Valerean

The mixed lot of yarn and fabric I recently bought at the online auction just arrived; let's see if I got my money's worth out of this one. At first it looked like there were eleven skeins and balls of yarn. Four of the Caron One Pound ($13 to $17 retail) are unused, as is the Lion Brand Pound of Love ($14.00 retail) and one of the Red Heart Super Savers ($5.49 retail). I'd say the pile is worth $53.00 resale. There were also vintage runners, doilies, cord work, fabric, two skeins of cording and two more balls of yarn. Conservatively speaking the linens are worth $50.00 resale, and the extra yarn and cording is $12.00, so $62.00 here. The original owner paid $2.72 for the fabric remnant -- way back in 1999. Heck, it lasted this long -- let's add that in. :) The bag of fabric turned out to be Japanese, and this exact pack retails new for $18.99 on Amazon. Adding up all the estimated, the total resale value of this lot is $136.71. I paid $10.99 f...

To jump start my quilting muse I decided to go back to Ramen Hands , the Etsy seller who sold me the fabric for this challenge quilt, a purchase a couple more bundles: a pound of fabric scraps and the estate sale ina box withe the linen closet option. In the special requests section I just asked for anything that I could make into a quilt. The box arrived last week, so let's see what she sent. My two bundles. I'm so excited. Here is the pound of fabric scraps. I love how neatly she puts these together. Definitely a terrific variety to use for my project. The estate sale linen closet bundle is huge! I'll have to show you everything in two pics. There is a marvelous variety of old linens to use, including pillowcases, handkerchiefs and even an apron. Now I can't wait to make something out of these. I knew she would inspire me. My initial idea is to try something I've never done: a quilt as you go throw. It would be easier on my...

Since my daughter left a little of her cold brew coffee (which we don't drink) behind when she left, I decided it was the perfect time to try coffee staining. I soaked my muslin bag in the cold brew for about three hours. It came out looking dirty (I neglected to take a pic) so I tossed it in the washer with some things I laundered on cold/delicate with regular detergent. Here is the stained bag (right) next to an untreated bag. It shrank, and all the coffee staining came out in the wash, so that was a complete fail. I didn't care for how this sort of staining looked, so in a way it was a win for me.

I took all the 10" vintage fabric squares out of my basket and sorted them into print types. Basically I have 29 geometric, butterfly, floral and other type prints. That's plenty for a tote, and perhaps enough for a small quilt as well. I decided not to get too ambitious, and cut all the squares into 2-1/2 strips. I then had to sort them according to their value, light to dark (didn't take a picture of that.) I randomly put together four strips out of all the piles, which I plan to sew together into blocks, and then turn the blocks into my September tote for my calendar project, and (possibly) a quilt top. Stay tuned to the blog to see how that goes. :)

On the crochet front I'm doing quite well, as I have for the last year. Currently I'm making a prototype blanket, sort of a practice run for a charity donation. I love this new-to-me pattern as well as this yarn. The crocheting challenges me in the good way, and the hexagons turn out fabulous. The yarn I'm actually using is from a mill end value bag. Everything is exciting with crochet these days. On the quilting front things are a bit quieter. I have this thrifted bundle of fabric to use this month for my quilting projects, which is kinda-sorta exciting. I also have this basket of vintage scrap fabric to use for my calendar project's September tote, which I do like a lot. But the thrill that crochet gives me is not there with quilting. Despite all my tricks with fabric and motivation quilting still feels like a chore, or taking medicine. I need to do more new things to challenge myself with quilting. I've not made a proper quilt in a while -- ab...

For my first official quilting project of September I decided to do some stitch practice to see where my hands are, and picked two large squares from my basket of vintage fabric from the Coop to make a mug rug. I just sandwiched these squares with some batting and stitched. I used holographic light gold thread and the smallest, sharpest quilting needle I have, and stitched for a couple of hours without too much fuss. My thumb and forefinger are in pretty good shape right now, so I was able to handstitch the entire block. The stitching is not what it should be, but it helped to do it the way I wanted to. Now I can move on to machine quilted projects without too much angst, I think.

