Tag Archives: stash

Christmas in February

February 7, 2016 kittywilkin 12 Comments

Sure, it’s February and the silly groundhog just predicted an early spring, but as far as I’m concerned, Christmas has finally arrived! In the past few days we not only got our first solid snow of the year, but I also received my Christmas gift from Santa–fat quarter bundles of Alison Glass‘s full Sun Prints 2016 collection for Andover. I’m so glad I had the foresight (and patience) to preorder these Sun Prints, since even though I didn’t have them to unwrap under the tree, they are well worth the wait.

The Sun Prints 2016 collection includes new lines Sphere, Grow, and Endpaper. It probably comes as no surprise that I love them all.

I took them all out into the fresh snow for a photo shoot with a new camera lens, a 50mm 1.8f lens that was a Christmas present from my awesome husband. While I love this lens, I definitely should have taken these photos with a deeper depth of field. I’m still getting a feel for it. For now, here are the way up close, pinpoint focal point photos of these gorgeous fabrics.

I’m not typically a polka dot fan, but there’s something about Sphere that grabs me. Perhaps it’s the fact that these dynamic little bulbs remind me of the earth with latitude and longitudinal lines. Perhaps it’s the fact that the sphere colors help blend the fabric lines together subtly and flawlessly. Either way, it joined the ranks in my AG stash.

Grow is a design that also appears in Abacus, with charcoal on white. It was one of the first Abacus prints I bought and I cannot wait to embroider on it. The Grow Sun Prints let us use the gorgeously sketched botanical design in a full spectrum of colors.

Endpaper is the epitome of my favorite types of fabrics. I love tone on tone blenders, and endpaper nails those categories. The colors are rich and deep, and include my favorite tertiary colors.

These three new collections blend beautifully together when combined. I love the subtle flow that emerges between fabrics and colors. Every time I finish another rainbow project, I think maybe it’s time I explored other color combinations. But really, how could I not create with these? I have a feeling you will be seeing quite a few more rainbows in the not too distant future!

I also recently saw that my local quilt shop Fiddlehead Artisan Supply is stocking the full Sun Prints 2016 collection, and has it all shelved with some of Alison’s older Sun Prints and other fabric lines. It’s glorious! If you’re local (or an online shopper), you can get your rainbow fill, too! I’m sharing a screenshot I took of Fiddlehead’s Instagram feed so that you can revel in the rainbow gradient beauty, too. Sooo good.

I’m linking up with Molli’s Sunday Stash. It’s been a while, but I have a lot of stash additions to share. It seemed only right to begin with the newest and most gorgeous fabrics!

Stash Building

Stash Building: Sun Prints

March 3, 2015 kittywilkin 9 Comments

Before heading to QuiltCon, I promised myself I wasn’t going to go crazy with buying tons of fabric and notions, etc. Truly, I stuck to my word–probably more because I simply didn’t have time to browse the vendors as much as I would have liked, but still! The one fabric line that was on my list of “definitely buy” was Alison Glass’s new Sun Prints. I am signed up for the Alison Glass Mini Quilt Swap, so really, I needed to buy some anyway. However, in my mad dash through the vendor booths on Saturday afternoon, I discovered that many booths were getting cleared out. When I arrived at Pile O’ Fabric‘s booth, they had only ONE bundle left of Sun Prints Mercury and Grove, the two that were on my must-buy list. I was planning on seeking out fat eight bundles, but these were, um…. half yard bundles. Close? I bought both, my only non-food purchases the entire trip.

alison glass sun prints fabric rainbow — Grove on top, Mercury on bottom: Half yard bundles of Alison Glass’s newest Sunprints from Pile O’ Fabric.

I love how this gorgeous pile of fabric has a Pile O’ Fabric tag on it. What a great name for a fabric store!

I’ve had my eye on the new Sun Prints since they were released for preorder. The saturated, bright colors and tone on tone nature of this fabric line falls right into the “Kitty ~~must have it~~ loves it” category. I admit I did hesitate before buying both half yard bundles, since it’s the largest one-time fabric purchase I’ve made to date (yes, I’m that frugal when it comes to buying fabric). I KNOW that these fabrics will be loved and used, though, so carpe diem, right?

With all these gorgeous colors, I had to arrange them in a rainbow for some serious photo shoot yumminess. Mercury, meet Grove. Feast your eyes on these beauties!

