Down for the count and the fabric flea market

It's been a while since I have been around these parts. I have been down for the count over the last couple of months. Turns out that my never-ending autumn cold was pneumonia. I have mostly been sleeping over the last 6 weeks. BORING! I'm starting to return to my normal self (thank you antibiotics!) and so I hope to see much more of you around this blog. I also hope to be back into some crafty pursuits. Sleeping is not a very creative pursuit.

I wanted to share some of my happy finds from the "Fabric Flea Market" this year. I look forward to the market day like a 4-year-old looks forward to Christmas morning. The sale this year did not disappoint! Here are my acquisitions. Feel free to drool a little bit.

Hoops. A hand stitch lover can't have too many of these! (yes, I also bought the gorgeous vintage fabric underneath the hoops. I think that it is a "brocade"?? It has a texture to it - feel free to correct me if I am calling it the wrong thing).




Buttons. Yum. You may remember that I love them so.




Love:

Vintage cotton thread on wooden spools! I adore the flood of colour. Just one question....Can you actually sew with old cotton thread? I'm inclined to say yes...is that just wishful thinking on my part???

FABRIC!:

Looks like vintage sheets, but is really vintage fabric - love it!:

I think that this fabric is my favourite! Do these ladies remind you of anyone?

Don't they look like Mary Poppins???

(image source)

Lacey bits. Some seem to be vintage. I suspect that some are not. I have no idea what I will do with them, but I love them!

Last year I bought every piece of gingham that crossed my path. This year I couldn't pass up a polka dot. (Why yes! That is some Amy Butler fabric on the top of the pile.).

The fabrics have been washed, ironed and added to my stash. now I just need to come up with the perfect projects so that I have the courage to cut into them.

Creative flounder (fishy pun intended)

I have so much to post about...and nothing to post about! I have made lots of progress on several projects with few completions to show....until now.

BEHOLD! (Another!?!) patchy baby blanket.

It's for a work colleague. She is very stylish and bohemian - a perfect fit for some fabric from the fabulous Anna Maria Horner. (Yes pink lovers, she is having a girl!).

The patchwork and quilting happens to be a repeat of a quilt that I made for another work colleague. I really love making simple patchwork quilts. Does a production of two quilts make it my trademark-go-to quilt???

I was especially happy with the back. Some vintage linen (that was purchased at the Fabric Flea Market last fall) and a tiny strip of patchwork. I do like a little "surprise" on the back of a quilt.

Now that the weather has turned colder, my thought are starting to turn to Christmas projects. Too early???! When do you start tackling your Christmas list?

Lucky girl...

fat quarter bundle of Freebird, which is the newest line by Momo

I just found out that I won a FQ package in Film in the Fridge's second blog-iversay give-away!

Thanks Ashley for setting up such a great blog and fantastic give-away. Thanks also to Jody from the Fabric Shoppe for sponsoring the give-away.

Don't you just love how orange , brown , and blue look together?

Lucky me!

fabric-palooza

OK, so this is really just a greedy post about fabric. It looks like a LOT (and it is a LOT), but I hasten to point out that it comes from three separate purchases over the last few months (some of which were gifts). Please don't judge me harshly for my greedy fabric addiction. I am planning to join a 12-step program as soon as one is available for fabric collection.


My mom came for a visit and asked (naively and sweetly!) if there was anything that I would like her to bring. UMmmmmm...our IKEA doesn't sell any fabric, but it sure looks fun. I sent her and my sister off on an expedition to pick out their favourites and surprise me. Here is what they liked:

This is the only one that I specifically requested, I kind of like the idea of it pulled over stretcher frames as an artwork:

The the lovely Donna (have you noticed that I always call her the lovely Donna?) from Kindred Crafters was placing an order with Pink Chalk Fabrics (a great place to buy fabric!). Sometimes we pool our orders and save on international shipping! Here is what I succumbed to:

Kona solids (pomegranate and celery) and one Japanese print

Some lovely Denyse Schmidt Hope Valley in the New Day and Fiesta colour ways.

