Fabric in My Mailbox

Amanda sent me some fabric she didn't think she'd use. I'm not sure what I'll use it for yet either, but it's always good to have options! Recognize the middle red one? She used in one of my Christmas ornaments last year.

Birthday Fabric

For my birthday, my favorite aunt sent me a package full of fun surprises including sewing supplies!

The fabric on the left will be perfect for my rainbow project:

I was most excited about these awesome pins:

I previously owned no decorative pins, and I had no idea they came in so many cute shapes! You can see them modeled on my new pin cushion!

Folding Fabric

I had a minor fabric disaster. The hanging closet organizer I use to store my fabric ripped. Instead of removing the fabric first, I tried to take the whole thing down with the fabric in it. Naturally, all the fabric fell out in the process. I purchased a new organizer in the same style, but the new one is fabric instead of plastic, so hopefully it won't rip. It is not my ideal way to store fabric, since the weight of the fabric makes the shelves sag, but it works well for the space I have. I spent a lot of time refolding fabric so it would fit in two columns, but I was even able to fit in some additional fabric.

Julie's Quilt Progress

Julie sent me fabric so I could make her a quilt like the one I made for dad. She got a bit overwhelmed by Joann's though, so while she sent enough fabric, she didn't send enough different fabrics for the pattern. Thus we began a long process of me selecting coordinating fabrics I thought she might like and sending pictures for her approval. I'm glad I did because her choices surprised me.

I pulled these three from my stash, the blue and green from quilt block #46:

I picked up these at Joann's:

And we ended up with this:

Not all fabrics are represented equally, but here's the first set of blocks:

Julie's Quilt Fabric

This is the fat quarter bundle Julie picked out for the quilt she requested using the jelly roll quilt pattern.

Quilt Request

My sister liked the quilt I sent my dad so much, she wanted me to make one for her. Since I got the jelly roll I used on clearance, I wasn't going to be able to use the same fabrics. I told her to pick out some fabric and I make her a quilt with the same pattern. Pictured above with Tyco is the fabric she's sending.

Jelly Roll Disappointment

Back in May, I bought a jelly roll for $5. I'm glad I didn't spend more than that, because it definitely wasn't worth it. There were 2 strips each of 10 different fabrics. Jelly rolls are supposed to be 2.5" wide. I don't know if it's all jelly rolls, or just the one I bought, but the measurements on this one were severely lacking. All the strips were about 42" long, but most were not uniformly 2.5" wide. I noticed right away that one print tapered off, but the same problem occurred on several others that I didn't notice until now. Even on the ones that didn't taper severely were only 2 3/8" in some spots.

I decided not to use the butterfly fabric, so that left me with eighteen 42" strips. I was cutting 5" rectangles, so I should have been able to cut 16 rectangles from each print, or 8 from each strip, for a total of 144 rectangles. I ended up with 77. I was able to cut a full 16 from only 2 prints. Two prints only yielded 3, and 2 others yielded only 4.

The one I didn't use, the too narrow pile, and the actual rectangles:

At least I'll have a lot of scraps for the back or another project.

If I cut 15 rectangles from each of these 5 fabrics, I'll make up the difference that I need.

Fortunately I had a decent number of fabrics that coordinate. I just hope they blend well enough.

Stash Explosion

Back in February of 2009, I wrote about my fabric stash. I just realized how considerably it's grown since then. I started out using this closet organizer as way to sort out separate projects. However, as I started purchasing more fabric, it has become my primary storage. Check out the before picture - quite the contrast! I just cleared out the very bottom cubby when I started on Zack's t-shirt quilt. I've also got a couple piles on the desk that can be relocated there. I've been on an organizing binge lately, so I've decided I won't purchase any more fabric unless I need it to complete a project that's already in the works.

