Forever and a day

Okay. I know. I haven't been around in forever... But I have excuses! We took in a foster dog, AND a foster cat, adopted the cat, transferred the dog, adopted KITTENS, and then I had a three-day trip to New York City with finals the next week. I know. That was quite silly of me, wasn't it? On top of all that, I've got to figure out whether I want to apply to colleges and if so, which ones, and lately I've gotten really hard core into genealogy. But enough about all that stuff. On to the pictures!

My trip to New York was a success in the fabric department. It was my second trip to NYC, but only my first visit to Purl Soho, and I was so intimidated I only got a quarter of a yard! I also visited Mood and City Quilter, and the latter is where I picked up the five prints from the left, right before hopping on the train home.

Why, exactly, was I in New York, you wonder? Well, for my birthday, I was treated to Heather Ross's Photoshop for Fabric Design class. And let me tell you, what a treat it was! I met a bunch of lovely ladies, and, uh, I actually managed to design some fabric. I know, right? Doesn't that sound so foreign? But I did! I did it! And, I have pictures to show you!

Do you like him? I call him George. (Cookies if you know why!) I'm really satisfied with the design (though the brown did turn out darker than I had intended) and VERY satisfied with Spoonflower. I got home and immediately recommended it to an artist friend. I will definitely be designing more prints in the future, but I got home and discovered that before I do that, I need to update my version of Photoshop. So... I've got to raise some funds! -cough cough- If you like my design and would like to encourage future fabric designing ventures on my part, then you can pick up some of my fabric at Spoonflower.

Now that I'm done pimping myself, I want to talk about some of the lovely ladies I met at the class. While I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with some of them, they were all lovely and wonderful designers! There was the brilliant Becka, who has fabric on Spoonflower; the sweet Sarah, who has quite a few great pictures from the trip (which is great for me, since I kept forgetting my camera!; perfect Pratima, who had the CUTEST little umbrella drawings I have ever seen; rad Rae, who made a great post about the class here; Heather, of course!; her wonderful assistant and retired Genius, the avant-garde Ava; and a whole bunch of other ladies who I can't link you to until the blog roll gets put together! But they were all fabulous, the fabric was fabulous, the whole trip was fabulous. So much more than I was anticipating, and I am so, so, so happy I went.

After I got back from my trip, it was Christmas-in-May when two large flat rate boxes arrived on my door step from the Fabric Fairy. I don't know what I did to deserve this, but I am sure glad I did whatever it was! It may be slow going, but slow and steady wins the race, and one day I will have a postage stamp quilt done. One day! Thank you, Fabric Fairy!

Okay. I have to go finish last night's Game of Thrones and then go to bed because I have a final tomorrow, but after that, I'm done with this semester. I hope to be posting more, soon!

Heather Ross Haul!

I went a bit overboard with the fabric purchasing last week- to be fair, I was making sales left and right at my Etsy store, so I could afford it! Here is my lovely new collection of fabric- 6 Heather Ross FQs in the background, plus a nice lovely bit of Atsuko Matsuyama teacups from ayumills on Etsy, who was lovely enough to grab this last little piece from her stash just for me! (It's not actually that little- I don't remember how much she said it was, but there will be plenty of it to go around when I figure out what I actually want to do with it!) Then I have my happy little scrap pile. Don't you just love it when you get a little extra with your packages?

I have a 4.5 half-yard bundle still on its merry way, but after that, there will be NO MORE fabric purchases this month. No personal purchases at all, actually! I've put a spending embargo on myself, so that I can save up for a trip that I may or may not actually be taking to NYC in April, to attend Heather Ross's Photoshop for fabric design class! It would be a collective birthday present from just about everyone in my family, but we still haven't been able to figure out 100% whether it would work. I sure hope it does!

I also have some new fabric up for swap on Flickr, so go check it out! For designer prints, I only have these two Jennifer Paganelli, but I also have some very interesting vintage stuff I got for free!

