Category Archives: Stash

Thrifting Success & Another Pattern

We had one of those weekends where things didn’t go as planned. Julia had invited several girl’s for a sleepover on Saturday night to celebrate her 15th birthday. Friday afternoon she started looking a little peaked and by Friday night she was feeling lousy. Saturday morning she cancelled the sleepover and parked herself on the couch, where she has spent the vast majority of the weekend. Poor girl – feverish, headache and all congested. No fun.

So, instead of celebrating her birthday, I snuck out to get her some dvd’s and run a few errands. I passed a thrift store that supports our local Hospice organization and saw that they had a bunch of office/desk chairs out front. I have been sitting on an older chair that is fairly uncomfortable. I ran in and bought one of their chairs – very comfy and it doesn’t have any arms so it can hug up close to the machine. Yay! While there, I had to at least take a quick peek at their little craft area. Sometime there is fabric there, sometimes not. I happy to see a few bundles of fat quarters on the shelf which I promptly purchased, brought home, washed, dried and ironed them. I was on a roll!

Love these autumnal prints. Especially the gray/rust piece at the far right.

Here is another bundle.

The black batik and the Asian looking print on the far right are great – the piece in the middle is only so-so.

These two are nice additions as well. Black is always quickly used and I love the geese on the right. Eight fat quarters for about 50 cents each. Score.

I also want to share my May is for Makers pattern for this week. It has been years since I have made a dress but the time has come. I chose the Washi pattern. You may have seen this floating around for a bit. The Washi dress was designed by Rae who blogs at Made by Rae.

I love the neckline and the side pockets on the dress and the fact that the back is shirred with elastic thread. It looks like it will be very comfy which is what I am all about. My list of projects is growing really fast so I’d better get busy!

I need to get to work on:

Washi Dress (though I don’t have the fabric for that yet)
Fleur Mini
241 Tote for myself (I started pulling fabric for that today)
Finish sewing the binding on the Stepping Stones Quilt (almost done!)
Prewash fabric and start cutting out the Courtyard Tiles project with my Dear Stella fabric

Ok, get ready, get set, go! What is your list looking like these days?

Check out “Link Ups” at the top of the page to see my favorite places to link to.

The Saga Continues

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Remember the tale of the quilter who needed a piece of velcro and her ensuing trips to Ben Franklins? As happened with “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”, there is a sequel which must be shared. After the success of Laura Numeroff’s first book , the sequels began popping up with regularity. There was “If You Give a Moose a Muffin” and “If You Give a Pig a Pancake” among others. Here is the next chapter to my story, If You Give a Quilter a Bargain.

At the end of the first chapter of this story, you might remember that this quilter had returned to Ben Franklin to pick up a piece of Allison Glass fabric to add to the pile being used to make a 241 totebag. While there, an amazing discovery was made where the whole Asuka line by Dear Stella was found on the $5.99 table. I thought that was where the story would end. But no, it was not to be.

Last week the May is for Maker’s challenge was brought to the forefront of the quilty blogger community and everyone was joyfully diving in to buy patterns designed by individual makers (as opposed to those working for large companies.) This blogger happens to love a good cause. Especially a cause that is supported by shopping.

In my related post last week, I stated that I would buy a pattern to use to make a quilt with the Dear Stella fabric. It took a lot of shopping to finally settle on the pattern I wanted to make. There are endless numbers of gorgeous patterns to be had on Etsy and Craftsy both. So many great designs that it was very hard to choose. I started looking at the blogs of my favorite quilters who also sold patterns. I did web searches. I went to my lovely Etsy shopping app and my Craftsy shopping app. Finally I had to just put away my iPad to let my brain settle down, knowing that once I did so, the right pattern would rise to the top of the frenzy.

It did. Here it is; Courtyard Tiles by Kelly Young of My Quilt Infatuation. One of my parameters for choosing a pattern was that it have a large scale design because some of the Asuka pieces have large focus prints. Also, because I am making this for a queen size bed, I didn’t want to piece something too fussy with loads of points to match, angles to cut, etc.

