True Confessions

I have a terrible secret that I feel I need to confess about my stash. When I discovered my online Quilty Buddies about 4 years ago, I didn't have a stash, except for the scraps leftover from my few projects, because I didn't know about stashes. I thought I would just go out and buy fabric for each new project. Then I learned that a quilt artist needs to have a stash, just as a painter needs a collection of paints. So I began picking up a lot of pieces of batik, in all colors, because I loved them, and then I added more batiks, washed with gold to use for my Women of the Bible blocks. Finally, I realized that I needed much more variety in pattern and color, so last year I joined the fat quarter bundle of the month club at Grandma's Attic Quilts online. Then this year I added Grandma's monthly African Indigo fabrics bundle of the month and a Flower of the Month half yard bundle program from Quilts Online. Somewhere along the way I also collected a lot of pieces of the State Birds fabrics (I am a birdwatcher), and a few large pieces for backings and borders for WIPs.


Now for the horrible confession; each month as these fabrics arrived, I oohed and aahed over them, then washed, dried and folded them and (gulp) stacked them in a basket on top of the basket hamper in the laundry room and thought, "some day I need to press these fabrics and organize them in my bedroom studio area." Now, my laundry room is really just a wide corridor from the back door into the kitchen; and as the stack grew higher and higher, I was afraid it might avalanche down on top of anyone who passed through (in the rural tradition of SE Colorado, most of my visitors come in by way of the back door into the sunporch, rather than through the front door.)

For the past few weeks I have been organizing my bedroom/quilt studio, getting rid of stuff that collects, even though no longer needed, digging out my also piled under sewing table, moving a chair that was also piled under, and replacing it with a set of plastic drawers and tubs so that the fabric and WIPs had a home other than the chair and sewing table. [I've also been cleaning and organizing the living room and office, but that story is not as entertaining.] So this became the perfect time to start pressing those fabrics that now had a place to move to. I've never liked ironing, but pressing small pieces of fabric for quilts is rather enjoyable, if done in small increments. So each evening I have been pressing a set or two off this Himalaya of fabrics and placing them in tubs. It's now more the size of Pikes Peak (see top photo), and will soon become a scandalous memory, and I can now riffle through the tubs to find the fabrics I need for a project, without having to stop and iron the darn things first.


The assemblage of hexagons on the table is my June 12 x 12, still a work in progress (another shameful confession.) Now that I am organized, I have no more excuse for not finishing it.


This is almost as satisfying a project as pulling nasty weeds and elm seedlings from the garden. I feel so good when it is done and I can see the difference.


My stash is being admired by Qwilty Cat, made from a cutter vintage quilt, that I found at a friend's antique shop back in the days when I only dreamed about making quilts.

The next object of organization is my cutting table which is hidden under Women of the Bible and Names of Jesus pattern notebooks and tracing paper PP templates, scraps from previous projects, fabrics that I am auditioning for Names of Jesus blocks, recently purchased glues of various types, and heaven knows what else. By the time I get this place organized it will be time to start all over again.

Rockies Won Wild Card!

After 13 innings of up/down/up, too many times to count, I am exhausted, but happy. In their habitual, win impossibly, style the Rockies beat the Padres by the skin of Matt Holliday's teeth (literally). Now I can relax until Wednesday afternoon, when the Rockies play the Phillies in Philadelphia. Wouldn't it be great if the Rockies won the World Series in the same impossible style? No, I refuse to think about it, it takes too much energy.

My vote:

Matt Holliday - MVP

Troy Tulowitski - Rookie of the Year

Now let's get back to rearranging my quilt studio and stash so I can do more quilting. The sewing and cutting tables had gotten so piled under I couldn't find any place to work. Moved out my old pressed back chair and bought more plastic drawers at WalMart today. The chair couldn't be seen for the In Progress projects piled on it so I decided it could be better used in the dining room.

New Fabrics for Stash plus Kaylee's photo

I just got two packages of fat quarters that I'm very pleased with. I ordered some fabrics to see if one would work as backing for my WOTB quilt when it is assembled. I got the name of the online shop from one of the other WOTB members:

http://www.thespiderswebfabricshop.com . She informed us that they had some nice fabrics with Christian symbols that we might like. They are quite attractive and good quality but I haven't decided yet whether I want to use one of them for this project.

I also received my monthly feature fabrics from Grandma's Attic and just love them. The are from the Kimiko's Garden Chinoiserie collection by Benartex and are based on the fine hand-painted porcelain of China in lovely blues and yellows. These deserve a really special project. So many ideas, so little time!

I wanted to share what the Easter Bunny brought me. This is a photo of my first greatgranddaughter Kaylee at 5 years. She is wearing the pretty dress that her Aunt Robyn gave her for Christmas and looks like a proper little lady, which she really has to much energy to be. Since Aunt Robyn only had a son, she enjoys getting dresses for Kaylee, and she sure has great taste. Kaylee will get a little brother around the end of August and we couldn't be more excited.

