In keeping with my charity quilt goals (found here), I have made the February and March Military Veteran’s quilts…will have to wait on the April one as I have a bit of a backlog of other quilt projects waiting on me.
Military Veteran’s Quilt for February
Military Veteran’s Quilt #2
Free quilt patterns coming soon! The first quilt is already dedicated to a Marine Veteran…the second quilt has yet to be quilted. Do YOU make quilts for Military Veterans?
Our youngest daughter turned 13-years-old on March 10th. I posted a ‘nice’ photo of her on Facebook…but this photo below is my all-time favorite as her laugh is very contagious!
Our Laughing Birthday Girl
Our kids are our entertainment…and we were definitely entertained by this candid photograph!
I eluded to a tote bag swap I participated in here. Since then, I completed the tote bag I was supposed to make and also received the tote bag that someone else made for me. First, the finished product of the tote bag I made:
btw – I loved the strapping so much that I went out and purchased a few more yards of it, in different colors, for future tote bags.
And this is the tote bag that I received from my secret (okay, not so secret anymore) quilter:
This tote bag is HUGE – lots of room to use as a fabric or chocolate therapy day!
What a fun swap! I do not participate in quilt block swaps, but this tote bag swap was totally worth participating in!
Over the weekend, I had an opportunity to pick up additional fabric for my stash. First, let me explain something. I never had a stash before. Not a ‘real’ one. I’ve always purchased the fabric I needed for personal projects and then gave the remainder of the fabric away. When I started designing and piecing quilt projects for quilt shops, again, I’d use the fabric I needed for that project and would give the leftovers away to someone who was low on money but high on using every scrap of fabric they received. The only fabrics that I saved were those that were special to me – such as the Texas Hill Country fabric lines that Moda sold a few years back. Everything else? Gone.
Until.
My dream quilt studio was in the planning stages. And since then, I have been hoarding not only the fabrics I need on a regular basis…but, also building up my stash with some yardage and not just the fat quarter bundles that I usually have leftovers of.
Hence, an increase in my fabric stash this past weekend. Behold!
“Southern Charm” by Maria Kalinowski for Benartex
“Garden Party Tango” by Melissa Ybarra for Windham Fabrics
“Sugar & Spice” by Dana Brooks for Henry Glass (top two fabrics) and the blue stars fabric by Leanne Anderson of the Whole Country Caboodle for Henry Glass
“Dots Right! by Faye Burgos for Marcus Fabrics
What new fabrics have YOU added to your stash lately?
I had a doctor’s appointment in the big city (San Antonio) last week and we had just a bit of time for a stroll through Joann’s to see what we could see. They had blank note cards at a phenomenal price and we are always searching for blank cards if we are out of specific cards (such as birthday, thinking of you, etc.).
As my scooter went in and out of the quilt fabric aisle, my chicken-eye caught on some extremely busy and bright fabrics. Let me assure you, these are NOT the types of fabrics I have in my stash! I am much more of a traditional quilter – it even took me about a year before I would even try to work with batiks! But, for whatever reason, these three fabrics below beckoned to me:
When I was unloading our purchases in my sewing room, something in these fabrics once again had my chicken-eye roving. I *had* to figure out why the colors were so familiar to me – even though I would never have chosen these fabrics since they were so far out of my comfort zone.
Lo-and-behold, my stash search immediately found what was in the back of my mind – fabrics I already had from AbbiMays.com that matched these new fabrics better than I could have matched them if I’d had them in mind when purchasing the new fabrics!
Lesson learned for me! Not only did I realize that my MS brain still has some areas that worked, but also that just because fabrics are out of my comfort zone, they are fabrics that are crying out for me to design a quilt for them!
How about YOU? Have you purchased fabric out of your comfort zone, only to realize it was the best fabric for the job?