fabric

Chocolate Lollipop Scrap Inventory

| terriaw

I found a few moments of free time recently, so I decided it would be fun to take inventory of my highly treasured chocolate lollipop scrap stash.

It was so fun to lay them out like this to see what I have in each print. By the way, these are just my scraps! I do have larger pieces in my fabric stash.

Since I am terrible at using scraps from my fabric stash, I dove right in and pieced together some patchwork. I think these might end up being a pencil case for art supplies or maybe a notebook cover.

You know me, I love the chocolate lollipop fabric collection designed by Anna Maria Horner back in 2007! I love the bright colors. I love the whimsical designs. I love the name  – chocolate lollipop. Who wouldn’t want to have a chocolate lollipop? Makes me want to run out to the old fashioned candy store to get one. Right now.

Playing With Scraps

| terriaw

I am terrible at organizing my fabric stash. I am even worse at scrap management. I wish everything was organized by color, but for now it’s just shelved where it fits.


I recently sorted some of my scraps by color and cut them into strips. But so many strips are a little too small to make log cabin blocks or string blocks.

Maybe those small pieces should end up in my snippets bin. But then what?

I also realized I don’t have many light value prints in my stash.

So I find playing with scraps frustrating.

I have even considered chopping up some of my stash just so I have a better scrap pile!

I do have a separate bin where I keep my Sis Boom fabric scraps, which inspires me so much more than my other piles!

And yes, I have another couple bins where I keep my Anna Maria Horner fabric scraps but I have another post planned for that.

Besides a Ticker Tape Quilt, I have been looking for ideas on using small scraps, and guess where I ended up? at this amazing post by Amanda Jean, of course! I’m thinking maybe I should start out with some mug rugs that I could use for gifts. And then some scrappy notecards like these and this one. What do you make with your scraps, especially smaller pieces?

I think I might make some storage cubes to sort my scraps better. How do you organize your scraps, especially smaller pieces?

Gorgeous Goodies

| terriaw

A couple weeks ago, I left a comment on my friend Cindy’s blog. She was having a giveaway, but what I was more interested in were the gorgeous photos her husband Mark took. They live in northern California and he took several photos of the stunning valley fog that looked like he was above the clouds.

Cindy and Mark appreciated the fact that I paid more attention to his photos than her freebies. To be honest, I didn’t want any freebies. I love taking pictures, so I wanted them to know how impressed I was with those amazing photos.

To express their appreciation, they sent me a surprise package containing some gorgeous goodies.

Mark makes beautiful fused glass items, including bowls, plates and platters, even jewelry. And they sent me this beautiful bowl! It has a cool basketweave pattern in a warm amber color.

They also sent me this stunning necklace. It’s in colors I love so I will likely be wearing this ALL.THE.TIME!

Oh yeah, I almost forget, Cindy couldn’t resist putting some fabric in the package that she knew I would love. Maybe she thought the fused glass items needed more padding, so a little chocolate lollipop would do the trick.

Thank you so much, Cindy and Mark! I cherish your kindness and generosity. I am so honored you shared your creative talents with me!

Last-Minute Gift

| terriaw

I found out on short notice that a new friend from my design classes had a birthday a couple days before Christmas. I really wanted to come up with a thoughtful gift, something that didn’t look like a last-minute (lame) idea.

She works at a bookstore, so that eliminated so many gift ideas that came to mind at first. I know she plays piano, and she’s in the same design and illustration program with me, so I customized a couple fabric-covered moleskin notebooks with these cool musical fabrics using this tutorial. Every artist carries a moleskin everywhere they go!

In the gift bag, I also included a set of coloured pencils, which are always fun to play with.

I do hope she liked these goodies, especially because I secretly wanted to keep them for myself… sshhh. I am definitely going to make more of these – they are so fun to customize for just the right person or occasion.

In the Ditch, Literally

| terriaw

We finally broke down and bought a new mattress last night. I can’t even tell you how old our current mattress is, so we are excited to have the new set delivered next week.

On the way home from the store, I was following Dave in my car since we met at the store, and he slid into the ditch! I didn’t see it happen because he was turning a corner while I was still approaching the corner. No damage and no injuries, but his car was just a tad too far into the ditch to back it out. So we came home, changed into our boots and winter clothes (ski clothes), and went back to get his car out ourselves, since he really didn’t want to pay for a tow truck. He tied a heavy duty rope to the rear axle of each car, and I slowly pulled him out with my Subaru.

