Instagram Update: A Little Something Different

I have been working away on my father-in-law's birthday present for about a week. I now have the top pieced and trimmed and pressed, and the back pieced (just need to press and baste, today, hopefully).

I was starting to get a little delirious, though, and knew to take a break one evening when I did this:

Oops. I don't think 19 is supposed to go with 16. This was one loooooooong seam to rip out.

After the top was finished I decided to work on something a bit different. Here are some Instagram shots to give you an idea what else I've been up to:

I used the very last bit of my Echo by Lotta Jansdotter in my favourite colour to make the binding for a baby quilt (my Plus quilt) that has been sitting waiting for binding.

It does make pretty binding, don't you think?

It was a visual and mental relief to be working on something other than my Zipper in Time quilt!

This is a sneak peek of a secret project that I'm making for an event in August. You'll see pictures after it is safe to reveal!

I also got a good long stretch of time (with energy, for once!) to tidy up my basement including my fabric storage. I resorted and refolded some of my stash and introduced a new bin.

These are all my non-FQ, non-yardage, non-scrap fabrics. They make me so happy!

I picked up a new bin for my solids as the Sew Sisters FQs were taking over my FQ shelving unit.. The pile on the bottom right of this picture are the solids left from my Pink Chalk Solids 1/2 yard bundle bought for me at Christmas that haven't already been spoken for. The top right is bigger pieces of solids that aren't FQ or yardage.

I am now getting on my sewing machine to get more done. I love being productive and (fingers crossed!) I think I might actually finish A Zipper in Time in time for the party!

Lynn

It's here! It's here! It's here!

When I arrived home Monday I saw this at my front door:

My heart sped up. I started grinning ear to ear. And I believe I said "Oh my God!" several times in excitement. My Christmas present from my husband daughter (she's four, so really my husband) FINALLY ARRIVED!

What is in that delightfully large box, you ask?

32 half yards of Kona solids from Pink Chalk Fabrics! THIRTY TWO, people! I want to carry them around with me, looking at them and touching them. I am SO excited.

But wait, you say. I thought I saw two packages on your doorstep?

You would be right. Because my wonderful, awesome, excellent husband also bought me a membership in the Fat Quarter Shop Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle of the Month Club!!!!!!!!! Every month I will receive 12 print fat quarters and 3 solid fat quarters from the blogger for that month. And my first bundle happened to also arrive today:

 This month was Angela Yosten's, of Moda Home Mom. I love love love it!

And yes, there was one more special treat in that package. *Squeal!*

 A Kona solids colour card! I have been coveting one of these for months and months!

Doesn't it look beautiful with my stack of THIRTY TWO HALF YARDS OF KONA SOLIDS?

I am in heaven today, seriously. I'm more excited than I was on actual Christmas. 

Hooray for husbands who support fabric obsessions! Love you honey!

Lynn (aka Buttons)

No time to sew? Buy fabric online!

My impending self-imposed fabric fast is approaching quickly. I have vowed not to buy any fabric in October, with the exception of my ongoing Kona Solids of the Month club from Sew Sisters.

But today is not in October. It is still glorious, buy fabric September. And I just did that (in moderation) when Pink Chalk had a sale on Labour Day weekend. I ordered two delicious prints that were going for a ridiculously cheap price. The package arrived today!

I love how Pink Chalk packages their fabric.

Inside were these two beauties:

One yard of Jamie Wood City Streets Scene in Blue

3 delicious yards of Rashida Coleman-Hale's Washi Squiggle in Grey

The City Streets will be in my friends' son's quilt (he is due in February) and the Washi print will be the backing to a quilt some day. They were both so inexpensive that I just had to indulge. Fellow quilters will understand.

Now if I could only find time to actually sew something...

Lynn (aka Buttons)

Bella!

If you have read my blog before, you will know that I love Lotta Jansdotter. I have two of her books, Simple Sewing and Simple Sewing for Baby. I love her debut line of fabric (now iconic) Echo.  I have several fat quarters and some yardage of Echo, picked up this past summer. With this Lotta-love going on, I have been coveting her newest line, Bella, since it was announced. Then, last week, I saw that Pink Chalk Fabrics was having a Labour Day promotion (20% off!) and they had a good price on a fat quarter bundle of every fabric from the collection. I had to have it! (My line to my husband was "I have a confession to make. I bought more fabric this morning.")

