Category Archives: Choosing Quilt Fabric

Friday Funday: Quitling Accessories

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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.

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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!

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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!

Just Because Fabrics

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Have you ever strolled through a website and found some fabric that you had no immediate plans for…yet, the fabrics just popped out at you and you HAD TO HAVE THEM for your personal quilt stash?  Just because!  This was my latest “just because” quilt fabric:

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Love the colors, love the pattern and love Linda from AbbiMays.com for sending this to me!  It will live in a stash basket until I find a use for it – just because!  I shall now commence with my stroking and finding a special basket for this fabulous stash fabric!

Virtual Friendships and Quilting

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I virtually met Donna Schwartz Mills at least 10 years ago, if not more.  She has a daughter who was a year younger than our oldest daughter and we exchanged both phone calls and emails quite often, when we first met.  She was also instrumental in helping us find a bit of history and fun in Sacramento during our family’s camping adventures on the west coast in 2006.  I worked with her, way back when, to sell advertising for her home-based business website.

Her daughter is graduating this year and I asked Donna if I could make her daughter a quilt.  Who can turn down a quilt?!  Donna was excited about the possibility and asked her daughter for color combinations that she likes.  The only other thing I had to work with was that her daughter’s middle name is Rose…but her daughter does NOT like pink so it is a little difficult to find roses on fabrics that aren’t reds and pink.  But, I took my daughters and I to our local quilt shop and almost immediately found a beige fabric with blue roses on it!  Then came choosing other fabrics to use in the quilt – and I relied on my teenage daughter to help me with a yeah or no way as I was cruising through the bolts of fabric.  Of note, we chose complimentary fabrics and not coordinating fabrics from the same line of the fabrics that were designed to go together from the same fabric designer’s colorway.

We finally settled on the fabrics you see below – and I am a firm believer in the fact that these fabrics will make a wonderful quilt for my virtual friend’s daughter’s graduation!

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How far ahead do you plan your quilt projects?

Directional Quilt Fabric Death

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I will repeat what I’ve said for many years – if you are a beginning quilter, do NOT choose to use a directional fabric in your quilts.  This could be something as simple as a gingham, but a directional fabric is one that repeats a design in any symmetrical way.

These are directional fabrics:

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I consider beginning quilter’s using directional fabrics a ‘quilt fabric death’.  Because unless you are able to fussy-cut the quilt fabric and sew it in a perfect seam – it will almost always end up a bit wonky and you will notice that wonk every single time you quilt.  You will be too embarrassed to gift the quilt to someone and when that happens, the quilt is usually given to a family pet.

Might I repeat myself?  Do NOT use directional fabric if you are a beginning quilter.

BOMquilts.com 2014 BOM

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The 2014 block of the month quilt for 2014 at BOMquilts.com has been designed and is being perfected, tested and nearly ready to be listed so you can purchase your quilt fabric kits ahead of time and be ready to start with Block 1 in February!

AbbiMays.com is once again our fabric sponsor for the 2014 block of the month, and Aurifil threads has generously agreed to be our thread sponsor.

This is the luscious fabric that I have chosen for the 2014 block of the month quilt:

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“He Still Loves Me” designed by Jackie Robinson for Benartex Fabrics

Watch BOMquilts.com for the listing – the fabric kits sell out quickly and you do not want to miss the opportunity to purchase this beautiful like of fabrics!