WOW: So Much Fabric, So Hard To Choose

WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays

Is your stash a burden or a blessing?

Whenever I'm asked what advice I would give a new or would be quilter, it's always the same answer: don't stash build. This advice is easier to give than follow that's for sure: especially given that I have worked with fabric for over 30 years and I simply adore fabric and textiles. But since I started quilting, my love has really flourished! I now have so much fabric and so often, none of it seems just right for whatever project I'm working on. I'm doing my best to stash bust, but as I develop as a quilter I realise that apart from the occasional must haves, I'd really be so much better off if I purchased fabrics on a per project basis only.

Unfortunately I'm too late wise on this and will have to try and work through my fabric mountain one design at a time. I think it's time for some serious stash busting quilt patterns...

I'd love to know, are you a stash builder? buster? or neither? 

How do you manage your quilting fabric purchases? 

Update 9pm: I am loving your comments on this: it seems that collecting beautiful fabric is an issue for lots of us and I am loving reading your comments on how you handle your fabrics. 

What's Your WOW ?

WOW: Talking LE Thread

WOW = WIPs on Wednesdays

Today I'm sorting through my threads, looking for good LE colours. Then I'll be working on LE, there's always little bits and pieces to be preparing or sewing down. 

I've had a few emails asking me what thread I used on my Heart Tombola gift and also why I always have baby wipes in my applique stitching pictures ?

I always use and recommend Aurifil. I just love this thread. Yes, it is a little thicker than most but I find I can use it with all my machines with no problems, so do give it a try, the clear stitches you can get from it makes investing in a trial spool well worth the investment.

The baby wipes are for my hands - I handle a lot of glue (not all at once!) but the tiny dots of glue can build up on your hands and become tacky. Especially after several hours. 

Baby wipes keep my hands clean and keep my fabric spotless. When creating such intense applique quilts, it's all too easy for fabrics to become smudged with tacky glue. This tackiness attracts dirt. Also, I physically handle the quilt a lot, sewing down pieces and in between I might get dust on my hands from my fabric stash or from handling my machine or leafing through a book and all these little undetectable touches can dull the fabrics so that they look tired or worn, even when the quilt is newly made. 

Have you ever seen that yourself? I see it quite often on white and light quilts and my LE has a white background and has months of handling ahead of it. So that's why! 

Actually, come to think about it, my quilt is probably the cleanest thing in my house!

What's Your WOW ?

LE: Circling Stars

The stars are fiddly work, but there's no doubt about it - once you have them made, they look wonderful. Like all the applique in this quilt, preparation is key: create a production line and keep things on track. 

Another thing I will suggest is to always make 1 or 2 extra pieces, sometimes fabrics can just look wrong at no fault of your own - it might be the angle of the print or some other detail that creates a distortion - I often move around my shapes, even those made from the same fabrics as the details can vary, so always have one extra for swapping over. 

These are stars but they look like leaves in their individual pieces, there are 6x leaves to each star. When you have 6x leaves neatly turned, thread them onto a needle. The fraying you see here is from fabric turned back, the fronts are clean and precise!

thread them on, keeping any colour order as desired, so that they are all sitting on the length of the needle

thread through neatly and on the same point of each, which is slightly to the side of the centre point

thread your needle through the 6 leaves

create a loop with your thread

and gently pull

but as you pull, arrange the stars into their correct shape, so that they don't bunch

guide the leaves into their correct position and pull the thread fully

Now turn over your star and secure the position with a few neat stitches

front and back of the star

The biggest advantage of doing it this way is that you can create a star production line and then sew down all your stars at once. It saves you from stitching down 6x individual leaves directly onto the fabric to 'create' the star, this way you create the stars before your sew the shape down and this makes neater shapes. Of course this is just my own method and every quilter will have their own style and preference. 

Did you make these stars? How did you sew them down?

WOW: LE centre circling stars

WOW = WIPs On Wednesday 

I am growing more and more in love with this quilt, if that were possible

So much hand stitching, so many stars, I feel all starred out! I chose assorted scrappy fabrics for the crown, but for the stars I wanted to emphasis the compass colours again as a kind of unity because my hearts are pink and the flowers will be colourful. 

This means that the corner vases will have to be in the browns or scrappy. I will know when I get to that point. I had thought about pulling out some fabrics earlier and setting them aside, but I know now that LE will decide, I'll just go with what feels right on the day. 

On Friday I'll be posting how I made my stars in further detail...

What's Your WOW? 

WOW: After Easter

WOW = WIPs On Wednesday

How was your Easter? I'm at that time in life where my DDs have finally taken over celebratory baking, so I'm somewhat free of the kitchen. The cleaning? That's another matter, and it looks like I have some extra vacuuming to do before the house is back to normal. 

I think I'll get on with some hand sewing today. I can spend hours on LE and have nothing to show for a whole days work, it slowly inches along...

What's Your WOW?