UPGRADED!

I'm over here now:  www.madebyabrunnette.com


Stop by for a cuppa and a chat....

A new home, a new name (sniffle, sniffle)

I've acquired some new real estate... not the physical kind, the virtual kind.  I have a new website, and will soon be leaving this BLOG behind...

Four years, hundreds of posts and thousands of comments here at Threads of Conversation, but it's time for a change...  So, update your readers, subscribe to my new RSS feed over here, and follow me at www.madebyabrunnette.com

Thanks for commenting and reading along here--I've enjoyed meeting every one of you!

Simple Home--Book Review

Sweetwater's Simple Home is one of the two books I picked up last weekend at Quilts and Other Notions in Creston, Iowa.  Released in September 2011, it features 35 simple and practical sewing and quilting projects by Sweetwater Design; a mother daughter team, fabric and pattern designers for Moda, and all around creative powerhouse.

The layout and images are lovely, but my favorite feature of this book is that projects are grouped by different living areas of the home.  Also included in the book are simple techniques and tips for decorating with appliqué, stenciling, stamping, and embroidery.  I'm excited to try many of the ideas in this book, besides just gawking at it because it's so pretty to look at. 

As a matter of fact, I already made one of the projects, a clothespin bag for my sister-in-law:

I pulled some fabric from the stash, a scrap of matching ric-rac, a wooden hanger from our coat closet and got to work...

The pattern calls for two fabrics, I added a third contrasting fabric for the inside of the bag.  I used a piece from the Farmer's Market collection by Sandi Henderson (the apple fabric), Sweet Pea by Jackie Shapiro (the green floral) and Farmyard by Sentimental Studios (the gardening print).  Three different designers, three different manufacturers, and they coordinate perfectly.  That is "stash sewing" at it's best, readers!

The photo above shows the components of the bag "inside-out", how they are sewn together  to complete the bag.  The instructions in the book are clear and well written, I would prefer a few more diagrams/illustrations myself, but that's because I'm lazy about reading instructions and would prefer to "read" pictures instead.  I think the entire project took about an hour and a half, start to finish.  Here is the finished product, front and back:

 

Makes me wish I had a clothesline myself.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born 108 years ago today--inventor of the word "nerd", bestselling author even today, and the creator of many fun characters, including Thing 1 and Thing 2:

Halloween 2011 (Thing 2 isn't unhappy, but we did decide 

he'd make a better Joker than he does a Thing 2!)

Looking for a fun read? read this....

Creative Clips-Leap Week

Last weekend I attended a quilt retreat, approximately 80 miles from home.  I went Friday and stayed until noon on Saturday, and I only accomplished one thing: cutting out the rest of the pieces for my Candied Hexagons quilt:

and those pieces look like such a small pile, but it isn't small at all.  There are at least 18 half blocks, and 30 full hexagon blocks represented in that photo.  Lots of tedious cutting, using Mari Michell Templates (set H) and a Clover 28mm Rotary Cutter.  I spent much of my Grubers retreat weekend last July cutting pieces for this quilt, too.  It's probably best I didn't keep track of the hours (cutting or hand-piecing), it is by far my most time consuming quilt to date.

I brought this home, along with a borrowed Go! Cutter, to make another, far less time consuming hexagon quilt!

I bought a few end-of-the-bolt goodies at the shop that hosted the retreat, and she had a buy one-get one free book sale, so....  

You can probably tell by my photos here that I have yet to read that top book (HA!), and I've already made a project from the bottom book (blog post coming tomorrow!!).  Both of these had been on my Amazon wishlist for a while, so I couldn't resist the BOGO special.

What else have I been doing this week?  Getting to know my new acquaintance...

I think we're going to be great friends.

Supply vs. Demand

I remember trying to explain to my husband (then boyfriend) in 2010 why I had purchased the end of three bolts of fabric I happened to stumble across, just to turn around and sell it.  I told him, if I wanted to, I could probably get $40/yard for it.  I was paying $6/yard, it was found on the sale shelves at the back of the store.  It was Flea Market Fancy (FMF), the original.  He was astounded--"you mean, there is collectible fabric?!?"  Well, yeah, kind of.

I never bought any of the original FMF, when it was new and full price.  I never laid eyes on it until it was essentially sold out and "in demand" as an out-of-print, hard-to-find fabric.  I did have an original FQ bundle of Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries, but it got used up on a project(s) I wasn't quite thrilled with and basically went to waste.  (Forgive me...)  I've seen fabric from both of these lines go for over $50/yard.  I did sell my bargain FMF fabric at a profit, but not that kind of profit. 

Do you plan to buy some of the Flea Market Fancy Legacy collection?  I haven't decided.  The new colors seem very different from the originals, which was the primary quality of the original fabric that drew me, personally, in.  The original (photo courtesy of dsquilts.com):

The new (photo courtesy of Red Pepper Quilts):

The soft aqua blue seems to have more green in it, the grey is certainly a nice additon, but the greens are not the bright, unique greens of the original.  I understand, it's a re-release, and it's an updated version.  I get that.  Just not sure I'm as crazy about this one as I was the original.

Do you think the re-releasing of some of these lines of fabric (FMF Legacy Collection, the Mono-Pez prints by Moda, etc.) is going to pop-the-bubble, so to speak, in the high cost of OOT/HTF fabrics that we've witnessed over the last two or three years?  Or, because of the internet, blogs, flickr, etc., there will always be certain fabrics in high demand and short supply? 

p.s. for those of you annoyed by Blogger's word verification for comments (I know, I find it ridiculous as well) I tried going 48 hours without word verification, the spam comments and moderating comments drove me mad--so word verification is back.  I'd love for you to leave comments anyway--painful as it may be.

Have you Heard?!

The Modern Quilt Guild will be holding its first conference next February (a year from tomorrow!) in Austin, Texas!  Please check the website to find out about all of the wonderful things that will be happening at QuiltCon.