new fabric acquisitions

I went on a bit of a fabric bender recently, partly due to being hotel-bound on one of our rainy Hawaiian days. I bought:

the new release of Flea Market Fancy from Hawthorne Threads,

some yummy Japanese goodies from the sweet and fabulous Ayumi,

sunny yellow gingham, a japanese floral, Lecein yarn dye stripes (possibly my favorite fabric ever, and impossible to find lately), and Echino peacocks from Alewives,

and newsprint and hexagon dot Suzuko Koseki fabrics from BlijeOlifantje.

I also received an unexpected something from Zip It. Jennie is sponsoring the Zakka Style Sew Along and offered to provide the 20" zipper for the zip organizer I'm making. Imagine my surprise when I received an envelope full of zippers (a bunch of them didn't make it out of my sewing room for the photo) instead of just one! I've been ordering all of my zippers from her for awhile now, and will soon be ordering more I'm sure. See those metal YKK zippers? She's going to be listing them in her shop any day now. I love them!

I'm hoping these will get used very soon and not just get absorbed into my stash. I certainly have enough ideas of what I want to make!

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The BasicGrey pattern giveaway is closed, and the winners have been notified via email.

miscellany

I've been on the lookout for the release of Cloud9 Fabric's Miscellany line for weeks. As soon as it hit Sew Fresh Fabrics on Wednesday, I had it in my shopping cart. And just two days later it was here at my house! Crazy fast shipping! I still can't believe how quickly it arrived.

Yum, yum, yum. And the prints are even better in person. Trust me. They're a must-have.

I couldn't resist using it right away, so I made a new project tote for a birthday gift out of the Candy Trees and Stacked prints. A twin is winging its way into my etsy shop as well.

Denyse Schmidt at JoAnn Fabrics

First, thank you for all of the nice comments yesterday! The giveaway for 101 Patchwork Projects is still going on, so pop over here to enter if you haven't had a chance yet.
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If you are a fabric junkie like me, then you know Denyse Schmidt has just released a new line at Jo-Ann Fabrics of all places! Seeing how Alaska stores always seem to get things late (or get left out of the fun completely) you can imagine how thrilled I was to find all of the prints yesterday. I showed some restraint and only got 15 of the prints instead of the 21 available. The quality is fantastic! Super exciting.

I'm really trying to use even little bits of new fabric as it comes in, so this morning I tried a new pattern with it-- the Keyka Lou inset zipper pouch.



There were quite a few pieces to cut, but once that was done it sewed up very quickly. The zipped opening does end up a bit small for my liking, but it's still a great pouch. Next I'll try the clutch to see if I like that size better.

some small things, and your favorite fabric shops

My recent order from Wondrous Woven Fabrics. Yum-o!

Thanks to all who commented on my last post to share your favorite fabric shops. Here are the ones that you suggested :

Hawthorne Threads
Quilt Home
eQuilter.com
Fabric Shack
Fort Worth Fabric Studio
Canton Village Quilt Works
The Quilted Castle
Nido
Sew Fresh Fabrics
Delta Patchwork
Hancocks of Paducah
Burgundy Buttons
Keepsake Quilting
Connecting Threads
Fabric Worm
J&O Fabrics

And the list from my previous post:

Pink Chalk Fabrics
Sew Mama Sew
Purl Soho
Lily Bella Fabrics
Fabric Shoppe
Wondrous Woven Fabrics

In an effort to get out of my sewing slump and actually cut the fabrics that continue to pile up on my shelves, I've been doing some smaller projects this week.

We have a new table runner:

I'm trying to figure out the best recipe for a flat bottom pouch:

And even though Nova has essentially ruined it for everyone with her luscious pile of goodies, I'm working on my Umbrella Prints Trimming challenge projects. Here's a sneak peek of my progress so far:

You should check out the flickr pool of everything that is being made with these itty bitty scraps. Inspiring!
What are you up to this weekend? I've fully commited now to doing the full Mayor's Marathon in June instead of the half marathon, so I'll be running my tush off in the morning and hoping I still have something left in my legs for a day of spring skiing. Have a good one!

a note about buying fabric

The mailman just dropped this lovely bundle of fabrics on my doorstep. I've placed many orders from Kathy at Pink Chalk Fabrics over the years and I plan to make many more. Some of these fabrics were on sale, many were out of stock in other shops, and others are simply stash builders. The solids on the top are part of the new Monthly Solids Club that Kathy has started. I love that there are Free Spirit solids in this mix, as I've never bought them before.

