I stepped into our church yesterday to view the fruits of the labor of the wonderful church ladies who made 116 quilts for Lutheran World Relief. You may remember how excited they were when I delivered a boatload of fabric to them. I cannot tell how many quilts were made from the fabrics that were donated by the quilters I know…but, there is pure quilted beauty in the display of their efforts before they ship the quilts off. Behold…
Linda at AbbiMays.com sent me 20 pounds of fabric for our church’s Lutheran World Relief quilt-a-thon:
I had to rescue some of the fabric for my stash as it was too lovely or fun for me to pass up O:) – but never fear, the church ladies were still very appreciated of the box of fabric that I AbbiMays.com had sent to them! And I am truly running out of room in my one-butt sewing room for more stash fabric!
Even if you do not need stash fabric, do you still purchase something that is too lovely to pass up?
I received this great panel of Biblical verses from Linda at AbbiMays.com:
I have absolutely no information on who designed the panel or who is selling it, but it warmed my heart and many ideas popped into my head about how to create some wonderful gifts for loved ones.
The wonderful and tireless ladies at our home church began their two-week Lutheran World Relief (LWR) quilting today…and they will quilt for two solid weeks. Many of them will be at the church from early in the morning until late at night. ALL of them are dedicated to a worthwhile cause and our church is always so (sew?) pretty when their two-week LWR quilt-a-thon is finished as they hang all of the quilts over the pews, the communion rails and anywhere else they can find to hang them so the congregation can enjoy their beautiful colors before they are boxed up and sent to their new home.
I have never been able to join them while they quilt. First it was because I was the main breadwinner in our family and then, once I was diagnosed with MS, there is no way I can handle the hustle and bustle, chaos, movements and noises from the group. So, I felt compelled to help in SOME way that would not affect an exacerbation of my MS symptoms.
I decided I could donate fabric to the cause! I already had one LWR quilt sewn but had lost it in my sewing room and recently uncovered it so that went into my donation box along with some fabrics. Then, my MIL was going to our little town’s quilt group a few weeks ago and she mentioned my request to the ladies in the group. And, as with most things that have meaning and quilted hearts – the word spread like wildfire and the next thing you know is I had over 200 yards of fabric for our home church LWR ladies!
Donated fabric filled up the back end of my Suburban.
A few of our church quilt ladies and one of the men who helps his wife.
ALL of the ladies were very appreciative of the donations – downright GIDDY, actually! And I was happy that I could do what little I did to help them along in their LWR quilt-a-thon journey.
Although I could have hundreds of quilting accessories filling up my sewing room, I find that the most basic ones are all that I need. There is no race, that I know of, to see who has the most gadgets and accessories…it’s just me and my sewing room with fabric, pins, an iron and my sewing machine. Most of the other STUFF that quilt shops sell is just that – STUFF. I already have a one-butt sewing room, so why fill it up with anything more than the basic accessories and then lots of fabric? 🙂
Bobbin holders are one of the necessities I need in my sewing room. When starting a quilt, I take the thread that I have chosen to use for the quilt and fill two or three bobbins (depending on the size of the quilt project) full of that thread – the extras go into one of the bobbin keepers below…and it saves me tons of time when I run out of thread in one bobbin and can just pop a filled bobbin into my sewing machine.
And when I speak of filling up my sewing room with fabric, I couldn’t resist purchasing another roll-up of Kona solids. hmmm, that’s some yummy solid fabrics, for sure! And if you read this blog regularly, you can see that I still haven’t unrolled the previous Kona roll-up that I purchased in November 2013!
Unfortunately for Kona, I may be forced to stop purchasing their fabrics and talking about them in my social media. I have asked them to sponsor a few things and they refuse to respond to me. That’s not playing nice…and I want to play nice with my quilting products!
What essential quilting accessories do YOU have in your sewing room/studio? Inquiring minds want to know!