Sew My Stash 2015 March Challenge. It's on!!

Woo!!!
It's March, the heat's back on (after three weeks, brrr!), and the Sun is shinin'! Now what could be better than that??
I know what!! Another Sew My Stash 2015 Throwdown!!

You haven't seen me here for awhile, 'cause it was too cold to sit next to the window, without heat, and type. But that doesn't mean that I didn't accomplish anything during February! No, I and my handy dandy sit-upon heating pad manned up and got it done!!

So here are my finishes for February for the Sew My Stash 2015. Eat your hearts out, they're all going as gifts to other folks!!

First up is my mini quilt for Madi at Shop Corner 52. We were partners in the #BitchesgetstitchesSwap. If the hashtag doesn't give enough of a clue, it was a swap of items that were bawdy, or swearing. I tell ya, I learned that there is a whole world out there about which I knew nothing!! Check out the #bitchesgetstitchesswap hashtag on Instagram and roll down the feed for alot of fun! But I'm warning you... Some of the items will light your eyes on fire!! Who knew the Brits and Aussies were so naughty??!

I will do an entire post on the construction of this mini. Such great paper piecing patterns from Quiet Play!

Second, I completed this mini wall hanging for a friend, but noone gets to see the whole thing until she has received it. Lol!! But you know I'll fill you in as soon as she does!

Velvet ribbon!! I just cannot get enough of it! 

Then, I finished this purse for my Niecey... I was pattern testing the pattern for The Littlest Thistle, so I can only give you a glimpse. A full reveal will occur when she releases the pattern. All I can say is, WOW!! Katy really puts alot of time and thought into her patterns, and it sure shows when you make them! Easy Peasy!!! Now I have two more that I have to make!! Lol!

Somebody's watchin' you! Sing it!

And, last, but certainly not least, I was a participant in a Round Robin quilt exchange with my quilting ladies, and I finished the last quilt. Woo!! We had our exchange last Wednesday, and I will do a complete post on all 8 of the quilts. They are AMAZING!!!! The one I received, is the best. I'm just sayin'. 

This is Rebecca's quilt. Have you been in a Round Robin exchange? I'd love to hear your stories!!

AND NOW...

MARCH'S SEW MY STASH 2015 THROWDOWN!!!

Ok, Anita!!! Here I go!! I challenge you to complete your list before I do mine.... or I owe you CHOCOLATE!!!

That's right!!! CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE!

(and no fair cheating, what with the stakes being so high, and all!!) ;)

I will complete:

1) The pattern for Cheeky Lattice, for Fat Quarterly. The top has been done for a month, and it is killing me to not show you all!!!! SOONNN!!!!!!! My quilting lady Denise, a fibre artist extraordinaire, is quilting it. But I still have to do the actual work of writing the instructions. 

2) PJ Pants. I. WILL. complete. a. pair. Even if it kills me. Which it might. I am not showing a pic of the materials, because I will probably change my mind twice, and make them out of entirely different stash than I originally intended. No wise cracks about my having a stash big enough to have several options in pj potential yardage ;)

3) Box Car Tote: Or TWO!!

What a nice sized tote to carry all of your stuff to retreats and sewing days!  One for me and one for ??? I'm taking a class with my quilty peeps from the SewAlaskan instagrammers. Fun!!! 

This is my project for  A Lovely Year of Finishes over at Sew Bittersweet Designs. 

4) Another Mini Messenger Bag, or two!!! Here are my stash pulls for them. What do you think??

Flap of Anna Marie Horner Echinacea, body of Aubergine and blue, gusset of aubergine, interior of Alison Glass.

AND

Flap of Joel Dewberry mod, interior of Alison Glass at left, pocket of Pickle, exterior of Kona Charcoal, flap lining of Kona Teal Shade. I tell you, these things are worse than potato chips! You can't make just one!!

6) I am also incredibly honored to have been asked to participate in the International blog hop for Oakshott Fabrics new line, Scandinavia.

Oh my!!! Aren't they completely Delicious??!!!

Oakshott fabrics are shot cottons, which means that the warp and weft are two different colors. This gives them an iridescent glow and a luxuriousness that is really so lovely. I like them better than my Kaffe Fasset shot cottons, because they are softer to the hand, and are such a nice weight. Perfect!!

I cannot wait to get started on this project!! Woo!

