Excess Fabric

Is there such a thing as "Excess Fabric"?

I was searching for a topic for my blog post tonight, since I wanted to show you a photo of the blocks I made for the Sarah Johnson quilt but thought I should have something more intelligent to say than just - hey check out my awesome signature blocks.

So I asked my dear husband what topics I have yet to cover in my blog.

He said, "How about asking people how they use their excess fabric?"

I said "EXCESS FABRIC?!!!! - NO SUCH THING!"

Or maybe not - if you check out the May 2009 give away from Sew Mama Sew, you may find that lots of folks have excess fabric and are more than happy to give it away to you as long as you leave them a comment.

Patchwork Quilt Tsushin #150

I'm a huge fan of Patchwork Quilt Tsushin, and their issue #150 just came out.

It included a little insert that was sort of a little marketing flier, but was called Patchwork Quilt Glossary. It discusses vocabulary terms, techniques, and methodologies used in quilting. Kinda cute.

The magazine itself has several pin cushion photos and patterns as it looks like they asked a bunch of folks to make different patterns for them to commemerate their issue #150.

There is an article starting on P.64 that discusses work of the beautiful and talented Yoko Saito and probably mentions her new book. I'm going to put this into my bucket of "If that doesn't make you want to learn to read Japanese, I don't know what will."

And since it's Memorial Day weekend here in the states, and my dad does love to watch the Indy 500, I thought I'd throw a quick racing link out there for you to check out a classic 1976 video of a drive through Paris at 140 MPH.

Background on the film here.

Ladies and Gentlemen...start your engines.

Kid's Pencil Roll - complete with twig pencils

I had a kid birthday party come up recently and needed to whip up a couple of gifts.

Instead of putting together a full pencil roll that would hold 24 pencils (as the pattern recommends in Joelle Hoverson's book, Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts) I decided to do a much smaller version.

It actually went together much faster than the full version I did before and I was able to finish it inside of a couple of hours.

Twig pencils are the cutest thing on earth, magical really. They just barely fit into the pencil roll. I think I would make the pieces slightly larger next time in order to account for their increased diameter.

And not to whine, but why oh why doesn't my local Kinokuniya book store have a copy of Yoko Saito's new Taupe Patchwork Bag book? I could really use some good long weekend reading!

The Sarah Johnson Quilt

I started a Wedding Signature Quilt ages ago, based on the Sarah Johnson Quilt.

It's a historic quilt from 1826, with the pattern created by Froncie Quinn of Hoopla Quilts.

For some reason I'm re-interested in this quilt again, and starting to get pieces together to make more blocks.

Let's see how far I get.

I also counted up how many 'in progress' quilts I have, and I think it's about 15.

What's your magic number? Is 15 a lot? It sounds to me like hardly a good start at all.

If the sock fits, wear it!

The sock fits!

Unfortunately (?) my friend Sharon will have to make it's mate. Good thing she's such a fast knitter. She will be racing the clock vs. the awesome growth path of our baby son.

Things to enjoy this beautiful Friday:

- Adorable cable sweater from Purl Bee
- Poison Green quilt from Lea at Simple Pleasures
- Incredible quilt show photos from Jan at Be* Mused

The Glass Slipper

Once upon a time, my girlfriend Sharon of Knits are for Kids knitted this sock for her son, and it was too small.

Boo...hoo...what a horrible shame that is. I wonder if it would fit on our baby son instead?

Did she give the the sock? Of course.

Does it fit our baby?

bup bup BAAAHHH.....stay tuned for the next riveting installment of this amazing tale.......

Will he fit the knitted sock, and will she be begged by her dear friend to knit up a mate for it?

I feel like there should be a fairy Godmother involved here or something.

Japanese Waffle Fabric and whoa, 400!

Can you believe this is my 400th post?

I think in dog years, that makes my blog very very old. Or at least an excellent reference and amazing wealth of information. Or maybe just a lot of keystrokes.

I am in love with the green Japanese waffle fabric that I picked up as Goodness was having a fire sale, closing their Etsy doors.

This fabric really looks super 3D, just like a waffle that would come out of your waffle iron.

If you do a search on Etsy for Japanese waffle fabric you will see more of what I'm talking about.

I will confess to having bought a very tiny bit of it in off white from CottonBlue. CottonBlue has a lot of the 'cute' Japanese fabric that is really appealing to me especially for kids quilts.

While I was hanging around Etsy, I found this adorable lamp made out of wool. If I had a little girl I would have to get it. Good thing it's all boys for me.

Cheers to the 400th post! I've come a long way, baby.

Blah blah blah

Finally, the Keep Calm quilt is finished and up on the wall.

Speaking of putting words out there, check out this pillow that has one of my all time fav sayings on it: blah blah blah.... So awesome! Were it not $100, I would have to have one.

And of course I was reading Kathie's blog, Inspired by Antique Quilts, and saw her posted link to getting a copy of Barbara Brackman's used to be out of print now available via download as an ebook Clues in the Calico. It tells you how to date antique quilts.

You know the little quilt appraiser in me has got to have this book.