Category Archives: Quilting Tools

Old & New

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When I was organizing my stash, I came across the oldest fabric in my stash.  I remember buying it.  It was my very first piece of yardage that I ever bought as a quilter.

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It is a glittery piece of Christmas fabric.  I remember buying it with my grandmother.  I bought it 11 years ago. I am using it in a project; a table runner and placemats for Christmas (that I started two years ago). 

The newest piece of fabric is actually two pieces bought at the same time.

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It is from Moda’s Grace Line.  It is for borders and binding for my hexagon quilt.

A Drawing:

From now until November 30th, post about your oldest and newest fabric in your stash on your blog and you could win a goodie package from Hawaii including the calendar below:

calI will even do my best to get some of the artists to sign their quilt photos.

Rules:

  1. Post about your oldest and newest fabric in your stash – include photos and what you plan for it.
  2. Put a Link in your blog post to THIS post.
  3. Come back here and post a link your POST about your oldest and newest fabrics in your stash.  If you only post to your blog, you become ineligible for winning.
  4. I will draw a winner on December 1st (or close to it) from eligible Mr. Linky links. 

UPDATED:  Since I realize that not everyone has a small, easy-to-get-to stash like I do, I will accept a post about just your newest piece in your stash.

Now – for the posts:

My Stash

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In the attempt to make things a bit neater in my sewing area, I acquired a larger bookcase to put my stash in when my neighbor moved (thanks Rebekah!).

I forgot to take photos of before because this has been a work-in-progress for over a month now.

Here is my “stash” photo:

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The shelf I had there before could only hold two rows of mini-bolts and then a partial shelf that held all the stuff that wouldn’t fit .  I kept my rulers and binding storage on top of the shelf.

This shelf now holds three full rows of mini-bolts. One shelf is a “permanent” shelf, thus the configuration, but it actually works well for me.  I have organized by shelf fabrics instead of going by color. 

The bottom shelf is “free for all fabric” – meaning I don’t have a particular project in mind for those fabrics. I can use these any way without any fear of repercussion that I used it and it is for another project.

The next shelf up is fabrics that go to a particular project – they are grouped by project so that they go to that project – plus, a sticky note is placed on the bolt to indicate the project. I don’t want any accidents to happen; that way I don’t have to go searching to replace it.

The next shelf up is my rulers in my nifty ruler rack that my (ex) neighbor made for me.  My 12.5” ruler didn’t really fit easily so that I could pull it out without it possibly breaking, so I tucked it in on the side with my rotating mat.

The second-from the top shelf holds my fabric that won’t fit on the mini-bolts because it is too short.It also holds my non-cotton fabric that I want to use to make something for my daughter sometime soon.  My binding containers are also there.

The top shelf is where my backing fabrics are stored.  These are fabrics that are designated backings for particular quilts.  I also have my neutrals and solids up there as well. 

On the top in the plastic bags  – the white is my PFD fabric; I don’t want to unwrap it just yet because I don’t really have the space to hold 15 yards of fabric in the shelf and I don’t want to confuse it with another white solid.  The teal/blue is a fat quarter bundle that I bought recently that I haven’t unpacked and put away.

This is the majority of my stash.  I do have two small drawers that hold a few fat quarters, jelly rolls, honey buns, and charm squares. 

New Books

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C&T Publishing had an end of the summer sale on their website a few weeks ago and many of their books were marked from $2-$5 each. I ordered 6 books and with shipping it came to just under $30.  So I paid $5 a book for each of the books below:

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The books below were from Crafter’s Choice.  I have been a member for a while and  sometimes the selection isn’t always wonderful for Quilting books (they do have quite a few, but not always in my tastes) they do have good deals.  I had a Buy one get one free offer and then the remaining in the order was half off publisher’s price. 

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I also had pre-ordered the new Schnibbles book and it arrived this week too:

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Lots of new books to add to my inventory and some new projects to drool over. 

Thread Shelf

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Remember my ruler rack that my neighbor made for me?  I absolutely love it and am so happy that my neighbor Keith made it for me.

Well, he made me a thread shelf!

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It is made from the same type of wood that my ruler rack is.  Look at those mitered corners! There are plenty of shelves for smaller thread spools and cones.  It is beautiful.  Thank you Keith – especially for taking out time right before you moved to make it for me.

The sad thing is they are moving next weekend.  I will miss them.  We have been neighbors for over 4 years (a rarity in the military!!)

Binding Storage

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A few months ago I saw on a blog a neat way to store binding – in a squat mason jar.  I can’t remember the blog it was on (sorry) – but I went and bought a few mason jars and proceeded to put my binding in it. It was great for quilts that are not that large – but I tend to make larger quilts.

I came up with this idea…

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Yep, those are empty 50ct CD/DVD Spindles. This works great for quilts that are larger than lap-sized.  It holds two bindings – they are covered by the lid, and you can see them through lids so that if you have many bindings – you can see where the one you want is.