East Coast quilt shops visited!

While away at our summer home, aka: soon to be our year-round home, we decided to make a special effort to visit a few "local" quilt shops. Yes my husband comes along; he's even been known to suggest or point out certain items he's found while cruising the store! He's a wonderful quilt store shopper in-training! :)

But first, I attended the Fibre Arts Festival in Amherst Nova Scotia and had a chance to meet with the wonderfully talented Jennifer of Sister of the Brush, a sister blogger, longarm quilter, fabric dyer, and a great artist, for a quick introductory visit. We had a great chat, albeit too short, (my husband waited in the car). Plans to meet again just wasn't in the cards this trip unfortunately! However we will be together again soon...

The Fibre Arts Festival (see Jennifer's post!) included a quilt show by the Cumberland Quilt Guild as well as a small vendor's mall. This is where I made my first purchases. The Fabric Cupboard is a quilt shop located in Moncton, NB. I haven't been to this store yet but plan to rectify this in the next few months. I hear they have quite the selection of wonderful fabrics.

These stripes may of course show up in my De Deauville A Cape Cod:

And who doesn't like a few more Valdani threads? Just picking up colors I don't already have.

The Zonta Arts Bazaar vendor and Fiber Artist (Rug Hooking) Felicia Knock was selling some wonderful wools. These I bought in 1/2 yds:

These are some of her hand dyed 100% New Dorr Wool and they're 1/8yd cuts. Aren't they beautiful? and sooo soft!

Visiting with friends in Riverview, NB, I had a chance to check out The Covered Bridge Quiltery where I found a beautiful display of this quilt: "In The Meadow We Can Build a Snowman" and I just fell in love with their colorway! Since they have a "NO PHOTOS PLEASE" policy, I can't show you their quilt although she let me take a picture since I was buying the pattern which happens to be a BOM (block of the month) since ended. Their colors were darker 

They used a combination of cottons and wool flannels so I helped myself to some of their plaids. Did I tell you that I love plaids?? It's really a passion!

On display in the shop was a Christmas table runner I knew would make an excellent gift for someone special. They even had kits made; such a cute design on the bag!

The runner is found in Disa Designs book. I came home with 3 of her books... I fell in love with her adorable Santa Polka Dot pattern while cruising Pinterest last year... perhaps I can make one this year?? 

These 2 half-yards are meant for backgrounds in Yoko Saito's Quilt Mystere for Quiltmania. One of them was used for the church in "In The Meadow" quilt.

By the way, if you get to The Quiltery, whether on the website or in person, have a look at their Quilter's Homes and Quilter's Garden BOM quilts going on now. Specifically, look at the wonderful quilting done by Penny Bubar. She does fabulous work which you can also view on her FlickR page and drool some more!

Next day trip was spent on the island! Prince Edward Island that is! We love to trek over there any chance we get so on this day, we were headed west to the town of O'Leary to visit The Quilt Gallery & Fabric Crafts N' More. You can also like them on Facebook to learn all about their sales, promotions etc. They have a wide variety of beautiful quilts for sale displayed in a "room" at the back of the store. I was on a mission to find the yardages below which appeared in "In The Meadow" quilt. 

And of course I'm always on the lookout for architecture and landscape fabrics. This time, it was mainly textures in fat quarters.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about all this shopping is that it fit in our suitcases! :)

Toodles,

Lorette

More stash folding

A friend and I have enjoyed morning walks along the streets of West LA for the past 7 years but since our move to the valley, our treks have been less frequent. Now I combine the walk on the day I bike with friends. It's my way of avoiding heavy traffic by leaving the house earlier than others making the morning commute for work.

Recently, during our early morning walk, I found this unit while previewing the Goodwill shop in West LA. I knew I'd have to come back here later in the morning to investigate... and I was happy I did. It's a Besta from Ikea and is exactly the same as the black one I got years ago at the same Goodwill!  I got it for $25. SCORE!

So I turned the black unit around to face the back under Lolah (which happens to be the front of the machine), and put the white unit in front to have easy access to fabric.

The day before this fabulous find, I had emptied the blanket box and folded the fabrics but had stored them in the under-the-bed containers until I found the right shelving. 

How fortunate to find that Besta unit at this time. I love how deep the shelves are! 

One more blanket box to go but I assure you I'm nearing the end of my hidden stash!

Toodles!

Lorette

Stash cleaning and folding

While preparing the guest room for our son and his wife's stay, it was imperative that I move the fabric stash out of the closet. I also moved a few pieces of furniture as they will most likely bring their own computers and therefore will need a desk or a table.

