Desperate Fabric Search

So, after browsing countless online stores, all my local stores and even approaching some quilters I know around here, I am wondering:

Have any of you ever come across quilt fabrics that have the following on them:

• cheese (I'm envisioning yellow cheese blocks with holes, but at this point anything goes)

• books - e.g. a row of book spines or open books with text

• tropical beaches - I want something with blue water, sand, a palm tree, maybe a beach chair or towel. Around here, all I get are temperate beaches with lighthouses. It has to be tropical though. I've come across a couple of prints online but didn't like the style very much.

• a dancing couple (preferably in South American dress, e.g. tango style)

• yellow or red tulips (I thought this one would be easy, but so far I've found every other flower on the planet but tulips)

• windmills (the old style ones, not energy generating ones)

• divers - with SCUBA tank, snorkel, fins, swimming under water would be nice but not necessary.

If you know where I could buy any of these and could let me know I'd be very very grateful.

Also, if any of you have a piece of suitable fabric, I would love to swap them - maybe I have some fabric that you would like? I only need a small piece (depends on the scale of the print) thanks to the quilt pattern I'm making (based on this quilt). So maybe anything from 5x5" to 7x7" (for larger prints).

I'm starting to be desperate as I'm missing some of the main themes for the character quilt and would like to get started. My friend is planning on moving across the Atlantic this year and it would be a wonderful going-away gift.

Haha, I just realized that it's pretty mean of me to ask for help right AFTER I blog about how generous and helpful quilters are *grins*. I guess Ginny's generosity gave me the idea, really, that I might be able to find and trade some of these difficult-to-get fabrics.

I hope that someone out there has a patch of those fabrics left and would like to trade!!!!

I'm already envisioning how awesome a quilt would be that has such a story of a quest and outside-help behind it; a quilt where I can say: "This fabric came from XY in Connecticut, and this one from Ontario, and this one from France." Ah, just day-dreaming!

The Kindness of Fellow Quilters

Ginny had a photo of a piece of fabric on her blog that was just perfect for the character quilt: coffee fabric

After I left a comment on her blog, she offered to send me some pieces of the fabric, that she could spare. They just arrived in the mail and they're perfect!

Quilters are just so generous!

Thanks Ginny!

Let The Game Begin (Soccer Quilt)

Put the last stitch into the binding last night!

The bouncy strips came out a bit faint, so I might sew over them a bit more to fill in the strip
Very multi-coloured binding. See the piece of blue heavy construction-zone fabric from the Vampire Quilt?

Piecing Progress (Spring Quilt)

Thanks for all of your lovely comments of motivation for this quilt!

I've strip-pieced as much as I could, though I cut some strips lengthwise off the bolt, so I can't strip-piece, but otherwise I would have needed more material than I have... It'll be okay, just a bit more stopping and starting on the machine :)

Here are some of the yellow/oranges I picked:

I had an involuntary break from quilting yesterday, because my machine had started making a weird clicking sound inside the machine near the stitch length regulator. I took it to the shop, but the repair guy had no clue what it was, he took everything apart, oiled it up a bit, put it back together and said it's nothing to worry about. But it still doesn't sound nice, so I'll do some investigating what it might be...

Spring Quilt Is A Go!

I took the plunge and cut out the pieces for one block to get a feeling of what it will look like:


I liked the result, but decided to sew the block together to make sure that I didn't mis-calculate a strip size somwhere.


Luckily, it all worked out, so now I'm in the process of cutting all the strips for the quilt and get busy on welcoming spring!

Squares and Oblongs

Another quilt in the planning/soon-to-be-started phase is the Spring Squares & Oblongs quilt. It's also from a block featured on Marcia Hohn's site The Quilter's Cache, and again, I just noticed now that she gives instructions. Too late yet again :)

The only difference in my planning here is that I'll be strip-piecing and that my blocks will be 16" instead of 12".

