Brushes with Fame

We were at Pismo Beach all weekend.

The men's chorus that Mark sings in had a concert in Arroyo Grande, just a few miles down the road from us. It was a great concert and raised a lot of money for Third World relief. He is kind of the "producer" of the concert--setting up the stage and then getting 130+ men on and off the stage, etc. After the concert we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner at our favorite restaurant in Pismo.

So....

Are you a Zac Brown fan?

Mark and I shared part of our meal with him the other night.

Okay, it wasn't actually Zac Brown. But it definitely was his doppelganger (I had to text my son, Aaron, to make sure of that word...) Seriously.  Down to the beard and the brown knitted stocking cap!  Zac, I mean Andrew and his really cute girlfriend Ashley, were sitting in the booth behind us. I kept telling Mark that I was sure it was Zac Brown, until finally Mark turned around and said, "My wife thinks you look just like Zac Brown. So do people say that to you a lot?" After a back and forth conversation, we invited them to join us for dessert. Turns out that Andrew is also a musician. And his grandmother is a quilter! We had a great time visiting with a "celebrity."

I was trying to get to know my Canon camera better, so I took a few lots of pictures of the sun as it went down on Sunday night. I won't bore you with them all. Unless you really want to see 36 sunset pictures, in which case you can email me. hehe

On Monday, we went to Birch Fabrics, to see Cynthia Mann of fabricworm. Cynthia probably wouldn't consider herself famous, but when it comes to online fabric shopping, she has a huge presence. I had met her in person before at Birch Fabrics' first location. She quickly outgrew that space and now has a really nice place in the older part of Paso Robles. Unfortunately, she didn't make it to the store until after we left because her 3-year-old had gotten sick. But that didn't stop me from buying some fabric (super cute new line from Cosmo Cricket) and saving on shipping cost!.

On the way home, we stopped for lunch at Jack Ranch Diner, a place we had always wanted to stop but never drove by at mealtime.  There is a monument here where the actor, James Dean, died in an accident in 1955.

When I looked out in our backyard when we arrived home, this is what I saw (oops, looks like we need to spray again for aphids...)

We had a great weekend but it's nice to be back home...

How did this happen??

I went to my local quilt shop for this

because the consensus of the color for my big stitch needle on the bottom border is grey, not brown. And I wanted to try No. 24 chenille needles as recommended by Kate Conklin in her recent tutorial.

How did I end up walking out of the store with all of this as well?

Does that ever happen to you too?

Tuesday Thoughts

Tomorrow I will post progress on "Spoolin' Around," my selvage-edge challenge quilt. So excited. It has turned out even better than I expected!

But for today, it is kind of dreary outside so I thought pictures of colorful fabric might be cheerful.

The top two are Patricia Bravo's yummy new solids and Nature Elements (LOTS of gorgeous colors) , and the bottom is from Laura Gunn's new line. Thank you, Hawthorne Threads, for your super speedy service!

Sunday night I was catching up on some reading. Paging through this magazine...

...when I saw this picture. The one on the right.

What? See the plate that salmon is sitting on? Mark made that plate!!  Each one is totally one of a kind, but it is very similar to this one:

Or this one:

Alex Anderson has been a huge supporter of Mark's fused glass business, Around the Block Designs.
He has designed and made the plaques that The Quilt Show presents to their chosen Quilter of the Year each year, and Alex has purchased quite a few things over the years. 

Anyway, I just wasn't expecting to see it in the magazine and it was quite exciting.

I'll be back tomorrow. Hope all of you experiencing Snowmageddon are getting a lot of quilting done!

Color Therapy Thursday--Making Some Decisions

Earlier this week, I was blog hopping and I'm not even certain where I read this because I was having blogger's ADD--you know, where you catch up on all your favorite blogs, but then start clicking on links from their blogroll, and then to links from the links...anyway.

This topic appears from time to time, sometimes in a humorous way, sometimes in a more serious way. The topic? When does a fabric stash cross the line from being a stash to being a problem? I know. Mostly it's pretty funny and a lot of commenters will say something like "there's no such thing as too much fabric." But is that really true? I look around my personal stash and know that if I never bought another fat quarter of fabric, I could sew for years and years....and years.

This week I emailed my friend, Crystal. She hadn't posted for a while and I just wanted to say hi and check in. I noticed that in addition to her quilting blog, she had started another one about simplifying her life. Now Mark and I have been doing this for some time after hearing a speaker's message really hit home to us. When is enough "enough"? When is your house big enough? When do you have enough clothes? Stuff is stuff, and finally when do you have enough of it? In this economy, it's no coincidence that people are downsizing, some by choice, some by necessity, and information on organizing your stuff is everywhere you look.

