Fabric addiction

While diving into the world of crafts, I’ve realized that a lot of people have a natural urge to look at (and collect) fabrics. Just try searching for “fabric stash”, and you’ll read endless tales of people using walks through fabric stores, or rustling through their stashes as stress relief. I’m feeling this same addiction urge and can’t help but wonder whether there is some scientific reason for it. Is it related to our connection to nature? Did our ancestors who appreciated collections of natural patterns end up as better gatherers? I’d love to know what parts of the brain are activated when we walk through a fabric store.

Today I had the misfortune pleasure of visiting SAS fabrics for the first time. This dangerous store is full of piles of discounted fabrics and other sewing supplies (buttons, lace, elastic, thread…). I picked up this lovely pile of fabrics:

Except for the cute little car print, which I’ll probably use for a kid project, there’s a clear pattern – I definitely go for the low-volume nature-inspired prints. Here’s one of my favorites:

Foxes, acorns and leaves, oh my!

Day of the dead apron

I’m having a lot of fun working on this day of the dead-inspired apron.

my poor photography skills at work

The sewing design came from Linda Permann’s lovely book, Crochet Adorned. I really appreciated the quality of the design. It probably required a bit more fabric and sewing than a simpler design, but the end result is well worth it. Here’s one of the images of the apron from her book:

As you can see, the original has a lot of crochet adornment, which I haven’t included yet. I’m planning on adding a crocheted skull pocket in place of the butterfly, perhaps using this awesome pattern.

I love the day of the dead fabric I used on the trim. Here’s a close-up.

I got it at the sweet little Cactus Quilt Shop, which carries a number of day of the dead-inspired prints.

My second quilting project

My second quilt square was done with machine sewing (except for the blind-stitching of the binding). It went a LOT faster than the hand sewing, though I did end up with some mis-aligned corners, and puckered edges. I did the quilting with a regular zig-zag foot, so I’m hoping I’ll have more luck with a walking presser foot if I can find one for my little beginner-friendly Janome. Another lesson learned? Directional prints turned upside-down or sideways look bad.

I like the design of my first quilt block better than this one, and I think it illustrates the idea that you want to pair large prints with small prints, and busy prints with clean prints. On this block, the designs are all of a similar size scale, and they’re all really busy, so the overall effect is busy and sort of old-fashioned. Something to keep in mind! I also noticed that my grandmother had the same idea. Although her current stash has a lot of flowery fabrics and few solids, her quilts have busy fabrics paired with plenty of solids. Not too surprising since she has a great eye for design.

First quilting project

My grandmother was an amazing quilter, but she now suffers from arthritis and gifted me her huge stash of beautiful fabrics.  I thought I would just use them for random projects, but I somehow ended up getting pulled into the world of quilting.  After a few weeks of feeling overwhelmed by my lack of knowledge,  I finally realized it was probably just best to dive right in.  So I went out and bought this awesome book at my local Bookmans and got started!

Here’s my first square, made entirely of my grandmother’s fabrics, complete with quilting and binding.

my first quilt square

the back of the quilt square

I hand sewed nearly everything, with the exception of connecting the binding (which gets hidden anyway).  I found the idea of binding really intimidating until I found this great tutorial from The Little Red Hen blog, and then it was a piece of cake (except for the blind stitch, which I still don’t quite understand).  Anyway, as you can see – the square isn’t half bad!

Hello, world!

I’m re-entering the world of craftiness after a long hiatus.  I used to craft as a kid, but I was into some pretty lame stuff (x-stitch kits, latch-hook rugs, plastic bead necklaces… you know what I’m talking about.  Thanks, mom and dad, for proudly displaying my projects anyway!), and so as an adult the word crafts made me cringe.  Little did I know that the interwebs had exploded with lovely modern crafts.  I’m hoping this blog will help inspire me as I start crafting again.