Absolutely nothing exciting

Why no posting? Because the only thing I've been doing the last 2 and a half weeks is cleaning out my basement! I know you are all jealous that you can't be cleaning out the basement too. I've made countless trips up and down the stairs and to Good Will. It's rather cathartic to get rid of all that crap. And it makes more room for fabric storage! Yeah! The hubby pointed out that most of what we were getting rid of is stuff that my parents kept bringing over to us whenever they visit.

That was part of the plan though. Dad says he's giving it to me, and I get rid of it, otherwise Mom would want to keep it.

I drew the line at the car seat from the early 1970's. I asked Dad why on earth they still had that thing and he replied "I don't know. Your mother told me to put it in the attic, so I did." I pointed out to him that that was well over 30 years ago and I'm pretty sure that it's considered a death trap now, and you'd be arrested if you tried to use it as a child car seat these days. I told Mom it was still up in the attic and she was shocked. Same goes for the 'vintage' playpen that was also up there. Ugh.

We bought flooring last weekend too. It's so exciting. It's only taken 10 years to get the basement going.  I have 'sewing room' creep happening, much to the hubby's dismay. He had a cozy little sewing room in mind. I, on the other hand, have taking over the entire basement in mind. We'll compromise with me having half the basement, as I keep telling him. I explained to him that it's stifling my creativity to not have gi-hugic cutting and ironing tables and a 7ft x 7 ft design wall. And that I need my 'Studio' to be really cute. This is a non-negotiable point.

I know I'm painting it Restoration Hardware Green, but I'm torn between going Nicey Jane:

Or French General:

I could do Nicey Jane for the Spring and Summer months and French General for the Fall and Winter! Oooo, I think that's the ticket! Now I have to take a class on how to reupholster a chair and ottoman. Add that to the 'to do' list!

I have to say, it takes an insane amount of time to refold fabric to fit Ikea bookcases and wire shelving units, but it's worth it to see it all lined up and organized.  I put my French General, Christmas and Halloween fabrics into their own Ikea Billy bookcases w/doors.

The cd towers are perfect for holding precuts such as Charm Squares, Jelly Rolls, Honeybuns, and Turnovers. It's also good for smaller things like ric-rac and the like. You can see it a bit there on the left. Why so much French General? Because I have at least 5 quilts planned for it, one finished and one in process. One project is a king sized quilt that has instructions which says cut 1526 of piece A, and it gets worse from there!

My next task is to rip apart all the rest of my stash and sort it by color. This could take quite a while. It took a day to get the blacks and whites done.

I think I'll need to make a few projects in between. I can't go that long with out sewing something!

The first of many

I'm so excited! My Rouenneries Stone Soup wall hanging is done! Thanks so much to all of my quilting and non-quilting friends for their border help. I went with the red, obviously. But then Shelleybean left the idea of a red flange with the tan block print (option 3) after I had the top all done. I thought that was a GREAT idea, because as many of you know, I love a flange!!!! If you don't know what a flange is, this is a great explanation (and it looks like they have some fabulous quilting how to's).

Binding Guru Karen dropped it off Tuesday night and I promptly washed it to get it all wrinkled and quilty. I was a little concerned about how the linen blend would wash, but it turned out nicely. I think the linen gives it a nice texture. I have at least 4 quilts I want to make with this fabric.  

I quilted straight lines through the light colored squares, which I think makes it look like the dark squares are more complicatedly (is that even a word?) pieced, like they are really a sqaure in a square instead of just blocks. I used my water soluble interfacing technique to quilt the feathers in the setting squares and the outer border.

The backing is from an old Moda 3 Sister's line called 'Wuthering Heights' that I had in my stash. 

Now I just need to find the right place to hang it! It will have to be somewhere where I see it often.

I also whipped up this cutie patooty bag. I don't think it's possible to not smile when you see Girl Scout cookies. The fabric is from Kaufman's 'Girl Scouts' collection. I couldn't resist it, having been a girl scout myself. I made the bag for my friend's daughter, who, it goes without saying, is a girl scout! I'm also going to make one out of the pink cookie material for her to give as a prize to the cookie salesgirl who sells the most cookies in her troop. And I have the green cookies to make myself a little something. I made the pattern up as went along to try to highlight the fabric. I'll have to make the little racoon badge stand out on my bag. I loved that badge as a child.

And even though I do not do the whole Valentine's Day thing because of my V-Day curse, the hubby suprised me with these gorgeous hot pink roses and sushi for dinner. Wasn't that nice of him?

Spring market inspiration

I know I said I'd have more photos from the Schaumburg quilt show, but the quilt industry manufacturers, designers and store owners are currently at the Spring Market in Pittsburgh. I was trolling through some of the websites last night and became completely giddy with excitement due to some of the new lines coming out.

Sherri Berry's "Trick or Treat Street" is officially out now! And is it fabulous!

I've mentioned it before, and probably will again, but holy cow are those bats fantastic! And the trick or treaters are absolutely adorable. I totally have to get me some of this fabric.

She also has a Chinese Takeout and a Tiki line also debuting at market. I'm soooo excited! I saw them both on her blog what seems like ages ago, and now I totally can't wait to see them in person!! We were actually supposed to be doing part of our basement in a Tiki theme, ala the Enchanted Tiki Room (this is a video of the original show, pre-Iago, the awful screeching bird from Aladdin) in Disney World and the fabrics totally remind me of it! Maybe this will inspire the hubby to finally finish off the basement. He loves the Tiki Room. I think we sat through that show at least 4 times in 3 days.
There is also a Christmas line called "Have a Sheri Berry Holiday" that is just coming out as well. I think it will coordinate with some of the vintage Christmas table cloths that I've been collecting for years. I love those deer.

Her designs really have a retro Disney feel to them. They remind me of the 50's, but Disney World didn't open until 1971, so I guess it really just reminds me chilhood. Of course Disney Land did appear in the 50's so maybe the decorations carried over to World. The Trick or Treat line reminds me of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

The Organic Frutations illustrations on Sheri's blog would make great grocery bag fabric. Let's hope that Nortcott decides to make that into fabric as well.

Another much anticipated (by me) fabric line is Kaari Meng's "Rouenneries" for Moda. Kaari Meng is the owner of French General and the author of a few lifestyle and project books. I love the antique French fabrics featured in her books and store, especially the reds, so I'm just thrilled with the new line. I'm already envisioning a project with the fabric to add to my never ending project list. According to the French General website, Rouenneries were the cotton prints printed in Rouen, France during the mid-18th century.

The wovens that are with the line are gorgeous as well. I love a good ticking fabric and there are tickings galore in this line. Not to mention some other specialty fabrics suce as linen and toweling that I just can't wait to experiment with.