Stash update week 14 and 15

I have been trying out the Blogger app on my IPad the past few weeks, using photos taken on my phone for convenience. Some times I write a post and publish it and see it in my reader, even - but then it disappears. Since I don't re- check after the initial posting I don't always realize what has happened.

This is one of those posts. It should have been posted last Sunday, so I am updating it and combining weeks 14 and 15.

I forgot one other vacation fabric stop! On the way back south from New York, we stopped in Mt. Airy for a couple of days. We went for a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which was lovely, and had lunch at Tuggles Gap. Part of the parkway was closed due to ice and snow, so we went back a different route and stopped in Floyd, VA at Schoolhouse Fabrics.

The fabric shop is in a schoolhouse that last graduated a class in 1939. But, it is essentially the same as it was then. (photo from the FloydBlog.com)

The classrooms on the main floor, are filled with fabrics and notions. One whole classroom just for Novelty fabrics and another just for fleece blanket fabric in pictorial panels? On the upper floor, the music room was full of wools and fleeces (the stage had some cutting tables). Another room was full of Christmas and patriotic prints. Downstairs had a huge room with everything you might need for a wedding dress or reception decor and a smaller room with silk flowers and other 'fancy' fabrics.

Their prices were very reasonable ( I would guess they had 30 or 40 different Kona solids at $5.79/yd).

I bought two half yards of novelty cottons with vintage pattern envelope pictures.

Luckily, they had 'man chairs' for The Mister as it was not quite as much fun for him...

Fabric added this week -1 yards
Fabric added YTD - 41,58 yards
Fabric used this week - 0 yards
Fabric used YTD - 37.18 yards
Net Stash change - +4.4 yards

I did add some fabric at the retreat, but I will have to tally that up I'm the next report!

Shool House Fabrics - three floors of fun!

My school house treasure!

You can see more reports here...

Re-purposing A Panel

During a trip to the frozen North (The Mister's home town) a few years ago, I accidentally bought two Advent calendar panels.  I say accidentally, because the fabric was not on a bolt and I thought that it was just a Xmas print with squared motifs that might be cute for making ornaments. I asked for half a yard and the quilt shop lady told me it was a panel, but she had an accent and I didn't really understand her and somehow I ended up buying two panels. 

Last week, I was going through my bin of holiday fabrics and an idea occurred to me that would put the panels to use, without ending up with calendars that I really wasn't that keen on.  

In the 70's, my family was introduced to Husker Du.  Not the band with the "thrashing tempos and screamed vocals" (Wikipedia).  No, this was the matching game "where the child can outwit an adult".  My mom saw it somewhere and thought it was such a great idea that she set out to get one for each family on her gift list and, of course, one for us, as well. (Maybe she saw the "controversial advertisement"!)

I decided that my advent calendars could become  Holiday Husker Du!

I cut the pocket designs out and quilted each one to a piece of batting and backed it with another Xmas print fabric  that was languishing in the bin.  There were 25 pockets on each panel and I made a few more squares from other areas of the panel so that I ended up with 30 pairs. I divided them into two sets of 15 pairs to make two games to send off to some little girls that I thought might have some fun with them. 

Fabric right sides together, stitched around with a gap for turning, then top-stitched.

I am sure their mothers will recall how to play the game.  If not, I will email the instructions!

As for the rest of the panel, I cut it into strips and added them to my giant knitted rug project that I will share another day.  

I am glad to have it out of the stash and made into something fun (I hope)!

Shutting Out The Siren Song

One of the things that I enjoy about living in the middle of the country is that many people have lived here their whole lives. And, when they are no longer with us, I  get to buy their stuff at an estate sale or auction!

That is not the case everywhere.  When we lived in the desert, there were no estate sales, or even decent garage sales.  With few exceptions, a typical garage sale, often, was 2 card tables in the driveway with old VHS tapes and tired Xmas decor. My theory is that people there just don't accumulate as much stuff over the years because there are no basements to keep stuff in.

At any rate, I have been enjoying  shopping several estate sales in any given week.  What I usually look for is fabric (of course!) and sewing things, particularly vintage things.  And vintage linens.  And incomplete projects.  And quilt tops.  And...well anything that is a fabulous bargain.  The non-vintage fabric is not always my taste, but if it is good quality I buy it with charity sewing in mind.  (Vintage fabric is always my taste!)

Gradually, seeing other people's fabric stashes for sale at pennies on the dollar, has made me consider my fabric 'habit'.  I have enough jelly rolls, layer cakes, charm packs,  half yard bundles, fat quarters and just plain yardage to keep me busy for a long time. 

