed.

This morning I have overlocked three sides each of approximately 50 fat quarters!  Plus there are the dozen or so I did last night.

I think my overlocker needs a good clean and a little lie down for a while now.

This afternoon it is on to washing and I guess that means tomorrow (and probabably the rest of the weekend) will be spent ironing.

Pop over to kootoyoo and see who else is playing along this week.

Fabric Delivery

I know I have too much fabric already, but I keep buying more.  My latest excuse is that most of my stash is dressmaking fabrics, and now I'm getting into quilting.

Recently I've purchased the following:

 From Aunt Beas Fabric (now closed) I got a fat quarter pack of It's a Hoot by Momo for Moda

The pack didn't include a full variety of the range, but it's a very usable selection.  I'd been thinking about buying a charm square of the range so I'd get all the prints, but then you lose some of the graphics when you go to such small pieces.  I have plenty of charm packs and jelly rolls in my stash at the moment, so this will give me a challenge to make something out of a fat quarter pack instead.

From Blueberries I got this selection of 12 Days of Christmas fabrics also by Moda.  I had hoped to get the red swirly pattern too but they had sold out (the disadvantage to getting things in the 'specials' bin).  There is still some of this range available around the place so maybe I should hunt up some more.  There is also a version of the ice skaters with more green in the background that I wouldn't mind.

I've made a prototype Christmas decoration out of it so far... but more on that later!

Also from Blueberries, I got these flannels from the Bouncing Baby range.  I haven't made a quilt with flannel before so I thought I'd buy a little bit and have a play.  I'm also conscious of the fact that I buy lots of pretty girly fabric and not much that's suitable for boys, so when selecting this fabric I deliberately chose designs which could be boyish, or at least unisex.

When buying fabric from a range like this, I've always had the problem that I think I don't like some of the fabrics.  I felt I had to LOVE a fabric in order to buy it, so looking at a jelly roll (or similar), there are lots of fabrics that I don't completely and utterly love so I wouldn't buy it.

I've been trying to look past that now, and buy fabrics that blend and work together even if I don't love them.  After all, if I loved all the fabrics in a quilt I'd never see any of them.  Sometimes you need the more subtle, or 'boring' fabrics to bring out the beauty of the amazing ones.  I hope that I'm now achieving a more balanced selection in my stash.  I can't wait to see what I come up with to make use of all this!  But isn't that half the fun of having a fabric stash, dreaming of the potential?

YAY Freebies!!

I love freebies!

Because my husband is so unsure of what to buy me for Christmas, we agreed he'd just pay for a quilt pattern that I want.  I ordered it online from Fabric Patch and it arrived today.  I'm not allowed to 'play' with it till Christmas though, so you'll have to wait for that, but....

In the parcel came a little surprise!
A small gift to say thank you for supporting Fabric Patch

It was two charm squares.

Oooo the excitement of working with something new and unexpected.  But I have to stand by my self imposed ban on new projects until I finish at least the top of the music quilt that I want to give at Christmas.

A New Arrival

My second delivery from Green Fairy Quilts arrived yesterday.  They really need to stop having sales so I stop buying fabric.  Or maybe I just need to sew more!

It being a halloween sale, I felt it necessary to get some scary fabric, so I got the Haunted Mansion (by Sanae) charm pack.  I also got the Awesome (by Sandy Gervais) charm pack (the sale was buy some stuff and get free charm packs).  In order to receive those free charm packs I got the Lollipop (also by Sandy Gervais) jelly roll and A Morris Tapestry (by Barbara Brackman) layer cake (they don't appear to have the layer cakes any more, so the link is for the charm square).

The colours are quite different from the last lot of Moda fabric I got.  I am always drawn to the bright, candy coloured fabric bundles so I specifically tried to avoid them this time, although I was tempted by Dream On.  I decided that I need to have some 'male' fabric around, everything else that I had was much more aimed at girls.  I'd like to get into making baby quilts and there are boy babies as well as girls ;)  Whilst the above fabrics aren't very 'baby', they are not specifically girly.

Will be interesting to see what I come up with now that I have two jelly rolls, two honeybuns, three charm packs and a layer cake!  Now that I have some experience working with a jelly roll, I feel a bit more confident in my creative ability, but I still have to work out what you do with layer cakes and charm squares!

Baby's Day Out

Yesterday I bundled up little Abigail into Grandma's car, and with Ergobaby on board the three of us headed to CraftExpo.

I met up with Margaret and Jayne out the front, but quickly we separated to follow our own time schedule.

It wasn't a big haul this year.  I think I've bought up big recently on 'treats' and wasn't drawn in by the "it's pretty, I MUST buy it" motivation.  I guess also a lot of it is things I've seen before.  Maybe you can go to craft shows a little too often ;)

I did pick up lots of fabric for the Homespun Harmony wall hanging (pattern came from the previous craft show) I am going to do for a friend's baby.  Most of the fabric came from Patchwork with Gail B but some also came from Logan's Patchwork.  Obviously you can see that I haven't gone with the traditional colours on the pattern cover.

