I Love Fabric!

I love fabric!  

Have I told you that lately?

I absolutely love fabric!

I love to iron it, I love to work with it, I love to smell it, I love to fondle it.

I was just ironing these fabrics the other day.  Aren't they beautiful!  It was such a joy to iron the wrinkles out of them and make them oh, so smooth.

You can just imagine how smooth this batik fabric is--almost like glass!

And the delicate little print of this fabric.  Oh, delightful!!

Isnn't fabric wonderful!!??

Gorgeous, Dahling!

A friend who is moving decided to whittle her stash down to a packable amount, so she held a fabric sale at her house.  Yes, I really do need some more fabric!!

I found a few really pretty fabrics, including some whites/near whites, which are always good to have.  

My treasure, though, is these gorgeous, luscious fabrics.  Aren't they beautiful!

They are all fat quarters, and I purchased them for a song! 

I think they are really pretty pieces that can be used for some lovely splashes here and there.

Fabric from Stitch Simple

Look at the lovely fabrics I received in the mail from Stitch Simple!! Run on over there and check out their website. They sell pre-washed, pre-ironed, pre-cut fabric. Isn't that cool!?! I am one of those quilters who subscribes to the Alex Anderson school of washing fabric before I use it. So it's really neat to receive a package of fabric and have it all ready to use. As well as cut into squares for me so I don't have to!

My package contained reds, whites, and blues. I ordered an equal number of whites, and reds/blues. I'm thinking of half square triangles with a white and a color in each square. And you may have guessed it, I'm planning on making a Quilt of Valor, which will go to a wounded serviceman or woman.

And how did I come by these lovely fabrics? I won them! Yes, I did. From the Green Bag Lady, who had a giveaway on her blog, in conjunction with Stitch Simple.

Seriously, go check out Stitch Simple, as they have some lovely fabrics. They are not all in 5.5" squares, as mine are. They have different sizes of pre-cuts, also fat quarters, skinny quarters, 1-yard cuts, etc. And, they have a lot of lovely organic fabrics from Harmony Art.

New York, New York

I went to New York last week! It was a wonderful trip, a theatre tour sponsored by Oregon Shakespeare Festival. There were about 40 of us, and we had a wonderful time, going to restaurants, seeing some NY sights, and of course, going to theatre.

Now, I would not call myself a Project Runway expert, but I do enjoy watching the shows and seeing the cool designs that the students make. So you can imagine my glee when I looked up Mood Fabrics and found the store is not

very far from where we stayed. I easily walked there one afternoon, and along my way I passed Parsons The New School for Design, where Project Runway takes place.

So there I was, right in the middle of the garment district. What fun!

Mood was actually a little hard to find, as the address I had turned out to be a service elevator loading sort of place. After some incorrect directions, I finally found it. There was no sign; I had to go into a small lobby and take the elevator up to the store.

Mood is just packed to the gills with fabric. All kinds, all colors.

I've sometimes wondered, while watching the Runway show, how in the earth do the "students" manage to find just the fabric they want?

There are three different floors, and as you can see, fabric is stacked everywhere!

It sure was fun to stroll around and look at

all the cool fabrics. They had some quilting fabric, but not much, and it was hard to look at because it was all on rolls, not bolts, and stacked on racks.

I hadn't exactly come to New York to buy fabric. I can get plenty of that at home!

But I did come home with one little swatch of fabric. And that made me happy.

Results of Wine Dyeing Experiment

Here are my pieces of fabric drying, after I had left them in the wine overnight. It really smelled good when I opened the container holding the wine and fabric! It turned out as I had thought it might, with the white print on the fabric not picking up the "dye," leaving it looking white.

And here is the fabric dried and ironed, a lighter shade than when wet, as could be expected. I like how the long narrow strip has a little variation in color, as it was on top of the pile, so didn't get as saturated with the wine as the other pieces did.

Not sure how the fabric will wash--how much it will fade. I did put them through the dryer, after they had air dried, because usually my wine-stained clothes don't wash out after I've put them in the dryer!

Now I want to experiment with different colored fabrics. And I really like the variegated look, so I'll probably make my next wine-to-fabric ratio a little lower.

Went out for dinner with MisterStitches last night and had a beet salad (I absolutely love beets--I know, people usually either love them or hate them!). I started wondering how beet juice would work to color fabric...

Wine Dyeing Experiment

I tried an experiment this evening.

I snitched a little wine from our evening meal, as I wanted to see how it would

color some fabric.

I poured the leftover wine into a

hard plastic container.

Then added some white fabric scraps. I chose

tone-on-tone fabrics, to see how the

different parts of the fabric would take to the "dye." Here are the fabrics I used,

in the "before" stage.

And here are the pieces of fabric in the wine. Maybe I'll go put Saran Wrap over the top. Not sure what difference that will make, but it might be better with all sealed in.

I'll let you know how it comes out.

(Do you like my wine-colored text!?!)

I know, some of you will think that this is a terrible waste of good wine (and it really was good!), but sometimes we have to sacrifice for our art. What can I say?

Start of a New Quilt

Isn't this pretty fabric!?!

I found it at The Grannery quilt shop in Sunnyvale.

(A very nice shop, I might add.)

They are from the 'Panache' by Sanae line from Moda. I don't usually make much mention of fabric lines or designers (except for Harmony, of course!) But I decided to not use any from my stash, and bought all these together.

I'm going to try a quilt that I found done by one of my

"blogger friends," Red Pepper Quilts. (Awesome blog, btw.)

I've started cutting out today, and seeing what a few of the different combinations of colors look like laid out together.

Man, I love starting a new quilt!

Now, if only I were as enthusiastic about finishing a quilt...