Fabric Love

I spend way more time than I probably should online looking at blogs, flickr, and etsy in search of inspiration. One thing I have always loved are those pictures of big stacks of fabrics. I always think they look yummy and they just sit there begging to be turned into something great. Well now I have my own, so I can stop drooling over all of yours.



Isn't that a pretty stack. There are several different projects represented in there. But it makes me smile and I want to just sit and look at it all day. But I can't because I have a plan for this weekend. My plan is to get packages ready to send out for March for a couple of bees, make a sample block or two, and get caught up on my paintbox quilt along blocks. I know you are dying for me to tell you a little more about the stack right. Well first up I have some fabrics for my month of the spiderweb bee. I finally decided that I am going to use all orange and pink fabrics and I am going to go with white kites because I think in this case the high contrast will be nice. I do have a little twist to how I am going to ask my bee friends to do when making their blocks but I'll tell you all about that later. I have to keep some of the mystery after all March is still two weeks away.



Here is what I have gathered so far. The top three of course need no introduction they are from the flea market fancy line. I also have some of the bouquet print in the orange on it's way to my house that I plan to add to this group as well. In the second row from left to right we have Anna Marie Horner Cathedral in Zina, Kaffe Fassett Aboriginal Dot, something from my moms local quilt shop that just says David textiles, a fat quarter my mom gave me but I have no idea what it is, and then five coordinating prints from Alice Kennedy's Strawberry Fields line. The back row from left to right is Paula Prass Woodland Delight Bloom, Patty Young Flora and Fauna Dandelion in fuchsia, Monaluna Mingle in tangerine, Jennie Morrison California Dreaming Sidewalk Carnations, Ta Da Dots in Orange, Hope Valley Fiesta, Sandi Henderson Meadowsweet Grand Foliage, Ta Da Dots Raspberry. At first I was a little disappointed at the brightness of color in the Hope Valley and AMH Cathedral but after setting all of the fabrics together on the table I think they give a bit of depth to the color range. But I am noticing that this group may be lacking a bit in the orange department so I might have to find a few more orange fabrics to sneak in there. Other pieces in the first start are for my month in the Fussy Cut Bee but I still have some weeding out to do there so that will be for another post. Hope you all have a happy Valentine's Day and for those of you in the States lucky enough to be off on Monday for President's day enjoy the long weekend and extra sewing time.

Hidden Treasure

Back in December I spent way more time then I should have surfing the Internet and checking out amazing blogs during Sew Mama Sew's giveaway day. I was lucky enough to win a few things during that time. When the packages arrived I ripped into them super excited to see my winnings. Solidia sent me three wonderful fat quarters that I tucked into my fabric bag thinking I would play with them later. It was a nice selection in "Christmas" colors and I thought I would do something for next year with it, since I was already way behind. This week I have spent a lot of time online looking at fabrics and have been lucky enough to add some great pieces to my collection. Of course you have already seen I treated myself to some pink seeds. In addition to that I have some much desired Erin Michael's Lush fabric on the way to me thanks to Dorrie one of my bee buddies who works for a fabric store and just happened to stumble across some forgotten bolts in a storage unit. Another bee buddy of mine was lucky enough to score big with some flea market fancy in what I will admit is my favorite of all the prints. Yes I love this print even more than the seeds hard to believe I know but there is something about the bright orange and gray combo that makes me happy. Anyway thanks to my bee buddies and their kindness I was able to get some great deals on some amazing fabrics. In my online search this week I discovered that there are some prints from the Katie Jump Rope line that I'm also quite found of so I started looking around. Go figure it is another hard to find fabric line and people are already going crazy with some of the prints on ebay and etsy but I will not break again. Nope not going to pay some crazy amount for a tiny piece of fabric. I can do without. But I have digressed again.


As I was putting away my pink seeds tonight I took another look at the fabrics I had won. What!?! Is that...why yes it is. I have two fat quarters of Katie Jump Rope and a Joel Dewberry Lush fabric there. And that makes for a happy ending to a not so great day.

I'm Not Catholic but I Need to Confess

I have one cardinal rule when it comes to fabric and that is I will not pay more than retail for any fabric. I have a hard time even with that most of the time I wait for fabric to be on sale. I have been a huge fan of Flea Market Fancy since I first started quilting. Of course by that time it was already out of print and almost impossible to find. My favorite of all of the prints of course is the seeds which are especially coveted by most of my fellow quilters. This weekend I spent a lot of time on the computer looking for ideas for my own quilt for the Bee-Stitched bee since March is my month. I've narrowed it down to either something like this or like this. I've also been trying to get my fabrics and all together for my Spider Web Bee since March is also my month over there. And I kept looking at spider web quilts online trying to figure out what I am going to do about those kites in the middle. In the end I think I might just use white. I know I keep saying I don't like that look but the more I've looked at them I think the high contrast will look good especially since I am limiting the colors of the strings to pink and orange fabrics. Maybe I am telling you all of this to lessen the blow of what I am about to tell you next. As I was looking at all of these quilts for inspiration there was a ton of flea market fancy and I could always spot it. So just for giggles I did a search to see if any seeds had magically appeared out there on the world wide web. And would you believe it I found a fat quarter of pink seeds. Okay so this was my second choices as far as color way goes because I would love to have the orange seeds but the pink seeds are really great as well. Well I broke my one cardinal rule and paid $12 dollars for a fat quarter. Of course as soon as I hit the button I had buyers remorse but I've already done the math in my head 100 times over and have figured out how to fit this fabric into at least three quilts. Additional justification just because it makes me feel better is the fact that I didn't spend any of my "own" money I had a visa gift card still from Christmas. So I've forgiven myself for spending the money on something I really wanted and besides isn't that the real joy of Christmas gifts anyway, finding joy in what the person gives you.

Where do you get Inspiration

When I first became interested in quilting a little over a year ago now I spent tons of time online reading blogs and pouring over all of the advice. To afraid to actually cut into fabric and make something of my own. I came across this quilt that I was in LOVE with. I would look at it every two or three days and imagine making one of my own. At first I wasn't even sure I liked the fabric though I really liked the colors and knew it would match my master bedroom perfectly. A few months back I was happy to read a post on the original blog about how someone has asked for help and created a similar quilt with all of the credit being given to the original quilt. That made my heart sing because I have read tons of times on blogs about my fellow bloggers stumbling across replicas of their work with no credit being given. It has to leave a bad taste in your mouth which is why I try to always link back to original post and make sure even inspirational credit is given.


When Sarah posted this photo for the inspiration for her blocks for our bee-stitched group I thought I was dreaming. I had admired these two quilts for so long that I thought it was wonderful I was now going to have the opportunity to help create one. Here's the fabric that she sent.


In my blocks I really struggled because I felt like they needed more solids if they were going to be based around the original quilt designs. So I dug in my stash (it's pretty small still) and pulled out a Kona light tan (sorry I don't know the real name) to supplement the blocks. I like my second block a lot better than the first. The first one I made feels like something is missing to me but I'm not sure what it is. But then when I put the two side by side I think that I really like them together. So hopefully Sarah will too.


I am considering making one myself now with this collection. I think it still has the great colors of the original quilt and will match our bedroom well. And I think the patterns can be used in a minimal way that will flow well with the lines that I am looking for.

Flower in the Middle

I LOVE these blocks! Over in the Spider Web Bee it is Brioni's turn and she came up with one of the best solutions I have ever seen for hiding those kites that appear in the middle of Spider Web blocks. Fussy cut centers, can you believe it. Of course I am overly jealous because I am up next month and I have no idea what I am going to do for the middles of my blocks. I hate the way those kites look so I have to think of something. I'm open to any suggestions you guys have.



Tell me that flower isn't the cutest thing ever. I was really surprised to see how many colors were in the fabrics Brioni sent because in looking at her test blocks they looked super bright and full of orange and pink with just a hint of green. But the fabrics are actually slightly more muted then I thought and there was a lot of variety. Overall these blocks were much easier the second time around although I did learn that I was making a huge mistake. I realized that I had looked at the tutorial incorrectly and I had actually been lengthening my stitch instead of shortening it. Big OOPS on that one. So I went back over all of my seams with tighter stitches before I pulled off the paper backing.
My month is next and I am pretty sure I am only going to use pink and orange fabrics. And while I don't like the kites in the middle I am still considering using white so I get a lot of contrast. But I have about three weeks to figure it out so I guess we will see what I end up coming up with.

Take 2: Mellisa's Block

I have finished Mellisa's block for the Modern Tradition Bee. I even managed to turn everything the right way this time. Nothing like doing the first one right away making a few mistakes and then waiting till the eleventh hour to try again. Sorry Mellisa but I promise as soon as some of this snow melts I'll have it in the mail to you.

Here's what I learned:

• Things are not always easier the second time around. After my first attempt at this block going together pretty well I felt confident that the second time around I would be able to just whip it up. But it wasn't as easy as I thought. There is a lot of bulk in some of these seams where several things come together and even though I pressed and pressed it took me a long time to get everything to lay flat.
• I really like the addition of yellow to the orange and pink combo.
• It's fun to spend a whole day inside not doing chores and sewing. How do I make that a full time job?
  

Sew Day ur um Snow Day

When you live on the east coast of Virginia near the beach snow isn't really one of those things you think about much. I really enjoyed the two years we lived in Charlottesville, VA because of the snow but here in an area where no one owns a snow shovel and plows are pretty much nonexistent I think I'd prefer to stay inside out of the snow and away from the crazy people who are pretending to know how to drive. Here is what my backyard looked like a few hours ago and it hasn't stopped snowing since.


On a happier note the snow means I don't have to spend the day running around doing all the chores that normally consume my Saturdays and I get to sew instead. Leanne sent out some beautiful fabrics for her blocks for February. Luckily I received them before the snow hit. She sent each person different fabrics and overall I think she has more than 40 going into this quilt. She asked for log cabins and left the other specifics to us. She didn't necessarily want a light and dark side. She wasn't particular about where anything went she just asked that we let the fabric tell us what to do. I have to admit it wasn't hard. As soon as I saw the fabrics I received they made me happy. I've had them sitting out on the table since they came two days ago and this morning I just jumped right it. The first block I made I used the flow of the colors to determine the placement and it was great. All of the fabrics she sent just seemed to flow into each other.


I just couldn't resist snapping a picture of the finished blocks in the snow. They are so happy and against the bright white with natural light. Well what can I say I've always been a sucker for those pictures of finished quilts in snow cover trees and since this never happens here who knows when I will get to take another picture of some pretty quilt blocks on a snow covered porch. I know this quilt is going to look amazing when she is done and it makes me want to make one too. That's the only draw back to bees I have so far. With each little package I receive I see more fabric that is a must have and more quilt ideas that I'm not sure I will ever get to. Well I'm off to sew more but check back later I just might have a very productive day.