rose gold, fabric destashing and restashing, and more!

It has been a busy weekend. But I say that every weekend. I used to take Sunday nights to plan the week, to sit and anticipate the upcoming days, but it seems like every weekend I feel frustrated by how much I haven't done and how little time I've had for myself! It's not a good feeling, but I'm trying to work around it.

I have a quilty finish!

I was inspired to make this quilt one afternoon while driving home via the Cumberland Highway. We were out west running an errand (look at sheds, maybe?) and I had a FLASH of inspiration - I knew exactly what I wanted to make with a stack of fabric I'd been planning to turn into skirts! It had to be a quilt! I handed an envelope to my husband and instructed him to draw it out, and even told him the measurements! (I'm very talented but I can't draw AND drive!)

The top came together so quickly. I waited until I had a few frame-quilted quilts under my belt before I undertook loading it up and quilting it. And oh. Oh man. This was a skill builder. I did feathers, guys. Now, I'm not Trudi, but I am pretty proud of my efforts.

Tha fabric choices were accidentally perfect. That AMH centre print is Summer Totem from LouLouThi. The Pearl Bracelets are by Lizzy House. The meteors are fussy cut from Tula Pink's Birds and the Bees line. The sashing is Michael Miller Cotton Couture in bright white, and the final border was a much-loved piece of Social Climber from the rerelease of Anna Maria Horner's Hand Drawn Garden line. I love the binding, too - Breaking the Code from her latest, Dowry! The quilt is backed with a large piece of Heather Ross's Kelp Stripe from Mendocino.

It's simply divine. I am so proud of myself.

The quilt is 78" x 90" I quilted it over about three weeks on my Juki TL98P on my Gracie Queen Frame, and yes, I will write about that soon. :)

I have another dorky little finish: I took an hour while I had some sleeping children and made a fabric basket. I know, I should have been doing bee blocks, but geez, I needed a win!

I used Indian Summer from Art Gallery Fabrics and I love this line so much, especially these two prints, that I ached at the thought of cutting them up and sending them away! I wanted to keep them in my stash, so I did what I do with all my favorites - I made a useful thing! (See also: all my handbags!)

Well, as for Fabriholics Anonymous... I CRACKED.

I CRACKED SO HARD.

That said: even having gone on a comparative frenzy (see below), I feel like I am making better choices with my fabric purchases. I've been discerning and not just the fabric equivalent of Smaug hoarding all the treasure.

But, yeah. I didn't even make it through April. I AM SO DISAPPOINTED IN MYSELF.

I know what did it. I had to buy a backing, and I thought, why not make it a perfect backing? For a perfect person! I'm making a quilt as a gift and I had to have a certain print...and then another backing needed to be bought...and all of a sudden I was preordering fabric on Hawthorne Threads (what! stop!) and then Far Far Away II preorders started popping up everywhere and I panicked and then I was like, well, crap, I guess I better just order some MORE fabric...

I stocked up on the Lizzy House tone-on-tone Pearl Bracelets because OF COURSE. I also bought some of the low-volume fabric from Kate Spain's Daydreams line. I was given a candy bar and made it into 1" hexagons, and I loved those four the most. Add in some Meadow and some really killer EGG fabric (seriously!! EGG!!!!) and some pink dots that are for my daughter.

Then Easter sales went bananas and my friends Danielle and Jeannette over at Polka Dot Tea Fabrics had such a good sale I couldn't resist. So I bought a few bundles from them. Oh and some panels from Maze and Vale, because after all, I was nearly out! I love Leslie's screen prints.

I mentioned this before, but my daughter has never had a comfort object. She didn't suck her thumb, was never particularly attached/clingy, never had a favorite toy...until she was digging through a random toybox and found this pink DOG. DOG is a Victoria's Secret Pink toy that I got as a promotional item ten years ago. Obviously this totally irreplacable item is suddenly her ABSOLUTE FAVORITE.

We lived in terror of DOG getting lost or forgotten or mangled somehow...that is, until I ordered Riley Pink Dots and we found some similar DOG toys on eBay. (Wrong pattern, right shape.) One of the new DOG toys will make a noble sacrifice to become a pattern, and in the meantime, it is GREAT that she finally has a comfort object! DOG climbs trees and goes everywhere with her. I have to negotiate with her to leave DOG in her bed. Once she gets out into the wilds of our overgrown back garden, though, the tears disappear and she's right into it.

Finally, I destashed over this holiday weekend, and my fabric stash is now looking a little sparse. I like it.

I've got this nonsense going on over here on the design wall.

And a huge disgusting mess to clean up. Phew. I can't wait to get stuck in! After we do a run to the post office, that is!!

Well, that's it - all caught up for another week! Now it's time to sleep. I can't wait. :)