Then I decided that my birthday was coming and that I should really treat myself since there was such an AMAZING sale at Fabric.com. I bought a whack of Anna Maria Horner (Garden Party) fabrics for almost free! I believe that they worked out to around $3/yard. It would have been silly to pass them up, non?

Some random other fabrics that I picked out because they were on sale (and I liked them!) and it is always $25 for international shipping. Gotta get my $$ worth from the shipping right? The only solution? Lots of yardage. Lots. It brings down the shipping vs. yard ratio and is therefore a bargain, right? Don't you dare correct me on this delusion! ;)

Finally, some decor weight Amy Butler August Fields. Hmm...the colour is mintier than I had imagined.

And so closes my chapter in greed. I have been busily stitching for my partner in the { Urban } HOME Goods modern swap. I'll post some sneaky hint posts in the coming days.

EeEEEE - look what was waiting for me at home today!

I quickly tore into the package to reveal:


Check out the sweet little gnome faces!:


I will probably drop these little gnome friends into the wash fairly quickly to make sure that they don't fade on me. There has been some talk on Flickr that the fabrics aren't as colourfast as they ought to be....although it sounds like this isn't true for all colours (luckily!).

The Spoonflower colours are lovely and bright (YUM!), but the fabric is not nearly as soft as Heather Ross's fabric from Free Spirit.

They do however, have lovely gnomes and mushrooms which I was not lucky enough to purchase on their first run. Don't you just love the selvage edges of the fabric?

I had to laugh...while I was snapping pictures (under my bad dining room light because I just can't wait until daylight tomorrow morning!), my son shoved his truck onto the table. "Here Mommy" he said "Take a picture of my backhoe so that you will have a really pretty picture!".

OK Evan. Here is a "really pretty picture". Lovely Heather Ross fabrics and my son's favourite "Mighty Machine". True loveliness!

Too much temptation

OK, so I was starting to loose sleep with worry....what if it was gone before I could get to it??? It's not good to live a life of stress. Not good. So here is what I did....

I went to the Spoonflower web-site just to see what Heather Ross had put together for her limited run there. Kiss of death. Here is what is coming to live with me at my house!

And this:
And finally, in all it's dotty goodness:



Perhaps it will become a baby blanket for a friend? Perhaps I won't be able to part with it! It may just end up washed, ironed, lovingly folded and stacked.

I do love the idea of doing this or this with the fabric! Any other ideas that this fabric inspires for you? Please do share!

The gimme gimmes

Oh dear...

Do you remember this playground song from when you were a kid?:

Gimme, gimme, never get

Don't you know your manners yet?!

Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh....that's what I hear running through my head when I see that the Heather Ross gnomes and mushrooms are being reprinted.

Oh joy! Oh bliss!

Look what was waiting for me when I got home from work today...A box full of surprises! (weeeell...not reeeeally surprises...more like impulsive Internet purchases).

Shall we take a look at all of the treasures inside?

Sorted and stacked and ready for inspection:

Fabric.com had the Denyse Schmidt "Country Fair" line on sale for $2.99/yard people! I would have jumped on the blog to share the happy find, but I discovered the sale around 11:30 pm and it was over at midnight. If you haven't had the chance to hold this fabric in your hot little hands you might not know that it is a lovely thick weight. I'm not really sure if they would call it decor weight, probably more like a linen weight?

I seem to have developed a fondness for toadstools. I believe that this fabric is from a line called "Shade Garden". It was also on a sale too amazing to pass up.

Finally, we have orange. Not on sale orange. Just orange. The fabric at the bottom is for the quilt that I am making my sister for Christmas. The other orange is going to be used for an iPod cover. There was a special request for orange...and who am I to pass up an opportunity to acquire some lovely cheerful orange for my stash?

Finally, thanks for all of the button comments. Glad to know that there are so many others out there who have such happy memories of sorting through button jars. I'll do a random draw at the end of this week. The lucky winner will get some random selection of buttons. That will be part of the fun...I'll just take a few mitt-fulls to provide some happy button sorting time for a fellow blogger.

A FABRIC SHOW - without the show & tell

My friend Donna and I have gone to the local "Fabric Flea Market" every year since we discovered it 3 glorious years ago. We have both developed an unhealthy love of the fabric find. Vintage, new, sewn into something else. All fun!