On Friday the package arrived!

Here is the beautifully packaged bundle inside. Pink Chalk has such a professional approach to their shipping!

And here are my delicious new fat quarters!

I also picked out my favourites from the bundle to show you:

From left to right: Bella Finn Warm Grey, Bella Ruta Schooner,  Bella Scattered Sand in Warm Grey and Bella Lind Bermuda

As usual, I have no idea what I will do with these fabrics, but it makes me so happy to have them. 

Now I just need to carve out more actual sewing time. Being back to work means no time for sewing and no time for blogging. I have my HSTs ready to go for my September HST QAL from In Color Order but still have to find time to sew them together!

Lynn (aka Buttons)

Birthday Mail Delivery

About a week ago, my husband ordered some fabric for me from Pink Chalk Fabrics. I checked the mail every day since I got the confirmation email telling me that it had been shipped. They must have known Thursday was my birthday because it was waiting for me in my mailbox!

This was inside:

Pink Chalk's deliveries are always meticulously wrapped and come with an adorable post card with quilt dimension information on the reverse.


Here is the fabric I ordered:

From left to right: Bonnie and Camille Vintage Modern Houndstooth in Aqua, Creative Thursday Ric Rac Bunny Hop in Slate and Lizzy House Guising Pearl Bracelet in Chocolate

The houndstooth was meant to be for a future baby quilt for a friend, but I am pretty sure now that I see it that I am going to steal it for my rainbow strip quilt. The bunny fabric is for my expectant friend who is working on #3 because she is bunny crazy. If she has a boy I think I am going to do navy, slate, grey and orange, and if it is a girl I think I am going to do navy, slate, hot pink and light pink. We'll see!


The chocolate fabric was, honestly, an "I must have that" purchase, since it was on sale and delicious. The depth of the brown doesn't translate well in this picture, but it is rich and wonderful. I am putting it in the stash but I think it will need to come out soon to make something.


So, after shopping on my birthday and then receiving this order on my birthday, I was happily living in fabric heaven all birthday long! (Is there a support group for fabric addiction?)


Lynn (aka Buttons)

Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday was my birthday, and I had the day to myself with hubby at work and little person at preschool. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with this delightful free time...shop for fabric! I made my way into Guelph to the Greenwood Quiltery to indulge my fabric desires. Fortunately I have generous family and in-laws who provided me with financial support for my shopping excursion! :)


I was the only one in the store and I made a few rounds first, stroking bolts of fabric and fat quarters and making a list in my head of things I "needed."


I then visited the Remnant Rack:

And there, calling my name, knowing it was my birthday, were these beauties:

Lotta remnants? And the turquoise one was even 30% off! Happy Birthday from Greenwood Quiltery! I grabbed these and began my pile (it grew quickly, trust me).


Also on the remnant rack was this strange, irresistible fabric:

It is Tuffed Tweets by Robert Kaufman. I have not the slightest clue what I might use it for, but it was my birthday and I wanted it. So there.


I did have an actual shopping list with me so I set to work on that. I needed several orange and yellows (2 of one and 3 of the other, though I could switch which was which based on what I saw that I liked), one pink, one green and two purples. These are to finish my rainbow strip quilt that I have already cut from my stash to begin the awesome tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew.


I ordered an eighth of a metre of each of those colours. These are the ones I chose:

From left to right: Sherbert Pips Vanilla Pink Play Dots, Urban Zoologie Remix Dots Orange, Outfoxed Fern Stripe Orange, ? unknown yellow, Speckle Sun by Cloud9, Flea Market Fancy Eyelet Green, Outfoxed Pearl Bracelet in Purple, Outfoxed Triangle Toss Purple

Wow, it is seriously bothering me that I don't know what that orangey-yellow one is. It is a tiny tiny grid of diamonds and I think it might be Robert Kaufman something, but the 1/8 is cut in such a way that there is no information on the binding. Do YOU know what it is?


