Stash Building

As a new quilter, my stash is far from extensive. In fact, I’m trying to complete some of my works in progress with the fabrics I’ve already bought before taking on new, large projects. My stay home mom budget just doesn’t fund extensive stash building, no matter how tempting the fabric; and trust me, some of those new fabric lines are mighty tempting!

Today I was visiting some local craft shops in search of super bulky yarn for an awesome new project (more on that soon!). Out of the corner of my eye, I happened to spot this adorable Alexander Henry “ABC With Me” fabric… on sale!

That got me thinking about fabric: I don’t have many purples in my little stash, and I’m working on designing a new paper piecing pattern of lupine, a gorgeous flower ubiquitous in Maine. They often are purplish, and I will need a few bits of purple to test the pattern. I decided to get some bits (1/4 yards) of purple, and a lovely swirly blue for the background/sky.

I think they will look lovely as a lupine flower.

My latest paper piecing pattern-in-progress. Lupine are gorgeous wildflowers ubiquitous in Maine.

Don’t mind the wrinkles and shadows in my fabric photos; I was trying to quickly snap some photos while keeping my kids off the fabric–no easy task! Here they are, “helping”. Maddie is reading the fabric while Max tries really hard to resist flopping on top of the whole pile.

One of the occupational hazards of following other sewing blogs is exposure to awesome new (or old) fabrics. Last week I saw a post about a fellow quilter who found a small square of a gorgeous fabric remnant that she was trying to track down. I’ve been all about black and white fabrics, gray scales, and texts lately and this post was all I needed to bump me out of my fabric buying moratorium briefly enough to get half-yards of a few awesome and soon-to-be out of print fabrics.

The Alexander Henry Ghastlie Clover in natural print is what first drew me in, and I wish I could remember which blog I was reading so that I could give proper credit for the inspiration! To make the most of shipping charges, I also ordered a half yard of Botanics Leaves in Charcoal (Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman Fabrics), and Architextures Field Notes in Black (another Carolyn Friedlander design for Robert Kaufman Fabrics). I’ve been wanting to get some Architextures and Botanics before they go out of print, and I’m glad I finally have a bit in my stash!

I found all of these 100% cotton fabrics at Fresh Modern Fabric’s Etsy shop. The fabric came expertly and smoothly folded, gorgeously packaged, and Alice threw in samples of Up, Up and Away and Jewels! This may be a slippery slope…