Birthday Fabric

Amanda sent me 2 yards of this Heidi Grace print for my birthday. I love it! She must be psychic because it is one I always look at longingly and hope it goes on sale for 50% off (so I hope she used a coupon!) I am excited to make something with it, possibly multiple somethings. Birds, trees, ladybugs, flowers, hearts - it just has so many cute things combined!

Crazy Nine Patch Prep

I have wanted to do a crazy nine patch for a while, but it stayed on the back burner as I struggled with color combinations. My original plan was to incorporate all six primary and secondary colors into one block, but that wasn't working. These are the two color pallets I came up with, entirely from my stash:



I'm starting out with 12.5" squares. These fabrics have all been folded a while, so it required a lot of ironing. They look so nice together like this, I hope the blocks end up looking nice too!

The blocks
The blue quilt
The orange quilt

Surprise Fabric in the Mail!

Yesterday I found a package waiting for me when I got home! My aunt had sent some Christmas goodies, along with this fabric. She had purchased it in October for my 11 year-old cousin. Apparently he had wanted to make something, but this wasn't the "right kind" of material. Well I love the eyes! I am looking forward to coming up with something fun to make with it. I also love the blue print, which is flannel.

Christmas Fabric

For Christmas, my mom sent me the results of her Joann's shopping extravaganza. The Joann's near my parents house clearly has a different selection of fabric, as I've only seen the green leaf print at my Joann's. I also received thread, quilt batting, and machine needles, all of which will come in handy for the quilts I plan to start in 2010. Thanks Mom!

Treasure!

Oh my goodness, joy to my little world! One of my quilting co-workers gave me these lovely fabric pieces for my Cathedral Window quilt! Since Joann's didn't have any jelly rolls or charm packs, I asked her yesterday if she knew if the local quilt shops carried them before I drove from shop to shop in search of them. She provided helpful input on what each shop might have, and then today she surprised me with these pieces! I am eternally grateful! This will be so immensely helpful, I am inexplicably appreciative of her thoughtfulness and generosity!

I've finally decided to join all the Cathedral Window blocks together. I've joined them in pairs and I was planning on filling in those windows before joining them further, as that would make finishing the windows much easier, but that limits my placement options. So I'll be busy this weekend!

My Stash

Sew, Mama, Sew is asking about stashes, and since I've only recently started accumulating a stash, I'd thought I'd do a post to see if it helps me organize mine.

I used to only buy what I needed for a quilt, but now that I have more time to sew, I frequently buy a bit more than I need. And now if I see something I like without having a project in mind, I will buy at least a yard. I always wash it right away and iron it. I would love to be able to sort by color, but in a two bedroom apartment where I share space with the computer, there's not enough room to organize all the bins I'd need, so I sort by size.

The medium-sized (fat quarters to a couple yards) pieces of my stash are stored in this basket:


I also have another basket for odd stash pieces, such as clothes that will be recycled. The tiny, truly scrap pieces go in this drawer:


The other drawers hold various sewing/crafting accessories. When my husband's clothes got too heavy for this plastic closet organizer, I started using it to sort out various projects:


Right now, this is my favorite print in my stash, but I'm getting down to the very last of it.


Currently I'm working on a quilt block project to use up some of my smaller pieces, and I'm planning to try string piecing and start a cathedral window quilt to make further use of small pieces.

The Quilt Block Project

In the summer of 2008, I decided to start a new quilt. All my quilts so far feature repeating patterns, and I wanted to do something that would incorporate blocks of various designs. I found this fabulous multi-colored fabric on clearance at Joann's and bought the rest of the bolt (a little over 3 yards) to use for the back of the quilt because it would go so well with so many colors. I started out trying to make each block out of my stash, but quickly realized I would need to purchase at least some solid colored fabrics if I wanted to use up my scraps and have the blocks be color-coordinated. I originally planned to make 12-15 blocks, but quickly got carried away, so now I have enough for 2 quilts! Future posts will each feature a block, and you can also see them rotating in my Flickr badge.