Sunday Stash #7 - Festival of Quilts 2015 purchases

A trip to the Festival of Quilts always means I return home with Liberty fabric.  This year I was more restrained as I already have a large stash of Tana Lawn, but I made some great purchases nonetheless.  

I knew beforehand that I would buy some fabrics from the range inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.  I bought two fat quarters of Suzy Elizabeth, which has tea paraphernalia (tea pots, crockery, cutlery).  This is a good fabric choice for me.  I also got three scrap pieces of Gallymoggers Reynard.  I love these fabrics, but I knew I didn't need a lot of them.  I will fussy cut them and add them to the right project at some point.

I bought more scrap pieces of fabrics I have already but which are now in new colourways.  Here we have Strawberry Thief, Mauvey, Wiltshire and Ros.  These are already firm favourites in my stash and it's nice to add new variations.

I also purchased some scraps which are entirely new to me.  There are a couple I know like Tatum and Isle of Wight, but there are three others I don't know at all and I haven't discovered their names yet.

I also purchased this large piece of fabric, but I've never seen it before and haven't managed to confirm its name.  (If you know, please let me know in the Comments.)  It's a child-like print with lots of critters and flowers.  I love it because it's cute and it also has ladybirds.  I might use it to back my Scrappy Snowballs and Squares quilt.

I know that there is still a lot of Liberty fabric here, but I still believe I was self-disciplined and only bought what I *needed*.

Happy Sunday!

Sunday Stash #6 - Festival of Quilts 2015 purchases

I've been to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC again this year.  It was as great as ever - amazing quilts, beautiful fabrics, lots of inspiration.  This year I stayed overnight in a hotel and spent two days at the festival.  I will definitely do that again.  It meant I could peruse the festival and reflect on what I was seeing.  Last year I was just wired and hyper because I was so aware of time and wanted to do as much as possible, but I ended up feeling short-changed, as if I hadn't really "experienced" the festival.

I bought lots of fabric.  The "Sew my Stash" project really went out of the window.  Oh well!  Here we go with some (admittedly, not all) of my purchases:

This year I decided to buy lots of "stash builders".  These Honeycomb Dot Reversed by Riley Blake were a must-have!

These are other stash builder fabrics I purchased.  Some are older prints, but many are new like the Mini Pearl Bracelets.  I love ladybirds, so I had to get two of Tula Pink's new fabrics.  I expect I'll be using many of these fabrics in no time at all.

I made my first Cotton + Steel purchases.  Their fabrics are amazing, so I had to be good and limit my purchases to my very favourites.  I love the Melody Miller picnic range, but was restrained and purchased only four prints.  I also bought four fabrics from the black and white range.  So cute!

Following my Snowball and Squares quilt I am now drawn to low volume fabrics because I think they are more interesting than plain white.  I added lots of low volume to my stash and many of them have text.  I think these are going to be interesting additions to my future quilts.

My love for text fabrics is surely a result of my infatuation with Kokka's Lighthearted.  I just had to get more of these fabrics and in some of the different colourways.  I only saw one stall selling this so I got half metres to be on the safe side.

 

I was still drawn to cute, bold and novelty fabrics.  Here is a selection of some of my newbies.  Cats figure strongly again, though I also picked out some sea-themed fabrics and I have some notion of making a nautical quilt in the future.

I could not resist some of the scrap bags on sale.  I got some great grey, black and low volume fabrics from these and I know they will be used shortly.

This won't be the last time I mention this year's Festival of Quilts.  There is much more to report and reflect on.  I have some Liberty prints to show you soon, but for now we'll leave it at that.

Enjoy your summer sewing!

Sunday Stash #2

Today I have had such a great day sewing and being with my sewing friends that it seems strange to be going further back in time to the Festival of Quilts again to share some of my fabric purchases.  But, seeing as I have taken the photos and mentioned previously that I would do a Sunday Stash post, it makes sense to stick to the plan.

It is impossible for me to go to the Festival of Quilts and not buy Liberty fabric.  I am a major fan and can boast a significant stash of Liberty fabrics.  I treated myself to some lovely bits and pieces but was then really pleased that two of my friends bought me Liberty fabrics as well.  Margaret bought me a Liberty Lucky Bag which was great because there were some amazing little gems in there, many of which I do not already own.  I am working (on and off) on two Liberty quilts and the Lucky Bag fabrics are perfect for the hexagons I am making in one of these quilts.  Amy bought me a great print which I don't even know the name of but which has really zingy greens, pinks and oranges in it and will be a real feature fabric in a future project.  Aren't I lucky to have friends with great taste?