So my question: why is it so easy to get rid of other "stuff" in my life but I keep adding to my fabric stash? I admit to many, many impulsive buys. Someone will post a stack of fabric or a new quilt top and the next thing I know I'm at an online store with fabric in my cart.

About five years ago, I worked in one of the local quilt shops...until I could no longer "afford" to work there. Much of my stash comes from that period in my life, a period right after a traumatic event in our lives. Working with fabric was good therapy. After being there about 1 1/2 years and knowing I was going to quit, I felt the need to "stock up" because of my great employee discount. Any new charm packs that came in? I bought two along with some yardage to go along with them. No real plan in mind. But it was too good of a deal to pass up. Right?

Then last year when my dear friend Sue was battling for her life, I admit to using fabric as grief therapy.  Yards and yards of fabric came into the house. No real plan for it. But it made me feel better.

So I'm making some decisions. I started going through my fabric, pretty much piece by piece, and asking: If I were to start making a new quilt today, would I actually consider adding this fabric to it? In any quilt? Ever? If the answer is no, it goes in a donation pile for my church quilting group. My extensive Asian collection? Soon to be gone. Batiks? Some gone now, more will probably be gone in the next go-around unless I can figure out a cool way to combine them with solids for a hip, modern look...

I have been exposed to fabulous fabric, fabric designers and quilt designers online that I wouldn't have even known about otherwise. My tastes in fabric and quilt design have changed dramatically. And a lot of the stuff on my shelves does not fit that style, and it probably never will.

Here's a prime example: two lines of fabric that I HAD to own because each was called "Charlotte" (yeah, I know, my selvage obsession kicking in again).

But neither of these remotely reminds me of this precious Charlotte. So into the donation pile they go, unless someone wants to pay postage and give them a happier home (after I cut the selvage off, that is...)

I don't think I'm the only one wondering about all this  fabric purchasing. Jennifer wrote about the very same thing this morning. Sometimes it just gets overwhelming. I love the fabric I have and want to use it. It doesn't do any good just sitting there on the shelf.

So...much of what I have will go to our church group.

Some will go into the destash section here,

and some will be given away (so stay tuned).

Don't worry. I haven't become cured of my fabric addiction (sorry, Mark). But I plan to "plan" a little more and buy with more of a purpose.

And save my pennies for this line coming out soon. I hope.

OOP(s) I did it again

I think I did it again

I made you believe we're more than just friends

Oh baby

It might seem like a crush

But it doesn't mean that I'm serious

'Cause to lose all my senses

That is just so typically me

Oh baby, baby

I  never thought I would have anything in common with Britney Spears.

And we really do NOT have anything in common. She is talking about some silly crush and I'm talking about something really important. Out-Of-Print fabric.

If you're a quilter, you completely understand. Flea Market Fancy lover? Admit it. You've done ebay and etsy searches looking for some scraps you can afford. Why, just the other day I had a bid in for 10" squares of almost the entire line. I was willing to bid up to...well, the actual amount I was willing to bid is such a nonessential detail. Let's just say that I lost the bid in the very last minute so I will still have some extra pennies to spend rather than being in hock for the whole month of September.

Then my friend, Jennifer, started to destash. Mark is still pressing for a full-disclosure post on the amount of fabric I own and clearly I do not need ("need" being an entirely relative term...) more fabric. But Jennifer, hey, you are willing to get rid of Amy Butler's pink coriander? Seriously?? I have been needing that fabric!

Her post was only 55 seconds old so I was sure the fabric would soon be on its way to my house. I hit the "add to cart" button. Ack! It wouldn't load into my cart. Tried it again. Still wouldn't load. I started to panic. My hands got sweaty.

So I convoed her on etsy, left a comment on her blog post and sent off an email to her, all in the space of a minute.

I'm sure I didn't come across as desperate at all...

Then I waited. The next time I checked, I got that little message that says, "Uh oh, the item you are searching for has already been sold." Are you kidding?

Apparently Jennifer sensed my desperation willingness to help with her destash project, and had taken it out of her shop and put it on hold for me.

I'm pretty sure this won't be the last time I succumb to the thrill of the chase for out-of-print fabric. But if I show up in fabric court some day, having been picked up for recklessly speeding through web sites trying to locate out-of-print fabric, with blatant disregard for my Paypal account, I'm going to plead the fifth and just say, "Your Honor, OOP(s), I did it again."

Nickaleena!

A couple of weeks ago I posted some pictures of hexies for the exchange I was in, and put this  little owl on the top of the stack. Because he is cute.

I got an email from Nicki asking what the fabric line was, she really liked the fabric and might like to do a search for it. I told her I had no clue--I had already trimmed off the selvage (hehe), but since I had a half yard and really didn't need that much, I would happily send her a quarter yard. She wanted to pay for it, at least shipping. I told her it was only a quarter yard, would cost hardly anything to mail it, so off in the mail to her it went.

