Tuesday, September 16, 2008

My Stash

Victoria asked how I store my fabric. Hmm, do piles of fabric all around my work area count as storage? An aside: look at this, I'm willingly using brown fabric! eeeeek.

My real storage area is back in the guest bedroom. The plastic bins are full of scraps and strings (sorted by fabric into ziplock sandwich bags - I know, surprisingly anally retentive). I use a sheet to block out the light and dust. I used to have a beautiful Egyptian woven bedspread up, but the little cats love to sleep behind the sheet and then there's always combat through it... After a couple of snags I decided to be practical instead of pretty.

When I first moved in I did have a certain amount of organization, but as time goes by, I just cram fabric back in...

My favorite part of making quilts is choosing the fabrics. So generally I don't organize them into too many different piles. I always love going through almost every stack to select what I need. On the left we have "my colors" of blues, greens, pinks, purples. Still love those, but my tastes have changed (oh my).

Then there are/were piles of black and white; solids and hand-dyes; halloween; christmas; patriotic; brights: yellow, orange, lime green; and finally fabrics for backing and sleeves.

So there's that.

I've played with my blog sidebar. You'll notice the gadget for Followers. Fun to see who reads the blog. I think you need a Blogger profile (but not a blog) to play. If you call up my profile and scroll down you'll see a list of blogs I Follow. Believe me, that's not all of them.

Next, Bonnie figured out how we can promote Gwen Marston's new book. For you Blogger users, grab a pic of the cover (or take one yourself!) and save it to your computer. Then go to your LAYOUT, ADD a GADGET, pick the PICTURE gadget. Add the image for the cover. There's a link option there, so add Gwen's homepage. There's a space called CAPTION where you can add your own words to describe how wonderful the book is or how much you're looking forward to receiving it... I suspect there's something similar for bloggers who use other platforms.

It's exciting to see a post from someone who's already gotten their copy . For instance, Woolywoman started to work on a Gwen inspired quilt.

I was excited to get a comment from Lynn of The Little Red Hen. She just got back from her tenth (or should that be eleventh?) Beaver Island Quilt Retreat with Gwen. Wow, jealous. She'll be posting pics from the retreat in a few days, which I'm really looking forward to seeing. I have to live vicariously through you all. Anyway, Lynn said that Gwen mentioned my blog during the retreat. Wooohoo!

If any BIQR attendees are reading this, I'd love to hear from you. Do you have a place on the web for us to see the pics you took? If you'd like to email me pics, with your permission I'll post them in this blog so that you can share them that way.

Ooooh, there's sunshine out there in the world, I gotta get a move on. Ya'll take care.

12 comments:

Joyce said...

I have ordered Gwen's book from her website so I can have it autographed. I'm waiting with bated breath for it to arrive. I have to upgrade my blog to add those gadgets. I'll get to that one of these days.

mumzy said...

Being a fairly new blogger, I am a little hesitant on adding gadgets to my blog.

Your favorite colors are also most of mine for quilting. Also, when I took a beginner's quilt course a few years ago, I began using some black in some of my quilts and am very pleased with the results. I'm glad to see someone else has stacks of materials.

Bonnie K. Hunter said...

Hahahahah! You know you secretly like brown! You are just afraid to admit how brown goes with everything and adds warmth and depth. Even with your purples and blues and greens and pinks....just a bit of brown...it's like drizzling it with chocolate! :cD

Clare said...

My - that shelving looks familiar, but this time there are no cats playing peekabo under the sheet!

Patti said...

Where, where? I don't see any brown in that stack! Or on those shelves! Let me enlarge the picture. Hmmm . . . I think I see a little corner of brown peeking from among the blues and turquoises on that table. Must be a piece Bonnie left the last time she visited, right?

;-)

Fran said...

(("The plastic bins are full of scraps and strings(sorted by fabric into ziplock sandwich bags-I know, surprisingly annaly retentive))>

Careful, careful, who you are calling 'annaly retentive'. My fabric closet and shelves, bins, boxes, are full of plastic ziplock bags in all sizes, including sandwich. How else is a gal suppose to be able to put her hand on a piece of purple batik at a moments notice if you don't do that? I'd feel like a dog digging for his bone going through my stash otherwise.(*LOL*) Hey, whatever works, right?
About adding 'gadgets' to our side bars, I'm still having a bit of trouble figuring all this stuff out. I'll get there, but it might take me awhile. <:c)

Enjoy the sunshine, it's raining here AGAIN!!! But I should quit my whinning, those poor people who were in the path of Ike are in a lot worse trouble than a few puddles in the driveway.

Until next time..
~~Fran...:c0

Lynda said...

Your stash looks pretty organised to me! Mine is by colour in large plastic boxes, and the more I rummage, the worse it gets! I have a built-in wordrobe with doors, so a shelving unit would be ideal. Hmm, food for thought.

Dionne said...

Funny, I have all my stash, organized into groups, then sub-groups again, and finally divided into ziplock baggies!

But my fat, fluffy furball still manages to get cathair all over anyhow! :-)

Ordered my book today... can't wait for it to come (That and Bonnie's too).

Cheers,
Dionne

PS - I may never be a brown convert!

woolywoman said...

Thank you for the blow by blow direction for adding the Gwen's book thing to my blog. I was, as the kid says, clueless.

I think that my stash is now officially pathetic. Three shelves on and IKEA Ivar book shelf, and another pile of the 54 inch wide stuff, and than a stack of tops that are not quilted yet.

I dream of a Beaver Island Quilt Retreat. The whole blogring could booka week together... ( and then we'd all have ponies, too, it's my dream, isn't it?)

The Chickens on the Housetop quilt is moving along. My PC is down, though, and I am on a borrowed computer with no access to pictures.

laura west kong said...

I just love Gwen Marston. I've got her "Liberated Quiltmaking" right here next to my computer. I didn't make it to my guild meeting last month to return it so I get to keep it for another month ^_^

Just cram the fabric back in--that's what happens to mine too.

Holly said...

Hi Tonya, that's a substantial stash you have. I wish I knew where to find a wide range of solids. Any suggestons? And oh, good for you for having some brown in your stash! I remember when you didn't have white or "lites".

Anonymous said...

There's no way I could take pictures of my stash and post them online. You are far more organized than I am!