And yet. 

I barely got through the "black-cyber-shop-a-thon" without buying more!   

When I am tempted by a new line by a favorite designer, or a sale of fabulous organic fabric, etc. I force myself to think about what I have already and how I would feel if I saw my stash in an estate sale priced at a dollar (or less!) a yard.  

And then I back away from the keyboard!

My resolution for the next year is to sew from my stash. I may have to buy a solid, here or there, to finish out something, but  my goal will be to use what I have. 

I hate to do it, but I am going to unsubscribe from the Deal of the Day, the Friday Feature and all the other ways that I get sucked into Internet shopping!

I am retired. I think it is time to start withdrawing from my fabric 401k!

Hodge Podge and Happy Independence Day!

Hello....hello...still there?

I wouldn't blame you for giving up on me! Posting only six times in May and twice in June makes me almost embarrassed to show my face around here!

I have been busy and distracted this past month, but things are coming together and I am starting to feel more like we have a 'new normal'. So, I will not promise to post regularly, but that is my intent!

I thought I would try to catch up a bit, but first, a patriotic nod to the holiday, by way of vintage textiles:

This is one of several vintage fabrics that I have listed in Atomic Sisters etsy shop. I have trouble coming up with 'non-drapery' ideas for large motif fabrics, so I am de-stashing a bit. I just cannot envision using these, so I decided to pass them on to someone else.

In other news:

This past week, The Mister and I took a road trip to the central coast of California. I had some business there and we decided to make a tiny holiday out of the maiden voyage of our new(er) camper. My work was in Santa Maria, so that was the base, but we spent most of Friday exploring some of the country side.

We started with a trip to Solvang for lunch, then explored the wine country around Santa Barbara. We really were not interested in wine, though, just the scenery.

We stopped at the Fess Parker winery, but passed on the coon skin hat wine bottle toppers!

This lavender farm was tucked in amongst the vineyards. I saw it on the map and with a minimum of wrong turns, we found it!

It was so beautiful and just alive with bees and butterflies. We stopped at the little shop and rang the bell, so someone could come out from the house to sell us wonderful soap.

Originally, we thought about spending the long weekend in California, but decided to drive back Saturday and have a weekend at home. The kitties were very glad to see us when we returned. They are a little nervous about all the packing, etc. that has been going on!

Wait until they find out that we are all going to live in the camper...

Disaster!

...goal-wise, anyway...

Just four days ago, I set a goal to quit 'growing my stash', until I started using some of it. I was well underway, using about 20 fat quarters, plus a couple of yards of sashing fabric.

But, I didn't have enough of the yellow sashing. It is Kona cotton, banana yellow, and I bought the end of a bolt at Jo-Ann's before Christmas. There was a bit more than a couple of yards on the bolt and the person at the cutting table said that Kona had been on sale the week before, so I assumed that was why the stocks were low. There would be more.

My 'design bed'...

A few days later, I was in the 'way up North' part of town with some time to kill before an appointment, so I stopped at the other, larger, Jo-Ann, but they were out of banana, too.

The next week, I looked at my regular Jo-Ann, but still we have no bananas!

I called the smaller store in the "way up North the other way" land and none there, either.

I checked the Jo-Ann web site and no banana amongst the 35 colors listed.

Corn.

And Buttercup.

No banana.

I decided it can't be a case of 'discontinued favorites'. I just became aware of Kona banana a couple of weeks ago!

I called Dearest Sister and asked her to check at her Jo-Ann, but none there, either, or in the neighboring town, where the grandbebes live.

It was too late at night to call on resources further East, so I went to the web.

When I found it on-line, on sale at 20% off, I bought five yards. I will probably use a couple more yards in the quilt I am working on. And I will have about 22 of the Moda fat quarters left over. I like the yellow with the prints, so I am sure that it will be perfect in whatever other project I decide for them.

The banana hasn't arrived, yet. I guess I have a few days to stitch up something to 'make room' in the stash for five yards.

But now, I am in the hole!

And - I found an ad for 3 bolts (15 yards) of Moda classic white for $100 on Craigslist. It seems like a deal too good to pass up!

What do you think?

Do I have the discipline to say no?

Is it too late for a 're-do' on my goals?

Maybe that is the solution! I will change the goal to: Refrain from increasing the stash by more than 100 yards a month...

When New is Better Than Vintage...

I love vintage things, especially quilts. We all know that about me, by now.

