Sunday Stash and a Sweetie

I'm a wealthy fabric miser! I'm going to put my fabric in a pile, jump into it and do the back stroke like Scrooge McDuck. I bought some scraps from two etsy sellers and here are just my favorites from the two scrap packs. Which fabric is your favorite??? I love the Mocca in brown and red (fourth from the right in the first photo). It is the sister to the fabric I featured in last Sunday's stash (below) but I think I like it even more. Thoughts? Click on them to make them larger.

Oh, I also added a gratuitous photo of Gigi, but it's admissable because the fabric on her dress is so cute. Right? My mom bought it from Chicken Noodle in San Francisco. My mom also points out that if you enlarge it, the look on her face is the same as mine when I was a teen ager. Uh....what are you trying to tell me mom?

Wendy

Star Wall Hanging

This is a wallhanging I made for our living room years ago. It still looks pretty good, except the star points that appear as light purple were originally dark purple - they faded out with the light. Still looks ok! Enjoy.

Wendy

Sunday Stash and Sweets

I just joined the Sunday Stash group, so here is my stash for the day. First, a chocolate cake I made using a recipe from allrecipes.com. I made the dark chocolate frosting with a recipe from the back of the special dark cocoa powder box and my five year old sprinkled purple sugar on top. Today I also baked two loaves of wheat bread and two of white. The white ones went to the neighbors and we're eating on the wheat ones.

Here are a couple cool fabrics I found sorting through the piles today. I LOVE the large floral ones, the colors are so soothing. I don't know the name of the pattern or designer, so if you know, please share. I love the salt and pepper shakers one because I sort of collect salt and pepper shakers. Really, it's a very small and dwindling collection since my kids keep breaking them. The only thing I really collect is .... wait for it....fabric! But i'm sure you guessed that already. Cheers!

Wendy

The Quilt That Almost Broke Me

Of all the quilts that have tried to break me over the years, this one almost did it. I came very, very close to allowing it to win, but I stuck with it and eventually emerged triumphant! Nice try Grandmother's Choice block - picking on a poor beginning quilter! Sorry for the poor photo quality, I had to scan these in.

I made this quilt for my step daughter Heather's highschool graduation six years ago. I chose this block so I could transfer photos to fabric and feature them in the nice open center square. Being a self-taught beginning quilter, I just jumped right into all these billions of triangles. I also used whatever materials I felt like: recycled clothes, crappy cottons, linen, polyester, etc. Yeah....hmmm...probably going to regret that. But I just happily sewed along, by hand of course, and ended with 20 blocks consisting of 34 triangles each. I was tired but happy.

Happy, that is, right up until the point where I tried to make rows with the blocks. They were not all the same size. Hmmm, guess those bias edges stretched a bit. I measured them and, no joke, the smallest was FOUR INCHES smaller than the largest! Horrifying. So I almost let the quilt win. But I finally decided to pick a measurement from the middle and make everybody match that one. The larger ones I cut down a bit (without cutting off knots) and the smaller ones I added fabric to. When all was said and done, you can't really tell! Go ahead and enlarge the first one and see if you can tell where the mistakes are.

That's Heather on the left in the first one, me and her dad in the middle with a pie, and Heather and her paw paw in the last one. Enjoy!

Wendy

Material Monday

Why does gorgeous fabric have to be so expensive? Well, I guess compared to other hobbies, it's pretty cheap, but still! Why can't I get as much as I want without having to put some of the best ones back? Here is the fabric I got at the Honeybee Quilt Store yesterday - the cotton is on top and the two flannels are last. The green leaves and the pink/red/white are home dec fabrics and so were even more expensive ($15.50 per yard)! But I had to have them. I only got quarters of most of them, but the flannel birds I got 1.5 yards so I can use it as a baby quilt backing.

Click to enlarge and enjoy the soothing effect of staring at lovely fabric!

Wendy

Stars for the Australian Bushfire Quilt Project

Well, here are my two stars for the Bushfire Project. I've never made wonky stars before and it takes a bit of practice to get them wonky without the points being too skinny. Making these was especially hard for me as I don't own a machine! You have to cut through seams a lot to make them, which is no big deal for a machine sewer, but I kept cutting off my knots and having to go reknot my ends. But that's ok, because it's for a good cause. I will send them to Australia tomorrow!

Wendy

Sneak Peek of a new patriotic quilt

This is the beginning of a new quilt for a special boy I know. Click to see them larger.

I got out my quilt books and asked him what a fictional seven year old boy might like on his quilt (it's a surprise) and he chose Uncle Sam and flags. I was like, uh..are you sure that's what he'd want? He was very adamant that this fictional boy would not like pirates, cars or dogs, just patriotic blocks. Ok....so here we are! Can't you just hear the Star Spangled Banner playing behind old Unkie Sam there? I guess it's appropriate in our first year with a new president.

You'll notice one star is unintentionally wonkified. I was using Stars by Magic by Nancy Johnson Srebro, and the cutting directions were easy but the sewing directions were more complicated. I decided to leave it. What do you think?



My own little fabric hog/thief Gigi says hi, she kept trying to swipe my blocks while I was trying to get a photo! She swiped them about 30 times before I just let her do it. She's not naked, by the way, just can't see her diaper. Swiper no swiping!



Wendy