I had my usual helper during this photo shoot, and I will be astounded the day he doesn’t want to “help” by being right smack dab in the middle of the photos. As per usual during our sunny day playroom photo shoots, Max took turns taking photos and posing in the photos. In my opinion (and I’m sure in Grandma’s opinion, too), his cute mug just makes the photos that much more perfect.

I seriously love this kid!

And I love the rainbow gorgeousness of these fabrics. Here, I’ll take you for a little stroll down Rainbow Way:

Now that these lovelies are officially part of my stash, I just have to figure out the perfect pattern to make for my mini partner. And then decide what to make with the leftovers!

What pattern would you use to let these gorgeous colors shine?

I’m linking up with Molli Sparkles’ Sunday Stash, since if he can be a bit late, I can, too! Tuesday, Sunday… eh, it’s close enough!

Quilting, Stash Building

Rainbow Thread Eye Candy

January 21, 2015 kittywilkin 17 Comments

I have a confession to make: I’ve never made a quilt for an immediate family member. There, I said it. Yes, I have two kids and another on the way. Yet, I’ve never made a baby quilt for one of my own babes let alone myself or my husband. Well, that’s finally about to change! I’ve been working on a Rainbow Jelly Roll quilt for my daughter Maddie since early July of last year (as seen HERE and HERE), but it always seems to get shoved to the back burner behind projects for other babies, baby showers, and other family members. Finally, on Maddie’s birthday right before Christmas, we laid out the quilt and matched some threads to help psyche myself up for quilting and hopefully finishing her very first quilt.

I decided that I wanted to quilt this with simple seam-echoing straight lines in coordinating thread, but that would require a rainbow gradient of thread (awww, darn! I have to buy a spectrum of Aurifil!?). I had a couple of spools of organic cotton Scanfil and one 50wt spool of Aurifil that already matched, so I went onto the Hawthorne Threads site and ordered the supplementary colors. I opted for 40wt since I had never tried them before and the website said they were good for machine quilting. I figured a little bit thicker than 50wt wouldn’t hurt, so these 40wt beauties were added to my stash.

I’ve since then started and almost finished quilting this Rainbow Jellyroll Quilt, so I think my eye candy photo shoot worked! Here are some more gorgeous photos from my photo shoot with my adorable five year old, her rainbow jellyroll quilt, and the matching Aurifil thread.

matching rainbow thread — Most of the time, Maddie had fun giving me a smile for these photos.

I think she may have been a bit bored during some of it, though! LOL!

I seriously love Aurifil thread. It shines, has never broken once, and doesn’t fuzz up my machine NEARLY as much as other hand-me-down threads I use upon occasion. I’m excited to be slowly growing my supply of Aurifil.

It’s a bit of a motley crew, but I think the resulting quilting is going to be gorgeous!!

Here’s an Instagram selfie I posted while quilting. It’s my first-ever quilting selfie! See!? I’m making progress!

I’m linking up with Molli’s Sunday Stash and Lee’s WiP Wednesday. Building my stash to move a work in progress forward a bit more is always fun!

Quilting, Stash Building

Stash Building: Alewives Greens

November 16, 2014 kittywilkin 7 Comments

A couple weekends ago, I traveled to one of my favorite “local” fabric shops, Alewives Fabrics, about an hour and a half drive away. I went primarily for the Color for Quilters Class and my first ever Maine Modern Quilt Guild meeting, but also, of course, for the fabric. I knew that in a store like Alewives, I could easily buy enough fabric to fill my trunk, so I went to the class intentionally with the idea of building the greens in my stash, but without a giant fabric shopping list. (If anyone wants to fund my fabric buying budget, I’ll be happy to give you my paypal email address and you can direct deposit as much as your generous heart desires–haha)

I couldn’t resist the feathers on blue or the yellow newsprint fabric, so I let those slide into the mix. I also bought my first ever (gasp) Cotton and Steel. Here’s the (mostly green) fabric goodness I took home with me (from left to right):

1/2 yard of What a Gem by Allison Cole for Eugene Textiles
1/2 yard of Wee Wander by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller Fabrics

and fat quarters of:

Collage “Newspaper Stripe” by Carrie Bloomston of SUCH Design for Windham Fabrics;
Unknown (but awesome) Fibonacci Fabric in green;
Vagabond Parquet Moon Dial by Parson Gray for Free Spirit Fabrics; and,
XOXO in Picnic Gold by Cotton and Steel House Designer for Cotton and Steel

While I was looking through Alewives’ awesome fat quarter bins, I stumbled upon the amazing Fibonacci fabric. Not only was it green (my color of choice for the day) but it is totally math-geek friendly. As a complete closet–or maybe not so closeted–math and science geek, there was no way I was going to leave that shop without buying the Fibonacci Golden Ratio fabric.