And, over the years, I have collected fabric, tools, patterns and books about quilts, and have just recently begun accumulating the knowledge of how to actually make a quilt.

This is one of "Aunt Martha's" booklets of patterns. I use the word booklet, loosely. It is barely more than a pamphlet. It has the patterns for 14 quilts, in 15 pages.

The 'Trip Around the World' quilt (the middle one on the cover) has always intrigued me and I thought that it might not be too complicated, since it only has one pattern piece. So, last year (way last year...) I decided that perhaps I could figure it out.

I was mistaken.

I suppose that Aunt Martha could assume a certain level of experience back in the day when home sewing was a given. There is no mention of skill level for any of the patterns.

This page is the extent of the instructions.

I read it, and re-read it. And read it again.

From the way the directions were written, I could not see anyway to put it together without every piece having two set in seams. I was thinking that there should be a way to put the pieces together in rows. I could see rows! I just couldn't see how to get the pieces into rows without getting the color pattern all mixed up.

Finally, I just put it away.

Over the weekend, I picked up a quilt book at Jo-ann and found this pattern that has kind of the same feel:

The book is "American Jane's Quilts for all Season's ...and Some For No Reason" by Sandy Klop. The pattern is called "Fiesta Ware". And, there are FIVE PAGES of instructions!! That I can figure out!!

The book says that it requires about 9 yards of fabric for the top. If I can use fabric from the stash (I might have to purchase the 3 yards of black...) that will make room for 6 yards of new fabric!

So this addresses two goals for the new year! Quilt making and stash usage! A win-win!

I probably should have started working on the goal of organizing my studio, first though. I wonder if The Mister would mind if I just take over the dining room...

Another stash....

When I first saw Martha's Simple Objects Quilt at Q is for Quilter, a whole new world of embroidery motifs opened up for me! Her beautiful quilt is made from the designs in a vintage coloring book from 1963!

Previously, my embroidery was really centered on transfers from Aunt Martha and Sublime Stitching. I had ordered a tracing pad and transfer pencils so that I could do other designs, but I was thinking more of being able to re-use some of the vintage transfers in my collection. (When the instructions say "transfer the design to fabric using your favorite method", I usually passed. My favorite"method" is heat transfer!)

Suddenly, a light bulb went off and I picked up several coloring books that had simple line designs. I looked on eBay for vintage coloring books, but most of the listings didn't really show any of the pages, so it was hard to tell if the designs would be fun. And, they were too pricey to take a chance.

When the Mister and I were in Kansas last month, I stopped at an antique show and found a couple of coloring books and a tragic quilt (that story is here). One of the coloring books had an adorable image of a teddy bear on a rocket ship, but the opposite page (with a presumably coordinating picture) was missing. So, occasionally I have searched on eBay to see if I could find another one of those books with all the pages.

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled on a seller that has listings of books and coloring books that are pristine, and unused. Apparently, they are from the Western Publishing archives and, they are listed as auctions with a starting bid of 99 cents. And, some of them go for 99 cents!

This past weekend, I received the first package of purchases. Four coloring books - total with shipping less than $15.00! And they are wonderful!!




Like most sellers, none of the inside pictures were in the listings, but for the price, I decided to take a chance, or four chances to be accurate!

I couldn't be more pleased! One of them is Simple Objects to Color, but it is a later edition. I think, from the style of the pictures it is from the late 60's or early 70's:

I can just picture bottles like these in dark purple and aqua!

Is that flower power I see on that saxophone?

The other three are large format. The Trucks book is from 1951!

"The freight is loaded. Now back up to the trailer." "See you in Kansas City," calls another driver.

There have been many changes in the transportation industry in 58 years!

The Mister liked this one!

The Mammoth Book to Color (no date) has some very cute-y pie animals!

This one reminds me of the Days of the Week patterns from Aunt Martha!

The Big Pictures for Little People to Color (1954)has some great vintage scenes, too.

That helmet doesn't look like it would protect much...

My next package will have 7 more. Most of them were listed as "buy it now" for $1.99. (total for 7 books with shipping - less than $20)

So, by now, I have purchased about a dozen coloring books. Bargains, to be sure, but over $35 worth! Probably enough for most folks. However, something inside me compels me to check every few days to see if there are any others that I might "need".

The seller is Golden Treasures.

You should look.

You might find some you like.

You would be doing me a favor if you buy them before I do....

A semi false start....

