Scraps to Quilt

In my last post I mentioned that one of my sewing goals for 2012 was to use a lot of my stash and that I've joined Pleasant Home's Sew Scraps Along. Well, I'm being true to my word. I had a bunch of Valentine's Day fabric scraps and I've been busy making a small quilt to lay on the back of our sofa. I would like to have a different quilt for every holiday or atleast every season. I'm sure my family will be glad to see the Christmas quilt go away for a while. I've been making my own pattern for this quilt and I'm loving it so far. I am thinking of adding prairie points. I've always wanted to add prairie points to a quilt and I've never done it. I will post pics of my progress.

Being a large family, we do not have Birthday parties for each child because, well, it's just a lot of work. We have small family parties for most birthdays. Two years ago I decided to have a Valentine's Day Party and let each child invite a few friends. It worked really well, because most people don't do much to celebrate Valentine's Day and most are available. It was so much fun that I've decided to do it again this year. So, of course, I have the party in mind when I'm making this quilt. I've also been making Valentine Pennants. I love pennants. I've made Birthday pennants, so we can re-use our party decorations and I made them for Thanksgiving as well. I just love these pretty pink fabrics. They just make me so happy.

I've got to get back to playing taxi driver for my daugthers and hopefully I can work on my quilt a little today, too. I hope you have a wonderful day and can do something for yourself today.

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!

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.

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