New Stuff for the New Year

I was in Atlanta last weekend and finally had time to visit three area quilt stores: Tiny Stitches, Little Quilts and Intown Quilters.  I bought something a each, more at Intown Quilters, which is in Decatur and has a very modern vibe.

I did have a bit of a mission - finding light blue and green fabric for my niece Teyla's quilt.  I had some success and bought a few things for me, too!

 

 

At Little Quilts I found fabric based on Downton Abbey by Andover.  I bought a couple of pieces that I liked.  The Dowager's Paisley in black is really interesting up close.  And now I'm realizing that the bright blue one on the right isn't part of the Downton collection. It must have been in the collection next to it.  Oh well, it doesn't mean I like it any less.

All of this is being displayed on my new cutting table. It's a Galant desk with A-legs: birch top, silver legs.  I went to IKEA with the intent of getting a Norden gate-leg table, which has been mentioned on multiple crafting blogs and pinterest boards.  It would be a great table for crafting, with the drawers and compact, fold-up design, but it wasn't tall enough to be a cutting table and I didn't want to deal with figuring out how to make it work.  I looked at some table tops, but I couldn't get a big enough one with legs that would adjust to the waist-high height I needed.  One of the IKEA employees suggested I take a look at the desk combos around the corner.  Boy, she nailed it.  The top is large enough for a 23x36" cutting mat and leaves room on each side to lay cut fabric.  I just cut strips for a twin-size quilt and my back didn't hurt like it did when I was using the shorter dining room table this fall.  No drawers, but it's sturdy and easy for me to slide around the sunroom.  It also went together fairly quickly.

 

I also want to share a few faves from my stash.  The 3 similar prints are metre cuts I got at Liberty when I was in London in 2002.  It was all I could afford at the time, and haven't found anything worthy of cutting it up for.  The other print is a half-yard of Lodden B Tana Lawn from Liberty that I saw at Purl Soho in October.  Interesting how they seem to go well together.  Maybe there will be a project for this fabric in the future...after I get some more Liberty fabric :)  I did see a mini quilt that was really cute on Modern Cozy.

 Then when I was in Florence in 2008, I couldn't resist buying some trim at Passamaneria Toscana.  I have no idea what I'll do with it, but it called to me.  Not shockingly, it seems to look good next to the Liberty fabric.  Can you tell I like a certain shade of green?

Do you have anything in your stash that you can't bear to cut into?

Posted to Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash

Fresh Start Friday?

I've had bit of a break from sewing since I finished up the Christmas & birthday projects, some of that time off planned, some of that forced on me by a bout of the end-of-the-year crud.  Now that I'm on the mend, I need to get going again.

I'm not a big resolution/goals person, but here's what I'm hoping to accomplish this year:

• I've got 2 more days of machine mastery classes to get all trained on my new Bernina 750QE, which I've named after Blues great Bernie Federko.  I'm a bigger Cardinals fan, but I just couldn't call my machine Yadi.

• 3 twin quilts - 2 more nieces and a nephew to keep warm.  These are due in February, March & April for birthdays, rather than Christmas. 

• I've just picked out the fabric for the first one - a mix of pinks, black & white, red and a bit of purple.  I'm using the Yellow Brick Road pattern.  

• The second is for a 9-year-old boy so I was thinking of something with strips.  Unfortunately the quilt will be wider than WOF, so I'll have to piece horizontally or run them vertically.  Still thinking on that one and open to ideas.
• The third recipient is almost 8 and was into purple pretty heavily, but now she's moving more into light blues and greens.  I've got tons of green & blue batiks, so hopefully I've got a good start at picking fabrics on that one.

• I want to make some of the fabric baskets from Sunday Morning Quilts. First, I need to organize my scraps.  Wish I had some of those baskets completed already to put them in. :)

• Make a couple of charity quilts for little ones.
• Learn how to make a zippered pouch.  I've bookmarked some great-looking ones I've seen on other blogs.
• I read in someone's blog that they always cut a couple of 5" charms and  2.5" mini charms from most or all of their fabric as they go.  That's a great idea in order to build of stock for scrappy quilts, so I'm going to try to get into that habit, too.
• To not spend all of my free time at the sewing machine - I need to get my ass on the treadmill if I want to go somewhere abroad this year.  
• And I need to figure out where I want to go. 

What projects are you hoping to accomplish this year?

Posted on Finish It Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts