Fabric organization

I’ve been steadily building up my fabric stash since I’ve been back in the States.  I have a couple small boxes of it now, and I’m having issues trying to figure out how to keep it all organized and how to store it.  I usually buy my fabric according to a pattern, so I pick out a pattern and then get all the fabric needed for that pattern.  Except then half the time I forget which pattern I bought it for, or which book the pattern was in.

My work space.  Not the neatest, I know…

Recently acquired fabric.  I actually have gotten two more layer cakes (40 10x10 pieces of fabric.

So now I have all the fabric for each quilt in 2 gallon plastic bags, along with a piece of paper that has which quilt it is for and which book the patterns are in.

I’m so excited to dig in to this fabric and start creating things with it.  I want to make Abbie a quilt with the Girlie Girl layer cake (pink squares), so I need to pick a pattern for it and then get the rest of the fabric I’ll need for it.  I’m also really excited to use the jelly roll pictured below.  I love the blues and greens in this fabric line, but again, I need to pick a pattern and fabric to do this quilt.  We’re heading back to Branson next month so I’m going to try to go to that amazing quilt shop again and pick out fabric to finish these two quilts.  My dad is prepared this time, so he’s planning on dropping me off to let me browse for a while.  I’m looking forward to it!

How do you organize your fabric?  And how much space to do you have to store your fabric?

Fabric for charm quilt

Yesterday my mom and I (and Abbie, who was a huge help – NOT) went to Joann’s.  My MIL had gotten me a gift card for there for Mother’s Day and I they were having good sales so we went to check it out.
I got 2 quilting pattern books for 40% off each of them.  One is for charm packs and one is for jelly rolls.  (For those unfamiliar with quilting terms, a charm is a 5x5 piece of fabric and a jelly roll is 2 1/2 x 40” strips of fabric, as seen at the bottom of the Jelly Roll Quilts book.)

This is the pattern I plan on using for the fabric I got,

and this is the fabric I chose for that quilt.

 

Choosing the fabric is half the fun of making a quilt, although it’s not quite as “fun” with a 2 year old who needs a nap in tow.  But I managed to pick it out and I’m excited about it.  I’m not sure when I’ll make this quilt, since I don’t have tons of time to quilt, but I’m glad to have the fabric to take back to Italy with me.  My goal is to get enough fabric to make at least 5-6 quilts and take it back with me since I have to buy fabric online when I’m over there.  Italy has zilch as far as quilting fabric, and the VERY small selection they do have is much more expensive than what you can get in the States.  So even the Italian quilters buy their fabric online from the States.  And online fabric shopping isn’t nearly as fun as buying it in person and being able to hold different fabrics up to each other to compare colors and stuff.
I’ll try to take pictures of the other fabric I’ve bought for various quilts soon.  I’m planning on doing this quilt-along next, and I have the layer cakes for it already, I just need to find binding and backing for it.  I’ll probably wait until I have the quilt top done to do that though so I can just take it to the store with me to compare colors.
I just love fabric and creating stuff with fabric.  I wish I had more time to do it and was better at it, but even though I do it rarely and I’m not very good, it’s fun to try.  And it’s fun to have a stack of quilt tops that I’ve made to look at.

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3rd quilt along

I have recently started my 2nd quilt along.  I love doing quilt along’s.  For beginner’s like me, they are perfect because they’re usually pretty easy, there are lots of pictures and if you do have questions, there are many people to ask.  I love them!
This one is the Synchronized Squares quilt along by PSIquilt.  I’ve had this layer cake from Me and My Sister Designs for quite a while and I decided to use it for this quilt, along with a Bella Solids layer cake.

As I’ve said before, I LOVE fabric from Me and My Sister Designs because it’s so colorful and fun, and it makes me happy to look at it and work with it.  This line of fabric is appropriately named “Happy”.

I had lots of fun perusing JoAnn’s for the backing fabric.  I had the top swatch of fabric from the picture above with me so I could make sure it matched, and I decided to go with a lime green fabric with a subtle white florally design throughout it.  I think it’ll go nicely with the rest of the fabric.

Here’s all of the fabric together.  I am attempting my first scrappy binding with this quilt, and I’m not 100% sure I have enough scraps from the layer cake to make it, but we’ll see.  If I don’t I’ll have to improvise something.

I’ve already started cutting my fabric for this quilt, but I haven’t done any sewing yet.  Hopefully I’ll actually get around to that before it’s time to go back to Italy!

More fabric!!

I’ve spent a little bit of money on fabric since I’ve been back in the States.  I LOVE looking at fabric, even if I don’t buy any.  I’ve missed fabric shopping since I’ve been in Italy.  It’s just not the same looking at it online.  I like to be able to touch it and hold it up against other fabrics.  That’s half the fun of making something, I think – picking out the fabric.

I got these little fat quarter bundles to use to make baby quilts someday.

These two sets of fabric are for bags that I want to me.  I already have the ones on the left cut out in the pattern and now I just have to figure out how to sew it all together.  I’ve never made a bag so we’ll see how it turns out.

I’m also trying to finish up a quilt that I’m making for a friend.  I’ve decided to just stipple it, but I am SO intimidated by free motion quilting.  I’ve been really nervous to start it, but I need to finish it since I’m borrowing one of my mom’s friends sewing machines and I’m sure she’ll want it back soon.  I just need to get the guts to start it and pray that I don’t screw it up too much.  I’ll post pictures of it when I’m completely done with it and it’s been received by my friend.  I don’t want to ruin the surprise!!

More fabric

I never thought that I would be the type of person who could spend hours looking at fabric, but lo and behold, I am.  Although looking online isn’t NEARLY as much fun as being able to touch and feel it, I have to settle for online shopping for now since I’m not around any quilting fabric shops.  And I get giddy as a little school girl when I get this stuff in the mail.  People probably think I’m nuts as I tear open my packages at the post office and admire my new purchases.
While Mark’s been gone, I’ve purchase a bit of fabric….  But I’ve been finishing projects too, so I need to replenish my stash.
Here are my new purchases!  (Okay, not the towels on the very bottom, but everything on top of those!)

The fabric on the very bottom is what I had originally intended to back my postage stamp quilt with, but then I saw the second from the bottom fabric (with the hearts) was on sale, so I decided to get that instead.  The teal/brown fabric in the middle is going to be the binding for my postage stamp quilt and the top two fabrics are going to be the sashing and backing for the baby quilt I’m making.  (More pictures of that later.)

As soon as I saw the Girlie Girl fabric, I knew I had to make quilt for Abbie out of it.  So I’m currently looking for a cute layer cake pattern to make a quilt for her with that fabric.

I love the baby quilt I’m making now.  It’s easy and I think it’ll be really cute when it’s done, so I got a few charm packs to make more baby quilts.  I like that they’re smaller projects and don’t take as much time as a big quilt top.  I’d eventually like to have a little stash of baby quilts made that I can give to friends when they have babies, although by the time I actually get that far, all my friends will have had their babies already…  Anyway, the top is Sugar Pop and the bottom is Hoopla.

Me and My Sister Designs still creates my favorite fabric so I couldn’t resist buying a jelly roll of their Happy fabric.  I love it and can’t wait to create something cute with it!

And Mark, here’s a picture for you of Abbie since I know you’re much more interested in seeing pictures of her than of my fabric.  But I thought you should know what I’m spending your money on.  *grins*