This pattern will be great from both angles – not a lot of fussy piecing, and plenty of room for the fabrics to shine. I love that the blocks give an impression of a curve but really they are pieced with rectangles and small triangles to create that curved look. Here is where the saga continues. Looking at the requirements for the queen size, I found I needed another 1.5 yards. Yep, I had to go back to Ben Franklin’s.

Fortunately for this shopper, there were still a few pieces of the Asuka line left. There were also a few pieces of Dear Stella that coordinated with the Asuka line. No longer were they all stacked together nice and neat. That’s ok – the thrill of the hunt makes it that much more satisfying. I started searching.

I found several pieces that I had not purchased during my last trip. The orange flowers with the blue centers, the larger scale print (on the bottom to the far left) and the gray dot (on the bottom, middle of the row). I also bought a bit more of two pieces that I already had.

I have enough of the print fabrics to begin piecing the quilt. I have not yet purchased the background fabric. I can’t decide what color I want to use. Currently, the choice is between a very pale gray or a crisp white. My decision is complicated by the fact that some of these fabrics show a creamy white and others have a very crisp white. Oh, how I struggle with color! If you have any input, I would appreciate hearing your thoughts.

Of course, I would be lying if I said this was the end of my story. Once the decision is made about the background fabric, there is still the backing fabric and the binding to be selected. No, this story has only just begun. I am excited to get going on it, but first I need to finish up a few projects that are close to completion.

Linking to Sunday Stash and Main Crush Monday. (You’ll find these links at the top of the page, under Link Ups.)

May is for Makers

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The idea of supporting all of the Indie Designers is being (understandably) touted heavily among quilting blogs this week. It started with a post by Lindsey Rhodes which has everyone thinking about the balance of expecting/wanting everything for free via the internet and supporting the amazing people that spend so much time working on patterns and are trying to eek out a bit of finanacial return on their efforts. I am as guilty as the next maker for using the free ideas (which are endlessly abundant) and passing on actually buying patterns. It isn’t a question of fairness or honesty. I am not using ideas that are not published for other’s use. However, I have a huge appreciation for the work that goes into the published patterns. Especially after writing my first tutorials — those take such a long time. But a pattern for a quilt is a much more difficult undertaking.

In celebration of May Makers, and as a show of my gratitude for all of the knowledge I have gained for not a penny, I will purchase a couple of patterns for my upcoming projects. I have my amazing Dear Stella fabric sitting there waiting for me to decide what to do with it. I plan to shop the patterns and find the perfect one for that gorgeous stack of pretty. I hope this might inspire one or two readers to go out and shop the talented makers that are out there. Craftsy has lovely, well-written patterns for sale and most all of your favorite quilters have a shop linking from their blog. Show them some love.

In other news, my fabric purchasing self-control was severely put to the test yesterday! I worked at the “Country Store” during our local quilt show. If you are unfamiliar, the Country Store is a place where guild members can offer up items they no long want and sell them with some of the proceeds going to the guild and some to the seller. Oh my goodness, the deals that were available!! It was so tempting to buy fabric. I was working the checkout line and was drooling over the fabric that people were buying. Fat quarters for $1.00, or less! Kits that were purchased and never made, items that were completed and no longer wanted, yardage and notions galore. So much temptataion. I do NOT need fabric right now. You know that as well as I do! I kept my drooling to myself and used all of my willpower to come home having spent only $2.50. 🙂

I bought one purple batik fat quarter for all of 50 cents. My purple stash is depleted after making my scrappy projects for the month of March. One fat quarter doesn’t restore the scrap bin, but I don’t have any purple projects in the making right now so it’s fine.

I bought this stack or 2013/14 American Quilter magazines for $2.00 I LOVE quilting magazines but the budget only goes so far. These will be read cover to cover – numerous times each! I think American Quilter has very good articles on the artistic side of modern quilting. Plus there are tutorials on FMQ from my favorite, Lori Kennedy of The Inbox Jaunt. In keeping with my recycling philosophy, I will pass these along to a quilty friend or two when I am done with them.

It was hard to pass up all of the bargains yesterday but just because it is ‘only a few dollars’ or ‘nearly free’ doesn’t mean I need to add it to the collections of fabric which overflow from my closet. It becomes almost overwhelming!

Time to go search for the perfect pattern to use when I start my Dear Stella project!

