Hawaiian Souvenir Fabric

The recent visit to Oahu featured lots of typical tourist activity: hotel luau, pineapple plantation tour, beach time, and souvenir shopping!

A top recommended souvenir shopping location is the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet, which features hundreds of vendors, both the imported mass-produced variety and handcrafted local artisan fare.  Hawaiian print fabric was seen everywhere.  I picked up some off-cuts of fabric from a booth with aprons, hats, bags and potholders.  It made me happy to find bundles of Hawaiian print scraps, but I really had no idea what to expect inside each one.

The squares were about 3 1/2", so not quite charm size.  Each fabric appeared about a dozen times, and there were 20 different fabrics.  They were all heavier home-dec weight.  I was able to make a bundle of fabric squares for each of my co-workers at the shop.  I hope they like working with scraps as much as I do.

The oblong bundle contained similar fabrics as the squares, but in varying quantities.  Each print appears in several colorways, plus maybe a dozen different black-and-white prints.  I'm envisioning a patchwork tote bag, maybe an oven mitt, and definitely a microwave bowl cozy (I like this tutorial from Happy Hour Stitches)

I got to escape touristy Waikiki and go to a fabric store at one point, and I might've gone a little nuts.  Fabric Mart has 4 retail locations and specializes in all things Hawaiian print: apparel, home dec, quilting and batiks.

My favorite purchase: 3 1/2 yards of black rayon with a large chrysanthemum print.  Although the flowers are large, their placement in vertical rows with plenty of surrounding black background means that I can envision this looking pretty and formal, given the right silhouette.

Two other rayons and a barkcloth, all with classic Hawaiian floral motifs.  The rainbow floral in the center will be a challenge, but the blue & green prints seem more wearable--Hawaiian print shirts, anyone?

Finally, some bargain fabrics.  The red and pink were each less than $5 per yard.  I will use one of them as a bag lining, and maybe make a pop-up basket from the other.

Whew!  Twelve yards of fabric--but someone in one of my fabric stashbusting groups said that souvenir fabrics don't count.  Don't you agree?

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

The Opposite of De-Stash

Quilting Treasures panel - sewed up!

Sunday Stash folks, I'm here to celebrate an entire month's worth of wanton abandon.
Stashbusting Sewalong folks, this post is me confessing a bout of weakness.

You see, there was this sale...

It was a month-long sale at the shop.  Kind of a gimmick-y thing, we called it Treasure Hunt.  The idea was to clear out some of the older fabrics in the shop, by discounting them based on the year they came in the door.  (For example, a 2005 fabric would be $5 per yard, a 2008 fabric would be $8, etc.)  Are you seeing the potential here???

As an employee, I can always get my discount, so I usually am not swayed by the monthly sales.  But this sale: some of the senior citizen bargain fabrics were priced below my available discount.  And, unfair advantage, I know where the older fabrics are sprinkled around the shop.  (I deliberately waited until late in the month for most of my purchases--gave other shoppers first dibs on saving $$$.)

Batik assortment, 2005 - 2009 fabrics.  I have a charm pack of very light creams to pair with some/all of these.

Two different Minky fabrics (sock monkeys!) to become backings (2013); funky Madras Patch from Michael Miller, and a Marcus Fabrics stripe from the 50% off table.

I hit the Asian section: the fabric on top of the pile, while 100% cotton, has the most amazing texture.  Gonna make a casual jacket out of it.  Below that, a 2005 Lecien Japanese plaid, and a 2009 Etsuko Furuya Echino (45% linen, 55% cotton) in electric fuchsia.

Last shopping day before Thanksgiving, and I bought enough Asian fabrics for a whole quilt, including backing and binding.  Top left corner is Robert Kaufman Asian Traditions (the chrysanthemums), Robert Kaufman Beau Monde, and Fresco from Free Spirit/Westminster.  The remaining fabrics are much older; some go back as far as 2004.  The Alexander Henry print in the bottom right corner is from 2009, I think.  I have this one all planned out, with the pattern.  Maybe I'll get to it in January!

I'm not counting yardage here, since my efforts to keep count all year have been woeful.  Suffice it to say that my stash has grown; BUT almost everything this month was purchased with a project in mind (or even in the works).

Since buying fabric makes me happy, I'm joining in with the other happy, thankful souls at Sunday Stash, hosted by the ever-fabulous Molli Sparkles, and showing off my stuff.

Sneaky Scraps

Scraps can be pesky--always underfoot, multiplying with abandon (despite your best efforts to eradicate them), mocking you from the safety of their bins and baskets.

One particularly intrepid band of scraps found its way under my sewing machine's needle this past week and demanded I stitch them up.  Cheeky bastards!

These particular scraps were given to me by my stitch-n-bitch friend Pam, after she completed a 1930's quilt for her daughter.  I spent some mental energy in January coming up with a plan for sewing them together, but put them aside as a project for later.

Apparently, *later* is now.

Love those 1930's prints. Sigh.

Made 25 simple 16-patch blocks.  Woop, zoop, sloop!

