Fabrics and boxes

Hi everyone! I'm so happy to see you all again! I bet you thought I fell off the planet, didn't you? Nope, things just got very, very busy around here.  We moved 2-1/2 weeks ago, I started my new job 2 weeks ago, and students started classes 4 days ago. Which all means that we are still surrounded by paper and boxes, but at least I get to leave it behind for a while every day. Why does unpacking take longer and make more mess than packing up does? And if I labeled all the boxes, why can't I find anything?

So, I haven't done any actual sewing, but I really missed blogging and I just wanted to say hi again. There are a few fabric-related things, though! I've been unpacking and putting my fabric away, so at least I've gotten to touch fabric.  Plus, check this out:

This small niche is in the wall of my sewing room, and the fabric bolts fit perfectly in it! It's like this area was built just for them.  And just so you know, those are only about 3 or 4 yards apiece, mostly for backings.  No full bolts here!

Other than that, I've bought these fun pieces to add to the fabrics on the shelves, mostly because they are bright and happy:

These yards are from Good Day by Me and My Sister and I got them from Fat Quarter Shop.  You know, sometimes I just can't resist those emails, especially when it's raining and gross outside.  And these are really pretty ones, so I couldn't think of a good reason to hold back.

And one other bit of new fabric:

Cute aqua fat quarters from Shabby Fabrics.  I know I shouldn't buy fat quarters, but they look so good together.  And can't you just see them in a lovely aqua and white quilt? Maybe baby-sized?  Okay, just me then!

So there we are-- some fabrics put away and some new fabrics soon to join them. We're loving our new home here in Baltimore and getting settled.  I actually hope to do some sewing this weekend, just as soon as I find the power cord for my machine.  They got separated somehow, but I'm sure the cord is down there in the sewing room, probably stuck in a random box.

Everybody have a good weekend! It's the end of August, so you know that cool weather can't be far behind, and then comes the season that shall not be named, so we need to enjoy the bright sunshine while we can!

Leaves of fabric

Hi everyone!  How was your week?  Mine was very, very busy, but now the sewing room is painted.  Yay!  Today I am planning to put up the design wall in there, and maybe, if I am very ambitious, put together the new storage unit.  After that the boxes get emptied!  I probably won't be that ambitious until next weekend, but you have to have goals, right?

You may have noticed that it is no longer summer; it has actually become autumn.  You may have missed this because the temperatures are still in the 80s and 90s, but really--it's fall.  It happens that I love the fall, maybe because my birthday is the first day of autumn.  Really!  So today I wanted to show off some great fall-themed fabric I recently got for a special project coming up at the end of October: 

Don't those look yummy?  Don't know why this looks like night time, because it wasn't, but those fabrics shine anyway.  These are from the Into the Woods line from Paint Brush Studios, which is a sponsor of this special project.

The camera doesn't really capture how pretty these fabrics are.  The leaf print on top has very rich colors and I wish I had gotten more of it.  The others are also really rich and remind me a lot of the colors we'll soon be seeing on the leaves if it ever cools down.

These are great fabrics, but for my project I also added in a few of the Paint Brush solids, just to add a little dash of spice:

This is the print I'm going to use the most of, along with the solids.  Two golds and a purple!  Purple adds so much to fall prints and quilts, although many lines of fall fabric leave out purple.  Most leaves don't turn purple, but check out how the purple mums enhance the yellow and maroon ones:

Okay, the maroon ones aren't quite open yet, but don't the purple, yellow, and green look nice together?  These are on my new deck and are making me insanely happy.  I have flowers again!

So that's the sneak peek at an upcoming project!  Look for the completion of this coming up the week of October 24th. There are some other people involved too, and I've heard a rumor that there *may* be some giveaways. Everybody loves those, right? 

Hope you're all getting in some fun stitching and getting to pet some pretty fabric.  If we all make things from fall prints, will the weather get the hint?

Sharing at Sunday Stash with Molli Sparkles.

Shopping spree

Whew!  I am done with exams!  I feel like I've just come up from underground.  Anything interesting happen while I was buried under paper in my office?

Now that I don't have to drive 40 to 45 minutes one way twice a day (to go 11 miles!  Midwesterners, this is why people on the East coast are so cranky), I am so looking forward to getting in some serious sewing time.  I've already decided that there will be no "dining room" table in the condo for a while.  I'm getting fabric out and leaving it out and making a mess. 

