Friday, December 9, 2011

Cream and Black Treasures found

I confess. I am a bit of a hoarder. Well, maybe more than just a bit of a hoarder.

I am not as bad as that show about hoarders. I do not save garbage or newspapers but I do save fabric.

I do have paths through the two spare bedrooms I have occupied/taken over for fabric storage. It is an adventure when I go looking for something I KNOW I have.

I have not been able to find a fabric that has books on shelves. Nice warm wood tones with leather bound books set in wide stripes down the length of the fabric. I know I bought a large quantity of it. I have not been able to find it for a long long time. I hid it well.

And to get to anything I need to move containers. Lots of containers...I confess I am a fabricholic.
It is time to use these creams and blacks.
I have been saving them for the future.
The future is now.

 I have 20 of these large blocks.  They are a bit larger than 12 1/2".

The fabric is a creamy off white with quilts and quilters pictured doing what quilters do with quilts!
They are BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
 The background on this toile is black. Once again quilters and quilts.
How lucky was I to have bought this so many, many years ago???
It looks like I have 3 or 4 yards of this one.
 Another toile with more quilters. The background is creamy off white. The print is not the same as the toille with the black background. There is maybe 2 yards of this one.
 As I kept digging deeper into this container that has not seen the light of day for many years, I was finding fabric I had totally forgotten about. This was one of the first color combinations I started collecting long before I was even making quilts. I knew that someday I would want to. And I really like cream/black much more than white/black.
 A completed quilt top. Why was it in there? I know why. I was sewing but not quilting yet. I guess I loved 9-patches even way back then. Since I am so much more skilled now I can see a great pieced border for the simple center of this quilt top. But my points were sharp and clear.
When was this made???
 The infamous 56 qt. container of treasures. I even have some blacks with shades of tan or taupe with matching solids saved with them. Man oh man I am soooo excited with this find!
 Sample fabrics with cardboard headers. My Dear Jane, which will be more of a Baby Jane, is done with fabrics from this card sample. I do have all of the paper pieced blocks made. (62 blocks) But I am afraid to attempt the applique blocks. I have bought silk thread, applique needles, a light box and tons of freezer paper. I have the equiptment but not the skills. The sample is unrolled on the left and there is another one with the stars all rolled up on the right. I made a promise to myself to not mess with these last two sample cards until my Dear Jane is done. I am using Ecology cloth muslin as the background on my Dear Jane. I love this muslin. It has great body and a good thread count.
 Feathers....aren't they gorgeous? I have 2 yards of this fabric.
Here is what I "gleaned" from that 56 qt. container. The very bottom wavy cream fabric I did buy in Shipshewanna 2 years ago. It was not in the container. But it is now! The rest are very old. I am thinking maybe 10 years old!!!!!!!

All of these are pressed and cut and sewn into my second set of clue#3 of the Orca Bay mystery being masterminded by Our Bonnie Hunter of www.quiltville.com

I am well on my way to finishing my red string blocks. I am using all swapped fabric from the quiltvilleswap on Yahoo. I am even trying to keep each packaged strips together in the blocks being made. I have cut some of the strips into thirds...real skinny...and some of them into triangles for the corners.
Darn. I took the picture too soon. I have them trimmed down to 3 1/2" now with their little flat tops. They are so cute!
I think these are fabrics from Jeane A. who was in the swap with a bunch more of us.

Details...I write all this down in a logbook. I also include weather and what I am cooking for special dinners for DH.

We saw the surgeon today and he said we/DH is one of the few lucky ones who get renal cancer. He said he does not get enough patients with great news like this. DH is still a bit down. I guess facing immediate mortality has taken it's toll on my happy go lucky man. We are working on getting his joy of living back. I tried to get him to trim dogears tonight...he is just not interested. And I have to admit that I would freak out if he trimmed too much. HA! OCD again.
XOXOXOXO Subee

10 comments:

Rhonda said...

What a wonderful find. I too am a fabric hoarder I think. Magazines and books too. I've been going through boxes and containers every month to try to thin down more and more as I go. But I just can't seem to get rid of my fabrics. I have two large tubs full of fleece. I figured I better set my mind to make things out of fleece starting in January to get rid of it so I can put cottons in there. LOL

Unknown said...

I confess i'm a fabric hoarder as well. I just can't face throwing anything away. Too many times I have needed something that I 'only just threw away' a short while ago. But your fabrics and blocks are beautiful and how amazing you are doing all this when you have so much going on with your DH. Hope your Christmas is blessed.

Janet O. said...

What a fabric wonderland you must live in! Better than the LQS, I's say! : )

regan said...

Subee....I'm so glad you found all those wonderful fabrics! Yay! And those toiles.....wow! They are fabulous! I've never seen toiles with quilters on them, and you have 2 different prints! Amazing!

And I don't think of it as hoarding.....it's stash building! And every good quilter NEEDS that! lol

Quiltgal said...

Hi I have been reading your blog for a little while now and very much enjoying it. Boy what a great find that beautiful toile and the quilt scene panels. I can;t wait to see what you do with them.

Anonymous said...

I'm living with a disease that 'should' have killed me years ago. It took quite a bit of time for me to get rebalanced to my new reality after the shock of it all. It knocked the wind out of me for a good six months I'd guess (part of that time was the diagnosis process). One good thing is that it made me even more appreciative of everything, especially my loved ones.

Those toiles are amazing. I'm going to try the ecology muslin, been looking for a such a thing, especially for hand piecing. Thanks for the tip.
~Jillian in North Dakota

quiltmom anna said...

what a set of great finds Subee- So glad to hear your husband's health news is positive.
I love your fabrics for your Orca bay quilt. It is going to be a stunner.
Best wishes to you and yours for this festive season,
Regards,
Anna

ql said...

Hi, I've been reading your blog for a bit. I too am nursing DH who had a stroke last December. As these things go, it was mild, but here we are a year later and still recovering. I am so thankful to still have him around and for the wonderful progress he has made. Doing Bonnie's mystery quilt helps get me through the day!

Love your fabric. So organized.

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

Oh fun to look at all your fabric.....well not all! I couldn't believe seeing the large block print! I used to have that and used colored pens to paint the pictures. Gosh, I wonder where those blocks ever went! Black/white prints are something I am starting to save more of.

Suze said...

I'm a bit behind in my blog reading, but you've got some great fabric there. I'm trying not to collect too much fabric, but it is so difficult. My DH was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year and just started radiation. I pray that your DH is feeling better about his diagnosis.