Linking to Main Crush Monday and Sunday Stash. Links to both are available at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

If You Give a Quilter a Bargain…

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On Tuesday I was running a few errands. Among other things, I ran in to Ben Franklin’s for a strip of velcro. I came home with this. (Plus the strip of velcro.)

Really, it was not intended! I was supposed to be picking Julia up from school so I was there not even ten minutes. As she cut the velcro strip, the clerk (who knows me well) suggested I might want to take a quick look at the flat fold table because there were lots of new pieces out. Ben Franklin’s always has a table with stacks of fabric folded (taken off the bolt). Frequently there are treasures on that table but you have to spend a bit of time searching. The majority of the fabric found here is traditional or novelty pieces. Anything on the table is $5.99 per yard, a very good price.

I immediately spotted a large selection of fabric from the Field Day line by Allison Glass. This is my favorite of all of her lines. It is an older one (2013) and for the most part isn’t readily available. Actually, Allison Glass isn’t available in Grass Valley at all. When I did the Allison Glass swap last year, I had to drive to the San Jose area to get the fabric (300 miles round trip). I could have ordered it on-line but I really wanted to see the colors together. She covers such a huge span of the rainbow and I wasn’t sure which colors I was going to work with. It was a huge find to see these sitting on the flat fold table!

I am using these two to make a 241 tote from Anna at Noodlehead. There are a few occasions coming up that I need gifts for. This will be perfect for one of them.

These two pieces are from the Vantage Point line by Robert Kaufman. Wavy Stripe Retro and Picton Patchwork will both be used for Chemex Cozies that I sell in my Etsy shop. I love both of them. Remember when you were little and got to make those Spin Art paintings? I always imagined that mine would look like the fabric on the right. Never got even close but those were fun to make. Julia still has one of those – maybe I should give it another try.

Look at the rich colors in this stack. Who doesn’t need a few new blenders in her stash? At $5.99/yard, this was an easy decision.

Here is the hard part. Oh, if only the story ended here. But it doesn’t. You know me, I am nothing but honest.

I bought the yardage from the Field Day collection and purchased the 241 Tote pattern over at Noodlehead the following day. Looking at the requirements, I found I was short one piece of fabric for the tote. Yes, I could probably have found something in my stash that would work, but I knew that stack of Allison Glass treasure was just sitting there at Ben Franklin’s. How could I not return? It was just one more yard…. (I know, I know.)

So I bought the piece in the center. Perfect. Now I had enough to make the tote.

Guess what? When I pulled that piece out of the stacks of flat folds, you won’t believe what happened. There, in plain sight, was the nearly complete line of Asuka by Dear Stella. Which is just crazy – this line was only released last summer. What a treasure.

It was amazing – a stack of Dear Stella just sitting there, waiting for me and for only $5.99 per yard! I love this line – the colors are exquisite. Showing only minimal restraint, I limited myself to the seven pieces you see here.

The piece on the top is not from the Asuka line. I am not sure which it belongs to, but I like the fact that it adds a pop of green to the palette. Such a thrilling experience. 😉

I now have a total of three yards of Dear Stella to play with and spent $18.00. (I know, let’s not talk about the total cost of all of my treasures. I am minimizing the impact here.)

Remember the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? That pretty much covers this whole experience. Velcro, led to the Vantage Point pieces, then to Allison Glass, which took me to Noodlehead, which then looped me back over to Allison Glass and finally took me right on over to Dear Stella. Oh dear, dear, Dear Stella.

Linking to Sunday Stash over at Molli Sparkles and also at Main Crush Monday.

Etsy BrewStitched – My New Favorite

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I have had the wonderfully good fortune to stumble across a new fabric shop on Etsy. If you are an Etsy shopper, you probably know how the Etsy app will make suggestions of things you might like and shops that could be of interest to you. One day about three weeks ago, BrewStitched showed up in my feed of suggestions.

Opened in January, 2015, BrewStitched is a relatively new Etsy shop. I’ll tell you the first thing that caught my interest in this lovely shop. The owner, Sheryl, offers three themed, monthly fabric clubs. Customers can order the theme of the month in fat quarters, half yard cuts, or full yard cuts. I looked at these for a bit and, mainly because the pricing was really reasonable, decided to order the February FQ bundle.

