I need Monk!

How can I loose 2 yards of Kona orange! ?!  It is somewhere though not were the rest of my fabric is!  I don't know if I ever told the tale of the etsy store that messed up my order.  This past October I ordered a scrap bag from a now defunct fabric store.  I also ordered a yard of orange Kona at a special price.  Well 2 weeks go by and I get the orange but no scrap bag.  So I convo'd with the store and and realized she sent me two yards of the orange.  Well I wanted my scrap bag and the invoice was correct. So finally they said they would send it to me.  And then nothing for a month.  I convo'd nothing.  I checked the feedback and saw a lot of negative feedback and orders paid for but not received.  It was getting close to the limit for filing a claim so I left negative feed back on the scrap bag only and filed a claim  I think what was most disturbing was the negative feed back the owner had written on some of the customers.  Very mean spirited and a little paranoid and ranting.  I waited until the last minute to file a paypal claim as well.  I wanted to give the person every opportunity to make it right.  It was only around $6 but it was an order not filled.  Do you know you can loose your etsy privileges if you don't handle complaints?  And Paypal will strip you of your account!  Believe it or not I did get a refund through paypal at the very last minute.  I had the convo as my proof and the invoice. So I closed my etsy claim.  That will teach me to order from a store I don't know through the blogs or flickr.  Though I did check the original feedback before I ordered and it was 99%.  

Todaythere was an awesome sale at Karen Gray's.  She carries Westminster fabrics.  She had her $6 wall fabrics (older lines) $4.95 a yard!  Christmas fabrics $3.95!  rayons $9.95!   Valorie Wells linens and decorator fabrics $13.95.  fat quarters $2.30!  books 1/2 price kits 1/2 price!  It was an awesome sale!  Between  my etsy sale money I bought some fabrics to fill in some color needs.  

I also spent the day rearranging my studio.  I needed to put my BL Sofia desk behind my big desk so I could just swivel and do my embroidery.  If I need to machine quilt I will move it to the big desk for more room.  I also made things less cluttered looking.  I hate clutter and  it was getting on my nerves.  Dad would be proud that I hung the green shelf all by myself. I put my sewing notions and box collections from various relatives on it.  I also found the perfect place to hang my Victorian clothes dryer.  And if you look in the picture below you see a round object under the shelf.  That ia a cleat plastic sewing box.  I have my wooden spools in it.  I figured out how to put it on the wall.  I used packing tape to hold it closed and a nail with no head which fit in one of the spool holder holes.  Yeah!  I also reorgainzed my thread and embroidery threads.

Ok so I am tired and rambling.  Good night!

Keep dreaming...Colleen

Have you seen DS Quilts new Aunt Edna at Joann's?  Lucious!

Finishes and babies!

If you haven't entered my giveaway go here.

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

First the babies!

 I want to welcome my new cousins!  My cousin Betsy and her husband Andrew welcomed their son Jeffery Andrew on Thursday Evening.

  He weighed 8lbs. 7oz. 

Then today Betsy's brother Brent and his wife Aubrey welcomed their daughter Taylor Grace weighing in at 8lbs. 8oz. (no picture yet)

 Congratulations Aunt Emily and Uncle Max, now Grandma and Grandpa!

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Now the finishes.

I am involved in the Scrappy Halloween Mug Rug swap on flickr.  My secret partner likes to decorate for Halloween.  So I pulled out all of my Halloween fabrics.

I didn't realize how many I had.  Many were from my 90's stash.

Her is the front.  I raw edge appliqued everything down. 

(the colors are not right)

I put a cool haunted house print on the back...

with my label on the back

* * * * * * * * * * *

I finished the last of the little purses I made to sell at Flaunt!

Keep dreaming...Colleen



Don't you just love the fair?  Hello Kitty pumpkin!





The winner is...

Just a quick blog to let you know the winner of my 90's Stash giveaway, pinks and reds...

 and an Egyptian print...

#31 Linda of Stray Stitches!!!  Yeah!!!

She said

I included your giveaway in my post today:

http://straystitches1.blogspot.com/2011/02/few-stitches.html

 

I'm so excited she won, she deserved to!

 

BTW some of the commenters had their blogs set to No-Reply.  I actually drew another name first but she was set to no-reply.  See this tutorial at Pleasant Home to fix this problem.

  One last thing, I compiled the list of fabric lines commented on in this graph.

As I said to one commenter, "Yummy!  So many lines...so little time $$."

Keep dreaming...Colleen



Old house right next to the old windy country road.