While we were getting ready to do this, a Sheriff pulled up to see if we were okay. She waited to make sure we got out, or she was going to help us get a tow truck. I’m sure she was probably also checking to make sure we hadn’t been drinking.

It snowed a couple inches so the roads were slippery. It was quite nerve-wracking to me, not the sheriff part, but having to pull Dave’s car out of the ditch. I’m such a girl! Not a big deal in the end, just a little drama.

I hear we’re supposed to get another snow storm on Saturday (4 to 10 inches predicted), so I think we will be hibernating for most of the weekend. I will be finishing up some final homework projects, and if there’s time, squeeze in some sewing and baking. As you can see, I have some new fabrics calling my name, which made me feel better while telling this little story!

Getting Organized

| terriaw

I am on a mission – a mission to get my fabric stash re-organized. You know me, I just spent the past way-too-many years working as a paralegal, so I can’t help but be an organized person.

I do have to admit I have let my fabric stash go a little wild, well, okay, maybe just not organized enough for my preference. I think it has been more fun to just enjoy spending time in my sewing room and not worry about my how my stash is organized.

After spending a recent weekend with a good sewing friend, I discovered great fabrics I didn’t even know I owned. Hmm, we decided it was time for me to organize my fabric stash.

I bought some new storage bins.

Now I have drawers for solid fabrics and solid scraps.

A drawer for special fabrics like voile and flannel.

A drawer for novelty fabrics.

A bin for Christmas fabrics and a bin for Christmas scraps.

I spent a little time lately making some new storage cubes.

I even have some fabric buckets with bling to store snippets, trimmings, and tools!

I also have a stylish place to store my snippets (very small scraps) for a future ticker tape quilt.

I still need to take the time to organized the rest of my fabrics, which I will probably do by color.


I’m happy for now to have at least taken inventory and re-learn what’s actually in my stash.

Playing With the Color in My Scraps

| terriaw

I have been challenging myself to get reacquainted with my stash and my scraps. A couple color-coordinated patchwork blocks seemed like a great use of my time.

I started out with the blue scrap pile.

Since I was on a roll with the cool tones, I continued to dig through my stash for greens, which was really fun.

Then I decided it was time to warm things up a bit, so I pulled out my color wheel to see what was opposite of blue and green. Turns out I needed to find red-orange, so I looked for fabrics that ranged from red to orange. I thought it would be fun to include some pink splashes too.

How fun was that?! No, seriously, it was great fun. I’ve had zero inspiration to use my scraps, so this was a fun challenge. What better way to mix up my stash to really see what I have.

I am hoping to float these three blocks (about 10 inches each) in a solid fabric to make a quilt, something similar to this beautiful quilt, but I haven’t decided yet which solid color to use for the background. Have you challenged yourself lately?

Fabric Talk

| terriaw

I won a giveaway recently from Lisa of A Spoonful of Sugar. (thank you, Lisa!) It was a gift certificate to the Ladybug Quilt Shop, which is stocked full of beautiful fabrics. It took me almost two weeks to decide what to get! I ended up choosing two packs of Pure charm squares, and a stack of these whimsical Be Merry fabrics. (charm square packs include 40 –  5″ fabric squares)

I also splurged on a few more charm square packs from fabric collections I love but have tried hard to resist. I might have a new favorite designer here. I’m hoping to use these to make Christmas gifts for friends and family.

I’m in the process of re-organizing my stash, so I didn’t want to add more fabric to the piles. I now have a drawer dedicated to charm squares, where I like to keep pattern ideas too. The drawer is just about full now, so I cannot order more. (but I probably will anyway!)

I Spent the Weekend With a Rockstar

| terriaw

Okay, so maybe she’s not a rockstar in the music world, but she is a rockstar in our quilting/blogging world! Since we live in the same state and within driving distance from each other, we made a spontaneous decision to get together this weekend.

I felt so lucky to get to sleep under this beautiful quilt.

We made a mess in her clean house.

We pieced and quilted.

We traded fabrics and and the tiniest scraps.

It’s so nice to have a fresh pile of scraps because now I’m even more excited to make my own ticker tape quilt after seeing her masterpiece in person. I stopped and stared at it every time I walked past it. It was more fun than an I-Spy quilt.

We brainstormed new ideas.

We never left the house! (thank goodness she fed me very well) It was great fun!