Sunday Stash - Oh my oh Marden's

We're into the third month of The Year of The Stash and I'm still feeling it. There's been less mindless fabric acquisition and more mindful choices.

But a couple weeks ago, DT, Himself and I went on a family adventure. Officially, it was a ski vacation in Maine, but no trip to Maine is complete without hitting up at least one Mardens.
Mardens is... well, not your usual fabric store. It's a discount shop and many of its locations are former Walmarts. They're sketchy. Very sketchy. But if you can get past the grubby floors and the clutter and make your way to the fabric department, you'll find treasure after treasure - at great prices!

I visited on my birthday and went a little wild. But I was more than 2 hours from home, so it's all good in the Stash Manifesto department. I can't walk away from a text print.... and one's in black are even more rare! In case you're wondering, it's Elementary by Sweetwater for Moda.

My stash is a little low on yellows. And I'd never seen that Michael Miller's Stitch Circle in that particular colour!

Oh, the novelty prints! I think DT's I Spy Polaroid quilt has been influencing my purchasing more than a little. Riley Blake's Gracie Girl Clocks in Gray, Geekly Chic Cassettes in White,  Michael Miller's Sushi in Turquoise, and Laurie Wisbrun's Perfectly Perched for Robert Kaufman.

 As for these Sunset Songbirds... the colour palette sucked me in!

 These Michael Miller Play Dots could turn into just about anything - a quilt back or even a summer dress for GT!

And the best part? Not one of these lovelies cost more than 5$/yard! Shocking!

Even my mom couldn't resist getting into the fabric buying (she's neither sewer nor quilter).  These fun Christmas panels made their way into her basket!

 Who can turn down fabric with a price tag like this?

I'm linking up with Patchwork & Pastry, who's stepping in for the oh-so-busy Molli Sparkles. And guess what? Next week, Sunday Stash will be here @ A Quarter Inch from the Edge! I better stock up on glitter and make sure the Dustbuster is charged for clean-up! Oh, and make a few fabric purchases to show off! LOL!

J

Improv!

No, I haven't taken to doing theatre games in my spare time... I'm just branching out, people!

A couple weeks ago, my friend Ade over at Chezzetcook Modern Quilts started up an on-line bee - ModQImprovB Canada. She was looking for 12 quilters interested in a modern quilting and a block exchange - suffice it to say, it filled up quickly.  Each month for a year, one of is Queen B and chooses a block we'd like and the others make it and pop it in the mail... sweet, huh? We have a group on FaceBook to communicate and share pics of what we're working on.

So Ade was first up and shared this blog post to give us an idea of what she wanted. And the scraps started flying! The blocks aren't even due until sometime in June, but lots of people had them done already. You know me, I couldn't fall behind! Here's what I worked up on Friday evening.

Improv piecing is a lot of fun... not that I didn't know that before. I dove into my scrap boxes (Ade wanted scrappy!) and got to work sewing and snipping as I went. This 14 inch(ish) block came together fairly quickly.

I so enjoyed it that I didn't want to stop... improv blocks were the order of the day for Saturday and Sunday. I haven't spent much time at the machine lately and it was just the free form task I needed to recharge.

I made 8 inch finished blocks and sewed them together quite simply. You can't really see the blocks... which is pretty much what I was going for. I also took the opportunity to play with the quilting. It's quilted in a 1 inch grid pattern and I changed thread colour 4 or 5 times. Good excuse to finish off some of those partial spools I had kicking around! The backing is a funky green and yellow dotty print from Free Spirit Fabric's Wildwood collection that I found at Marden's in Maine. Gotta love 5$ a yard!

So happy to have spent the week-end sewing... just a couple weeks until I can sew the summer away! Even made a few other surprises to share later in the week!

Home sweet home!

A week away without WiFi!

At first I was hesitant, but honestly, it was lovely to have a little time away from the digital world. No texting, no blogging, no FaceBook, no Pinterest. Just skiing and hanging out... ahh... relaxation!

But now that I'm back, I've been checking out my fav bloggers, pinning like a mad woman and generally making up for lost time.

All this in preparation for what I hope will be another relaxing week of vacation, with the bulk of it spent in my studio. I did some shopping whilst I was away... I think the total sits somewhere near 26.5 yards of fabric. It wasn't all for me! Q-A, back me up here!

My purchases will mean some potential progress on some W.i.P's.

I found the four fabrics on the right to round out some previous selections for Mr. & Mrs. Cousin's wedding quilt... so overdue! It's priority number one on the list. The colours in this fabric from Joel Dewberry's Aviary 2 line are tricky to match, but I think these are gonna work! I still haven't found a fabric that picks up the caramel tone in the leaf, but I'm going to get things underway this week in any case.







I also found a backing for Child's Play, a quilt top that's been hanging around since the early days. The main print in it is the same one I used in Miss K's baby quilt and she's 12 now! The age and style of the fabrics made it tough to choose a backing - they just aren't choices I would make anymore. But this one seems fun!

I also picked up a couple treat fabrics... just because I wanted them. I bought enough of the paisley to make a pair of pj pants should the spirit move me! I'm also kind of in love with the idea of striped bindings right now. Is it wrong to plan a quilt around binding ?

Here's to great week of quilting!