Material Analysis

I've been working with Fabscrap recycled fabrics for a couple of months, and I've had a lot of fun, too. This is everything I have left over from the November challenge. As with any resource I have some opinions about how valuable it is, as well as the drawbacks. I also need to be practical about what I want to use, what I can use, and what will likely be difficult for me to use.

The quality has been consistently outstanding. All of the scraps are in new or very good condition. Much of the fabric I've got in all the different scrap packs is more toward the dark end of the color spectrum, however. I didn't realize how much I've gravitated toward using lighter fabrics until I starting sorting the scraps according to what I liked most. That will guide my buying choices when I go back to shop for more (probably not for a while; I've got a lot of fabric now.)

I really love the lace. The quality, the variety, the colors -- I can't say anything bad about the lace scrap pack. I definitely have a lace quilt to design next year.

I also liked the white scrap pack very much. I think white is going to be the most versatile scrap fabric for me, especially with my art quilting, as I'm planning to try eco-dyeing in 2023.

I sorted out all the different types of fabrics, and in the end I made two boxes: fabric I'll definitely use next year (left) and fabric to challenge my creativity (right). I plan to take scraps from both on a regular basis next year and see what I can make of them.

It's wonderful to be able to save these fabrics from landfills, but there's a responsibility that goes along with that. I need to make use of them. Stay tuned to see how I do.

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Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Store Closing Haul

The mega Books-A-Million store over in Sanford is closing, and offered an extra 20% off on their current stock -- all sales final -- so I went over to do some shopping. Safely but sadly there was no one in the store but me the entire time I was there. The Holly Jackson novel is for Katherine, the Halloween board book is for Oliver, and the copy of Garden Spells is to keep on hand because I give that book to everyone. The rest of the books are for me. I love Anne Cleeves, and the Galbraith novel sounded interesting (the first couple weren't, but I'm willing to take another chance.) The Escape Room is by a new-to-me author, plus it was cheap. The GreenCraft mag is just a guilty pleasure. Hopefully the smaller BAM nearer to me won't close. I don't buy many books from brick-and-mortar stores these days, but that's really the last one within reasonable driving distance.

Valerean

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