So with that closet clearing in mind, I moved all the storage boxes to my studio to see if I could sort the stash and make it look orderly... perhaps even empty a few of the boxes onto the shelves?

I started folding fabrics late last year after I found this tutorial by Angela Pingel. I loved how her fabrics looked on her shelves and thought what a terrific idea to keep my stash in a similar way. I ordered the Comic Book Boards from Amazon and as soon as they arrived I started folding! Soon I was looking for places to put the folded fabric as the one piece of furniture I really needed was a bookcase! However, at the time, there was no more room to allow another piece of furniture; the sewing studio was also my scrapbooking room!

So I looked for convenient locations to store the stash... this is a file cabinet I found at my favorite thrift store. Then the folding stopped for lack of space to put the fabric.

In March, I found 3 bookcases at my favorite thrift store while waiting for the delivery and set-up of Lolah and slowly restarted folding my stash and filling the shelves. I believe my studio is constantly evolving depending on my mood and what I find at the thrift store! :)

The first two bookcases sit behind Lolah against the wall and away from direct sunlight. Someday I hope to have a large enough closet or cabinet system to put all my fabric behind doors.

This one I've shown you before: it's my project fabric stash.

I ran out of Comic Book Boards a few weeks ago so I have several large cuts of fabric that need to be re-folded once the boards arrive from Amazon. Also there's not enough room on the shelves to store all the fabric so I had to keep some in the plastic containers. 

This is part of the pile before folding...

These are large bits of fabric, cut squares, some orphan blocks...

These are strips in various widths and lengths...

The pile of containers will remain in the studio for now. Yes they are in front of the window but I put several layers of tissue paper over the window to prevent the early morning sun from bleaching the fabrics. The boxes will return to the guest room closet as soon as son and his wife have moved to their own home.

My stash is modest... last week, I was in awe of Teresa Rawson of Fabric Therapy as she described her Quilt Cave 2 and her new re-organization. WOW! I don't know what I'd do with all that fabric! Well, perhaps I do... :) 

I do like how she divides her fabrics into groups/colors; I especially like what she did with her little bits of fabrics. I haven't had a chance to organize my stash into such groups yet; I want to fold it all then perhaps I will divide and conquer the piles!

OCD? Me? perhaps to some degree... but not as much as Teresa! With that much invested in quilting supplies though, you have to be organized to keep things neat and accessible. Otherwise, what's the point of having all that "stuff" if you can't make it look pretty and easy to find?

Next up... the blanket boxes! Yes... there's more to fold!

Toodles,

Lorette

Storing a Mystery!

I mentioned at the end of my last post that I have fabric storage issues. I tend to shop for new fabrics when embarking on a project instead of "shopping" in my own stash. WHY you may ask? Well it isn't that it's hard to get at the fabric, but it's tedious. I have stashes in a few places and nothing is in order any more.

This is what most of my stash is like...

We've moved so many times and each time I have to change my storage system accordingly. These under the bed containers worked great in the house we rented as closet space was very limited. Now they're in my guest bedroom closet but I need to have access to what I have BEFORE I shop so I'm looking for ideas on what to do with fat quarters. I would love your suggestions....

I used to hang pre-washed and ironed FQs from hangers with safety pins at each top corner organized by color and that worked really well except whenever I wanted a piece, it was usually the one in the middle! I keep thinking that someday I'll have the perfect system but as I read many blogs out there, storage systems change with the way you use your space! A never-ending story in my book!

Meanwhile, while looking through these boxes, I found these fabrics that will work in Scrap Quilt and Stitch's mystery quilt.

These are fabric strips, not very big!

Who knew I had these stripes and stars?? Most of these are fat quarters with some pieces much smaller.

 And I found this container to store today's and yesterday's lot.

However, it's not big enough...

Must be on the lookout for a better storage solution. The wine box wasn't the right size either! Besides, we're keeping those for our next move! :(

While at Quilt Emporium the other day, I happened on Sewline glue stick mentioned in the Report on Glue post. Look at this side by side comparison with Karisma glue pen... see any difference??? I don't! Glad to know we're not behind the times in the USA! ;)

And while I was busy folding and arranging my fabrics for De Deauville a Cape Cod, Roxane emailed Block no 1 instructions! I was so pleased to see it and finally get started! By the end of the afternoon, this is what I had:

It was fun to put together. By the end of the evening, the sewing was completed and this morning I did the embroidery while watching The Quilt Show online. 