I mention Kathy specifically because she is the absolute best when it comes to customer service. I've chimed in on a couple of discussions recently on flickr regarding the atrocious packaging from a certain online fabric mega-store. I've only ordered from them twice, but have been appalled at the way they run their business. The fabric I've received has been incorrect, rolled into a ball, and shipped in a trash can liner. I've heard similar stories from many others. Sure, they've replaced my missing fabric and let me keep the wrong ones, and their prices are often hard to resist. But I want to receive the fabric I've ordered the first time. I want the fabric, which I've spent a lot of money on, to be packaged properly. That's why I have made a commitment to buy from smaller businesses like Pink Chalk Fabrics, and others who provide great customer service. This includes supporting my local quilt shops too. Some of my favorites:

Pink Chalk Fabrics
Sew Mama Sew
Purl Soho
Lily Bella Fabrics
Fabric Shoppe
Wondrous Woven Fabrics

Which online fabric shops do you love? We all spend a lot on our fabric, so I think we should spread the word about stores that treat us right and give them our business.

next up...

Since I've been able to resist joining any new flickr swaps (and there are some REALLY good ones going on right now!), I'm rewarding myself by starting work on a big quilt for our family. I pulled my favorite fabrics-- the ones I've been hoarding, like mono pez and Uptown-- and cut them into 5.5 inch squares. I plan to add a few other prints, linen, and shot cottons to this current mix too.

I originally thought I'd do something with half sqaure triangles. But I think a very simple patchwork quilt is what I want the most. Who knows what will happen once I start sewing things together?

It feels good to create again, and even better to be creating things for my family. I've read from a lot of bloggers in the past few weeks that their focus for the year will also be on sewing for their own homes and family. What about you? What kinds of projects are you working on?

back in the saddle

I've been in a total sewing funk. I totally fell out of my groove once the holidays were done. After not even setting foot in my sewing room for almost a week, I forced myself to go in and just do SOMETHING. Anything. And what could be better than overdue bee blocks?

The first are for Bee Liberated:

And these are for the do. Good Stitches charity bee:

I also just opened up a package of new fabric from Purl Soho, thanks to a couple of generous Christmas gift cards from family. (Thank you Rita!) There's Liberty! Nani Iro! Lecien stripes! And yes, even a bit of Greenfield Hill. I originally didn't plan to buy any of this new line. But then I felt like I needed those small prints, and they do not disappoint!

With all of this great new stuff, I think I feel some of my mojo returning... and just in time, because I've got things just itching to get done. Stay tuned!

feeling like a lucky duck

Today I received some super awesome mail from the Fabric Shoppe-- 5 yards of Meadowsweet 2, plus two really cute clothing patterns!

I won them when my name was picked during Amy's Quilt Blogger's Festival. So a big thank you to Amy and to the Fabric Shoppe! I hadn't seen these particular fabrics in person, and they are really beautiful. And looking at their etsy shop makes me want some more of their beautiful bundles. (After Christmas of course, when my fabric purchasing freeze is done!)

I also got an email from Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio yesterday saying I won a fabric package from her as well! I was picked to win the giveaway from the list of participants in the Quilter's Butt Challenge, which is sort of embarassing considering I sat on my butt more than even attempting to exercise. I must change that. Thanks Jacquie!

sometimes you get lucky

And was I ever lucky at one of my local quilt shops yesterday! I went in looking for a particular shade of shot cotton for Rob's quilt, and was really disappointed that it was sold out. So I checked the sale section and found these:

Technically, the pumpkins weren't in the sale section, but they were a good find considering I had looked online just hours earlier and couldn't find them. Claire had just asked if I could find more of the West Hill ponies in blue for a quilt I'm making for her bed. I told her it was probably going to be hard to do, so I was thrilled beyond belief to find two yards on that bolt. I'm in love with the Nicey Jane too. I never realized how cool the print is.

Cooper does not consider himself as lucky. It's embarassing to be driven around the neighborhood wearing powder blue fleece. But that's fall for you. I'll let him upgrade to the cool plaid Patagonia snowsuit when the weather gets a bit colder. 

kids and batik

I took a break in my personal crafting this week to do a quilt project with Avery's Girl Scout troop. I first saw the technique here on Swallowfield, referencing this tutorial. It's pretty awesome.

Since we only had an hour and a half to do this project, I prepped all of the fabric by taping it onto a piece of waxed paper and posterboard. The girls did the glue designs, then went on to another activity while the glue dried. Since we didn't have 12 hours to let the glue dry, I blasted it with a hair dryer until it was dry to the touch. It seemed to work fine.

When it came time to paint, we had the girls do it in 2 separate groups. One got warm colors (red, orange, and pink). The other got cools (blue, green, and yellow). After each group was done, I put each set into one big garbage bag for the car ride home so that the warm and cool paints wouldn't mix (or ruin my upholstery). They dried overnight in the garage, and I put them through a wash of synthrapol and dried them this morning.

I'm still thinking about how these will get pieced. The finished quilts will be donated to the NICU at Providence Hospital, so we can make at least 2 small ones.

I'm definitely going to do this again with the kids and try my own designs.

quilt auditions

I have more time for dreaming up quilts than I do for making them. Here are some fabrics that I've pulled for upcoming projects.

Not sure whether to use this combo:

Or this one:

What do you think? I quilted Cooper's stacked coin playmat this past weekend, and although it's probably the worst quilting job I've ever done (he was on my lap for half of it, I forgot to lower the walking foot a few times, etc.) I'm glad it's almost done.