The weekend haul

This weekend has been kind of busy for me. On Friday, we went into the city because one of our local quilt shops was having a 20% off sale, so I was able to pick up 2.5 yards of fabric for an eventual quilt back + matching pillowcases (it's the one at the bottom). I also picked up a fat quarter (pictured) and a scrap bag, even though that was cutting a bit into my fund for Saturday, I just couldn't leave them!

Then, on Saturday, things were absolutely crazy. We were driving over an hour to visit a quilt shop I hadn't been to before because they were having a 15% off everything sale. I didn't have nearly as much money as I had planned to, because of what I had bought on Friday and some other things. But I still managed to get six half-yards of fabric (my preferred amount of fabric to get when I have no idea what I'm going to be doing with it!), mostly 1930s reproductions with one modern Alexander Henry. Then, a few hours later when we finally got home from all of our errands, I got my first swap fabric in the mail! It's the farthest on the right on the top- Alexander Henry's Stable Mates. I absolutely love it. Thanks Sara!

(Wanna swap? It's so much fun! Check out my fabric for swap here on Flickr.)

And now, at last... Some rest. Just kidding. I have to clean the house and then watch the Superbowl!

First swap!

Ever since I've gotten back into sewing, I have been itching to enter a fabric swap. The only thing? I didn't have any fabric to swap! But when I recently finished part of a project- which will eventually be posted, but is still FAR from being finished- and had some fabric left over, I decided to give it a try. I wasn't really expecting anything, seeing as the fabrics I had to share (Jennifer Paganelli, Bellbottoms Mary Trellis & Georgie Bouquet) weren't particularly rare and was still being sold for reasonable prices, so it took me a while to get around to photographing them and submitting the pictures to a few fabric swap groups on Flickr.

Last night, I finally got around to it. And then I went to bed, not expecting anything. This morning, I awoke to someone interested in the fabric on the right, my Georgie Bouquet. I was elated! And then, even more excitingly, right after I finished messaging the first person, another inquired about the fabric on the left. Within a few hours, both of my swappable fabrics had been snatched up. I was so happy. I'll post the swaps I receive once they arrive, but for now I'll keep them a secret!

Tonight I added a few more fabrics I thought were potentially swappable. I didn't originally buy them, but received them from a person destashing, so I don't really know anything about them. They're not exactly my taste, but they're the sort of thing I could easily see somebody else adoring! Check out my fabric for swap here. Who knows? Maybe you'll see something you like ;)

Greetings, earthlings!

Is there anything more unnatural than than introductions? I've never been any good with them. I miss the days when I was able to walk up to a group of kids at the playground and just say "Hi! I'm Libby. Can I be your friend?" in the sort of fearless way that children can. So instead of introducing myself, I'd like to introduce you to my budding fabric stash, and sprinkle in a bit of what I'd like to do with my blog between pictures.

This is my fabric stash. It's a fledgling, really, only built after I decided to get back into quilting. I've made two quilts in my life. You can see one of them, my second, underneath the fabric stash- at least you can see the back. But see how tiny that is? It just perfectly covers our TV room ottoman. The first one was like that too- same size, same fabric, just purple. So I decided my next quilt was going to be something bigger, something useable. Now I'm planning on making a quilt for my bed. Queen sized, so it will fit on a bigger bed when I eventually get one. I found the perfect pattern- the New Wave quilt by Oh, Fransson!, which will take 19 half-yards. So far, I have 7.

I have discovered a love for 1930s reproductions, and a surprising affinity towards both pinks and florals. I say surprising because I've never considered myself a particularly pink or floral-y person.

I like to buy my fabric in quantities of at least a fat quarter or half-yard. Most of my half-yards are going to go into my quilt, but if I don't know what I'm going to do with a fabric, I like to get at least a fat quarter to make sure it's enough for a future project!

That said, I found the most adorable fabric in a fat eighth, and I just had to get it. You can't really tell from here (it's the last one on the right) but it's really green, not blue. No idea what I'll end up doing with it, but I feel like it will end up in a quilt one day. And that's it for now! I hope you like what you see, and maybe come back to see my next posts 8)

Previously posted at libertybliss.wordpress.com, but apparently I don't like Wordpress!