The themes are posted for each month so that the buyer can order just those that look interesting or can subscribe for each month. February was themed as “solids”. I always need solids and figured there really wasn’t a color that I wouldn’t happily add to my stash. I am already looking forward to April for the Low Volume bundle. In addition to the five FQ’s, a small spool or coordinating Aurifil is included in the bundle. Icing on the cake! Take a look at this lovely bundle (which I must say, shipped incredibly fast).

These are Riley Blake cuts and the colors are luscious. The palette that Sheryl put together works beautifully.

I cut into the green and blue pieces in a hurry. They work well with some scraps I have and I spent an evening playing with the three pieces. I will post more about the project later but for now, take a peek.

I highly recommend you take a look at Sheryl’s shop. She has some lovely modern fabrics, including some Cotton and Steele, some Michael Miller and a selection of Art Gallery. I am all for supporting small businesses, especially those that are just starting out.

Linking to Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash as well as Main Crush Monday over at Cooking Up Quilts.

Another Pink Castle Shipment

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I just have to say that I am loving these monthly Pink Castle shipments of Art Gallery Fabrics! I recently received my second of a three month subscription that two of my boys gave me for my birthday. This collection is just as gorgeous as the first was.

This collection is called Millie Fleur and was designed by by Bari J. It is a very soft, feminine line with a gorgeous range of color.

My favorite of the whole line is this sweet print. I love the bees.

Second to the bees, I love these ripples. They remind me of the Lizzie House Pearl Bracelets line that is so popular.

At this point, I am going to have to finish a few projects before I even think about what I want to do with this bundle of lovely. While I absolutely love receiving these shipments, I still think that three months is plenty. I have numerous projects stacked up now. It wouldn’t make sense for me to receive these every month. I do still have one month to come and that is something to look forward to!

I am quiilting my row quilt this week. I started it over the weekend and had some issues with my top thread shredding. It made me so frustrated!! I set it aside and sent a frantic SOS to Janine at Quilts From the Little House. She sent me some tips and I will gently, cautiously approach my machine this afternoon. Please cross your fingers that my machine is much more cooperative.

Linking to Molli Sparkle’s Sunday Stash.

Swooning over this finish

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A few weeks ago we had a quiet weekend – Ray was up working on our house in Downieville and Julia and I stayed home. I pulled out my pile of Christmas fabrics, trying to think of an easy project. I wanted something that would come together easily and could be made entirely from my stash. After spending some time looking at ideas that I have collected on Pinterest, I made my decision. I would make a mini that consisted of one large swoon block.

I have been drooling over pictures of quilts with swoon blocks and minis made from swoon blocks for a long while now. I am not sure what it is about them, but I love them. The pattern for the swoon block was developed by Camille Roskelly over at Thimble Blossoms. She really started something when she created this pattern. The pattern makes a quilt with nine swoon blocks that measure 24″ square. For this project, I decided to just make one block and use it as a mini.

Using only minimal quilting, the fabrics and the pattern shine.

It turned out so festive.

I was able to make the quilt using only scraps I had on hand. The backing is a green and cream plaid that a neighbor gave me a long while back. I didn’t have enough of any one the fabrics to bind it so I made a scrappy binding.

Because it is made of rectangles, HST’s and Flying Geese blocks, the block was a breeze to cut and piece. Making a large quilt with them would be very easy. I love the oversized look of the block.

There you go. A really satisfying finish that was so fun to make and used up some stash.

Linking to Freemotion by the River, Let’s Bee Social and Finish It Up Friday. Links to all of these are located at the top of the page under Link Ups.

Long weekend with the family

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I hope all of you that celebrated Thanksgiving had a wonderful holiday. We had a small group for dinner and it was a very nice day. The Wednesday prior was a snow day for the local schools so Julia’s weekend was even longer than expected. We didn’t get as much snow as was forecast but what a treat it was.

Ray, Julia, and I went up to Downieville for the rest of the long weekend. Julia brought a friend up too. On that Saturday we got a text from my middle son, Kyle. Big news! He proposed to his girfriend of five years and she accepted. They are perfect for each other and we couldn’t be happier to have Marisa join our family. The gorgeous picture at the top of the page was taken by Ian (my youngest son) on a recent vacation he had with Kyle and Marisa. In this picture they were at Niagra Falls.

