Category Archives: fabric stash

fabric friday: not a bright in sight

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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.

fabric friday: sewing machine fun!

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Here’s a fab black-on-white sewing machine print fabric from Marcus Brothers. I just love black & white prints. They make bright colors pop and can work with subdued shades as well. Give it a try. A black & white print might be just the fabric you need to add contrast and interest to your next quilt top.

For a great idea on using black & white prints, check out the BOM at Citrus Belt Quilters. They’re doing a log cabin with half different colors and half black-on-white prints. The finished quilts are going to look fantastic!

If you haven’t visited the Marcus Brothers website lately, they have a great collection of free quilt patterns and craft projects on their Make it with Marcus page. I especially like the Scrappy Dots wallhanging. That would be fun to make with brights and black & white!

fabric friday: french connections

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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.

fabric friday: vintage cheater cloth

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Here’s a fun vintage cheater cloth I discovered at a thrift shop a few years ago. It’s a coarse weave fabric, similar to feed sack material, but this is new yardage. (as in not used … would that be new old fabric, or maybe old new fabric?)

I like the variety of patterns this fabric has. There are not only the usual tiny calicos, but some larger scale prints as well as different colored plaids. My favorite pattern on this fabric is the one with the red fruit.

fabric friday: doodle art

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Here’s a really fun doodle fabric from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital by HiFashion Fabrics, Inc. ©2002. The fabric is designed from patients’ artwork. I love this fabric’s energy and whimsy. Just looking at it makes me feel happy.

In 2004 I made a quilt, The Rainbow Maker (below), for the Hancock Fabrics/St. Jude Hospital Quilt of Dreams contest and used this fabric as the sashing in the outer borders. It won a judge’s choice award and 3 yards of fabric a month for an entire year. Click here to find out more about this quilt. Can you imagine, that was my 3rd ever blog entry! (March 2006) This post is #241.
That rainbow was what really got my stash going. (and the 36-yard fabric prize didn’t hurt either.) Every hue of the rainbow is made up of little pieces of fabric about an inch or so long each. I thought it was cheating if you used the same fabric twice, so I had to go on a real fabric hunt to get enough of each of the colors to make a whole rainbow.

After all these years I haven’t quite shaken that idea. Sometimes it’s still hard for me to use a fabric in more than one place in a single quilt.

My pigma pens and sketchbook are beckoning to me so I’ll sign off now.

=(^_^)= happy doodling!

fabric friday: fun with corduroy

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Here’s a fun cotton corduroy I found in my stash. Although corduroy is most commonly used to make pants and jackets, it is a durable, washable fabric and adds great texture to quilts.

• Try mixing fine wale corduroy (made with thin tufted cords) with quilting cottons in baby and kids quilts. It’s weight is close to quilting cottons and is easy to piece or appliqué. Machine quilting should be fairly easy as well on most machines. Make a sample quilt sandwich to test different threads, stitch lengths and tension. Stitch-in-the-ditch on the non-corduroy side is a good quilting choice.

• After you’ve tried your hand at thin wale corduroy, why not try adding some wide wale corduroy (made with thick tufted cords) in an art quilt to hang on the wall. Think ahead about the placement of the wide wale corduroy and the quilting. A sample quilt sandwich will help you see how your machine likes quilting over wide wale corduroy. You may want to stitch-in-the-ditch around the corduroy or simply tie the layers together in those places.

• Be careful not to crush the cords when pressing. Corduroy is actually a kind of ridged velvet. Use a pressing cloth and a light hand with the iron.

fabric friday: shibori dots

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Today’s fabric is Kona Bay’s Shibori Dots (SHIB-05) – Indigo. This is the next fabric that I will start cutting for my star quilt. I like how the white is not bright white, but has a touch of taupe in it.

This is a great print for mixing with large-scale fabrics, Japanese as well as modern prints. Check out the entire Shibori Dots collection. There are 9 different colors in all. The yellow and cream are positively yummy.

Visit the Kona Bay website to view their latest fabric collections, sign up for their newsletter, or download free quilt patterns. If you tweet, be sure to follow Kona Bay Fabrics on Twitter.

muse monday: inspiration in your stash

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I’ve been reorganizing my stash this summer (translation: take all the fabric down from the shelves, throw it in a big heap and then fold them nicely one by one and put them back all neatly organized.) So I was somewhat surprised when out of a pile somewhat like this …
… came this yummy mixed berry palette. (They really did land in that pile together from that boysenberry purple all the way to the blue raspberry blue. I wasn’t trying to pick fabrics for a new quilt, I was trying to put them away.)
OK, well blue raspberry isn’t really be a true berry (shhh … don’t tell my DD!) but oooh, those fabrics would make a delicious quilt.
Have you ever mixed up your fabrics just to see what would happen? It might be just the way to discover a fab new color combination, after all, your stash is personally handpicked by you. Some of those fabrics you never would put side-by-side are bound to look great together.
By the way, here’s a peek at how the rearranging is going so far … if I can just keep my mind on folding and stacking I can finish up the rest that are still piled on the floor!