fabricologist

fabricologist

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

WIP Wednesday

There hasn't been too much sewing going on over here in the past week. I am getting ready to go on vacation to the beach, and we all know how crazy the last week of work is just before vacation. I am trying to finish a couple of things, but at this point, it looks like after vacation, more will get done. For now, this is what I have:
 Still quilting away on this baby. This is B's quilt for his move from the crib which will be happening in the next few months.
 I have 7 more rows of horseshoes to quilt on this, and then the borders which are just straight lines.
 Then, I threw this together for B's mom. She bought this 3 yards of orange fabric a number of years ago and wanted me to make her a quilt using it. We never came up with a plan until now. She chose all the blues and greens from my stash. With her art degree, she should know about color, right? The picture above is the best for the true colors.
 These look a bit more washed out, even though I was outside. I love the way this looks. I am going to quilt with an all over pattern. It will live on her couch, I think.
 There are some Oval Elements and Jungle Avenue in here. Girl has good taste, I must say.
She even chose fabrics for the back Can't wait to get this one quilted up and of course, I will be back to show it off here. Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Sunday Stash #27-Heather Ross Edition

So, I know many of you have seen it, and many of you have purchased it. I just received my pre-order of the newly printed Heather Ross Far Far Away line. It is everything I hoped it would be.
 It came all folded together flat. I am the one who re-folded and stacked it like this. I used Jeni Baker's method for folding. These are all half yard cuts. I pre-ordered mine directly from Heather Ross. I know they were in stores before I got mine this week, but hey, I got them anyway.
 Here is the whole collection laid out together. So many colors of snails and unicorns.
 Here are the snails and the two color ways of the princess and the mattresses;pink and cream.
 And here are all five colors of the unicorn print and the flowers and the frogs. I love the frogs.
This is my favorite colorway of the froggy print. I do love yellow so much and the frog really shows up well on this one. Linking up to Molli Sparkles for Fabric Stash Sunday.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Ooooh Baby Baby

A twin finish this week folks! I am glad to have the last of the baby quilts done!  Ready for the story? You knew there'd be one, right?
 So I have this friend who lives in Texas. We met when we moved to Texas more than 20 years ago. She is a great friend and she is as Texas as a person can be.
 Her daughter, who is friends with my daughters, is expecting twins. Now, this is exciting in and of itself.
 But what makes it even more exciting as that twins do not run in their family. Not at all. Not on either side.
 So, what do you make for a set of identical twins from Texas? Yup. Twin Texas Flag quilts. Now, they are not identical.
 I made them from lots of scraps in my stash and I did buy a couple of half yard pieces to make it all work.
 The back of the quilts is some adorable baby flannel fat quarters I bought a couple of years ago from Connecting Threads.
 One quilt is bound in blue, one bound in red. Just another little subtle difference.
And I can't wait to send all this cuddly stuff off to Texas. It should be a nice surprise. Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Sunday Stash #26-Singing the Blues

Well, I kinda went a bit nuts this week, but wait til you see this. Quilt in a day was having a big sale on blues. There were about 8-9 pages of blue fabrics and some were $3 a yard. Yes, $3!!! So I thought, let's just take a little look. And I found such great stuff. I bought 4 different fabrics and I bought 2 yards of each, thinking of backs for quilts mostly, but really, at those prices, how could I not. So yes, 8 yards of fabric came to me yesterday. Here it is:
 Had to use the flash to get these. No sun here for the last 4-5 days. On the left is a lovely blue stripe from the Innocent Crush line by Anna Maria Horner. The right is from Lizzy House's Constellations.
The left one in this photo is Nine Dots by Carrie Nelson for Henry Glass and the left is Cosmopolitan by Michael D'Amore Designs for Benartex. The flash has washed these out a bit. Here is a picture without the flash for comparison:

 Darker, certainly, but a bit more true color. Hope the sun comes back soon. Have a great Sunday. Linking up with Molli Sparkles for Fabric Stash Sunday.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Pillow Talk

Now, this may not be what you think. I want to talk about pillows, but not the pillows that we all make as quilters and sewers. I want to talk about bed pillows. I know they tell you to change out your pillows periodically. I think the recommendation I read somewhere is once a year. I know I don't do that. Do you? We have 8 pillows that live on our bed. Yes, 8.
We each have 4, and mostly they are there when we are reading in bed before we retire for the night. When I buy pillows, I have bought them at Target or Bed, Bath and Beyond. But I don't know what I am doing. I try to get a fairly firm pillow, since I know that after awhile it will become less so. But how to choose? The last firm pillows I bout were definitely not that firm after just a short while. They don't seem to hold up very well.
Then, there is the question of polyester filling, foam rubber, down (most expensive) and on and on. So I am asking you...what do you do? I really want to know. Is there a good way to decide? Where do you buy them? Let's have some pillow talk, shall we?

Friday, August 8, 2014

Friday Finish-A Rug

This week's Friday finish is not a quilt, or a pillow or any other sewn object. It is a rug that I crocheted out of old t-shirts. I have long wanted to do this and I tried braiding t-shirt strips and all, but it was so hard and not at all efficient or satisfying. This, however, was awesome!! Wanna see?
 Here it is! Not quite oval, which is what I was going for, but I love it anyway. It is small, but this represents 6.5 t-shirts. I used a bunch of green shirts in different shades and black for the outside edge. I found a couple of tutorials on you tube to show me how to cut the torso of the t-shirt into a continuous strip to make my "yarn". The rest is single crochet stitches.
 Here is a bit closer look at how the rows look together. I did not try to make the transitions smooth from color to color. It is a bit harder than with yarn.
 I love this bright green row right before the end. I purposely only did one row of that, but the bigger this thing got, the fewer rows one t-shirt would do.
So here it is, one more time before it starts getting used. Linking up with Crazy Mom for Finish it up Friday.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Sunday Stash #25-Rush Hour

So, I signed up for one of Madame Samm's blog hops that is coming in late September. The theme is Rush Hour and it is based on this fabric by Studio e. This is Rush Hour. I chose half yard cuts of these six prints, although there are more in the line. It is rainy and cloudy here this weekend, so not very good lighting.
 Love the coffee cups and the numbers/letters. I do have an idea for this hop, and I am trying to make it work. Good thing I have time, because looks like I may need it.
 I had to Google Rush Hour fabric and Studio e to find this as it is just now showing up in shops. I found mine at Erica's Craft and Sewing Center on line, but she has a brick and mortar store in South Bend Indiana. So glad I found her. She shipped it really fast too.
I think this is my favorite print in the line. Pretty cool, don't you think? Linking up with Molli Sparkles for Sunday Stash. Have a great week.