I played around with some colours, which is always my greatest challenge in making a quilt, as it's the only step (apart from designing a pattern variation and quilting patterns) that requires creativity and can't be undone if it turns out ugly. Well, it can, but that'd be a HUGE waste of time and effort.

I like the blue-green leafy fabric tying the other colours together. I bought it at a quilt show and have been wondering ever since what I could possibly use it for... I matched the green and turquoise/blue, and once again opted for a non-pure-white variation: muslin. I had first envisioned a gradient of greens or similar, going from a dark center to a light outside, but the fabrics in my stash didn't really work for that. I was also missing a bit of a kick in the block, with just blue-green-white as colour scheme, so I played around with some orange-yellow colours, and that really gave it a boost. I didn't want to use the same fabric throughout, so I've scooped out 9 different yellow-oranges that'll be the center on the different (30) blocks. I think I can picture that in my head and like the final product. And because all the colours are so fresh, I'm calling it my Spring Quilt. Here are just three examples of the different centers, and I'll decide later if I'll use the second fabric, as it doesn't pop as much as the others (which might be nice in the final quilt, we'll see...).


Finally, I have to admit that I find it very difficult to start a quilt, i.e. make the first cut. I usually buy fabrics I like, so if I use them up, I won't have them any more if I really want to use them for another quilt. It's a dilemma, and probably explains why I hoard and never use. That has to change though, because I tallied up how many meters of fabric I've bought since September, and I'm approaching 300m. Someone else can figure out how many quilts I could make from that ;)

Cheerios and thanks for visiting my blog!!! I appreciate all your comments!

Snow Day Fabric Shopping

Spring has come and gone, Winter has returned. After a 10 C degree, sunny weekend, we were pounded by 30 cm of snow yesterday. It never stops, apparently... at least not in Canada.


It was a short day at work, thanks to the storm, so I spent the extra time - what else... - fabric shopping. I've started a little design book and doodled around with ideas for quilts. Now I'm motivated to get going on some new patterns, as well as finishing the disaster quilt and the oriental quilt.

** NEED SOME ADVICE!! ***

In fact, I have a question about the oriental quilt. The only thing missing is some applique pieces on the quilt top sashing. Is the general way to applique before or after quilting? I will probably stipple the quilt, unless I go for a straight line design, and am wondering if it's easier to quilt first, then applique, because that way the quilting won't be interrupted by the applique (i.e. it will disappear below it instead of going around it). Any ideas?

Anyway, the fabrics I bought are mostly solids as I am planning a bento box quilt like this one, and also feel inspired to copy this quilt from a quilt-along on Elizabeth's blog Oh, Fransson!

The solids are coarse, because they're pure cotton sheeting, but I like them as backing or for a heavy-fabric quilt.

I think I'd like to use this ones as the solid colour in the quilt-along quilt - I like Elizabeth's colour scheme so much, that I will reproduce it instead of choosing new colours. From looking at her other variations of that quilt, I will probably make the quilt at least twice! I like to make quilts that don't have the same pattern throughout, though there are many gorgeous ones out there.

I also found one black and white fabric I liked. I could kick myself now, because I've often walked by nice b/w fabrics because I didn't think I'd ever use them, too much contrast for me, but now I wish I had bought just 1/4 m of each...


Along with the other solids I bought and already had, I'm getting quite a decent collection:


I have a quilt planned for the four colours below:
It's based on a block I've seen on The Quilter's Cache website, called Crossed Road to Oklahoma. When I just looked the site to cite it here, I realized that Marcia Hohn provides the pattern. Oh well, I had fun spending a couple of hours last night figuring out how big I want to have my finished blocks be and how I'd do the pattern. I will actually do it slightly differently from Marcia's instructions. As you can see, I'm pretty much following her colour scheme, except with solids and beige instead of white. I may still substitute a pattern for one or two of the fabrics, if I have enough.


Oh, I also found another fabric for my friend's character quilt: Wine


And then I bought a few fabrics that will be nice for binding or in a baby quilt (the dots), and borders on quilts like these ones.