I hope you had a Fabulous February and are ready for a Marvelous March!!
XX!
Lori

 Linking up with:

Fabric Clubs - A Boom or a Bust??

Welcome to Sunday Stash over at the Splendiferous Molli Sparkles!!

This week I wanted to talk a little bit about Fabric Clubs, and whether or not they are the thing for you.

So, what makes a fabric club worth joining? In general, fabric clubs send out fabrics of their choosing, once a month, for a predetermined subscription fee. Most can be cancelled at any time, and many offer a discount over the retail price found in the online store through which you are obtaining your stash additions. I have experience with fabric clubs through Karen Lewis Textiles, Westwood Acres Fabrics and Marmalade Fabrics. 

I have to tell ya, it is super wonderful, addicting, fabulous, addicting, time saving, oh yes, and addicting, to have fabric show up at your door as if elves had read your thoughts and left it there. What is more appealing than coming home at the end of a long day, to happy mail filled with gorgeousness that you never knew existed, and which is curated by queen bees with an enviable eye for color??! 

Oh My GOODNESS! See what I mean??!

I chose to participate in Karen Lewis' (@karenlewistextiles) half panels club because she hand prints her own designs onto Kona cottons, and selects colors that really appeal to me. Now that I have been online shopping for awhile, ahem, I have seen the light and will be changing my subscription to a larger size as soon as it is available. Karen has clubs in 5" Charms, above, (Deelish!), Half Panel bundles, and Full Panel bundles. Click the link to check them out, if you like.

It is my opinion that if you can find an artist who is printing their own fabrics, and who is working their tail off to ensure quality and customer service, you should patronize them. I chose Karen because of her designs, her color selection, and her personality. I just adore her! Now, I'm not gonna lie, buying fabric from the UK if you're in America, is not for the faint of heart. But like I said, I am actually going to change around my subscription because I have discovered that it is more valuable to me as a stash addition than other fabric lines that I could buy, Stateside. I will be doing an entire post on Karen's work, but with MUCH better pictures. For now, here is a sample from her website. 

Right??!!!

Next up is WestWood Acres Fabric. Now, I love me a mom and pop store, and this one just takes the cake. Amanda (@acraftyfox_amanda) and her husband run their shop from their home. I have yet to be disappointed with their product, their price or their customer service. And I have bought A LOT (Alot alot!) of fabric from them!! Their newsletter occasionally has an additional percentage off of fabric in their store, but be warned... once you turn that corner, you won't be able to go back!! 

I was a member of Amanda's Low Volume Club (Inside Voices club! Lol! 10 Fqs), 

and her Liberty Club (FQ, F8, F16th). 

Ohhhhh Yessssss!

Both were excellent. I am no longer a member because I have a limited budget (I know, gasp!) and I wanted to try out some other clubs featuring other styles of fabric not available here in AK.  Thanks to these clubs, my stash is now very nicely filled with fat quarters of perfect low volume fabrics, and fat eights of liberty lawns. No! You can't have any! 

I am booking through them at a very respectable clip, so I'm sure I will become a member again. In the meantime, I'm pretty sure they're naming their unborn child after me due to the sheer volume of purchases I make. Hey, any way I can support a child's education is good with me! ;)

Now, Marmalade Fabrics has been one of the best purchasing decisions I have ever made. And I'm no newbie to the Halls of Commerce! 

I am a member of their Around the Color Wheel monthly bundles. I like it so much, they are on perpetual auto-pay. Each month, I receive a FQ bundle of 12 FQs. My bundle is half solids and half prints. I love it because not only do I receive the entire new range of Kona cotton solid colors without having to hunt them down, but I also get coordinating prints from the latest hot trends and designers. And these are not your joe schmoe matchings. They are brilliant! I just made an entire quilt with 25 different solids in it, and all of the ones I chose were from my Marmalade Fabrics club! Man, they should hire me!! Lol! 

Another thing that they do is label each solid FQ with the name. So handy!! Then when you've gone to the stash and hunted up the perfect color for the background of your next masterpiece, you just look right there and the name is ready for ya. Brilliant, I tell you, brilliant. I have a Kona color card, and it is surely handy, but with the name right there on the fabric, I don't have any of those low light guessings to do. Know what I mean?

