Fabric Happiness

My fabric lust has gotten the better of my wallet recently. Anyways, not to be completely selfish I will share with you a little eye candy and sing the praises of Randi at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics. All the beautiful fabric you see in this post came from her etsy shop. Prepare to drool... ;o)

This shot shows the whole joyous amount. Amy Butler, Tanya Whelan, Sandi Henderson, Robert Kaufman and Michael Miller fabulous fabrics were ordered from Randi a mere week ago. Fresh Squeezed Fabrics was having a sale, so how could I continue to resist?

As you can see, I really indulged!

Everything is just beautiful and I have to thank Randi for her personal service from helping me with my custom order as well as with the speed which she filled my order and shipped it. Wow! I am one very happy customer!!!

Go take a look for yourself at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics and see if you can resist ordering when you see all that fabric happiness.

Fall colours have taken over my sewing table...

but I have nothing completed to show you just yet. Just works in progress. Some of my ideas are further along than others as you can see.

Actually, at this point all I'm doing is admiring this yarn.

Anyone know how to get more hours in a day? I seem to be running short somehow. Can anyone relate to this feeling?

I want to dive headfirst into this stack of fall coloured fabrics and make something wonderful! (the fabric and yarn were birthday gifts from my friend, Dianne. I tucked these into the box with my sewing books so that I would easily find them when we moved. What a delight to open the box two months later to see them again and be reminded of a dear friend).

I have to admit that when I get a room all to myself for my sewing and crafting, I may just shut the door and not come out again. ;o)

Thrifting and Sifting

Okay. I know it's like I fell off the planet or something with all the time that has lapsed since my last post. Sorry. Can I make it up to you by showing you glimpses of what has been good about my unplanned blog break? Since we have decided to stay on in Edith, we have been scouting out items to make her more livable. For us, that has meant visits to the thrift stores...
where I stumbled upon this bright and lovely vintage tablecloth (maybe it could become a simple curtain or toss cushions for Edith or...),
and then I found this vintage sheet (to be added to the pink quilt I'm working on. Everyone knows that you need lots of quilts when you live in an old house). Along with the thrifting, we have been sifting through the contents of another old house that is being torn down this week. We went in search of towel bars for Edith (for some reason the last renters took the towel bars with them when they left... along with the light fixtures I mentioned in an earlier post). We did find one light fixture we liked from the other old house and then we came across some unexpected finds.
Two glass framed doors that are the perfect size for the room upstairs that is to be divided into my sewing studio and an art studio for my husband. I will probably make a simple shade to hang on the inside of the doors if we want to block out the world, but love that we have the option of letting in copious amounts of sunlight the rest of the time.
These are my favourite finds from the other old house (which is a 'young' house compared to Edith ;o). These glass doorknobs will soon be on the doors in Edith ( previous renters apparently packed up doorknobs with them when they moved out? Something that I'll be doing with these beauties when we leave Edith ;o)
So hopefully you'll forgive me for the disappearing act I just pulled. My head has been full of home improvement plans and scouting out supplies along with a healthy dose of sweat equity that makes me sleep soundly. I'm just saying that it has cut into my creative sewing time and left me with not much to blog about. I think that's about to change this week. Too many sewing ideas begging to be stitched.

An Example of Art Imitating Life?

Looking out a window today, I noticed that

this quilted wallhanging I made last fall seemed to reflect the view.

My appliqued leaves are in a grid imitating the mullioned windows in this house. Even the colour of the leaves is duplicated in one of my fabric choices...along with the finer details I embroidered onto the leaf. It really looks as if the idea for this wallhanging came from the view looking out these old windows, doesn't it?

Selvage Wristlet

Here's my first project made from selvages. Short selvage strips make this basic wristlet, a design which I love to use as an organizer when I carry a large tote bag.

The front and the back of the wristlet are made entirely of selvage and quilting cotton for the lining and strap.
The hardest part in making this simple project was deciding which colour of zipper to use! Now I have found another reason to feed my fabric stash... for the desire to have more selvages to sew with. ;o)