I have been waiting for this line with anticipation, and it's arrived at Whimsy Cottage next door or you favorite internet retailer. It's Erin McMorris's new Park Slope collection.
It has a Scandinavian feel to it, which makes it my favorite thing on the spot. I made Nancy order it so I hope she sells it well !
I think I'll make placemats from my pattern with the fats I got today.
I love this piece:
and this one:
and this one too!
I have been looking around for heavier weight fabric in wide width ( especially Denise Schmidt) to make more slings for baby Finn. There are a lot of details I would like to change with the sling to make it more comfy.
Along my web search I encountered these finds:
These are from Robert Kaufman , they are a blend of bamboo and cotton. Sew Mama Sew carries them.
Oh! and I bought myself this book yesterday:
It contains a nice pattern for fabric baskets...I should make one soon and report back to you !
Day 5 of the macro-photo challenge.
I get to play with my favorite thing : American Jane fabric (Moda).
It's for a class I am teaching this spring at the store...Fun!
I just came back from the store. We have received some seriously cool stuff that I knew nothing about. I feel that unless it's Moda I am really uninformed. You see Moda puts out those swanky catalogs that we can browse when there are no clients. But what I found was two terrific collections by Timeless Treasure, one by Andover Fabrics and some new Amy Butler goodness. I will now shamelessly try to find web picture to illustrate this post and steal them...
Above is the Amy Butler collection Midwest Modern. I had to get a few pieces for a friend with a mild lime-green obsession.
Jitterbug from Andover fabrics. The collection has a soft Japanese look to it.
Amelia by Timeless treasures
The last of the fabric I bought is nowhere to be found on the Timeless Treasure web page ...I looked through their entire web catalog and nothing. This is not something I recommend, there is some seriously ugly in there and one of the collection is called Nouveau Riche, my jaw just dropped in revolt.
A mediocre picture I took of the mystery fabric:
Download DSC03795.JPG
Above is the result of a little shopping trip taken today amongst the aisles of fabric at work.
I have been thinking about sewing blue things lately. The inspiration comes undeniably from beautiful pictures seen on blogs over the last month. Here for example. But I wasn't smart enough to bookmark anything. The white ric-rac is meant to be dyed with orange Cool-aid
Yesterday it all came together at once because I unearthed a bolt dating back from 2005, when the regular price for a yard of fabric was $6.25 (!). I just fell in madly in love with it, and had to get what was left (Aunt Grace, Friends around the world)
Karin suggested in a lovely comment that by clearing up my mess I might discover beautiful things I had forgotten about.
She was right. Here are a few in pictures, taken in my favorite/cheapest toy: the cardboard box macro studio.
Un rien m'amuse. *
A jar of selvedge dots, awaiting a moment of great inspiration.
Two thread boxes and some lace retrieved from my great-grandmother things after she died.
And yet another pretty pile.
* loose translation: I don't need much to be entertained.
Day Three:
It's nice to have moral support...or is it supervision. Either way things are progressing. I am thinking that I will have a few little give aways in the next month, shall I dare say : 'stay tuned!'
The post- stash meltdown rearranging has started, and it's not pretty. Fabric everywhere and deprecating feelings running a hundred miles per hour!
I have made a few bags, one definitely for Ambre, one for the world and a bunch of piles separated in potential projects ( Purl Bee project, Funky Monkey project etc...).
some of you sweet readers are fearless and want to help lighten my burden, I am not sure how to work this out but I will ponder on it once the grunt work has been accomplished.
I have found that taking even two minutes break helps see thing in a new light. I suddenly don't need something I had to keep absolutely an instant ago.
I have to clarify here that my stash has always been a kind of security blanket for me, but all the sudden I see it for what it is, loads of unused stuff and it burdens me.
In the end I want to just have a small chest of drawer filled and maybe make myself finish a project every month this year. That should hopefully make the guilt go away.
It must be done, in five weeks my Mom will sleep in the room and six month the baby is moving in.
Meanwhile I made this pretty pile of boyish fabrics, it's a relaxing thing to look at.
Outside the gloom and doom of winter continues. I went to the cemetery and took a pic to prove it:
I have been feeling sort of blue lately, it's been a creeping feeling for a few days now. To avoid facing to it I have spent countless hours at the store sewing and teaching. Tonight I finally found out what's wrong with me:
I have too much fabric, yes you read it right the first time! Too much fabric, too many craft things and I can't enjoy any of it anymore.
I keep 'organizing' things every weekend; cleaning up, sorting, making piles...but there is no denying it any longer, I must clean house as soon as possible, for my sanity.
It doesn't seem like giving away perfectly nice Moda fat quarters is going to feel good but maybe we really have to hurt to get better. I want to enjoy what I have, be inspired, use every bits of it and feel proud of what I make. It's not happening like that right now.
I read in Amy Karol Bend the Rules Sewing that her house is filled with plastic bags full of fabric. Well it just doesn't work for me.
I made no resolutions for the new year but here is one for February : Clean up my stash or else!
Thanks you for reading my lament, I know that somewhere out there's somebody who overcame, I admire, envy and aspire to be them!
Behold the most painstaking project I have attempted in a long time. A travel bag to take to the maternity ward with us when the time is right. Made, could it be true!, with the Reprodepot fabric that was ordered only a week or two ago... That does not usually happen here, I just buy fabric I like, most likely impulsively and then it sits here, making me feel really guilty about my lack of self control. But recently I made three different bamboo handle bags after having bought supplies for exactly as many ( I was astounded). The bag above is a ancient Amy Butler pattern, a friend has a cute picture of hers here. I have an understanding with my husband that if I ever attempt to make another one he will have me committed. Count three days to complete such affair! three days...and it still has puckers at the corners ( that make me ill).
I did have fun choosing a cute way to give it protection on the bottom: Apple shaped buttons.
But I am over it now, and remind myself that I have this really extra-cute number to put in it:
placemats
narrow hem
Roller Coaster
Tree Skirt
Fabric Pinwheels
Crochet Basket 
Diaper Burp Cloths
Infant Bibs 
Baby Blanket Set
Birthing Quilt 
