denyse schmidt

Adding To My Fabric Stash

| terriaw

I haven’t purchased much fabric this year, so I’m excited to share some new treasures I’ve added to my stash over the past few months.

First up, I was so impressed with my local quilt shop when I found out they are carrying Anna Maria Horner‘s new Loulouthi collection. I rarely buy fabrics for the backing before I make a quilt, so I’m happy to have yardage of that brown print on the bottom of this stack to back a future quilt with.

These are the fabrics I bought at Gruber’s Quilt Shop over my quilting retreat weekend. I picked up the Anna Maria print from the Good Folks collection first (one the far right), and then coordinated the rest with it, most of which ended up going into my Maverick Star Wallhanging. I didn’t use that polka dot print in the middle, so it will be a great basic addition to my stash.

I always need more basics in my stash, so I picked out this next stack for fun.

I missed out on the Flea Market Fancy craze so I decided to buy a few of my favorite prints from Denyse Schmidt‘s fabric collection for JoAnn’s. I think they will work well as basics too.

I also bought some silly summer prints to make a couple gift ideas I have in mind.

Finally, I almost forgot that I have a set of the Habitat fabrics by Jay McCarroll.

LOVE this collection, especially the drop cloth print!

I love that Jay’s fabrics don’t follow a collection formula, and I love the color schemes he put together.

That should keep me busy for awhile!

Giant Flower Pincushions

| terriaw

This springy set of cotton fabric has been sitting on my fabric shelf for almost two years when I finally decided to cut into it, even though it has looked so pretty neatly stacked in it’s fat quarter ensemble. Flower pincushions seemed like a great project to use these Springy fabrics!

I used this pattern from this designer featured in the Spring 08 issue of this magazine. What a thrill! The pattern was not as hard as it appears to be, and each one only took about an hour or so to make. Sewing the petals on the first one was difficult, until I figured out how to maneuver the fabric for each individual petal to keep them from puckering or getting caught. Also, I could have used a little more information on how to attach the bottom piece, but I figured out you have to fold under the gathered edge and whipstitch to the bottom of the flower base. No big deal after it came together in my head.

I love how the different petal colors (pink above, yellow below) make each one look unique, just like the real flowers in my gardens.

Aren’t they cheerful and fun?! They would make great gifts, but I don’t think I can part with either of these, just like I couldn’t cut into the fabric. Well, maybe after some time passes, I’ll get over it.