Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Pieces make units.

Pale green background with a sweet black fabric covered with tiny tulips

Remember the pattern I'm testing? I'm sewing flower pieces together now. I love the idea of having flowers around all year on a lovely quilt. Though this particular quilt will be going to someone else. I am already planning to make this pattern again with a twist of fabric colors.


It's going to be a flower one day ...
It's entertaining to me to see how we sew random bits of colorful fabric together making small units. Then these units get stitched to make lovely blocks. Blocks get stitched to make a flimsy quilt top. Oh the fun and joy of stitching!

I love the blue paisley



Sunday, May 17, 2015

Petting MY fabrics

I am testing a new quilt pattern. It's super cute and colorful. I can't show you the whole shebang yet. I'm posting mainly to show I am survivng the crazy tornado weather in central Oklahoma. I actually sent the kids and dogs into the shelter last week. I however stood on the carport watching the rotations and chatting with God. I pray a lot. I pray extra when it seems my little personal world will be sucked off of Planet Earth.

At least we had a lovely rainbow after one storm.
So back to stitching stuff ...
I cut the background fabric, then had the incredible pleasure of digging thru my stash to find over 20 different fabrics to test this flower pattern. This is why we have a stash!



Oh the joy of stacking up all the pretty colors! Admiring all the patterns :)


Petting fabric right here at home! It almost felt naughty. I know I'm not alone with this silly petting fabric thing. I need to dig into my stash more often. Go dig into your stash. Aren't they pretty? Now you know why you can't pass up a good deal of fabric.

Have a great day!!

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Fabric Alphabet Book

Do you remember cloth books? I made a few for my kids when they were little and wanted to make some for my first granddaughter Izzabelle. Actually I want to make one of each design I find, for each of my kids to have for their kids. Even though they don't have kids yet. Confused? Yeah, it happens.

I bombed at Hancocks. The Walmart fabric section was a bust. The local quilt store people just stared. So I went online and again hit brick walls. Enter Ebay ... I found some and realized I was probably not using the proper words to search the fabric websites. I did not expect this to be so hard.



I scored an Alphabet book panel (OK actually 5 panels - one for me and one for each of my kids). Panel being the operative word. The directions were easy enough plus I do have some memories of making these.



There is a place to put a child's name. Since I am making one per family, aka one for each of my kids to read to their future children, I decided to stitch MY child's name on the label. It wasn't a perfect solution but it works for me.



This book pleased me with its bright colors.



I'm an animal lover so all the critters are awesome.



I was super careful to match the pages in the proper order. That is what might trip people up on these projects.



I put a single layer of batting between the pages to give them body. I used batting scraps from other projects because I am psychotically frugal with some things. This might have a lot to do with the fact that I have started tagging certain debits as 'Fabric' to make it easier when doing our taxes.
Yes, FABRIC is its own expense category. I'm officially a fabric addict.

I would have chosen Unicorn for U but they stuck to actual animals. 

Thankfully I handle bookkeeping for our little homestead so my hubby is not privy to my habit. He sees my stash now and then. Its adorable because he actually encourages me to buy more fabric.
Such innocence.



There ya go! A washable, chewable, soft, fabric Alphabet book.

Back and front cover