A couple of days later I received an email from her asking what kind of colors I like. I thought, hmmm, maybe she found a piece of fabric she was going to send me; maybe she felt more comfortable doing an exchange. Completely not necessary but it would be fun to see what she sent.

Yesterday a package arrived in the mail. This is what I found inside:

Sterling silver, black onyx and rose quartz.

Sterling silver, turquoise, freshwater pearls.

Aren't they gorgeous?? I was speechless. All I did was send a little quarter yard of fabric. My stash won't even miss it.

These earrings are exquisite. Thanks, Nicki!

And this is why I love quilting and blogging. You meet the nicest people.

The Home Shopping Network

Yesterday I was feeling inspired by some fabric scraps. Today I did some shopping. From my own stash.

This is the answer to the question that constantly runs through Mark's mind, although he is wise enough not to ask out loud: Why are you buying more fabric when you already have so much??

So when you are inspired, the stores are not open, and you can't wait days for fabric to be delivered to your mailbox, you can just shop at home. (Along those lines, he has threatened to do a guest post on my stash, as he feels like I'm not in the "full dislosure" mode when I write about it. I'll consider it... when I decide whether it will make me proud...or embarrassed.)

I have been collecting solids. Thank you, Robert Kaufman Kona cotton, Moda Bella solids, Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner.

While the inspiration fabric is a charcoal background with some raisin squares, I'm going to switch it around. Wonky squares, perle cotton big stitch quilting.

I really like all these solids together.

In this quilt, instead of just solids, what do you think of a square of Echino here and there just for interest? (even though they didn't photograph as quite the same color, the turquoise solid and the Echino are nearly identical).

Off to the cutting board...

Stash it to me

How do you organize your stash? I have a system that partially works for me.

Fabric is sorted by color, or type (all my batiks are in the same place):

Dots (love....):

Stripes:

And that's where my system kind of breaks down. In my earlier days of quilting, it seemed like most of my fabric fit into a "color" category. But now that I'm so drawn to the newer lines, they are a little harder to categorize.

A few weeks ago, I saw a certain fabric on Crystal's design wall, loved it, emailed to see if she could give me more information about it (aren't those blocks awesome against her aqua wall?)

She said it was a Heather Bailey print.

Ah. I have all those HB prints: Bijoux, Pop Flower. And here they are:

Out of sight (even though in a cute basket with a label clearly stating "Heather Bailey"), out of mind. See what I mean? This is where the system is broken.

 How do you stash your stash? By fabric line, like Meadowsweet by Sandi Henderson?

Grouped all together, without any plan?

Grouped together for a future project?

I'd love to hear your organization methods. What works? What doesn't work? Do you have good ideas for sorting your scraps, which is another whole dilemma...

And this is here just because it's beautiful...and smells so sweet.

Thinking Out Loud

Lately I have noticed some Wordless Wednesday posts, no words, just pictures. Something like this.

Seems like I have been getting a lot of fabric deliveries in the last year, even though I already have stacks and stacks of fabric that needs to be sewn. I love looking at my fabric stash, and posting pictures of the new deliveries. And taking another look at what is already on the shelves. So I thought maybe just posting pictures on Wednesday would work. That way it could be a recent delivery. Or it could be a stack that has been waiting patiently on my shelf.

And there was that random comment last week about my goal of no new fabric purchases in the month of April. Was I just kidding? Well, if I don't shout out "Hey, look what came in the mail yesterday!!" no one besides me will really know if I'm able to keep that promise or not.

Oh.

Except most of you who follow the new fabric lines as closely as I do. Now that could be somewhat of a problem.

About all my new fabric. I'm not really trying to justify my purchases, but it's been a weird and long year, culminating last week with the passing of my dear friend, Sue. Fabric therapy seemed to get me through. Fabric therapy. You know, spending a lot of time looking online at all the gorgeous new fabric lines, planning new quilts,taking your mind of things you don't really want to think about. For the therapy to really work, it seems I actually had to hit the "buy now" button. Sue and I spent a lot of time sewing, dreaming of new quilts, finishing projects. I will really miss all that shared quilting time. I think my next phase needs to be sewing therapy, working on some of the fabric I purchased in the last year.

Do fabric and quilting get you through the rough spots, too? One thing for sure. Sue started these beautiful Mariner's Compass blocks in her favorite color. They were really time consuming and she didn't get very many completed. In the coming year, I want to work on this project, either alone or with friends, because it will keep her close to me, and I need that right now.

In somewhat unrelated news, Allisa from Quiltish, one of my favorite blogging buddies, included my selvage edge pincushion in her tutorial pictures of how to make the cutest little toy bucket. Thanks, Allisa!

And  this arrived recently....or not (I'm not telling....) from Australia:

Shhh....it's almost Wednesday.