adventures of a quilting diva

Does this ever happen to you: after buying a wonderful piece of fabric at your LQS, you bring it home only to find out that you already have it in your stash?

As you can see, this very lovely Wildwood for Free Spirit/Westminster print caught my eye not once, but twice. Guess I must really like it!

Keeping a book of fabric swatches in your purse like the 3×5 card notebook pictured here (which I haven’t updated since 2003) can help you keep track of your fabric stash when you’re out shopping.

Just cut a little piece of fabric from the corner and stick it down with a glue stick. You can write any pertinent info next to the swatch such as manufacturer, date of purchase, the store, how much you bought, what you need to go with it, etc. You can also arrange them any way you wish: color, style, designer, project, and so on. This is my 30s repro swatch book.

If you’re a pre-washer, then washing and ironing your new fabric right away is one way to burn it into your memory (just don’t burn the fabric itself). Using the fabric in a quilt is another good way to help your purchases stick in your head. Alternately you could just spend a whole lot of time admiring the new fabric, but unfortunately you’re not going to make very many quilts that way.

Today’s fabric shopping spree consisted of 10 beiges/taupes. There was not a chartreuse, magenta, or orange in the lot of them. I’m getting better at stashing neutrals now. It’s actually quite fun. Most of these will find their way into my my hand-pieced star quilt.

Above is a Civil War print from Windham Fabrics. It’s one of three Civil War reproductions I bought today. The organic feel of this one caught my eye. It’s not what I usually think of when it comes to Civil War prints, but then again I’m not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. The other two are very Civil War-looking: a indigo-on-beige floral and a black-on-beige floral/polka dot stripe.

I’m not ready for a whole new fabric obsession, so for now I’m going to stick with just the reproductions that I think will blend with what I already have in my stash. Someday though, it just might become an obsession.

Here is a whimsical French Provençal fabric from my collection of French charm squares. I love its lighthearted hand-drawn feel.
French Connections is one of my favorite vendors at Road to California. I’ve been collecting their fabric for several years now and am currently deciding what kind of quilt to make with my charms. What’s not to love about great African and French fabrics and those fantastic African baskets! If you are not lucky enough to live near Pittsboro, NC, you can visit them on the web and check out their new online store. French antiques and African arts, crafts and jewelry round out an eclectic and delightful mix. If you’re planning a quilt show trip to round out the year, don’t miss French Connections’ booth at the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza XVI or Quilt Fest Jacksonville in September or International Quilt Festival, Houston in October.

We all have our favorite colors that we love to buy fabric and make quilts in and those other colors that we just walk on by when browsing the aisles of our local quilt store. You know, the colors that are nowhere to be found in our stashes.

Taupe was one of those other colors for me. I usually gravitate towards bright colors and black & white prints. But when I took the time to look at the fabrics in the taupe section of different shops, I found that there were always some taupe prints that I actually liked. Now I love my growing collection of taupe fabrics and even look forward to shopping for them. I’m planning different ways to use my taupes in upcoming quilts. The Daiwabo print on the top of the stack is one of my favorites.

Here’s my tip/challenge to you: Whenever you go fabric shopping, wander through the section for one of those other colors and really look at the fabrics just like you would for your favorite color. Try to find just one print that you like and buy a piece of it, a fat quarter or maybe a half yard. Then go back to your favorites and shop like crazy if you wish. Put those other colors in your stash along with your favorites. As your collection of those other colors grows they’ll grow on you and you’ll see ways to use them, perhaps first with an old favorite or two and then maybe later on, shining in a monochromatic quilt of their own.

Here’s a fab indigo tie-dye cotton from Dali City, Yunnan in western China. It was once a hair scrunchie, but the elastic gave out. I couldn’t bear to just throw it away, so I cut it open and saved the fabric to use in a miniature quilt or maybe some jewelry.

If I had known any better of course I would have bought yards and yards of amazing indigo in both tie-dye and batik. At the time (1993) I was unfortunately not a quilter, so I hadn’t a clue of the wonderful things that one could create with fabrics like this. I did know at least, that I really liked the indigo fabric, so I bought various articles made from it. The local women were not only talented in making the fabric, but they also sewed up all kinds of clever articles to sell and help support their families.

Here’s one of the indigo vendors and her roadside shop. She is wearing traditional dress and you can see some colorful embroidered tote bags as well.

Here’s a view down an alley in Dali.

Taking a break from the city sights, that’s me in the middle.

happy fabric hunting! =(^_^)=