I heart Fabric

There are a lot of people that can say this - I know I'm not alone - but I absolutely love fabric! The texture, the feel, the mood it brings to a room.

About  8 months ago, we got a new-to-us couch - bought it from some friends who were moving - and it came with 2 throw pillows. I love the couch! It's green and kind of a mid-century modern couch - boxy and off the floor (oh how I love that feature! no more losing thing under the couch). The pillows, well, my friend even described them as "beaten up"... The corners are fraying and there are pulls all over the fabric. I needed to re-cover them.

For me, that seemed like an overwhelming task! I have all this access to such beautiful, high-quality fabrics (although I usually keep my eye on the fun kid-themed one) and I have to pick one that I'll look at ALL.THE.TIME!  I wanted something that has energy but isn't too loud for this '80s deco den (wood slats to the chair rail and then this hideous marble-look rose-navy-forest green wallpaper). I didn't want a panel or to quilt it and it must be washable. Oh yeah, and it must feel good if someone wants to take a nap on it! I finally decided on a quilting cotton and purchased this lovely Michael Miller fabric - Hoopla Dot in lagoon - when my favorite fabric seller was having a sale! Today, while the power was flickering, I cut out the pieces for 2 envelope style pillow covers and sewed them up after the kids went to bed. I hope I still like them in 2 weeks!

Next up, making sandwich bags with the remnant like I did for this fabric!

Show Off Your Stash - Link Party!

So one of my favorite fabric suppliers, XO Gigi Fabrics put up a blog post about sharing our work spaces. I, of course, waited until the very last minute. My office is a mess and I'm about to head out of town. So, here's the quickie tour:

My work space - 

multipurpose table: sewing machine, glue mat (brown), cutting mat (teal), glue gun, woodburning tool (to seal ribbon ends), tripod and lamp for product photography

behind the table: my "chair", ribbon, uncut fabrics, shipping supplies, train tracks (for my son's Lionel trains - I keep thinking that I'll get it cleaning up enough so that he can play with then in here), ironing board, craft show totes and that white cabinet is where I put my sewing machine manual and oil and photography prop backgrounds.

in front of the table: lots of supplies including unsorted ribbon, elastic (FOE, lace and skinny), clippies, fabric that's already been cut to size, unsold finished products, note cards, and, um... extra school supplies...

Here's my "stache" of cut fabrics - I need to ramp this up a bit because fabric sandwich bag selling season is coming up quickly!

Seeing this reminds me that I need to place an order - the tub on the bottom is my fabric stash and it's not as full as I like it (overflowing gets me moving!). Most in the tub are 1-2 yards of fabric that I will cut to become cloth sandwich bags. The one on top, Michael Miller's Send in the Crowns in white, is one of my daughter's favorites but I'm afraid to use it on anything because she gets things so dirty! I had put it away for her along with Andover's At the Barre quilt blocks, but I think it's time to get it in the mix! My real stash addiction is ribbon though - it's where my shop started! You can see it organized on top and I need to make another one (bigger/better) of these ribbon racks for the unsorted piles that I tried to hide in the picture of my whole office!

So, that's my stash!