Recent Splurges

You may have read here that I resolved to buy a new sewing machine by the end of February. I’ve been meaning to do it but I always get scared to commit. My mom offered to pay for most of it, so it wasn’t even a money issue.  Well, today I got off my duff and went over to the Bernina store. And now I own an Activa 220! Well, actually they had to order it for me, but in a week or two I will. I’m very excited. I pretty much knew that’s what I wanted (especially when I saw the price tag on the Patchwork Edition, yikes!) — I have sewn on my  mom’s and it has SO much more control than my Singer. Yippee. One resolution down. I’m also going to take their free guide classes and I get to be a member of the Bernina club (ooh, a club!) for a year, which means a free class every month where I can learn something new on my machine. With Bernina, you really are paying for service– and I think it’s so great that they offer the classes, because what good are all of the functions if I don’t know how to use them? Yay!

In other much less expensive splurginess, I wanted to show off some of the fabric I bought before and over the holidays. I almost NEVER buy fabric, because I feel like I already have some slated for projects that were not completed, I get it free for work projects, etc. But, since I have been so obsessed with patchwork lately, I thought a few small amounts in colors I needed to fill out my stash were in order. Doing the patchwork swap was really fun because I realized sometimes you really only need a scrap of something to make a layout work. 

 

Here are some 1/2 yards I found after looking long and hard at Joann’s. The woman cutting them kept commenting on how “different” they were.

 

Here are some FQs I purchased in San Antonio. I liked the way this quilt shop had their shelves set up– there was a mini shelf under each fabric bolt shelf with all available FQs of those fabrics. That makes a lot of sense to me.

 

And here are some amazing flannels, from a different quilt shop in San Antonio. I have never seen flannels like this and I had to hold myself back.

The cool thing about  new fabric is that sometimes it makes your old fabric look better. I was going to make a project with the flannels but I ended up using just a sliver of the yellow- everything else was from my stash.  (I’ll show it off next week). I’m trying to be  more conscious of what colors I have a lot of, and where I can build up a little. It makes for a more complex patchwork, plus it’s always good to have options.

A New Hat

LuluBeans asked if I had a chance to make anything from the lovely yarn I ordered before the holidays. I started with this gorgeous stuff:

 
And ended up with this:

 

A super simple K1, P1 ribbed hat. The yarn was so pretty that  I didn’t want to do anything complicated, and I knew I’d get more mileage with knitting than crochet.  The project made a perfect plane-ride companion. I may end up adding some type of brim since it’s a little short for Montana winters (I ran out of yarn. Plus, it’s embarrassing to put hats on your head with needles sticking out of them on planes. Not that I didn’t do it anyway– but I find this method less reliable  for determining fit with knitting than crochet).

I love the way handspun yarn looks and feels (especially this, because the vintage fabric spun in keeps it from itching my sensitive skin).  The only hard part about working with handspun is running out, understandably. I think in the future I’ll do a mix of handspun and basic yarn to make it last. I could see it being really pretty as an accent row.  

I’ve been going to bed thinking about all of the things I still need to post. I haven’t even unpacked my suitcase yet, or fully dealt with this:

 

These are just the fun packages- not the bills. Thanks so much to everyone who sent me a card, a little christmas something, and my ornament swappers. There were a couple standouts that I’ll share…just as soon as I get around to it. 

Exciting Announcement!

 

I lied, I’m back already, to give you some exciting news that’s been in the works for weeks. I’m now also posting on the ReproDepot blog to give you lots of fun fabric-related inspiration. I first met Djerba, the store’s owner, at Renegade Craft Fair a few summers ago, but I’ve loved her store for years. Can you believe it’s been open 8 years already?! It’s full of fun fabrics and lots, lots more- I hadn’t full realized till I did a lengthy browse, but she’s now stocking all sorts of patterns, kits, books and notions, too!

I put my first post up today– go check it out!

Giveaway Winners, Buttons & Butte

Whew. Today things have been a little crazy but I’m here, to announce the giveaway winners. The winner of the scraps is Kimberly, who wants to use them to make a quilt for her mother. The softies book goes to Emily (check out her art quilts!), who wants to make softies for her son. Yay! Thanks for playing.

Now, I wanted to share with you a great find I made this weekend. Paul suggested we go on a drive, so I got in the car with just my wallet and the next thing I knew we were in Butte, Montana (home of one of the largest Superfund sites, the Berkely Pit). It was really deserted looking downtown, but beautiful in that gritty, toxic-pit-in-the-distance way. I took lots of photos, here are some of my favorites:

We walked into one really nasty junk shop –it was all JUNK, if not trash–and walked by some other pretty antique stores that were closed. But then we came upon Antiques on Broadway, and Paul found the sewing section for me. There were little baggies of buttons and old machines, all reasonably priced and in good condition. I was deciding what to get when I noticed some notion jars. Behind them were cookie tins. I beckoned Paul to help me lift them down, and as I suspected, they were chock full of buttons!! I only bought one (I have some self control), and I spent the rest of the night cleaning the buttons. First I had to cut off the threads and disintegrating backing fabric on about half of them, because I think someone had cut them right off of their clothing. Then I oxycleaned the whole bunch. A lot of them were pearl and some kind of heavy shell, and they looked much better after the wash. Here are the ones that made me really excited, along with a cute textured doily I also purchased.

In addition to that, there were all of these:

And there were also random things, including: a bullet, a tax token, a very old safety pin, a second commandment charm, upholstery tacks, etc.  Butte is probably the kind of town where this stuff is still in people’s houses, and if it was up to me, I’d drive back every weekend to get some more of it!