Because I was reading approximately 100,000 papers, I did almost no sewing this week!  No wonder I feel antsy!  Well, I did make a small bag, but then I forgot to take a picture of it before I gave it away to a friend.  All I have a picture of is the fabric:

Believe me, it turned out to be a lovely little triangular bag.

So that I could maintain my sanity, I occasionally took a small break and bought some fabric.  Okay, maybe I took a few more breaks than I should have, because I bought a bunch of stuff.  Here are some of the best treasures:

Rainbow fat quarters!  Those are sure to cheer anyone up.

These are some Allison Glass fat quarters that were on sale, along with another set that I thought were pretty.  I have a bunch of the Moda 12-pack patterns and I think it might be fun to make some of those up this summer.  Because, you know, I don't have enough projects that need finishing.

I also bought these random fat quarter stacks:

The two on the left are Angela Walters fabric and the other is just some happy-looking batiks.  No real plans for these, but they were too pretty to resist.

I also got this kit from Craftsy:

It came with a pattern, but I really just got the kit for the fabric.  Look at all those yummy polka dots! It was on clearance, too, so it was a really good value.

I also got some more hand dyed fabric and Lara Bucella's new book, Crafted Applique, but I didn't get a picture of either of those.  Maybe I'll use them together! I've only paged through the book so far, but there are some fun projects in there.

So I've pretty much used up my fabric budget for a while, but I got lots of fun fabric to play with. That's my plan for the weekend, after I take a nap.  I also plan to get some potted plants for this little tiny patio, just to make it a little more cheerful.

Hope you get some stitches in!  Have a nap first--they're fun!

Linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Is it May or October?

Hello, all! What a lovely fall day we're having! It's very windy, though. I know the calendar says May, but we have a freeze warning for tonight, so someone better tell the weather to get in line. It's not listening to me, but one of you may have better luck.

On a much happier note, I've finished just about everything that has an immediate deadline, and the weather has been crummy, so I had a little time to sew so far this week. Here's what I started with:

This is what I'm calling the green crumb block. Turns out that I have very few actual scraps of dark green, though I do have many fat quarters and half yards.  Why cut those up to make "scraps?" So I used what I had, which was pieces that are not exactly strings, but not crumbs, either. I'm calling this a tile block. I was much more comfortable with this than with actual crumb blocks, so I bet we'll be seeing this style again really soon.

Of course, the tile block then became a star block:

Pinned to the tree!

Okay, I think that looks great! Since I had some time, I kept going and the star block became a framed block:

Lilacs in the background!

This looks a little fuzzy, but it isn't out of focus, that's just the fabric. I think it looks fabulous.  I am really liking these blocks.

Of course, I had to get a "family picture" of all these blocks, too:

This was as good as it got with all the wind. I think they look wonderful together. Can't hardly wait to start putting them together!

Finally, I have to tell everyone about the major score I made this past weekend. My friend Renee and I went to Nancy's Notions warehouse sale, which is always a great time. We had a blast! In the clearance area they had "grab bags" that were marked down to $1.49, so I grabbed five of them.  Here's what was inside:

More than 7 yards of fabric! Those big pieces are all at least a quarter yard, with most bigger. One of them is more than half a yard.  This kind of thing never happens to me, so I just had to share!

Hope everyone has a good and productive week, and I hope the weather is better where you are!

Linking to Let's Bee Social and WIP Wednesday, plus Scraphappy Saturday.

Goofing off

Hello everyone! I am beyond happy to report that spring is arriving here in southeastern Wisconsin! All of a sudden we have temperatures in the 40s and rain in the forecast. It's like someone flipped a switch. And now we've even changed the clocks and sprung ahead, so it won't be long before we can burn the long underwear and break out some shorts. Which around here is usually when it hits about 50, so fingers crossed for this week!

I have been playing with fabric and making up some things even though I know I should be working on some half-finished projects that are still laying around here. (Remember the "frozen" quilt? Still in pieces!) One thing I made was another crumb block:

These are really, really hard for a traditionalist like me. A few people told me to start with a shape, so this one started with that blue triangle, not that you can tell. I am having a terrible time being comfortable with this method and I'd swear I heard my grandmother telling me to "straighten up that seam." I think one of my problems is that I associate the odd seaming and general "wonkiness" with sloppy work. But I have decided to go ahead and make some more of these and maybe--maybe--use them as centers for the sawtooth stars that Angela has going at soscrappy. Maybe.

Anyway, after that, I made a little bitty blue heart block to go with the mini red block:

Could use better pressing! These are both 4-1/2 inches right now. What am I going to do with them? Who knows?