This year, I will up my subscription to half yards, as I find that a FQ is not enough fabric for my needs. I like to make a coordinating pillow or other doodad to go with my quilts, and my scraps look like squirrels chewed them by the time they get picked up off of the floor, put in a pile, spilled over onto the floor again, and finally put under the cutting table for later sorting into storage. I know you know what I'm talking about. 

So, now that you know WAY too much about my spending habits, what are the downsides to participating in a monthly fabric club?
Shipping is sometimes additional. That may break your budget, as every little bit counts. 
You may find that you forget that you have fabric coming, and buy more, and then have too much. 
But who am I kidding?!
Check carefully to be sure that you can cancel at any time if your needs change and you no longer wish to participate. 
Every now and again, your taste does not match with the person's who is choosing the bundles. Shops should have representative pictures of bundles from the past, like you see above for Westwood Acres, but if they don't, email the shop and ask what the names are for the upcoming fabrics in their bundles. They should tell you and hopefully also send along a pic. If they don't know, choose another club. 
Sometimes having a fabric club come to your door, blunts the thrill of the chase of finding fabulous deals. If this could be the case for you, set aside a specific amount of money to spend only on fabric detection. The rest can go for chocolate. 

Check out Anita and Cynthia's fabric club suggestions in the comments. Excellent! What are your experiences or opinions about fabric clubs?? Weigh in below!! 

XX!

Lori

Sew My Stash 2015 Throwdown!!

A New Year and new beginnings! 
I'm gonna list my goals for 2015, and you can help me stick to them! 

For the blog, I want to up the friendly and helpful factor. Make a menu bar, make pages for Tutorials and have more links to fun stuff for you and the fam. 

For me, I want to take more walks just to explore. Walks in moonlight, walks with the Dawg,

and The Hubster, 

Wee Wanders, you know! 

Denali From the trail in our backyard

Out wandering, exploring and seeing this beautiful World in which we live. 

For Sewing, well... 

There is Sew My Stash 2015 (#Sewmystash2015) over at Project Leasa. 

But it's too easy to set simple goals, post them, and then hope to win a prize, so Anita at Day Dreams of Quilts and I got together and we're hosting a THROWDOWN!!! (#sewmystashthrowdown) 

Oh no, This is not all of it... Not by a loooonnngg shot ;)

That's right!! You and a friend get together and challenge each other to actually, really, no foolin', finish the project that you said you would, in that month. The one who doesn't, sends the one who does, a little somethin' somethin'. What do you think?? Want to join us??! I'm pretty sure many of my gifts will be bawdy, but yours can be anything you like, sweet and pretty, thrifty, silly, whatever delights your imagination! 

So, here it is. My January list. You heard it here first. 

Magazines:

• Complete piecing the top of my quilt for Fat Quarterly Curved Piecing Issue. This is SO exciting! I can't wait to fill you in on it more! 

Hmmm! Liking where this is going!
Will the final project bear any resemblance??

Check your inboxes for the February Paper Piecing Issue, cause I have a Fun project for you in there, too!! Woot!! 

• Continue to stretch and grow and enjoy design.
• Begin to design Maui Dreamin' Quilt

Sewing:

• BitchesGetStitches Swap. I have a great idea for a sweet mini quilt. Now's the time to put that idea into action! Slightly rude, but mostly calming...

• Microwave bowls. These are so handy!! Why didn't I see them sooner??! I am forever reaching for a kitchen towel to get hot soup/beverages out of the microwave. Why not just microwave the bowl of goodness right there in the transport device??! Brilliant!

• Hashtag blocks for Molli Sparkles

Blog:

• Tutorials for Fat Quarterly Paper Piecing Issue - super point by point pics of paper piecing my project for beginners. I hope you'll love it!
• Book Reviews. I have some doozies you're gonna LOVE!
• Lots more stash love

OK, Anita!! Here it is! In writing!!! 

I am already beginning to make your gifts... LOL!

I will also be participating in:

Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts

ALYoF, A Lovely Year of Finishes over at Sewbittersweet Designs

WIP Wednesdays at Freshly Pieced

Finish it up Fridays with Crazy Mom Quilts

Scraptastic Tuesdays with She Can Quilt

Sunday Stash, with Molli Sparkles

And the Let's Bee Social party over at my friend Lorna's

You can always find these websites by clicking on the buttons in my sidebar. Have FUN!!!!

What are your goals for this year??

XX!

Lori