With all that was going on, I didn’t have a whole lot of time to sew. Also, it was a physical impossibility. When Ian is home, he uses the sewing room as his bedroom and this happens:

To his credit, he did ask me on multiple occasions if I wanted him to clear a path to the sewing machine. There wasn’t time for it anyway so it was not a big deal.

Last night when we got home from Downieville I decided to cut into a piece of fabric I bought last week. I was at Jo-Ann Fabric and had one of their always-welcome “20% off entire purchase” coupons. Those make me a little crazy. I bought some practical items that I needed for my Etsy shop and then decided I wanted to make a new bathrobe. Prior to my current quilting obssession, I used to sew clothing fairly often. A long while back, I wrote a post about this. Like quilting, garment sewing is a fairly expensive hobby. More often than not, I can buy the ready-made garment for less than I can sew it. But again like quilting, it is more fun to make it. I found this wonderful, soft buttery yellow fabric. With my coveted coupon and the fact that it was already on sale, the expense for the fabric went from $55 to $33. Not too shabby.

It is a very pale yellow and so snuggly. The texture is perfect and there isn’t a nap to worry about when cutting the pieces

I knew I would be able to find a pattern to use in my pile of old patterns. This one was missing the pieces to the PJ pants but still had all of the pieces to the robe. It is date stamped 1989 so yep, I have had it around for a while!

Isn’t that couple just dreamy in their matching robes? Too bad I didn’t think to buy enough of the yellow fabric to make Ray a matching robe…… 😉 I got the pieces laid out and cut last night so I am ready to go. (Well, maybe I should vacuum first. I cut the pieces in my dining room because I was working with a four yard length of fabric. There is yellow fuzz floating around throughout the house now.) This bathrobe consists of a few long seams and putting two pockets on the front so it will come together quickly. I’m looking forward to working on it. Sewing from a pattern is something that I have done for so long that I don’t really have to think about it. It is mindless sewing – as compared to quilting where I have to watch myself all along the way. In fact, this will come together fast enough that I will call it my December goal for ALYOF. I didn’t set a goal at all in November and didn’t meet my goal for October so it is time to get back on track!

Happy Monday everyone!

Linking to Molli Sparkle’s Sunday Stash, ALYOF at Sew Bittersweet Designs as well as Sew Cute Tuesday over at Blossom Heart Quilts.

Sunday Stash Update

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It has been a long while since I have purchased a set of precuts from one fabric line. Usually, I am too frugal to just buy fabric without having an intended project already in mind. Knowing me well, two of my kiddos recently gave me a great birthday gift; a three month membership to one of Pink Castle’s monthly fabric clubs. It is pretty amazing that a 25 and 28 year old guy when hunting for a gift for their fabric obsessed mother were fortunate enough to stumble upon Pink Castle’s fabric club options during a Google search. Actually I should say it was fortunate for me, huh? (Last year for my birthday, my three boys gave me a great gift of fabric. You can read about that one here.)

The boys selected the club featuring Art Gallery fabric. Although with the options offered at Pink Castle, they couldn’t go wrong. I would have been happy with any of them. Last week I received my first set. It is gorgeous.

This is a line called “Dare” and was designed by Pat Bravo. It is modern and bold. The navy and dark pink are great together, especially mixed with the other shades of blue, pink and mustard yellow. I love it.

So pretty!

I am thinking about how best to use these. The pieces are fat eighths so not terribly large. My current idea is to make some sort of plus quilt design where the pattern of pluses (is that a word?) is surrounded by a coordinating solid, probably gray or yellow. I haven’t made a plus quilt yet and love them. I kind of see it where the pluses are clustered up in the right corner, working their way down to the below the midline and then a solid fabric surrounding them. It would be a great piece of negative space to practice some quilting. We’ll see, I need to play around with it a bit more.

This is the perfect gift for me. I think the three month subscription is just the right amount. It will give me three new projects, which will take me well into the new year (and that’s just around the corner!!)

Hope you are all enjoying your Sunday. Yesterday I worked on a holiday project and it is coming along well. I’ll post pictures sometime next week.