During the big clean out of the the fabric closet, I found a bunch of stuff that I hadn't seen in a long time, including a whole bunch of blue, yellow, and green charm packs from various related Moda fabric lines. I decided to mix them all together and just stitch them into a simple quilt center just as they are, without additional cutting or fussing about it:

I arranged it sort of like a really chunky Boston Common pattern. The last two rows will be blue all around. I see now that I should probably separate out the light/medium blues and the medium/dark blues, just so it looks a bit better. I plan to stitch this all up and use it to practice quilting, then it will become a donation quilt. Some small person will love it.

And here's another one that was also hidden in the closet and is just getting stitched randomly:

I honestly have no idea where this came from!  I'm pretty sure someone gave up on it and gave it to me. It was in a project box with the Birds in the Air blocks all finished and trimmed, along with a bunch of extra fabric:

There were 36 of the Birds blocks, plus a bunch of greenish HSTs, some strips, and some yardage. I know for sure I did not make these. The fabric is grayed and is nothing I would have chosen at any point. Even when I was using a lot of Thimbleberries patterns I substituted brighter, clearer fabrics. Also, all of the blocks measure 4-1/2 inches but there are inconsistencies that would have made me crazy, like someone didn't bother to align the ruler and just plopped it on the block and trimmed. But they are ready to stitch, so who cares at this point? As long as the HSTs aren't next to each other, I think any problems will be hard to spot.

 

These are the selvages, so it is past time for this to be made up and go to a good home. Again, some tiny human will like it a lot, I'll bet. Any ideas from anyone out there what this was supposed to be?  I checked the website and there is nothing remotely similar and no pattern that I can find.

So, I've been goofing off and not focusing on my projects! But I think it's still working out okay. Hope you are having some fun this week too. And I hope it's warm where you are!

Linking to Linky Tuesday,  Fabric Tuesday, and Let's Bee Social.  Come join the party!

Almost there!

Hi all! We have definitely taken a turn toward fall here. It flirted with freezing this weekend, but I don't think we actually made it to that marker. It was rainy and cold outside all weekend, and there were apparently a great many very important college football games, because that's what was on our TV constantly. Can you guess what I was doing instead?

Well, I was working on this quilt, which I will definitely finish this week:

That's one section of Burgoyne Surrounded. Doesn't it look good? There are 4 sections, and they are going together quickly. The main thing I have to do now is figure out the border. The border is pieced to finish the trails in the blocks and involves "partial" 9 patches. A little weird, but it shouldn't be hard. I love how they look together here, but can I just say that Kona cottons, while they come in a lot of colors and are very pretty, are so thready that I just don't want to use them again? Seriously, these pieces lost threads everywhere. It's not that bad when you mix one solid with prints, but all of these solids together are like a thread bomb. Can't they just charge a tiny bit more per yard--like 25 cents or so-- and use better fabric? 

[Deep sigh.]

One of the other things I did this weekend was go fabric shopping. It was great. There is so much pretty stuff out there right now. I got this small pack of Elementary fabric by Moda:

It's so pretty! No idea what I'm going to do with it, but I think one of those browns could just become an Odd Fellow's block. And I usually don't like text prints, but I love these. Either one would be a great backing, too. I'm going to have to go back and get some yardage before it's gone.

I found some gray fabric for the paper pieced projects, too.

Not a lot of choices beyond the solids, but they'll make a nice squirrel and raccoon. I only got the small pieces because I know it will be hard for me to use them up.

Speaking of those paper-pieced projects, here is the fabric I pulled out for the Halloween one:

I can't wait to start working on this one, just as soon as Burgoyne is finished. And look what scraps I found for the RSC:

I was so worried that I wouldn't have anything to use this month, but I'm almost there! There is just enough of the gray leaves on black for an Odd Fellow, and the colored dots will be enough to make a 9-patch.

On a completely different topic, Vicki Welsh is hosting a Drunkard's Path quilt-along on her blog. I may be crazy, but I'm thinking of quilting along. Drunkard's Path is another one of those that has been on my list for a long time. I'll be thinking hard about it while I finish Burgoyne. [On a side note, would anyone out there in blogland be willing to point me towards directions for putting those buttons and such on the sidebar? I need directions for non-technical types. Thanks!]

So that's what I'll be doing this week! It's midterm here also, so there's a lot of "real" work to be done too. And it's our anniversary Thursday, so we'll work in some time for a small celebration, too. Should be fun!

Linking to Linky Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, WIP Wednesday, and Let's Bee Social. Happy sewing!