Miniature Storm at Sea

Storm at Sea is one of my favorite quilt patterns. This is my miniature version with batik turquoises and teals and cream. Even though all of the piecing is straight seams, it gives a curved effect.

The cream fabric has a subtle text print that made me think of on old navigation map. I imagined making this while on a ship going across the ocean. So it called for hand quilting. This is 19" x 19".

Happiness is... an organized fabric stash

Yes indeed, happiness is... an organized fabric stash!

After I had organized my kitchen towels I realized it was time to organize my fabric stash a little better. I already had the general color groupings, but I went through and refolded everything and got rid of any fabrics that weren't zinging for me any longer. I took them to the Quilters Anonymous Guild meeting where there is a fabric donation table that all members bring in scraps of any kind and other members may find just what they were looking for. 

Once you can see everything at a glance its fun to see which colors you are drawn too and may need to fill in ;) I have my fabric strips organized in bins which makes it super easy to pull out for projects and the crazy quilts. 

 

 And of course there is the big basket for all the little scraps!

 Always treasures to pull out that are just right for making the scrappy zipper bags and little art quilts.

Kitchen Towels

I started wondering why I have so many kitchen towels until I pulled them all out of the cupboard to get them organized and stacked up better. Well take a look at these stacks....hmmm they look at a lot like a fabric stash!

I tend to buy 100% cotton towels but I also like the 50/50 cotton/linen towels. Here are some of my retro towels.

I really like the calendar fabrics on Spoonflower. If you order a fat quarter it is the perfect size to sew into a kitchen towel. Here is a previous post of the 2015 kitchen towels. Spoonflower is running their 2 for 1 fat quarter special until November 12, 2015 so I just ordered some 2016 calendar towel fabrics. So may great designs and colors.
 
I figure you can never have too many dish towels since they do wear out at some point. They also can be cut up for quilt projects later even if there are stains you can cut around them.

Dia de los Muertos - latest in series

I didn't get this posted quite in time for Dia de los Muertos, but here is my latest art quilt in this series.

 

  I must say I love her bow!

 

This is made with cotton fabrics, ribbon, fabric paints, and embroidery. It is 16" x 18"
Check out some from my previous post link here.