THAT red fabric!

Remember when I had a plea out for one of my favorite red fabrics?  It was this one...

Well, it seems that no one has much of it, or if they do, they aren't willing to part with it (can't blame you there!).  But, a few days after Christmas, I had a little surprise in the mail!  My friend Janet O was a sneaky girl...and even though she didn't have any left in her stash, she searched for it online and found a piece on Etsy and bought it for me!  And along with that came some of her awesome handmade soaps!  They smell so good, I just don't want to use them up!

 I'm so thankful to have a piece of that fabric, but I find that I am hoarding it!  I did use up a couple of little pieces, though.  Be arlowe the latest charm for our "Charming" bracelet program.  Look very, very closely and you will see, over on the left side - that's right - a little heart charm made with THAT red fabric.  Actually, there are two charms with THAT fabric.  One for Janet (cuz she's in the program!) and one for me!  This way we will both always have a piece of it.  I love how all the charms look when they are together in a big pile.  It didn't last long, though - they are all shipped out and I'm working on the next one.

 Here are a few pendants I finished awhile back.  I think Primitive Gatherings bought all, or most, of them.  I need to make some more stars - since Lisa posted the star on her blog, I've sold quite a few.  I think some red ones would be good.  Hmmmm...should I use some of THAT fabric?  I don't know if I can let go of anymore of it.

 And you will remember the video from the last time I posted - here is my little helper, Callie - still playing on that ugly chair! She's just so cute, you can't help but love the ornery little thing.

Oh, and Ozzie has decided that he is now a lap kitty.  I will have to get a picture of him.  Let me remind you that he weighs EIGHTEEN pounds.  I liked having my little EIGHT pound CC kitty on my lap, but he is kind of a big lug!  But it is nice to have the company - so I won't complain too much!

Have a great day!!

Entertainment

I have never tried to add a video to my blog - so not sure if this will work.  I sat down to do some hand quilting and Callie thought it was time to play.  I hate these chairs - so ugly - but they sure are fun to play on! And you can see that they work well for hanging junk on too!  Anyway, try not to look at all of that - just watch Callie - I think she is too cute.

Addiction

Hi, my name is Julie and I'm addicted to quilting.  I have a large fabric stash.  Some people are appalled when they see it.  I DON'T CARE!  I love my stash and refuse to apologize for it!  I have worked hard to acquire this collection, and I love every last piece in it.

Do you all know Janet from Rogue Quilter blog?  She accomplishes a lot and I always enjoy seeing her latest projects.  It's funny - I will admire her fabric choices, and then think...I have that fabric! We have joked many times about how our stashes must be almost identical. Somehow through our e-mail conversations I told Janet that I would post pictures of my stash, so here goes!

I am lucky enough to have a nice closet devoted only to my addiction.  This first picture is to the left, when you walk in the closet and is behind the door.  It is just a hodgepodge of stuff.  Some notions, bags, BOM patterns, Thangles, etc.  You can't see them in this picture, but my trusty Swiffer and a broom are also in the corner, and my sewing machine cover sits on the floor. This is the least exciting part of the closet!

The closet is about 4 1/2 feet deep and 11 feet long.  The length is covered in shelving and I mainly sort my fabric by color.  99% of my stash is Civil War era reproduction fabrics.  You will see some 1930's prints on the shelves as well - I generally use them for baby quilts.  Other fabrics (non CW) are in totes on the floor of the closet.  So now the pictures will show the goods in the closet from left to right.  The top shelf is all finished quilts, including the samples for the patterns I have designed. You can see my lights/neutrals and below that there are some miscellaneous things - Magic Sizing, quilting journals, quilt soap, etc.  Then lots of pinks, browns and blues.

Below is more of the same - finished quilts on top, then lights/tans, pinks and now you can see some of the reds (my favorites!), more browns and blues and now some of the greens and purples as well.  You can't really see the bottom shelf - that is almost all Primitive Gatherings fabrics (remember those huge boxes of fabric that Lisa gave me?) and some projects that are in the works - my PG Summer Block of the Week, etc.

On the top are my 1930 reproductions and a few baby prints, then more reds and blacks, greens, cheddar, yellow/golds and below that are a bunch of patriotic fabrics.  They are all CW repros as well.  Below that you will see my wool stash - it is in that toile box and next to it.  Also a nice fat quarter bundle of Jo Morton fabric that I really should use - they are really yummy.

I should have taken better pictures (how many times have I said that!?) to show the bottom of the closet - like I said, it is mostly totes, so not that exciting to look at.  There is a big one with non CW fabrics, some Kansas Troubles, etc.  Then 2 that are full of more of the PG fabrics that Lisa gave me.  Another large tote of flannels.  I used to make tons of flannel quilts. Then I have another large container that has all of my printed patterns (my designs) and some other business "stuff" in it.

Ok, now around the corner in the closet - looking at this picture, I think it looks like a big ol' mess!  I don't see that when I look in the closet - it seems organized.  Funny what you learn from a picture!  Starting on the top you see some hand quilting hoops, and containers of scraps - I think most of those are flannel, so not something I would use in my jewelry.  Oh, and one of them is all Minkee leftovers.  The fabric on the top is all for backings.  Guess that means that I should actually make a big quilt to use some of those up!  The next shelf has my toile collection and on the right is my jewelry inventory that is on the website (in those plastic containers). Next shelf has charm packs and a few little kits that I should work on, and unquilted quilt tops.  Many of them I had hoped to hand quilt - but I probably need a reality check and should just haul them to a machine quilter (then I could use those backings!).  The next shelf down looks really messy - it is a basket that has a variety of cloth bags in it.  Hard to believe that I got rid of a bunch of them, and it is still overflowing and I rarely ever use any of them!  Then I have my business stuff and all of those binders are where I keep patterns (NOT my designs) that I have bought over the years.  I have them all in sleeves and half way neat.  I have a lot of Lori Smith patterns, for example, so they are all together in one of those binders.  I have way too many patterns.  I went through them awhile back and gave some away but they are all full again!  I recently have been trying to thin out my magazines, and have just kept the patterns that I really liked, and pitched the rest of the magazine, so that quickly filled the binders back up.  Oh, that is another thing that is on the floor that you can't see...some magazines - they are in holders so look fairly neat, but they seem to fill up quickly.  I need to stop subscribing to magazines!  Back to the picture - on the very bottom there is a box of DMC threads from my cross stitching days, more kits (mostly from my trip to WI last year) and a basket that has parts of my Cotton Club BOM and also my wool Summertime quilt (haven't worked on that FOREVER!).

Now we go around the corner to the wall that separates the closet from my sewing room.  This is where I keep all of my stencils and rulers.  I also have my necklace cords that I sell on my website - they are handy for when I receive an order.  See that hand quilting frame?  That is supposed to work really well for edges of quilts, but I can not figure out how the heck you put the quilt in it!  I have the little PG tumbler template there and also a pattern for a tree skirt that I've been going to make for a year or two!

Also on the floor, out of sight on these pictures, are my shipping supplies - the little padded envelopes that I mail my jewelry orders in, and bubble wrap, etc.  And there is a little stool in there that came from my Grandma and Grandpa's house.  I'm sure he made it - it's just a simple little stool, painted green with lots of paint drips on it.  Sometimes I use that when I need to get quilts off of the top shelf, and other times I just sit on it and look at my fabric and think about how much I love each and every thing that is in this closet!

That's it!  Hope you enjoyed seeing my addiction.  Janet....I bet you see a lot of familiar fabrics, and now it's your turn to share your addiction with the world!