I have no idea what I will do with the fabric yet, but I sure am happy to have it in my stash! If anyone knows any of the designer/manufacturer information for this fabric, please let me know.

I’m linking up with Molli’s fabulous Sunday Stash.

Quilting, Stash Building

Stash Building: Fabric Shoppe Winnings

September 2, 2014 kittywilkin 7 Comments

I don’t always enter giveaways on Instagram since I don’t want my feed to be swamped with reposts, but every once in a while there’s one so gorgeous that I just can’t help but enter. A couple weeks ago, I reposted, tagged, and followed @fabricshoppejody in the hopes of winning this lovely Carried Away bundle. And I actually won! Carried Away was designed by Zoe Ingram for Robert Kaufman Fabrics and features some of my favorite colors, not to mention feathers!

Thus, my fabric stash grew a little bit last week when the lovely bundle arrived in the mail. Thank you so much to Jody from the Fabric Shoppe for this awesome giveaway, and for adding the very first feather fabric to my stash–I know, hard to believe I haven’t bought any feather fabric yet!

This weekend, we finally had a somewhat sunny day on which I attempted to capture its beauty.

Of course I had my usual helpers around, and my son wanted to be in the thick of the action more than usual.

I just love the feather prints and I’m trying to decide what to make out of this bundle. I’m dreaming of finally attempting a Sew Together Bag, but I’m also terrified. Four zippers?! How many pockets?! A BAG!? I’ve only really attempted quilts and one extremely basic, somewhat flimsy shoulder bag. We shall see. Either way, I’m super excited to add this bundle to my slowly growing stash.

What would you make with this bundle?

I’ll leave you with one last photo of my little helper, since he’s awfully cute. Then again, I’m biased.

Quilting, Stash Building

Stash Building: Rainbow Sketch, Grays, & Aurifil

June 8, 2014 kittywilkin 14 Comments

I’m one of those online window shoppers, with about fifty items in a “shopping cart” at a variety of fabric shops at all times. One of the bundles that has been in my virtual shopping cart forever is the Jewel Tone Sketch Fat Quarter Bundle at Stash Fabrics. Last week, when I saw Stash was having a sale on all Bella Solids, I knew that the time had come. I needed some more gray yardage as a background for my in-progress Canvas place mats, so with the sale on solids paired with free shipping on orders over $50, I decided to build my stash 56 dollars worth. Here’s what I bought:

fabric stash additions — Stash building from Stash Fabrics.

Let’s take a closer look, since who doesn’t want to get a closer look at fabulous fabric?

From bottom to top, I got 1 yard each of Bella Zen Gray, Silver, and Steel, as well as 1 yard of Pointelle in Noir from the Art Gallery Fabrics Chromatic Collection (swoon). I also added in 1/4 yard each of Bee Sweet in Sunset and Morning colorways, from the Sweet as Honey line by Bonnie Christine for Art Gallery. I’ve been eyeing them for ages and just couldn’t pass up the chance to have even a bit in my stash.

Of course, the Jewel Tone Sketch bundle got a photo shoot all its own. How could you resist!? Mid-photo-shoot, I decided that these lovely colors really needed more of a white backdrop. The only problem is, we have blue walls. Here was my solution:

Blue walled background + some momentarily helpful kids who had refused to nap + 1 white poster board = whiter background to help the rainbow colors pop!

Yes? Yes! I love the difference the slightly different angle paired with the white background make.

This week, I also got a fabulous package from Alex Veronelli of AURIfil. A few weeks ago, I semi-jokingly, very-hopefully tweeted:

@CrystalblueRT @alexveronelli if Aurifil is ever looking for another quilter-blogger to supply with gorgeous colors of thread, I’m your gal!

— Kitty Wilkin (@nightquilter) May 22, 2014

Much to my excitement, yesterday I received the best package ever!

It didn’t take me long once I started quilting and getting into the modern quilting community to realize that many of my favorite quilters raved about AURIfil thread. I finally found a local shop that carried AURIfil and bought my very first spool: a gorgeous all-purpose gray. I haven’t used anything except AURIfil since. Look at it-you can see the shine even in photos. The colors are fabulous, the thread is smooth and I haven’t had a break yet.

