WIP Wednesday, and another new quilt

I know. I can't believe I started another quilt. Mark looked at me like I was mad when I showed him my new test block. Not surprising as I was surrounded by piles and piles of fabric and triangles for my Spiderweb quilt, which I only began last week. 

Do any of you ever have a quilt that has been rolling around in your imagination for just too long and the urge to just dive in a cut is unstoppable? I guess I do often and this idea for what I'll call my "Kerchief Girl" quilt has been brewing for months. And when the baby is ready to be born, there is just no stopping it. So this is my first block of the twelve, maybe eighteen I have planned. More on this one later.

Here is my other all-consuming project, 

the Spiderweb. I'm using all three of Denyse Schmidt's fabric lines in this one. I've seen lots of beautiful quilts incorporating Flea Market Fancy and Katie Jump Rope together and I love the look. I wasn't too sure how I'd feel about adding in all the Hope Valley but I'm really loving it the combination so far. I'm planning this in a color wheel layout based on one of my most favorite quilts ever, Aneela's beautiful Watercolor Spiderweb. I just sat drooling into my coffee staring at that beauty and I knew I wanted to come up with my own quilt in a similar way.

Spiderwebs are fun! I sewed my first block all together this morning.

I'm also using up all my hand-stitching time (read: late nights in bed watching Frasier reruns while Mark is snoring) hand quilting all 72x72 square inches of my Little Folks quilt. My hand was forced to make this call after sandwiching this beast THREE times to try and get all the puckers out of the quilt. And it still bunched every time I tried machine quilting it. I'm blaming it all on the voile on this point. Spray adhesive may have solved the problem, but let's just say I'm trying not to inhale any contaminants right now:) Anyways, the hand quilting is going surprisingly fast and I'm already thrilled with the look of it. Just don't say I didn't warn you about backing a quilt with the voile! I've seen some people pull it off, but  I certainly don't have the answer. I am glad I did, though, because this is going to be the softest quilt ever.

Before I go, I wanted to tell you about a new flickr group I just joined, 60 Blocks of Summer. You have from today until September to make 60 blocks and track them in this group. I think it will be super fun to see everyone's progress and help to motivate me to finish all these quilts! You should hop on over and join too!

Fairy Tale Charm Pack Winners Announced!

I am so sorry to have been keeping you all waiting so long......

The winners of the charm packs are Sarah and Liz B.! I am so happy to know they are going to homes who will love them and I can't wait to see what you make! (I will contact you both as soon as I get a chance between naps and other craziness around here.) Thank you to everyone who entered!

I have been way too busy this week. Husband and I decided to take our first mini vacation without Lucy! We packed up and headed down to Portland, one of our favorite cities, for a two night stay at Hotel Lucia downtown (a great place!). We spent two days walking around the Pearl and Hawthorne, drinking Stumptown coffee, drinking Oregon Pinot Noir, eating at awesome restaurants (Biwa, Apizza Scholl's, Kenny and Zuke's, Ken's Artisan Bakery and Pok Pok) and even got in a little shopping! Here are some purchases I made from some cute little quilt shops in Portland:

As if I needed to buy any more fabric!

Well, back to the business. Does anyone else feel like the holiday madness in beginning early this year?!? If I manage to get in any sewing this week, I hope to make some stockings from comfortstitching's fabulous new tutorial, found here!

Another Happy Day in Fabricland

Yipee! Yesterday I hit the Munki Munki Marshall's jackpot! Snowmen on flannel!

Shoes! Lipstick! Coffee! Polar Bears! Even the elusive OOP Coke Travelers! And full-length cotton poplin Camper Van robes! Lucky for me my mom is a Marshall's regular so she has been on the lookout. These are of course not all for me, some are for some of my lovely swap friends. If you have been searching Marshall's for Munki, too, now is the time to try because once they hit one it is only a matter of time before some of the other locations start receiving some too!

To top it off, I got a long-awaited parcel from Japan containing one of my all-time favorites, Little Peter Pan, and in three colorways. I couldn't resist buying a yard of each. These came from Sonatine on Etsy and she may have a bit left if you act fast. I'm pretty sure this line is long OOP and was too excited to see it pop up!

I also wanted to show you that, yes, I actually DO sew sometimes, not just shop for fabric! I have been trying to do a little work on this simple nine patch using all my Munki prints. It has been so much fun to cut into these fabrics. I am shooting for a twin size quilt for Lucy's big girl bed one day, so I have quite a long way to go, but I'm in no rush. I just wanted to play with the layout a bit, I am thinking of somewhat of a rainbow color-gradation.

I will be drawing the winners for the giveaway this weekend, too - so exciting! I can already tell from all your awesome comments they are going to wind up in a great home.

My First Blog Giveaway!!!!

I am so excited for this - my very first blog giveaway!!! As many of you know, I have been obsessed with japanese kawaii fairy tale fabrics for awhile now. I have scoured shops and the internet and spent way too much on shipping from Japan and Australia to acquire what I believe to be a lovely little collection. Oh, and not to mention the wonderful ladies who have swapped some of these to me! I really, really love these fabrics.

I know a lot of you love them too! Most of these are out of print or really hard to find. There is Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, Sleeping Beauty, Goldilocks, Pinocchio and many more. And don't forget Little Red. I have the fairy tale quilt I plan to make for Lucy all mapped out in my head but with all my other WIPs and the holidays looming that isn't realistic right now. Sooo, I needed an excuse to cut them - you! I really want to share and see what someone else would come up with.

