Rayen

The idea board got pretty crowded in July, but two of the pieces I acquired from 14carrot inspired me to try my hand at making some jewelry again. I found the same bee and honeycomb charms they used for their art, and with them put together a set of earrings and a matching necklace. These will be fun to wear when my guy and I go out.

It's always tempting to keep collecting thrifted fabric for my stash, especially when I've had such good luck finding great fabrics very cheap, but I've now acquired enough fabric to last me through the end of 2023 and next year, too. I'm really happy overall with the two fabric lots I won at the online auction, and the big haul I found at my local thrift store. I think it's wonderful to keep fabric from going to a landfill, which probably would have happened if no one had rescued these. It's not enough to buy only vintage or thrifted fabric, I want to create and show other makers what wonderful potential it has to inspire and become useful. I don't think there's anything wrong with buying new fabric, either -- up until a couple of years ago I always bought new, and I know most makers prefer it. I just want to do what I can to live more sustainably, and changing what fabrics I use for my quilting and textile art is part of that goal. If you w

My second Goodwill gamble arrived; this is one I paid ten bucks for last month. Just inside the lid was a big roll of plastic mesh that I think is for latchhook work. In the auction listing it looked like fabric to me, so that was unexpected. The rest of the lot proved the same. Someone at the seller's end was nice enough to put a note on this pinned fabric. I'll put on my gloves before I take it out to inspect it. The embroidered green fabric turned out to be 1-1/2 yards of sequinned and three-dimensional designer fabric. I'll guess this cost somewhere between $20.00 to $30.00 a yard, and it's in pristine condition. Here's a shot of everything in the lot, which is mostly crafty odds and ends with a small amount of cotton fabrics, a large amount of synethetic fabrics, and some other surprises. The original owner of these was probably a Catholic school teacher; these beads, crosses and medallions are the kind of rosary kits for kids to make at

With my recycled linen quilt I've only been able to finish embroidering one row per month, but I think I'm getting a little better with my stitching now that I have the trigger finger problem somewhat under control. I'm trying not to dwell so much on my new limitations now, too. This row I did showed some improvement over the row before it in June. The circular feather stitched medallions are good control practice, too (I had to unpick about half of the stitches in this one, but I'm happy with how it turned out.) I think this will be the last large quilt I make with handstitching; I just don't have the dexterity left to keep doing these big projects. Anyway, I'm going to set the quilt aside for a couple of weeks to give my fingers a rest, and just play with my sewing machine and make some small projects. I think the back of the quilt looks so cool.

Because they're so unexpectedly awesome I thought I'd post pics today of all the panels that came in my 9 lb. Goodwill auction haul. Judging by the location of the shop that put them up for auction, and the many, many bird prints, these were likely a quilting stash belonging to a single maker in Washington State in the Mt. Ranier area. This four-yard piece is so long I have to take two photos of it to show you the whole thing. I can already see this as a quilt for our bed. I'm fascinated by how a quilter's stash reflects their personality. Aside from the thrifted fabric mine is mostly art cloth and solids these days. This maker must have loved birds and the outdoors. The incongruity of the space ship bridge panel (and The Walking Dead and Witch panels at the top there) is just delightful. Some quilters sneer at panels, I know, but I'm charmed by these. They offer a wonderful opportunity to get creative and see what I can make of them.

I've measured all the fabric that came in my Goodwill online auction lot, which seriously blew my mind. Of the 53 different cotton prints I received (and they were all quilting cottons) I scored 14 panels, most Timeless Treasures, which generally retail for $10.00 to $12.00 each. That Hoffman Halloween witch panel is out of print; their newer styles in the same holiday prints retail for $18.00. There's also a yard panel of Walking Dead fabric, which is a bit gruesome, but I'm so delighted with everything else I don't mind. Among the panels was this four yard piece showing spring scenes with blue birds just like the kind that nest in our birdhouses. With all the other bird-themed panels it's like the universe wanted me to have this lot. Does fabric find the maker? Ha. I found about two yards in ten different scrap batik pieces; these run around $6.99 to $8.99 a yard at JoAnn. There were also two half-yard pieces of Stonehenge, which I know runs $

The nine pounds of fabric I won from a Goodwill online auction arrived, so let's see what I got. Here's a shot of everything. I got A LOT more fabric than I expected. Among them are some very nice batik scraps, bird and peacock prints, and a bunch of quilter's panels. I can already tell whoever owned this fabric was a huge fan of bird and outdoor-themed quilts. I'll have to count all the panels when I measure the lot, but there are a pile of them. Weirdly, there's one cartoony space panel. Then again, I have a fat quarter with an ancient Egyptian print, right? So you never know what will make it into a stash. This Halloween panel is just adorable. Pretty sure that's a Hoffman (checking, and yep, circa 2017, which gives me a rough estimate of how old the stash is.) Some of the panels are older than the Hoffman -- maybe from 2000 to 2010? -- but in new condition. All of the fabric is. There is a bit of a storage smell, so I'll ha

Doubling up on my exercise every day means twice the walking, which isn't hard when you live in the country. Come along with me and Shadow this morning on the first of four walks I take with the pups. First we need to go past our neighbor's property. This walk was the day after lightning struck the old magnolia tree on their property. The road I walk with the dogs is about quarter mile in length, so it's a half mile round trip. Summer temperatures have me walking it twice very early in the morning and twice just after sunset. (Shadow, slow down, there's a speed limit!) The road also slopes down, so my legs get a nice workout. Here's where I switch sides so I can see the cars coming toward me (deaf people can't hear you when you drive up behind them.) The road is pretty quiet in the morning, and the air is cool. The trees keep most of my walk shaded so it's really nice. Sometimes there are horses in these pastures here. We do