I finished the first block of the Rhymeland quilt, but I am not 100% pleased with the result. The floss that I chose looked perfect with the fabric and the accent color was a great coordinate, however the finished block was underwhelming. Unless you are very close, all the embroidery looks like one color.

It looks "okay", but not fabulous.

So, I went back to the stash :

This is one box of four that contain my embroidery floss stash.

At every auction or estate sale of a women over age 60 or so, there will be a small (five or six skein) or large (many skein) stash of floss. I always buy them when I have the opportunity, usually for 20 or 30 skeins for a dollar, or less. I have skeins from DMC, J&P Coats, Clark's O.N.T., Coats & Clark's The American Thread Co. and other obscure brands. Some have UPC codes, some are marked 5 cents, or less.

So I have many to choose from! I like to use vintage floss with vintage fabric. The older colors are not always dramatically different, but sometimes the vintage color is just what the project needs.

Anyway, this is what I decided on:

The turquoise is a combination of bulk floss that was originally in a kit and American Thread Co. Star 6 Strand color 1114-A (marked 10 cents!).

I have four skeins of the salmon accent. Two skeins of J&P Coats, one skein of Clarks's and one skein of Coats and Clark's O.N.T color 120 (three for 10 cents!) They all have the same color number, even though they have several brand marks!

I am just about finished with Hey, Diddle Diddle, and I hope it turns out as great as I think it will.

I think the Mother Goose block will be able to stand on her own in a separate project. I may pick another block to take her place in the quilt. I don't really enjoy repeating a motif that I have already done. Lucky for me there are so many cute blocks to choose from !

In which we plan for Grandbebe three!

Exciting news! Dearest Sister is to have three Grandbebes by years end! I am so glad that my assignment for bebe quilt number two has been delivered!

Now, I can concentrate on bebe quilt number three!

Sunday, I sorted all the feedsacks and vintage cottons by color so I could get a sense of possibilities

In keeping with our gender neutral color scheme (so as to have it finished before bebe arrives), we thought about purple. Not the largest pile after the sorting, but enough, I think.



If we could find out the bebe's gender in the next week or so (and if it were to be a girl) we could consider this group! I love the bubble gum pinks!

My favorite fabrics are feedsacks because they are so sturdy and nearly always have been pre-washed. (I guess if a feedsack wasn't washed promptly after the "feed" was removed, it would probably be eaten by bugs, so the "unwashed" probably wouldn't survive!)



I think this is the group that we will use. Lots of prints and a couple pieces of yardage that could probably work for the back, if DS decides to use something besides flour sacks. Blue, but not bebe boy blue, so I think it still fills the neutrality requirement.

I am using this motif for the embroidery. Martha over at Q is for Quilter has made some really beautiful things. I want to make all her projects!

The design is by Nancy Page and was a serial published as a block a week in the newspaper in 1935. All the designs in the series are really cute. It will be difficult to narrow it to just twelve that I will need for this project. Anyway, I was so happy to be able to start right in. Thanks Martha, for sharing with me!

My Sister gives me crack...

Well, it is crack to me...

I believe that I have mentioned that I have a weakness for vintage fabrics (and other linens and textiles). I have been fortunate (from my perspective, anyway) to have lived in an area with a tradition of estate sales and auctions. I have collected quite a few vintage fabrics from those sources, sometimes from the online auction and from the odd antique store or flea market. I used to sell many of them on ebay, but then something happened. I began to think "maybe I will just keep this one. It is so beautiful - interesting- unique etc" Before you know it, I was only listing things that I had "extra" of.

Then I came to the desert where there are no old things. Suddenly, there was no more supply! I began to troll sources while on vacation, (during the adventure, I found two green feedsacks with a novelty print at a vintage store for $6 each!)

After spending time visiting craft blogs, I began to get inspiration to create. I decided that I needed to "make better use of my time" an attitude highly prized in my mother's home! Making softies, quilts etc for charity seemed like a good fit for me.

But, I could not use my vintage fabrics. My vision for them is quilts. (I have very long-range vision, so don't expect to see any finished quilts right away!)

I went to Jo-Ann and found flannel remnants! Often, I found them on sale at 75% of the off the bolt price. When the flannels are on sale at $2.50/yd, the remnants are $1.25/yd. Why, they practically pay me to take them away!

I have collected quite a few....

The bottom shelf is flannel solids -

These are the flannel prints...

And this is the crack that Wisest Sister gave me!

She probably didn't realize how deep I am into it. I am sure she wouldn't have knowingly contributed to my sad dependency. Since she is a recovering stasher herself, she understands the issues. She just didn't know.....