Linking to Molly Sparkle’s Sunday Stash.

Stuck Inside

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Poor California. It is a mess. Currently there are ten large fires burning up and down the state with approximately 400,000 acres are involved. It is horrible. Smoke fills the air and ash rains down everywhere. (If you want to see more details, here is a good source of information.) Yesterday and today have been horrible as far as air quality goes. It was a stay-inside-kind-of-weekend. The photo above shows the pasture next door to us and was taken by Julia this afternoon.

Doesn’t take much to guess what I did. Played with fabric, sewed, cooked, and read. It was only logical. What else is there?

Let’s take things in order, shall we? Saturday morning Julia had to be at a meeting at the library for an hour so I had a time to check out a few books. Here is the reading list for the next little while.

I am already half way through The Distinguished Guest, by Sue Miller. It is an excellent book. Sometimes Sue Miller’s books are a little dark for me but I am really enjoying this one. The two Kaffe Fassett books are solely to drool over. I have finished drooling over his Quilts in the Sun book and yet to begin salivating over Country Garden Quilts. The book by Lee Cleland, Quilting Makes the Quilt, is amazing. The quilting shown in this book is far beyond my skill level but the process she used in creating this (older) book is amazing. In order to show how much the quilting defines the quilt, Cleland, an Australian quilter, decided she would make five sets of twelve traditional quilts, each exactly the same. So, twelve quilts – five of each of them! Sixty quilts in a two year period. It exhausts me to even write about it. She took each of the quilts and quilted them, one different from the next. It is really helpful in seeing how the different choices of quilting motifs would set off the piecing and secondary patterns on each quilt. She is brilliant. While this book is a great one to thumb through, it is beyond me at this point. She does include the patterns for each of the twelve quilts in the book. The two cookbooks are at opposite ends of the spectrum. The French Laundry Cookbook, by Thomas Keller, is just for grins. I don’t cook like that and as a result, we don’t eat like that. But it makes a person hungry to thumb through it! However the Light & Healthy Cookbook (from America’s Test Kitchen) is how I cook and eat. Last night I made the Turkey, Lime and Tequila Chili and it was excellent. Finally, I grabbed the biography of Mary Cassatt because she is one of my favorite impressionist artists. I have seen a number of her paintings at different exhibits and there is a tiny print of one that hangs in my sewing space, making me happy each time I see it. I’m looking forward to reading more about her.

Ok, moving forward. Playing with fabric took some of my time yesterday. I recently ordered some Michael Miller solids to use in the Michael Miller Challenge, sponsored by Modern Quilt Guild. I have a few ideas brewing but luckily this project isn’t due until November so I have some time. At least I have the fabrics ready to go.

I ordered the solids from Hawthorne Threads and while I was on their site, I also ordered a scrap bag. I love these. It is an inexpensive way to add a few pieces to the scrap bin (because I really, really don’t have enough scrap.) Most of the pieces I received are wonderful. Here is a sampling of them (a few have already been cut into so aren’t included here.)

See that pretty piece of Amy Butler’s, second from the left? To the right of that is one of Jeni Baker’s prints. They are all lovely and will be used here and there.

I did receive one piece that I know I will not use. I haven’t ever watched Downton Abbey so I have no affinity for this fabric.

Does it speak to any of you? It has a little Christmas holly on it. The piece measures out at 16″ wide, so just under 1/2 yard. If anyone thinks they would like to use it, leave me a comment and I will happily send it to you. If more than one person asks for it, I will just choose a name randomly. Hope someone can use this so it doesn’t just live sadly on my shelf. Claim it as yours!

Finally, I did accomplish some sewing. Check out these orange Dutchman’s Puzzle blocks. They will be the orange row for September on my Classic Stitches BOM project. These blocks are so bright – they will add a good splash of color to the quilt. Hoping to finish these up this week.

That is my weekend in a nutshell. A lot of nutshells actually. This post just got longer and longer! 🙂 Hoping for the air to clear and feeling eternally grateful for the nearly 10,000 firefighters that are battling active fires in California right now.

Linking to Molli Sparkles’ Sunday Stash which is hosted by Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts this week and to Freemotion by the River.