One of my aspirations for fall is to use the time to creatively heal. Crochet has been absolutely amazing for me this past year, and I am very grateful for how much it's helped me deal with my ongoing struggle with arthritis-induced limitations. Yet I'm still fighting myself and my dislike of how little I can hand stitch anymore, and the fallout is that I'm not quilting much at all. It's time to fall back in love with sewing, with my sewing machine, with fabric, and with making things from fabric. I don't have to hand stitch to quilt, and I know it. Fabric still grabs my heart. I have, do and always will love fabric. That's the place to start, because 1) I already have a lot of fabric and 2) I still want to make things with it. The other thing I haven't been thinking about is how good it feels to work with fabric and turn it into something. I love that, even when I don't hand stitch it. When I made the mat for my nephew's dog...

For my calendar project's September tote I have to first decide which fabric I want to use, and I have a couple of candidates. This basket of vintage fabric that I got at the Coop keeps tempting me to use at least some of it for patchwork. I also have no bad feelings about it. I also have this table cloth I thrifted originally for a summer tote that I have yet to use (I'm not sure I can cut it up. It's really pretty.) The brown shorts on top of this pile of thrifted pants was part of an idea I wanted to try -- recycling an item of intact clothing into a bag -- but I'm not sure I can make it work like I see it in my head. Anyway, I need to pick a fabric first before I get started, and out of these three possibilities the basket of fabric is the most appealing (and it's already cut up!) So I will use that for the September tote.

During our last visit to The Coop Antiques I picked up a pretty white basket for 20% off and a bunch of vintage scrap fabric, which I want to use for practice patchwork. Yes, I could use my own scrap, but I wanted fabric in new condition, which this definitely is. I only spent a few bucks on the fabric, but when I rolled out all the pieces I was a little startled by how nice and big they were. Most of them are 10" square, like they came from layer cakes. I think these are from the eighties or nineties, judging by the prints. I also picked up about a yard of vintage tile print fabric (the one on the right.) So now I have plenty of nice fabric to practice with. Maybe I'll end up making a quilt out of them.

For the third panel of upholstery from my thrifted fabric bundle I wanted to make a padded mat for the top of the little box I use as a focal point/candle stand when I meditate. Yes, it sounds weird. I'm weird, there you go. I first handwashed the swatch, which did not shed as much dye as the first two. I folded the panel in half, trimmed it down to fit my box, and then sewed it all around, turning it right side out, hand sewing closed the gap and then machine stitching around the edges. The fabric is so thick I passed on batting it. I also turned the little trimmed piece into a book mark.

Future me here. I've gotten ahead of myself again, so I'll be double posting until I catch up to my one-week-only prepublication schedule. My guy and I went to walk an antique mall yesterday, and then stopped by the local church thrift store on the way home, where I found some neat cookbooks. I'm getting into the cooking doldrums again, and with the holidays on the horizon I really need some new inspiration. Here's my receipt for the cookbooks. I also donated $5.00 in cash to the store's pantry fund, as they provide free food for the needy in our community. They were actually handing out bread and sacks of potatoes under the fair share program while we were there, and I saw a lot of seniors taking advantage of that. People on fixed incomes can't afford the prices at the market these days, hence my donation. When I got home I jumped on my thrifted fabric bundle challenge by selecting these two upholstery samples for a dog bowl mat. I genera...

The thrifted fabrics I chose for my August tote were all in new condition: clean, odorless, as if they'd come straight from a fabric store. So why did I wash them first? Two words: dye shedding. Dye shedding is always a hazard with unwashed fabrics. Most quilters would also agree that red is the worst. I handwashed each fabric individually in cold water and a little detergent. The red linen shed plenty of dye. So did the chili novelty print. When a fabric is multiple colors along with the red like this one, it's best to add a color grabber sheet to the wash to soak up the dye, or areas like the white background of this print and lighter colors in the print will turn pinkish. The bug print shed red, blue and yellow dyes, turning the wash water a greenish orange. You should always wash any fabric you thrift if possible before you use it; that will remove any dirt or debris you don't notice along with storage or age odor. If the fabrics do stin...