Not exactly sure where I'm going to put what fabric but I think I'll just do it block by block and see how it all ends up.  Probably have to buy a bit more fabric later, but it will develop and grow as it gets sewn, rather than being all planned out from the onset.

I have also decided to make a cot quilt for my cousin's new baby.  He was born back in March but it always takes me ages to get around to these things ;)  Now that she has sent me a gift for the birth of Abigail I figured I should get around to sending her something.  I bought some fabric rolls from Spotlight a few months ago so have broken open one of them for the baby quilt.  At the craft show yesterday I bought the brown dotty fabric to go with them.

I'm designed a quilt which incorporates the pictures off the fabric.  I'm going to copy them up larger and make applique designs out of them for some of the blocks.  Also went along to Spotlight today to get some plain green to coordinate with it.  I hope it works out, I haven't really designed a quilt from scratch before.

Also at the show yesterday I picked up this interesting looking contraption.

It's a Flower Stitcher foot from Punch With Judy.  You can do funky things like this with it:

 That picture is from the book I bought to go with it, but I've just discovered people have posted YouTube videos of how to use it and what to do with it, so I might have to go exploring once I've learnt the basics!

Not sure what I'm going to do yet, it just looked cool so I bought it.  I want to have a play with it but Dad is camped out in my sewing room for the next two days so it will have to wait a while.  Not like I've really had the time to play with anything anyway now that Madam Abigail is in the world and refuses to go to sleep!

So a big milestone was achieved this weekend.  Abigail went to her first craft show AND she had her first trip to Spotlight.  Two things that I'm sure she will do lots of over the next few years.

Oh, and I'm beginning to feel like I'm Wonder Woman or something. The number of people commenting on me being out and about with a three week old baby.  Apparently I'm supposed to be in my pyjamas, slobbing around the house, not going anywhere, just 'cause I have a new baby.  Pooey to them I say!!

Special Delivery

This week I received my order from Green Fairy Quilts which I placed the other week.  They had a bit of a sale on and for $AU100 (incl postage) I got a jelly roll, two honey buns and a charm pack, all from Moda.

The honey buns are Clementine and Happy, both by Me & My Sister.  The jelly roll is Me & My Sister Favorites, and the charm pack is City Weekend by Liesl Gibson.

Of course I have no idea what I'm going to do with them yet, but it was a bit of a spending spluge since I haven't been out of the house much lately and had money to spend ;)

I haven't actually worked with a jelly roll/honey bun or charm pack before.  All the quilting work I've done has been from buying fat quarters or lengths of fabric so I'll be interested to see what I can come up with.

Also arriving a week ago was Abigail Mackenzie!  Born on Sunday evening 19th Sept at 10:53pm, weighing in at 4.02kg.  Is she now a finished project, or is she just the biggest work-in-progress ever?

Organisation

In a fit of enthusiasm the other day, I decided to fold and pack all my bits of quilting fabric neatly.  Here is the result:

These are all my fat quarters (or bits thereof) and other small lengths of fabric bought for quilting not dress making.

Now I just have to decide how to organise them.  By colour?  By pattern?  By theme?

How do you organise your fabrics?  If you have the same fabric in a few different colours do you store them together, or in their own colour piles?

A taste of things to come

So here is a run down of what I'm working on at the moment...

Baby Elephant Quilt
I'm using this pattern from Ann Gadsby Designs and here it is so far:

It was a project I started in June last year because my friend wanted to try quilting.  As she had never done one before we decided to both make the same pattern at the same time so I could help her along with it.  So far we've just done all the blocks, next step is the borders.  The main hold up with it is the time for both of us to get together and work on it, but I think we're planning a day in the near future.

Coffee Quilt
I found this pattern by Annalisa of Busy Thimbles in a magazine a while ago and decided to make it for my hubby.  We aren't using all the Moda fabrics, but did get some of them.  Not 100% sure what we're doing with the backing yet but I'll get to that.  We've spent the last 12 months or so collecting the fabrics, and now that we've settled into our house I decided it was time I got started.  So far all I've done is wash and iron the fabrics, but I'm hoping to  make a start on the cutting and applique this weekend.

Knitted Poncho
I started this poncho (by Patons) about four years ago and have been doing it in fits and starts. It's made up of two rectangles sewn together and I'm into the second rectangle now.  I've got it on the couch for when I sit in front of the television and I'm hoping to get it finished for the cooler weather this year when I'll probably be too big in the belly to wear any of my jumpers.

Cross Stitch
I picked up two little cross stitch patterns the other day that I thought would be cute for baby's room and I started working on one at the most recent Stitch 'n' Bitch that I held.  This is it so far:

They've all got a deadline of a few months so I guess I should stop blogging and get on with some sewing...