This event is jam packed full of excited fabric shoppers. I didn't think to take a shot of the inside of the packed hall (I was too busy trying to stay on my feet in the throng of happy fabric hunters). The fact that this is a fund raiser for a local school and that there are mountains of fabric to be had makes it worth wading through the excited crowd.

The lovely Donna and I were seperated in the crowd, but managed to find each other and sneak off to compare our treasures over a coffee. Donna found a crochet doiley with either William Shakespeare or Sir Wilfrid Laurier (an early Canadian Prime Minister). Very funny! I'll have to ask Donna to take a picture so that we can take a poll, although I think that Donna might be right, I think that it is an image of a former Prime Minister. Can you picture this face in crochet???

What about this handsome mug in crochet form?

I would post all of my lovely finds and treasures for all to enjoy, but the computer went into "early stage system failure" last week. Don't really know exactly what this means...but essentially it turns off whenever it feels like it. Not ideal (especially for my lovely husband who works from home!). We were also running the risk of loosing everything from our hard drive, which as responsible and sensible people we have completely NOT backed up (why would I be organized about that area of my life when I am not about anything else???).

All this to say...I can't wait to show you some pictures of my lovely finds. I am MOST excited about the buttons. My husband was laughing at me this weekend...He could hear the "beep, click" of the camera over and over again as I took pictures of my treasured buttons (sorted by colour palettes, favourites, etc). Yup. I love buttons - A LOT. Laugh if you must.

Uh oh...

Look what is coming in December! Amy Butler's new fabric. drool. I think that I feel another crafty crush coming on...

Dearest Santa,

Please bring me some pretty new fabric and many of the free hand drawn little dot fabric (which I feel certain will be perfect for all binding!).

I promise to be extra good. This morning I gave my seat on the bus to an old lady...and I will try to pet some puppies on the way home. Thank you for your kind consideration.

Love & Ho Ho Ho,

Holly

And so it begins...

Look what arrived for me in the mail today! Hooray!

I immediately set about readying this stack for quilt production (washing, drying, ironing, folding, stacking and re-stacking). I had already passed many minutes daydreaming about the sort of quilt that this fabric might become and had decided that it is destined to be a zig zag quilt for some lucky baby. Once I had the fabric in hand I couldn't resist sketching out some plans:

How does everybody else go about planning a quilt? I love this phase. It's all day dreaming and planning! I usually sketch something out. It helps me to understand how the pieces will fit together. I am often WRONG in my measurements...but I must admit that it doesn't really bother me much. I'll just add rows as needed to get to the measurement that I want in the end.

It was a really quiet night spent on my own. My son was sleeping upstairs and my husband retired to bed early to try to fight off a nasty cold that is brewing. I put my iPod on shuffle and opened the windows so I could listen to the mix of music and the fantastic thunderstorm that was brewing outside. While I listened, I cut & cut and stitched. I have always thought of myself as a very social person, but sewing has really made me value the time I get to spend on my own - a LOT!

Once I start..

I found out that Pink Chalk Fabrics is having a sale. It's a good one. I had to talk myself off the ledge. While I didn't purchase everything my heart desires, I managed to pick up some fantastic deals. Now all I have to do is sit back and wait for the good mail to arrive!

I did treat myself to my very first Japanese print:

Cute, non?

I also started full force on free motion quilting my Tula Pink baby charm quilt (I will really have to come up with a better name!). I am pleased to report that I decided to "just get it done" and go with the "free motion" flow. Very challenging for me - but I discovered that after an hour (or two!) of fighting with the quilting, I really did enjoy just letting the random quilting pattern happen. It is not perfect, but I think that I am learning to be OK with that. As my good friend keeps saying "It's handmade!". I am feverishly working on the binding and will post pictures once the project is complete...stay tuned!

OK...so I caved...

But isn't it so beautiful??? I love the bright colours so! Not too sure what I am going to do with it, but I am looking forward to washing, ironing, stacking, admiring and re-stacking.

Need help! Cannot possibly be of sound mind.

Does anybody else love just admiring stacks of colour and pattern in their sewing space?

Go ahead - mock if you must...