I love fabric and I love cats, so these cat prints Tiger Stripe by Cotton and Steel were always going to be purchased by me.  I love "critter" fabrics in any case, but these are so beautifully stylised that I already count them amongst my favourite animal fabrics.  The smiling food below has to be my most random purchase.  I bought it on its own and have nothing even remotely similar to it in my stash but I just felt I wanted it.  I think I want to turn it into some oven mitts at some point, but who knows when or what its other fabric friends will be?  At this point, who cares?  I love it, that's enough to justify having it!

This little bundle was put together randomly when I got home.  Many of these were bought to join a low volume quilt I have on the go.  My friend, Lorraine, bought me the shamrock fabric in pink and orange here (which is actually tricky to see in this bundle) but when I added it to other purchases it created a little set which is possibly the start of a funky quilt.  I love the shamrocks being in unconventional colours like pink and orange and I always love these bright colours together.  I've already joined them to some red lobsters I purchased and love the craziness already.

Lorraine pointed me in the direction of a stall called The Shuttle, which sold really good fabrics at fantastic prices.  I now discover it is near to my home town (and so also my family!) so I suspect I will be visiting it again in the not so distant future.  Here are some good stash builders I bought from there:

I see so many quilts with the pearl bracelet pattern, but I think it is just so dependable.  I like the bike path fabrics for the same reason.  Later in the week you will see these fabrics in a quilt I have already pieced.

These aren't my only purchases, I also bought much of the Far Far Away range by Heather Ross, but I won't bother showing you these fabrics as they are already cut and pieced and no longer in my stash.

When I use the phrase "a good time was had by all" to describe our day at the NEC it is no exaggeration.  If anything, it is probably an understatement.  Today's sewing day was not just about making; we all shared our stories of the day and showed off our purchases.  A couple of us remarked how rubbish Friday felt because it was such a comedown from such a day of visual treats and creative inspiration.  I know I certainly felt that.  But, we're all agreed that next year it's going to be a two day affair with an overnight stay so we can be there early doors and see even more.  I'm already counting down the days.

The Festival of Quilts

Yesterday was an amazing day!  I went with some friends to the NEC for The Festival of Quilts.  I went last year and loved it so I think it is now going to be a yearly pilgrimage.  I cannot possibly explain everything that I saw, bought or discussed; it was overwhelming, but I will mention some highlights.

I made some good fabric purchases (and have already begun working with some of them in a baby quilt today) but I am going to save them for a Sunday Stash post.  I didn't just buy fabric, however, as I treated myself to some lovely Aurifil thread.  I keep reading about Aurifil's great qualities so I am going to put it to the test.  This collection is called The Zingy Collection and I love the colours.  They will be brilliant for my projects because I love vibrant colours.  I was swayed by a small reduction in price, but I think they are great in any case.

I am really pleased with the gadgets I bought.  I went with the intention of visiting the Bloc-Loc stand because I keep reading about them and seeing the precision you can achieve with them.  I bought the Half Rectangle Triangle rulers and the Drunkard's Path rulers, which are two shapes which will be new to me, so I am really excited to get using these soon.  There was a great atmosphere at this stall and the lady demonstrated them really well.  I also bought a Clover Hera Chalkless Fabric Marker which I am going to use with my quilting, especially creating diagonal lines.

Inevitably I spent quite a bit of time at the different long-arm quilting specialists.  I would love one of these machines and  to become skilled at quilting using one.  They are serious purchases, though, due to the cost, space and time it takes to develop expertise, so (on this occasion) I did not come home with one.  Maybe in the future, but certainly not yet.

As I like to include a Friday Finish post on Crazy Mom Quilts, today I am showing a quilt I made a while ago, but which has not been on this blog before.  It's made from fabrics left over from other quilts and has four large log cabin blogs made using Rasterquick as well as then a small central one.  I like this quilt because I think the blue and green fabrics work well together and I like the figures from the Creative Thursday Just for Fun range.  I have backed it in a largely white fabric.  I like this quilt because I think it would work equally well for a baby boy or a baby girl.  This quilt was not made for any one in particular, so it is now for sale on my Etsy shop.  Hopefully someone will like it and make it theirs.

Thank you for stopping by.