Fabric Inheritance

Back in February, my sister called me up and told me she had decided to give up quilting and wanted to give me her stash.  First, I was shocked because she is a great quilter with a good eye for fabric combinations.  She also had a vast stash. She is going to concentrate on knitting. 

Every weekend we tried to meet half way between our houses the weather was bad or one of us had an obligation. Finally, my daughter and I made it to Denver during the first week of April to pick up her stash.  There were 15 kitchen trash bags full! Not only was there yardage and fat quarters, but also 4 block of the month projects, at least a half dozen kits, and many UFOs. It took 2 days to go through and the help of my teenager with sorting and folding.

My sister told me she would love to receive some of her unfinished projects as gifts back from me. Score! So not only did I get all this great fabric, but her presents for several years will be the products of it.

This embroidered Christmas BOM was a UFO. Tiffany, my sister, had embroidered 9 out of the 11 months.  I finished up the other 2 months, pieced the whole thing together, and hand quilted it with pearl cotton. When this BOM was available, I had made one for myself...So this one will be gifted back to her eventually.

This lap quilt was another UFO she had.  The blocks were pieced, but I had to dig through the stash to find more of the white for the sashing. I used my mom's long arm and quilted it myself. I sent it to her for her birthday yesterday and she loved it!

This is a table runner that the top was done. Since it was so small, I decided to hand quilt it with pearl cotton. I used a tutorial from Anka's Treasures to help with the abnormal binding and it came out perfect! Not sure where this one will end up. I continue to make my way through my inherited UFO's and the big piles of my own. All I can say is I am so thrilled to have inherited everything!!!

Sewing Room Tour

Carol had the idea of posting tours of our sewing rooms.  I only set my sewing room up about 9 months ago, before that I sewed in my dining room. When I was setting it up, I spent lots of time online looking for advice and ideas.  I am still looking for some more pieces still and I feel it is a work in progress. I love having a space where I can just shut the door and leave everything out.  The room is 12 x 12, has a small walk-in closet, and 2 windows which let in lots of natural light.

I used bed lifts to make the table higher and easier for cutting. The cabinets above my cutting table and sewing machine used to be in our laundry room, but we remodeled the kitchen and laundry room and repurposed many of the cabinets to the garage and my sewing room. I am saving that blank wall there for something special.

The hope chest is great for laying out stuff and quilt storage.

Here is when the sewing machine cabinet is open and in use....

Here it is when it is closed. The mason jars are full of pearl cotton balls.

I am a TV junkie and the 32 inch flat screen fits perfect on top of the armoire. My mom and dad gave me the TV for my birthday! The armoire holds a ton of stuff and is easily accessible.

The walk-in closet has a pocket door that I never even close and that little book case was a garage sale find that fits perfectly to hold my books, binders, and buttons. I am in the process of separating my buttons by color and putting them in jelly jars.

Most of my stash fits in the closet, but I will admit there are a few tubs out in the garage!

My daughter has been designing cute labels for my fabric tubs which are mostly separated by color, flannel, wool felt, batiks, 30's, brushed cotton etc.

I love this little fake wood stove. Another gift from mom and dad! It also is a heater and helps make the room cozy in the winter, after all I am in Colorado.

I pilfered this chair from my guest room and it is great for hand sewing or when my familt visits. I am still trying to work out where I can manage a design board and would like to make some of those crate ottomans I have seen on Pinterest.  As I type this, my hubby is installing a small ceiling fan because when I brought a regular fan in it blew my fabric everywhere. The room is at the front of the house, so I see the comings and goings of the neighborhood and watch the deer and bunnies that hang out in our neighborhood.

 I absolutely adore having a dedicated sewing room! Thanks for visiting!

Scrap Basket Sunday

I love to use up my scraps and I have a ton of them! As a new quilting blog follower, I have admired many of the Farmer's Wife Sampler quilts. But, I am not a fan of templates, so I certainly did not want to make the blocks by using the templates. This has led me to Lori Holt's block tutorials and to use http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/501-rotary-cut-quilt-blocks-judy-hopkins/1012272635?ean=.

I have been following Kim's Big Quilting Adventure and wanted to participate in her Scrap Basket Sunday. Here are the blocks I made today.

New Blogger

Ok here it goes...I am a recent quilting blog follower. Usually, I don't have that much time to spend on the computer between work, quilting, and playing chauffeur for my teenager.  However, it is summer vacation and as a teacher I have been off of work for a month--plenty of time to start exploring quilting blogs and be in my sewing room for hours a day.

I live in rural Colorado and have been frustrated with the quilting supplies and inspiration locally available. We do have a local shop, but it is small and does not have much in the new techniques or modern quilting fabric, but I still manage to spend plenty of money there! Joann's is opening at the end of July and that will help with supplies.

I have quilted for almost 19 years. Right after getting married, my hubby told me I needed a hobby.  My mom had quilted when I was a child and I knew how to sew.  I found a free adult continuing education class on quilting.  I was only 22 and most of the women were older than my mother, but our teacher, Peggy Martin, was amazing with color and techniques.  She has gone on to publish several quilting books , , and . I was hooked.  My mom was impressed with the new quick methods like rotary cutters and she began quilting again.

I have tended to make mostly country looking quilts.  I love primitive pieces, wool felt, and embroidery especially with pearl cotton. Lately, I have been craving more color and modern things which led me to the quilting blogs...