Stash overload

The boat is still in the yard and I'm away from my sewing machine while we stay with friends in their guest room. I miss sewing! I've been filling my time by taking an online Craftsy class, "Playing with Curves." It is taught by Ann Petersen and is a great introduction to curved piecing. As a bonus, she also teaches paper piecing using freezer paper. The first time I tried convention PP, I didn't care for it, but the freezer paper method looks much easier.

Our friends have been very generous by letting us stay in their home, even letting our cat Angel stay. Angel is a bit freaked out, going from the compact space of a boat to an enormous three bedroom, three level, four bath house. But she loves her Aunt Karen and Uncle Benjamin, so she's relaxing more each day.

We are taking advantage of Ben and Karen's non-mobile home and its fixed address to have packages delivered. Apparently I had deadly package build-up at our mail forwarding service, because 21 POUNDS of fabric arrived the other day.

There's gold in them thar boxes! The fabric actually arrived in about six different, smaller boxes and I've consolidated it into these two, packed absolutely full. 

I've used up most of my larger pieces of fabric on backings for my latest quilt finishes. Ideally, a backing is a single piece of fabric but I usually use several large-ish pieces sewn together. The Brewski beer quilt, however, used dozens of small scraps. While I like a scrappy back, it does take quite a bit of time and effort, and I'd rather put all that mental math into the front.

So I went eBay shopping for backings, and was pleased to find 3.5 yards of this cute red and white heart fabric. There are also 2-3 yards of the maroon pin dot, although that one is more sheer than I expected. I'll probably use it for low-volume patchwork on the fronts instead of a backing.

A few more larger pieces, found a rock bottom prices. The swirly turquoise will be useful in all kinds of kids' quilts; it's such a great, gender neutral color. The bottom piece is a smooth quilting cotton with a print that looks like burlap. The fabric line is called "Cool Weave." I thought that looked sort of interesting as a blender, so I started searching for it.

I came across an eBay seller who had a number of Cool Weave colors at $0.99 for a half yard, so I snapped those up. They are the bottom two in this photo, mint and medium blue. Since I was already paying for the shipping, I added a few other blenders into my order. 

Then my Cool Weave search hit the Mother Lode. 15 colors, one yard of each, for $15. Yeah, baby! I always need bright blenders, so this is a perfect stash addition. Those browns and tans are quite useful, too. I have some super cute forest animal fabrics featuring foxes and owls, and the woodsy neutrals will work great with those.

This grouping of chicken fabrics was just too fun to pass up. Which came first? The chicken? The baby chicken? The fried egg? Or the drumstick? I'll mix these with royal blue for a primary colors quilt. Half yard of each, plenty for a Project Linus quilt. Hmm, I think I need a chicken wire fabric to go with these...

And speaking of kid's quilts, these are part of a scrap bundle I bought that features robots and flying machines. There are similar pieces in red. I think the plaid and camo coordinating fabrics are neat and unusual. Not a huge amount of each fabric, but I can fatten it up with pieces of Cool Weave and other fabrics from my stash.

And lastly, a bargain I simply could not resist. This is an older line of fabric, "Anything Goes," by Barbara Jones. There are 29 fat quarters, plus six larger pieces ranging from a half yard to a yard and a quarter; approximately 12 yards total. Lots of fresh, cool colors like peach and mint and gray, with bright pops of lime, orange and yellow. All the patterns are geometrics: polka dots, chevrons, squares and stripes. Ten bucks plus shipping! I have no idea when this fabric was produced, but I think this a fun, cheerful line that is rather timeless. Henry Glass fabrics have a wonderful hand and sew like a dream.

We drove to the boatyard today to check in, and it looks like we might be able to move back aboard on Thursday or Friday. I thought maybe I'd sneak a little sewing in while we were there, but with no air conditioning and no breeze, the boat was hotter than the hubs of Hades. I have a few more days of Jonesing for my Singer before I can make that Barbara Jones fabric sing.