And, since Monday is vacuuming day and the rugs are all clean, I hadta lay out a few of them to see how they might look with a stash fabric in alternating blocks.

Hard to see, but the stash fabric is actually a very light, small-scale yellow stripe.  Since the only thing I made from it was a couple of baby bibs (and my youngest child is now 22), I'd say it has been in my stash long enough.

Mmmhmm, those sneaky scraps have done it: blindfolded me and made me start another quilt.


What am I to do?  I am helpless in the face of such a coordinated assault...


Linking up with Oh Scrap! hosted each week by Cynthia over at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.

Check out some of the inspired scrap-work that's going on over there!

We interrupt the crochet interruption...

Shunted aside already? But I just started...

...to Knit!

Went with my lovely sister and two of her very passionate knitting friends to the Rose City Yarn Crawl--like a (quilt) Shop Hop, but for the fiber-obsessed.  Fifteen shops on this route, all in the greater Portland area.

I stood firm: no need for yarn, thank you.  My plate is full (more than full, actually).  My stash overfloweth, and I recently culled my yarn supplies down to a very minute amount--an amount I might actually be able to use up on reality-based projects.  (You know, projects you can see yourself finishing.  For reals.)

Fabriholic? Poseur with the yarn enthusiasts

I succumbed.
Saw a cute pattern from ArgentGal Designs, and I was a lost cause.

(New stash: Cascade Yarns Superwash Paints in Rainbow Sherbert [discontinued, I believe]; Euro Yarns Orion, a fantasy in gold and sequins; Plymouth Yarns Encore Mega in color 0692)

Ended up buying two patterns, getting a free cowl pattern, and adding to my yarn stash.  Although I showed restraint.  All purchased yarns have a known pattern to nestle themselves next to.

Arrived home from the Yarn Crawl and got my knit on.

Ta-Da!

Gotta love a super bulky yarn--size 15 needles, a few romantic comedies on the dvr, a few YouTube videos on the knitting increase stitches I didn't know how to do (LIL? LIR? how many different kinds of increases are there?)

Impetuous! neck ruff from ArgentGal Designs

Couldn't quite get it to stand up like the photo on the pattern showed, but it's a cute design.

I chose the Encore Mega yarn because of its indefinable color--is is mustard? is it chartreuse?  I held up the skein in several different light sources in the store before purchasing it.  I am nothing if not unique, and a seeker of the eternally odd.

Gonna make this pattern again as a gift.  Next time I want to incorporate some of the wacky Orion novelty gold in the rows towards the ends.


Thanks, sis!

Help me out, fellow stitchers: Is there a website equivalent to Ravelry for quilters?  How about an online site for garment sewists?  I thought maybe Pattern Review (for garment sewists) might be kinda similar to Ravelry, but I don't think it's as universally used, and I don't see a place to keep track of your fabric or notions stash, just your patterns.  And I know of no unifying web community for quilters--are we just too diverse to all line up in one corner of the Interwebs?  The folks on the yarn crawl seemed to all be big Ravelry users...

Linking up with the always-fabulous Molli Sparkles for Sunday stash.  I am going to have to give an accounting of all my 2015 acquisitions soon, since one of my goals was to use up a (cough) significant (sputter) amount (ahem) of my stash this year.  Oh dear; day of reckoning ahead...


Finally, for your viewing pleasure: yarn bombing, flamingo-style.  This photo taken at Wool 'N Wares Yarn Shop, the site of a festive flocking in honor of yarn crawl weekend.

Bright Sky Quilt Along

Grr... I bought (another) pattern.

Just when I thought I had talked myself out of leaping into sewing a new garment, and steeled myself against rashly cutting into fabric before I got around to finishing something, I went out and bought another new pattern.

This time for a quilt: Bright Sky, by Blossom Heart Quilts.

Pro's

• The quilt pattern is sold on Craftsy by an Indie designer, so I am supporting an artist and her small business.
• The pattern uses large-scale prints, of which I have several already in my stash (see photo for a sample).
• The pattern uses large cuts of fabric, so will (theoretically) be quick to make.
• There is a quilt-along going on right now, so if I choose to start, I can join in with others online (this has actually been good motivation for me in the past).

A few of my lingering as-yet-unloved fabrics

Con's

• I have not finished last year's "leap-right-in-this-minute" sew along that I joined.
• I also have not finished the last project that I bought the book for after seeing it online and succumbing to the "must have it now" demons whispering in my ears.
• I don't have a recipient or intended use for this quilt.
• The primary large-scale print that I want to use up (see top left corner of the fabric collage) has a cream background, and I am not currently enamored of the cream.
• Stash-busting: do my large-scale prints play well together?  Even a few of them?
• Christmas is coming, so I should be focusing on finishing some things in that direction.

Regardless of the Pro's and Con's, I bought the pattern.  It's very different from what I usually make (my norm: tiny piecing, often from scraps vs. large cuts).  It will sit in time-out until I complete something and take some deep breaths.

Meanwhile, you can check out the Quilt Along for this pattern and its associated excitement.  I'll just be finishing up some WIPs over here in the corner...