:eek: This reminds me of a cringe-worthy moment for my friend. She was doing a king-size whole cloth white-on-white for her best friend’s wedding, and she had custom-designed the quilting to represent all sorts of meaningful things in their lives. She was working on it intensely but clearly it’s a huge project. It was on the frame and I think she had been relatively successful in keeping the cat away from it. But one time the cat was sitting up on it and peed. Bloody pee. NOOOOO!
I bought a serger for an early birthday present right after Christmas. I have sewn my self a birthing gown, and for my daughter, I have sewn, a bathrobe, two skirts, and am working on another shirt, matching kerchief and then I will move onto pants for hubby and KellyM and then more gowns like my birthing gown and a Dorothy costume for my daughter.
Use clothes!
My Grandmother made each of her grandchildren a quilt using clothes from all the family, a dress of mine, Grandfather’s shirt, my cousins trousers,etc. It is a simple quilt made just from squares, but each square has it’s own story. I’ve had mine for 30 years now. Some of the fabric squares haven’t weathered as well as the others, so I am taking them out and replacing them with an old shirt belonging to my SO as I will be giving the quilt to my daughter. Cosy warm, and an heirloom. Talk about multi-functional.
I’m planning on doing a jeans rag quilt (my husband and daughter usually wear jeans for their lower body covering), a cathedral window quilt, and a true crazy quilt. All of these quilts I’ll make out of old clothes and scraps, plus some new material for the cathedral window quilt… I have to admit that I picked up four quilt block kits from Jo-Ann’s, the Tuscan Sun pattern, so that I don’t have to do quite so much cutting for one quilt.
My mother much prefers the sewing together step to the cutting out step. So she still tells the story of the time I was in kindergarden and got a new dress to wear to school each day. Grandma cut out each dress (and sometimes embroidered accents) and Mom sewed it together, and off I went to school the next day in a new dress.
I really don’t like cutting things out, though I’m very good at it. I’m a bit obsessive about matching things, and accuracy. I fell in love with a plaid one time, and cutting it out and sewing the pants nearly broke my heart. But the stripes matched perfectly, horizontally and vertically, on all seams.
The cats are still fascinated by the machine, so I’m being very diligent about keeping it covered when I’m not using it. They love the machine box, as it’s big enough for two cats to get cozy in it, and the third cat can sleep on top.
I phase in and out of being a fabric crafty person. Renfaire season is coming up soon, and I only have half of my garb together, so I’ll need to make myself a kirtle/dress to go over the only chemise I have left. (A lot of my garb fit me a long time ago and no longer fits me. Also, it’s been a few years since I last went to faire.)
In an effort to get things organized and pick out a fabric to work with, I went through an enormous stash that was built via the compulsive shopping habits of a friend of mine from high school. (She left ridiculous amounts of fabric at the house, and even bought a bit plastic trunk for them. This is where we kept all the fabric, and it was time to purge it.) I purged three trash bags full of fabric, for none of it was usable for the kinds of projects that I do. Many were nylon, stretchy, of an indeterminate synthetic origin, or just plain ugly, and thus had to go. I went from having a trunk that was nearly overflowing with a chaos of fabric to less than 1/3 of the trunk holding fabrics that will more than likely all have practical projects tied to them. Most of them are even made out of natural materials, which is a major plus.
Nope, I live and shop in Fort Worth. I hate driving more than 15 miles at a time. Note to all those Dallas retailers: you might wanna open up a store in Fort Worth. In central or western Fort Worth, even. I don’t like fighting Dallas traffic, or HEB traffic either.
You might check out quilterscache.com, which has an enormous library of traditional and original block patterns and instructions, and a very good set of tutorials for all the basics of making a quilt.
Sorry, I forgot you don’t like to drive very far. Perth Street is a collection of outlet stores that sell off fabric that the Dallas garment industry doesn’t need. I’ve gotten some great prices there. There used to be a store on Vickery that did the same, but they’ve been out of business for several years.
I was lucky enough to hit a huge fabric center that is going out of business. I bought enough fabric to re-cover the seats of my dining room chairs (heavy upholstery fabric in a SILK blend) and 8 yards of 60" wide towelling for $14.00. I wish I’d known about it in advance, I’d have spent my kids’ inheritance there (and got lots of quilting cotton before it was all gone).