Grandma's House Treasures

My Jacobus, PA grandma died a number of years ago. She had lived with Alzheimer's for a decade in a special wing at a nursing home.  When she went to the nursing home the family cleaned out her home of more then 45 years.  She never threw anything away.  We found toys from her six children, clippings of weddings and funerals, letters, and in the basement old ketchup bottles from when people made their own ketchup.  I was just getting into sewing and quilting and so looked for fabric, sewing items, and other miscellaneous trinkets.  Some of the things I acquired included all of the buttons I recently sorted into old assorted Kerr, Mason, and Ball canning jars.

In a previous post I mentioned fabric sample cards -

 well my grandpa also brought home button sample cards.  I found about 16 full with some doubles and some that had many of the buttons already cut off.   I left the full cards as they are and removed the buttons from the  cut up cards(they were all double anyway).

I was good at finding odds and ends in small tins and nooks and crannies of various drawers.  Treasures like old jewelry, game pieces, a Kennedy button, cracker jack toys, and  these stylish belt buckles

I loved finding special handmade items like these Sun Bonnet Sue needle cases and miscellaneous crocheted items .

Also a vintage fabric apron that is back in style today. 

 I recently found a great pattern for one at Stash Manicure.

In my hunting I found some items of historical significance including this armband and pin from World War II.  My grandfather was an air raid warden before he went into the army.

 

And from a later era are these head bands and peace belt-guess what decade?

I especially love these very small belts from my mother's nurse uniform when she was a student at Polytechnic.  She had such a tiny waist!

These are just some of the treasures I found when we cleaned out my grandma's home.  What was the most meaningful to a then young beginning quilter were 13 quilt blocks made by my grandma.  They were simply appliqued cat and dog blocks, outlined and detailed with embroidery.  She made quilts for the second generation of grandkids using these blocks.  What I love is the fabrics she used-from those sample cards for the cats and dogs and old pieced sheets for the background.  She was a true scrap quilter.

Keep dreaming,

:o) Colleen

Fabric stash dilemma

So I unloaded bins and the shelf in my closet and put my entire stash on my new cutting table. 

But then I was left with the dilemma of how to fold and better store all of this fabric.  So I did a little research and found Polar Notions mini bolt boards.

This seemed the perfect solution but on my budget it was not an option.  Then someone online suggested using comic boards.  So I went to my local comic book store and picked up a pack of 100 for around $7.  They come in slightly different sizes and are archival quality with either one or both sides coated.

First I like to fold fabric in half twice based on the longer width.  If the fabric more then 2 yards you may need to fold additional times to get it into a manageable length.

I then fold over about 3 inches of fabric and slide the board into the fold of the fabric.

Then fold the board over and over until you have all of the fabric wrapped securely.

Polar Notions sells a clip to hold the fabric in place.  I didn't use anything.  I really like how well in holds the fabric and how neat it makes the shelves. 

 

Now all I have to do is finish the rest of my stash...sigh*

Keep Dreaming...:o) Colleen

Remembering the past

I read a blog post the other day at Retro-Fabulous talking about discovering the quilters in our family. It brought back my first memories of quilt making. My Grandmother who lived in Jacobus, PA made me a quilt when I was 3 years old about 1972. It was not made with all 100% cotton material but from mostly polyester blends. (shown with back folded to front)

Don't you just love those 60's/70's fabrics? I love this quilt because it is heavy, warm and I like to snuggle with it on vacation or camping. What is neat is where my Grandma got the fabrics. My Grandfather was a buyer for Parr's Department Store in York, PA. He traveled ironically to places like Winston-Salem(near where I live now) and brought back all of the fabric sample cards. If you don't know what a sample card is check these out.

She made all of her quilts using fabric from these sample cards. She would cut up sheets for sashing on later quilts where she used the plaid fabrics to applique cats and dogs on white backgrounds. I would post a picture but with the reno I cant get to the last of her blocks I have tucked away. Later when I was ten or eleven she made me another quilt using all of the plaid shirt material cards.

I also still use this quilt today and usually have it under my comforter in the winter. One other experience that I remember happened when I was about 9 or 10. My great aunt Mildred had asked my Mom and her siblings(she is one of six) to come to her apartment in Jacobus, PA . I remember in her second bedroom she had quilts in very traditional patterns spread out on the bed. My mother got to choose one to keep as did her siblings.

Well I have to get back to work on cleaning out and organizing the craft/quilt studio.

Keep dreaming...

:o)Colleen