All for the want of a Door!

At my monthly house group the challenge is to make a house block for one person (our names were drawn out of a hat 6 months ago).  This month's winner wants Norwegian fishing warehouse blocks in fushia colours.  The easy part was that she draw the pattern for us.  And I do love to make them from my stash. But I had to find a suitable fabric for the warehouse door. I knew I had one somewhere..

The next day I bought some baskets which fitted into the manrobe in my sewing room perfectly.  So....
you know what happened next...




The stash all come tumbling down!!   .



Slowly but surely it was sorted into colours, themes and I couldn't believe how much room I had left in the cupboards when it was neat and tidy.

I'll keep SOME of the plastic shoe boxes for UFO's.. better not keep them all for that purpose haha.

The manrobe cupboard with themed fabrics and kitsets to make up when I retire!!

the drawers full of my bigger pieces of fabric - I might need it one day

My cupboard's previously full of fabric now a home for lots of other things too!

So now that I've got the 'other stuff' out of my linen cupboard I have got room for blankets and pillows etc.  What a great feeling to achieve so much in one day!!


and finally I found what I was looking for!

Just enough of a scrap left to make a door for the Fish Warehouse, and I have to do all the stitching now, (how on earth will I get around the seagulls???  It has to be finished for tomorrow night's get together.  I'm not happy about the bare looking window on the left and it's too small to write a name on it so will sew that down last.. maybe a darker fabric is needed.  And I'll have to put a name on it too.

Hope you all have a great week.


When will I ever settle in!

I laid in bed Saturday morning feeling a little sad and sorry for myself I guess but also trying to work out how to make my bedroom look better. So I got up and moved the tv to every corner of the room to see where the best reception was (without the stupid Freeview). Then I moved everything to suit the tv.

Of course when you move one room it feeds out to other rooms so here we are again Sunday night and I've just finished ...... moving the sewing room around yet again. Steph and I are going to sew together on Wednesday nights and a girl from work wants to have a go at patchwork....SOOOOO I decided it needed to be more spacious so two could sew comfortably in there. At last it's sorted. I'm ready to sew! I went to the Warehouse and got a half price rug for the bedroom (I'm thinking I'll pay off a 'nicer' but more expensive carpet square over the summer) and I bought a microwave too! Retail therapy ah!

And I need to finish this UFO . A few months ago at Rose City Quilters we made a challenge to finish a UFO we hadn't touched for 12 months. It had to be finished by September.... hmm as usual it's last minute for me. This was a Mystery Block of the Month on the Internet a few years ago. I'm not sure I like it anymore but once I lay these blocks out properly it may look okay. It is all scraps. I'm thinking I'll also do it row by row Quilt as you go.. so with a little black stripe in between each row ... hmmmm I also found a few other treasures???? 5" blocks from a Jinny Beyer range which were given to me by a friend.

And another quilt I made once. It's supposed to be "under the sea" but I didn't like it so I unpicked the whole thing and this is what remains... there's too many pretty fabrics to throw it out so I'm thinking I'll play with it and make it up again. The funny white cushions behind it are the 'inners' for my couch cushions. Hmmm yes another project to do. I have made progress .. I've moved the fabrics for them out to the lounge to inspire me...

And I found these gorgeous wools that my grandchildren gave me for Christmas. Lots of ideas here.. maybe a scarf or a handbag... I went to the local quilt guild yesterday afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've joined and put my name down for a course called "Tumbling Blocks". It's being held on the 1st anniversary of my Dad's death... but since he was always falling over I think it's ironic and he would have a laugh about it. I took my selvege quilt along and got lots of comments. There were some amazing quilts but I've yet to work out how to get my photos off my mobile phone. Technology is the pits .. I am not clever when it comes to files and downloading!!!

Now I'm off to sort out the mountain of photocopied patterns I have accumulated and probably reduce the pile considerably. (By the way the magazines are now on the big bookshelf hidden behind my lounge door which I never close hehe).

Goodnight everyone

WOMBATS and PIGS

Hey ladies, I'm on the cadge. I need heaps of selvege edges off cotton fabrics for a project I want to do. I would like selvege's with a half inch of the fabric attached. I've seen a neat idea for a future challenge but I don't have enough in my stash. Will take quite a few. I'm happy to pay postage so if you have some in your rubbish please let me know and I'll send you an sae.

I found these new quilting terms on the net and I have to laugh

WOMBAT = Waste Of Material, Batting And Time
SABLE = Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy
WHIMM = Work Hidden in My Mind
STASH = Special Treasure, All Secretly Hidden
FART = Fabric Acquisition Road Trip
PIGS = Projects In Grocery Sacks
SEX = Stash Enhancing Experience
CHAOS = Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome

I’ve got plenty of PIGS and WOMBATS. I’m working on my SABLE. I have a few too many FARTS lately and more STASH which gives me great SEX (CHAOS)! As for WHIMM’s I think they’re hidden better than my fabric!