Discoveries and Surprises

I'm not sure how I managed to get the previous post on here twice. I guess hi speed internet access is so fast it doubles itself in the same time as dial up thinks about doing it.

While in the process of rearranging books on the new shelves, I found my old book "Crewel Embroidery" by Erica Wilson from the 70's. Since I signed up for Sharon B's Take A Stitch Tuesdays and discovered I couldn't work with a

regular embroidery needle any longer, I've decided that I will have to do my embellishment with wool yarn and crewel needles, which a slightly larger. This made me remember that at the time I started doing needlepoint, in the early 70's when I was first diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, and the doctors recommended some kind of needlework to keep my hands from getting too rigid, I had tried some crewel embroidery. I decided I enjoyed the needlepoint more so didn't continue with the crewel.

So, I started digging in my needlepoint storage drawers, and in the very bottom, scrunched up in it's plastic bag, I found my Jacobean style crewel embroidery piece. I don't know why I never did anything with it, it is rather nice looking, if I say so myself. I also found another kit which I had never done stitching on, although the linen was still stretched on a hoop. I soaked the poor grubby stitched piece in cold water with a little gentle wash in it overnight then laid it out to dry and pressed in on the wrong side, face down on a towel so that the stitching would not be flattened, and now plan to get a canvas stretcher to stretch it on, and hang it somewhere. I don't want to turn it into the pillow which it was originally supposed to be, because the two cats, not to mention grandchildren, tend to be hard on pillows.

I also got a good idea from the book of the type of sampler I will begin to do for TAST. I've done it in the past, I can do it again.

The mailwoman brought me a squishy this morning. I have subscribed to a Flower of the

Month fabric program from My Quilting Friends, and the flowers for April are daffodils, aren't they gorgeous? I already have the January Carnations, and the February Violets. Now I'm trying to figure out a great quilt to make with them. Something wild and splashy, because these are fantastic flowers. The fabrics are made by Northcott. It's all right for me to be buying fabrics because I haven't quilted long enough to build much of a stash. It's enough that I have to be on a food diet without having to go on a fabric diet at the same time. A fabric addiction will not be detrimental to my health, wealth maybe, but not health. Can fabrics take the place of junk food?

Postscript to Silk

I'm not the only one!

I Love Silk! must be a girl thing

Santa showed up on my doorstep this morning in the guise of a mail lady. She brought me a box of fabric scraps and pieces from Debra. Words
cannot express how scrumptious these fabrics are, many of them are silk. They are leftovers from when Debra's mom worked in a fabric store and Debra sewed her own clothes. These were sent to me to encourage me to go ahead and try making crazy quilt blocks, instead of just threatening to do it. With these gorgeous fabrics I ought to be able to make something pretty special. Are any of you old enough to remember Scrooge McDuck rolling around in his money? That's what I feel like doing in these fabrics.

I also have a good size piece of the candlelight satin that my Granny made my wedding dress from (1956, first marriage); it's still wrapped up on the bolt. It was with the fabric that my Mom gave me recently when she was cleaning out her closet. I hadn't even realized that she still had any of it. I just wish we had some of the organza that was used for the bridesmaids and maid of honor. They were in lovely colors of lavender and bronze and that glimmered in the candlelight.

Well, it's off to visit the kids in Byers this weekend. This trip has been postponed for 3 weeks due to blizzards. Snow is forecast again, but just flurries. I hope the weatherman is right. We've had snow on the ground for five weeks now and that is unheard of around here. It usually snows and then a Chinook (warm, downslope wind off the mountains) comes along and melts it off. We are learning what it's like for those in other parts of the country. But I have to remain thankful for the moisture. At the height of the drought when breathing smoke from all the forest fires I swore I would never complain about rain again, and that included snow.

Da Gama Indigos

Look at these great fat quarters that I got from Grandma's Attic Quilting online. I'm in a monthly program that will send me six fat quarters of these wonderful da Gama tradtitional African Indigos from South Africa. I'm not sure what I'll do with them, yet, but I'm nuts about fabrics dyed with indigo and the traditional designs are quite attractive to me. I love blue and particularly the indigo denim color, I even dress in denim as much as possible.

I've been a member of another of their monthly fabric fat quarter clubs for a couple of years and have been very pleased with the fabrics I've received. I'ts always a big surprise and I've gotten a wide variety of fabrics. As a quilter of only 5 years, I needed to build up my stash and this way I got more variety than I'd probably get if I chose for myself. I'd probably have all red and blue batiks & florals.

I so love fabrics. Now I need to start adding some elegant fabrics for crazy quilts. I've always admired CQs and am just going to have to make at least one. I also love the glam fabrics that I have no use for otherwise. Maybe I could make a CQ vest or jacket to wear with my denims. That's what I like about denim, I can wear it with chambrey and sweat suits or with yummy fabrics.