Fabric Give Away!!

I haven't been around much lately. I'll tell you more later and also tell you that is going to change. In the last year I have started my own business it's called 5 Daughters Quilts. Wonder where I got the name from? LOL. Yes, me and my 5 daughters run the business together. We have a new website and we have had a facebook page for a while. You can check out our website at www.5daughtersquilts.com .

Please check out our facebook page and enter our drawing. Enter HERE.

I will be back soon to catch you up on all that's been going on. Here are some hints, weddings, babies, and business.


Happy Sewing!
Susan

Packing and Purging

Well, moving day is less than two weeks away. We have found a house to rent in Orange Park, Florida. My husband has a job waiting and I have several opportunities to pursue. We just need to get there. The last couple of weeks we have been having yard sales and now we are packing and purging. I have accumulated so much stuff in the last 9 years of living in this house. A lot of this stuff is pretty easy to part with and I am constantly quoting my new mantra, "less is more". However, as a sewer....I have accumulated SEW much stuff and that is not as easy to let go of. I am sure many of you can relate. I look at patterns, notions and fabric and see future projects and works of art. Thankfully, there is a room in the new house that I can use as a studio. I have been very spoiled to have such a large studio in this house and I was just sick at the thought of losing it.

Today, I am going to begin to tackle my studio. I have plastic drawers labeled with notions and sewing tools. I have found boxes and boxes of loose sewing items to put in the drawers. I pray at the end of the day, I will see a lot of progress. The kids are at their dad's for a few days and I am trying to get as much done as I can before they come home.

Back to packing and purging.
Happy Sewing!!
Susan

The Family that Sews Together......

The girls and I have been in the studio quite a bit this week. We are making pillow cases for Conkerr Cancer. We were already planning on participating in this program, but then a local store where I teach, Fabric Warehouse, had worked it out to get credit for "Disney's Give a Day, Get a Day program". This is really cool for us. My boyfriend, George, has never been to Disney World and most of my girls don't remember going, since they were so young the last time we went. With money being as tight as it is, Disney is not in our budget. So, all of us, including George have been making pillow cases. We each have make 5 pillow cases. We only have five more to have our 35 pillow cases finished.

Talk about stashbusting...this has really helped in that area too. I only bought 6 yards of fabric for this project. All the rest came from my stash...I mean my resource center. I am so happy to see the bright and cheerful fabrics go to the sweet children who are battling cancer. I have been praying for each child who may receive our pillow cases. I pray they find comfort and healing.

I am posting pics of some of my girls who worked on this project. We will post pics of all of our pillow cases later.

Happy Sewing!

Gotta love the Mail Man

Yesterday I received my package from Fabric Worm (pictured in an earlier post). Today I got my Moda Swell that got from ebay. This was a must-have as one of my "not quite finished" quilts for one of my pattern covers was started in these fabrics. Since these are discontinued fabrics, I started panicking that I may not have enough. I was able to find this bundle of remnants on ebay, but I had to pay a not so good price for them. I wasn't gonna lose, though. I needed these....not just wanted them. I was so excited to get my packages. I always feel like a kid at Christmas when I get mail.

Still Sick and More Shopping

I have taken my Nyquil and I am getting ready to snooze. I wanted to share with you my final purchase. I went to Fabric Worm for the first time. They have a great selection of fabrics. I decided to get one of their fabric bundles. I am planning a new quilt for to sell for Etsy and these fabrics will be great.

Having a Sick Day and Shopping Online

This magazine was 50% off

A few days ago, I was thinking..."Gee, I haven't been sick in a long time." Note to self: Don't think about not being sick. Yesterday, I had just finished hand sewing the binding on a cute baby quilt that I made to sell on Etsy and all of the sudden I felt body aches, my throat got sore and my nose started running like crazy. After a long sleepless night, it is official. I am sick. I warned the girls that I am going to spend the day in bed. I gave them a few simple school assignments and went to bed with my trusty laptop.

So, to make myself feel better I have been doing a little online shopping. Most of it...window shopping...just drooling, I mean dreaming. I did, however, just make a few purchases at Pink Chaulk Studios. I will share with you what I bought. I am very excited about the overnight bags. All of my girls will be getting one very soon.

Gotta go, back to shopping and hopefully healing.

A Serious Addiction

Hello My name is Susan and I'm a fabricholic. They say admitting you have a problem is the first step to healing. Well, I'm not sure I want to be healed of my fabric addiction. I do, however, question the undeniable need I have to see new fabrics, to touch them, to caress them, to let my mind see the new creations they will become. I have really been trying to conquer my stash and not add to it too much. I have done really well at using what I have and I plan to do even better. But today was one of those days that I had to go visit my local fabric store and touch and feel and yes.....bring some home to join the others in the stash. I did have a purpose for all of it and even finished a quilt top tonight when I got home. Sometimes you just need a little inspriation to get you going.

My New 1930's Stash

Last weekend, my family took a mini vacation in Orlando. We went to a hotel with waterslides and cool pools for the kids. I enjoyed watching them play for hours...and I got to play too. I was able to check out four quilt shops. I was so excited to see that all of them had reproductions. In the Lakeland area, they are very rare to find. I don't know what it is that attracts me to them. I think it is the pretty pastel colors, the clean and timeless look of them. I have been collecting them for a while and have had several quilts planned for them. Today, I am going to use them in a new baby quilt that I have designed. I wanted to make two quilts for my cover photo. One, in pastels (my repros) and one in bold colors. So, today I am going to delve into my new goodies. I will post picks as soon as I can. In the meantime, I will post a picture of my newest stash.

Stash Busters

I am letting you see some of my secret stash. One picture is of the top two shelves of my fabric armoir...the other is of one of the cabinets over my cutting table. I love to unfold and caress my stash and dream of what each piece of fabric will one day be. Well, like a lot of us, times are getting harder financially and I am trying to be more thrifty. So, to help in my endeavors, I just joined Stash Busters, an online yahoo group. Their goal is to use their stash...and as you can see. I can use "a little of that". They have smaller groups, like the "no buy" group. I gasped when I read the rules for this group. They pledge to buy NO fabric for one year. I cannot take part in this, since for me, quilting is a business as well as a hobby. As a teacher and pattern designer, I have to use some of the latest fabrics in my samples to appease the quilt stores where I teach. So....thank goodness...I am off the hook there. I can tell you that I have cut way back, and now only buy fabric for which I have a use. Then there is the UFO group. This an awesome idea. Each person wages some fat quarters to join and you report when you complete you UFOs. IF you dont keep up, then you could lose your fat quarters....if you get them completed your name gets entered in a quarterly drawing, where you can win lots of fat quarters. They also have 'at home retreats' and Blocks the month. If you have serious "stash issues" as I do, you may want to give the group a try. www.stashbusters.com

Two Of My Current Projects

I can't show the quilts I am working on...but I can give you a preview of the fabrics from two of my current quilts. One of them will be the cover for my new pattern. I love both color schemes...but I wont decide on a cover quilt til they are both completed.