Rather than swoon, here are some more photographs so that you can see for yourself:

I’m very excited about the color cards, since now I will be able to order the perfect color thread for every project, even though my LQS doesn’t carry the full spectrum. You know how I am about color; I am thrilled to have these added to my stash. I can’t wait to play!

I’m linking up with Molli Sparkles’ Sunday Stash because, well, it matches my favorite bits on the aurifil color card!

Quilting, Stash Building

Stash Building: Shot Cottons and more!

May 18, 2014 kittywilkin 11 Comments

One of the best parts about taking on a new quilt challenge is the fabric shopping that ensues. Since I’ve officially joined the Supernova Friendship Swap partnering with Laura from Adventures of a Quilting Diva, and we finally decided on our color plan and background fabric, I had to do a little fabric shopping.

Since I was shopping online so that Laura and I could be sure that we were getting the same exact background fabric, I ordered a few more prints to bring the total to >$50 (free shipping from QuiltHome!).

I ordered mostly half-yards, and 2.5 yards of our background fabric, since the pattern calls for 2 yards and I wanted a bit left for another project-in-the-works. Here’s what I bought:

Pretty Potent-Candy Fabric by Anna Maria Horner
Pretty Potent-Outloud Fabric by Anna Maria Horner
Edges in Sky by Laura Gunn
Acacia-Honey Fabric by Tula Pink
and some Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons in:
-Ice
-Spruce
-Eucalyptus
-Quartz
-Heather/Mushroom
-Granite
-Prune
-Coal

We chose Kaffe Fassett’s Granite shot cotton as our background, after debating between various shades and textures of gray. As you can see (the third one up in the stack is the granite) it is very purple! Yet somehow, with our jewel tone color choice, we both think the greyish purple shot cotton will be awesome! Everyone uses gray as a background. We’re going to push the envelope a bit. I’m nervous and excited all at once.

I plan to incorporate some of the Anna Maria Horner, Laura Gunn & Tula Pink fabrics into the Supernova blocks, too. The other shot cottons will be made into place mats as I test the Canvas quilt pattern by Leanne at She Can Quilt. I’m excited to use these awesome shot cottons for such a simple and elegant pattern.

Radiant Orchid Color study with the Canvas pattern by Leanne at She Can Quilt.

The shot cottons are all they’re made out to be. The colors are so dynamic and deeply rich; they just beg to be touched. I have a feeling these will not be the last shot cottons to enter my stash.

I’m linking up with Molli’s Sunday Stash.

What’s new (or what do you want to be new) in your stash?

Quilting, Stash Building

Stash Building: Happy Birthday to Me!

April 9, 2014 kittywilkin Leave a comment

Today began in the best way: in the garden with my children, smelling, exploring, and admiring the growing sea of blue flowers. The day was a whirlwind day of sunshine, playgrounds, and shopping with Grandma. Since today is my birthday, my mom treated me to some fabric. Since it was right before lunchtime with two cranky, hungry kids, my browsing time was quite limited. “You can get whatever you want, as long as you get it now,” my mom said as we arrived. Anyone who has shopped for fabric knows how long one can spend deciding on fabrics.

I’ve been really drawn to black & white and grey tones lately, which is very much reflected in my choices. Within five minutes, this is what I had grabbed:

You can tell that today I was drawn to black and white and grey... with just a splash of color! — You can tell that today I was drawn to black and white and grey… with just a splash of color!

I got 1/2 yard of the black and white hexagon fabric, and 3 yards each of the other two. I think the two grey tone color-splash fabrics would make great quilt backs. Especially the yellow and grey fabric; wouldn’t it make a great back for a quilt like this free pattern from Craftsy?

Star-Bright-Quilt-1024x927 — Star Bright Free Quilt Pattern by Swim, Bike, Quilt found on Craftsy

I have been saving and buying small amounts of grey and black & white fabrics so that I can make this quilt, so when I saw the black, grey and yellow fabric, I had to get enough for a quilt back. Maybe? Yes? Whether I use it to back this quilt or not, I think it’s a great fabric to have in my stash.

Now that I think of it, I could bind the quilt in dark red and use this fabric for the back, instead:

Either way, it was a good stash-building birthday, don’t you think?

What’s your strategy if you only have five minutes to shop for fabric?

Design, Quilting, Stash Building

Stash Building

March 26, 2014 kittywilkin 3 Comments

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.