The North Carolina Museum of History has a wonderful exhibit called QuiltSpeak: Uncovering Women’s Voices through Quilts that will be there until early March 2020. There are some stunning quilts on display, so if you are in the Raleigh area, you will definitely want to check it out.
The exhibit features about 40 quilts, along with a story of the woman who created it. Here’s a few pictures to give you and idea of the type of craftsmanship on display.
I have to confess, I’ve already blown my stash reduction resolution made at the beginning of the month – it’s a lot harder than I thought! In my defense, I had good reasons for purchasing the following items (and some of it falls under the rule exceptions).
Here is a bundle of Halloween fabric I purchased at an online quilt shop. This fabric line features “Boo Kitty” and is designed by Bonnie Sullivan of All Through the Night. There are several good reasons why I needed this much. First, it was on sale for a very good price and there was a 1 yard minimum cut per fabric. Second, this line was released years ago and is VERY hard to find. Third, I have the cutest pattern for a Halloween table topper that uses this fabric and I WILL make it – I promise!
Here is my haul from the thrift store. I usually find nice large pieces of corduroy and denim that I can use for my bags. There is a new pattern in the works and I will need to make a few prototypes. It’s better to use fabric from the thrift store since it is so cheap (about $1 a yard).
So, as you can see, all these purchases were justifiable. But just to keep things honest, I am going to write down my MONTHLY stash report (it’s apparent these need to be done monthly, in order to have the desired effect of actually reducing the stash):
It’s been a busy few weeks for me with work and travel (and prepping for potential travel) and it’s really cut into my sewing time! Thankfully it looks like summer is going to slow down and I will have plenty of time to hang out in the sewing room!
Speaking of sewing room, I am finally getting ready to re-decorate it. This has been one of the last rooms in the house to get any attention and now it’s time! The color scheme is going to be around the fabric above – it is from Minnick and Simpson’s Charlevoix collection. This fabric will be used for valances and then other fabric from the line will be used to make chair covers. The walls will be painted a light blue (exact color TBD).
Finally, for the downstairs bathroom I am going to make a shower curtain. I found a great pattern for making a shower curtain out of layer cakes on the Moda Bakeshop website. I am using the same fabric in the picture above (Clermont Farms – Minnick and Simpson). In addition to the shower curtain I am going to make some hand towels by making ruffles, prairie points and other embellishments from the left over fabric. Should be a lot of fun!
Keep it thimble!
Happy New Year! I had a great holiday and enjoyed my time off. I was able to get my sewing room set up and organized, which is a huge help. Now I have a place to spread out my projects and I don’t have to clean up after myself each time I stop working. I can already see my productivity increasing.
Here is one of the first projects I made in the new sewing room:
I actually had some help from my son on this one. He wanted a heart pillow and picked out this green fleece from the scrap bag. He liked it because it was “fluffy”. He helped me draw the heart and I sewed it up. He did all the stuffing himself (which he was quite proud of), and carries this everywhere. The next project on his agenda is a blue star pillow. I’m glad to see he has the crafting gene.
Keep it Thimble 