I will post more about my rainbow strip quilt on another day so you can see the finished, drool-worthy stack of 2" strips. They make me joyously happy. (I have issues, obviously).


I continued about the store, admiring the many choices in the children section, and some delicious themed sections:

I also had lots of thoughts and ideas about future quilts, particularly if my one friend (who recently announced she has #3 in the oven) ends up having a boy. These navy fabrics are SO CUTE:

I didn't buy them, though. I restrained myself. (I'll just buy them when I know what the sex of the baby is!).


My shopping was not yet done. Of course not. I had to scoop a ton of fat quarters, my way of taking home some fabric I can't part with yet can't justify buying any yardage. I mean, who doesn't need more fat quarters? (The actual answer is me, but we'll pretend the answer is no one).


I bought this FQ from Outfoxed to add to my stack for my HST QAL:

I picked up these delicious pinks because I really liked them and I almost NEVER like pink:

From left to right: Robert Kaufman Metro Living in Hot Pink,  Sherbert Pips Play Dots in Bubblegum,  Sherbert Pips Puppy Dog Tails in Lemonade

And I was drawn to all these turquoise and greens (my favourite fabric colours!):

From left to right: ? Unknown, Heather Bailey Dotted Paisley in Mint, Backyard Baby Fun on the Vine in Green,  Backyard Baby Windy Day in Aqua, Backyard Baby Birch Forest in Aqua and ? unknown

Ack! Another two I don't know! This is killing me! I really should have written those down while in the store. The green graphic print on the right was calling to me on my last visit and I stroked it but left it behind. This time it had to come home with me. Same thing for the Birch Forest in the Backyard Baby collection. I needed it. You believe me, right?


And one more fabric purchase to show you. It is going to also go in my rainbow strip quilt, but if you were paying attention to the picture above you would have noticed I was one item short on my shopping list: another yellow. I fell for this sandpiper yellow fabric:

Sandpiper from Beyond the Sea by Cloud9 Fabrics

I loved it so much I bought 1/2 a metre instead of 1/8th the way I did with the other colours. The woman cutting my fabric was stroking it as she cut it, lamenting that she was heading to PEI in two days and this fabric just reminded her of PEI. She thought she had no time to make something for the trip. I very helpfully pressured talked her into making a cloth bag she could use while shopping on her trip. She took to the idea instantly, even pointing out the aqua fabric from the same line that she could use for the lining. I have a fabric peer pressure gift, I think. I need to remember to use it for good, not evil.


I also picked up some practical stuff, thread for quilting Sweet Baby (she talked me into King Tut variegated since they don't carry Aurafil) and some needles (used my last one during the piecing of Sweet Baby).

So? How did I do on my birthday shopping trip? And do you know the names of those fabrics that I don't? Please help! And check out my blog tomorrow about the birthday delivery in the mail from Pink Chalk Fabrics!


Lynn (aka Buttons)

Hobby Horse 30th Anniversary Sale

In June, The Hobby Horse had an anniversary to celebrate 30 years in the business. This store, located about 30 minutes from my home, has beautiful quality fabrics and the employees are so helpful. Ask Gail about her children and grandchildren- she has a ton of them and they are super successful, interesting people!


The sale ran from June 4-10 and I almost (gasp!) forgot. Fortunately my mother reminded me on June 9. I got my butt up there the next day for the sale!


These are the goodies I scooped up at 30% off:

The bottom two are flannelette. I already used the brown alphabet fabric as the backing for my Teddy Bear Picnic quilt. The turquoise birds I am hoarding until I have my own baby to sew for!


I have cut some of the polka dot fabric into two inch strips for my Rainbow Flip quilt (tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew), and the others are safely in my stash, ready for another project at some point. The white on white pattern is being used in my Sweet Baby quilt. It is nice to see that I'm using what I've bought! (And yet, somehow, on Friday my sweet husband bought me more fabric from Pink Chalk Fabrics after he saw me loading up my online shopping cart and then sighing wistfully. So much for my fabric diet, especially since next week is my birthday and I am heading to Greenwood Quiltery to SHOP!).


Lynn (aka Buttons)