I did a few things differently: I crocheted a chain of Buttonhole Twist mixed with strand of Superior Metallic Thread in Silver then I applied it to the quilt first by anchoring it beyond the edges of the block then coming up to the top, sliding my needle under the posts (not through all the layers) and extending it to the next post etc... finally going through to the back and securing.

I also chose to add a charm to each changing hut and secured them with the same thread and using a buttonhole stitch around the charm hole. This way they dangle but stay in place. Some knobs are different too and I might still go back and create the same design on each door as on the red one. I'll see how it goes as the quilt is created! The instructions have a water feature to the left but it's absent on the original so I'll wait. 

Did you notice I added my logo to my signature? I created it on my Samsung Note II phone using the pen, then imported it into Photoshop, and created a brush in the size I usually use on my pictures. Now I don't have to type it in anymore which saves me time... more time to stitch!

Off to work on the next house block in Yoko Saito's Quilt Mystere. Have a great day!

Toodles,

Lorette

Setting up!

I mentioned in the last post that I have embarked on Scrap, Quilt and Stitch's latest mystery quilt called "De Deauville a Cape Cod". Today I did some shopping... don't laugh please! I go all out when I am "building"! If you refer to Scrap, Quit, and Stitch's blog, you'll quickly discover that I hardly "needed" all these fabrics! But who ever buys on "need" alone?? It was more of an "I want to have the variety" that spurred me on. Besides, it's a mystery! I want all the options at my fingertips and fabric never goes bad... it will suit other projects I have in mind for later.

Again, Quit Emporium was my go to shopping destination. And they didn't disappoint. They have a fabulous collection of stripes, polka dots and various other fabrics that I might want! :) Here are the choices I made; please note, these are fat quarters unless otherwise specified except for a few that are 1/2 yds... it's my favorite method of shopping and has been for decades! Thanks QE for your patience; I appreciate the time you spend cutting these!

This next photo is puzzling: these are suppose to be brown... the bottom fabric is a dark brown and the top one is a rusty brown. Very strange when all the above fabrics are spot on for color! I couldn't get the camera to photograph the correct color.

These next three are yardage fabrics. They appear lighter; the middle one is actually ecru... very rich looking in real time. How could anyone be disappointed in these??? The fabrics are luscious and have a beautiful hand.

Well when I left Quilt Emporium, I decided to visit our newest local JoAnns Fabrics. They moved and reopened just a few doors east in a space previously occupied by a Petco, a much larger space and better organized than their previous location which I avoided. I just HAD to have a look.

Here is what I found there... I was on the hunt for charms! If you refer to Scrap Quit and Stitches blog, you'll notice she uses several miniature charms. I was unable to find a weathervane but I'll keep looking. BTW: these were marked down 40%!

Top row: UPTOWN: Build a Bracelet charm style 3: www.jessejamesbeads.com; (they're sold in groups of three)
Middle row: Bliss Beads Charms (these are sold individually)
Bottom row: Cousin' Jewelry Basics metal toggle clasp: www.cousin.com (1 unit)

Since I didn't know much about the scale these needed to be, I purchased this anchor with a rope: it's actually a toggle clasp! But very nice... the rope could be useful.

I'm disappointed in JoAnn's fabrics; it used to be they sold some middle to good quality quilting fabrics; these have no body except for the sizing/finishing they get at the factory. The weave is thin, you can see through these and if they were wet, I bet they'd feel even more inferior than when new and dry. I doubt I'll use much of these in the quilt unless I absolutely need a specific color/print. I've enjoyed shopping at JoAnns for many many years but lately, what you find there in the quilting fabrics department  is not up to par. There's no question it's cheaper; yes... and it feels cheaper; they've increased their prices recently too but the quality has declined! Some of the more expensive quilting fabrics by designers are also sold at JoAnns; today I didn't shop that aisle.

These are 1/4 yd cuts: they're not as bad as the fat quarters in terms of quality.

These are fat quarters pre-cut:

And the yardage I bought perhaps for backgrounds... a very strong "perhaps"!

Now I need a container for storing these. I wonder if GoodWill woud have another picnic basket? Maybe I will resort to using an old wooden wine box I bought at a wine warehouse to use as part of a display table set up for our son's wedding. Seems the divided box might be just the right size for these folded fabrics. I'll try that out tomorrow. That is after I rifle through my fabric stash to see what I have in red white and blue stars, stripes and the like! It's a pain to look through my stash... but that's another story! Perhaps I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Good night!

Lorette