So here is the giveaway - I spent tonight cutting 5 inch charms out of all my favorites - 25 different prints in total. TWO SETS are up for grabs! To enter, all you need to do is leave a message here about what you would love to make with the charms. If you sign up to follow me, you'll get another entry. And of course, the 25 great gals who have already been gracious enough to follow me will be entered a third time! I am thinking I will have my 11 year old niece help me to draw winners, the random number generator intimidates me! Comments will close Sunday evening November 8th at 10 PM Pacific.

Thanks again to everyone bothering to read my postings here. I am still so very new to this crafty-sewing-blogging-quilting-mama business and so many of you have been such a great inspiration to me. All your support and constructive comments are always appreciated!

More Hubby love!

My wonderful husband Mark has seemed to have started a tradition of hitting a quilt shop when he goes away on business and bringing me back a surprise package of fabrics he picked out all on his own, with a little help from the sales gals. Isn't that about the sweetest thing you've ever heard? I used to complain that he didn't bring me flowers as often as I'd like him to, but this thoughtful gesture is so much more romantic than flowers if you ask me! Just imagine my giant six-foot-five, bearded man walking into a fabric store and telling them his wife loves Heather Ross and Japanese fabrics - could they help him find something I would like?

When I heard he had to go to NYC without me :( I was hoping he would be able to get over to Purl in the Soho district. He knows I am collecting honeycomb dots (I guess he is observant after all!) and got two colorways of the Cake Rock Beach dots, as well as a couple of adorable Japanese prints and three from the organic Cloud Nine line. The birds are so cute!

I think he did pretty well this time! I'm not sure if it softened the blow of not being able to go to The Spotted Pig and Babbo, though, well maybe just a little bit.

Inspiration (and Sunday Stash # 4)

Look at what goodies arrived in the mail yesterday!

Japanese Hansel and Gretel.....

and Little Red Riding Hood!

They are so unbelievably cute. I had been on the prowl for both of these prints for quite awhile with no luck. Then suddenly one of my swappy friends lets us know one of her Etsy sellers just got this in stock! Totally made my day! They make me happy just looking at them. Both were purchased from Japankawaiiya on Etsy.

I was under the impression that they have both been long out of print - maybe this is hope that Cosmo textiles is reprinting these popular fairy tale prints? I really can't understand why a textile manufacturer rarely does second runs of the most popular lines? Why not make money instead of letting the secondary market cash in and raise prices (i.e. Flea Market Fancy)? Seems like poor business planning to me, just my two cents.

So by now you may be realizing I have an obsession with these Japanese fairy tale prints. I literally pour over them on a regular basis (haven't yet sewn with them, though. That would mean having to cut them, haha!). I have always loved drawing and sketching and I was even a Fine Arts major for part of my college career, but it has been years since I picked up a pencil to draw. But these fabrics have been such an inspiration.......

I have been checking out Spoonflower fabric designs for a long time now and have decided to start some planning for my own fabrics. I was really intimidated because of all the computer designing involved, but after seeing the lovely designs of Ariel (Pocketful of Pinwheels) and Aneela (Comfortstitching) and a little reassurance that it really isn't that difficult, I am ready to take the plunge.

These are some preliminary sketches and experimentation with markers. By the way, if you love markers, these Copic Sketch pens are far and away the best I have ever had the pleasure of using - but beware, they are not cheap (although I did find some online for about two dollars cheaper a piece than the list price). It feels so good to create in this avenue again!

Snow White is the first one I am seriously working on - trying to go for a very obviously Kawaii-inspired style. Someday I hope to make Lucy a quilt with fairy tale fabrics all designed by me. Wish me luck!

Sunday Stash!

Here is a little peek into my Japanese fabric stash! Besides the fairy tale prints, I have fallen head over heels for Shinzi Katoh, Kei Honeycomb dots, Lecien Color Basics, the adorable Kerchief girls and the Elephants. I am sure some of my Swap Friends will spy some of the fabrics they so generously gave to me - they are very loved!

Fairy tale Kawaii! The Wizard of Oz (thanks Bibi!), Snow White (thanks Lisa!), Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella (thanks

Sheridan!) and Sleeping Beauty

Peter Pan on two colorways and more of the crazy cute Snow White

If you were not already aware, I am completely, hopelessly, ridiculously addicted to fabric. I blame it on Amy Butler. When I first got back into sewing, it was her designs that made me realize that there were textiles out there a whole lot more exciting than the garden variety my local shops typically carry. It didn't take long for this gateway drug to launch me over to the gorgeous stylings of Anna Maria Horner, the elusive designs of Ms. Denyse Schmidt, the unmatched talents of Heather Ross and onto chasing that mystical dragon of Munki Munki!

This week I want to share my latest obsession - Japanese fabrics, especially the fairy tale prints. There are many great ones available right now, but of course the ones I have fallen for the hardest are out of print (referred to as OOP) and very hard to find (VHTF). I have left no stone unturned scouring the internet late into the night! These were some that I managed to get my hot little hands on. Thank you also to the lovely ladies who helped me to build my little collection.

These prints are no longer available, but a few of my favorite shops for buying Japanese fabrics include superbuzzy, This and That from Japan, Matatabi, Mwendas, Mountain of the dragon and Nuno plus.

I am glad I could share this with you. I think my mother, my husband, my non-fabric addicted girlfriends and even my daughter are quite sick of listening to me wax poetic about this subject!