Purple Kappa

Linen and Calico

New linen from Fabric-store.com

I picked the colors randomly, just choosing ones that appealed, but together they really look lovely. I'm wondering how they'd look as a quilt, with embroidered squares of linen

Lately I've been thinking about the calico I'd buy back in the seventies to sew doll clothes. I really only have the vaguest memories, but most of the fabric I see now is different. I remember often there were tiny florals, so I embarked on a search for that sort of calico. Not only does Fabric Shack have a great selection, but they have the largest selection of Lecien Fabric I've found in a US-based online store.

The three in the middle are Lecien, the gray one on the left is Little Farm House by Windham and the blue floral is by Brewer Fabrics. I love the gray, I'm not too sure about the blue but I can always use it as a lining.

Sew Mama Sew and Superbuzzy

I received a happy email last week letting me know I'd won a free yard of fabric from Sew Mama Sew. Every week they have a Free Fabric Friday, all you have to do is leave a comment for the entry to qualify for being one of the lucky four winners. I'd been thinking about making an order with them anyway and they were very friendly about just adding my free yard.

Across the top is a Heather Ross stripe, a floral from the Lecien My Folklore collection, Cats on Yellow by Storybook Kids, across the bottom are Pumpkin Paperweight by Kaffe Fassett and another Heather Ross print from her Lightning Bugs Collection. I really do like orange and blue together, but don't seem to buy it very often.

When I ordered the Summer issue of Cotton Friend I figured I might as well throw in a couple pieces of fabric to round out the package.

There are two more pieces from the My Folklore collection by Lecien, as well as a floral print that is very similar to the My Folklore print I bought from Superbuzzy.

Cotton Friend and Linen on Sale

Pretty snappy title, huh? I was reading advise on getting new readers to your blog, and one suggestion was interesting titles. I think this is probably the best I'm going to do.

I've been keeping an eye on Superbuzzy for the summer edition of Cotton Friend and this morning my geeky Japanese craft book loving heart actually gave a small jump to see it's in stock.
Summer 2008 Cotton Friend
She also has the new Cotton Time and I struggled a bit over which to order. Cotton Friend seems to focus a bit more on clothing though.

Joann Fabrics has linen on sale for 60% off starting today until June 14th. I bought a bunch when it was 50% off, but I could always use more, especially at that price. I thought 50% was a bargain.

Linen and Monkey Pants

This is from another of my packages, some colored linen from fabric-store.com. There's a yard of each color.

I like making my garments one of a kind, so I usually just buy fabric in half-yard and yard increments. This means however that often I take forever to decide what to use each piece for. It's not that I don't want to use my fabric, I can't decide on what would be exactly the right thing. I bought this linen with the intention of making pants, something that both boys and girls can make.  But now I'm looking at the green and thinking what a lovely smock it would make paired with the mushroom fabric I bought last week. And the bluey-purpley one would make a beautiful dress. Of course whatever I decide to make I can always buy more fabric, right? I don't know why I get so caught up with these decisions.

This is fabric for some shorts for Miranda. She chose it herself

I really don't care for either of these fabrics, especially the monkey one, and I've been putting off sewing the shorts as a result. Wouldn't some linen shorts with embroidery be nice? But this is what she picked out. Those of you who sew for your children, do you try and influence their choices at all? When they were younger it was easy, but now even Ivy has a pretty clear idea of what she wants her clothing to look like. I was sketching some ideas for outfits last night, I have some brown and white polka dot fabric that I want to make a sleeveless dress out of (well, maybe, haven't quite decided yet...) and loose linen pants to wear under it. I don't think she'd ever wear it, brown's not a favorite color so I guess it will have to be for the shop.

Crybabys Boutique

I first learned about Crybabys Boutique at True Up. There is a wonderful selection of Japanese fabric, and in addition, a great spring sale through May 12: just enter in coupon code ‘SPRING20‘ on the shopping bag page prior to checkout and you will receive 20% off your entire order (excluding sale items). Customer service and shipping were fast and friendly, my package arrived today

Starting with the upper left side and moving clockwise, there is a mushroom print, robots, little girls tending cheep, animal patchwork, animals at school and Little Red Riding Hood. All fat quarters, which is plenty for adding cuffs and pockets to pants, or even the bodice of a small dress.

Resting from my vacation

I'm back home after a four-day Winter Gathering for Unschoolers at America's largest indoor waterpark. The girls had wonderful fun, I found it a little overwhelming at times. But sitting in the outdoor hottub while snow fell and a full moon rose made it all worthwhile. And upon arriving home I had packages. 

Cotton lace from Dharma Trading Co.. They are sitting on top of natural tissue linen from Joann's and I think together they will make lovely smocks and airy bloomers.

These are from Blondie's Fast Threads. Not only are the prices great, but the shipping was super speedy. I ordered these late Monday, sitting up in the hotel room on Brian's laptop and the package was on the porch when we got home today. I really love the tiny red, green and yellow floral on the left, I'd bought some in a package of fat quarters from Joann's, but didn't know the name of the print to find more--it's Aunt Grace's Scrap Bag by Marcus Brothers.

I had a rather large sale before Christmas and wanted to spend it on fabric and patterns. I enjoy spending money but first I enjoy hoarding it for a bit--until you actually spend it there are so many possibilities! And I wanted to spend it on exactly the right things. It took more than a month to finally decide--I'd already made numerous lists on Yesasia, and several different fabric websites. I've got more fabric coming as well as books from Yesasia--I have the hardest time deciding what to buy from there, I want so much. But I narrowed it down to four books, three I've been wanting for a while and a fourth one because I was just shy of spending 50.00 and getting a 5.00 coupon towards my next purchase. I'll post pictures when they arrive, which won't be until the middle of February.

Oh, and America's biggest waterpark--Ivy wanted to sit in the bathtub with her goggles and swim suit (she also spend plenty of time in the park)

Fabric Tales

My package arrived today from Fabrictales--10 days to arrive SAL from Japan, that's really fast! I was so excited to see it sitting on the table when I got back from running errands.

It's beautiful. I can't wait to use it, but for now it's still sitting out where I can glance over at it every so often

This is what I got from Superbuzzy, who also ships super-fast

It's been so dark around here, raining the past few days and as a result my pictures are worse than ever.  There is a house print, hedgehogs, ducks and sheep in a row, more hedghog fabric and a print showing different panels of vintage animals and the days of the week. I'm not sure if I want to use them as appliques or to make an actual cheater quilt. For now, I'm just going to gaze lovingly upon all of it. And resist buying fabric for a while.