Who wants a fun fat quarter pack??

Just drop me a little comment and I’ll have the ol’ random number generator pick a winner on Thursday the 20th! I’m happy to ship internationally. Good luck!

And be sure to check out all of the other giveaways here.  There are loads of chances to win great stuff!

Happy Monday!

Yeah, rough, right??  My twin sister, Cate, recently went for a three week visit. The country is amazingly beautiful. A good portion of it is a natural reserve and so she saw things like this:

Not to mention the jungle goes right up to the ocean so you see animals enjoying the surf.

But on to what we all really care about… fabric! My sisters were kind enough to gather a number of yards for their fabric addicted sister. It’s all so beautiful and inspirational!

Some that I think will have to be whole cloth quilts. I can’t cut into the amazing large scale designs.

Some home dec. weight:

Some great repeats:

And check out the selvedges:

I have done a bit of reading on how to lock inks in fabric but if any of you have any tips I’m all ears! Definitely going to be going against my usual no prewashing laziness with these. I want them to last and the colors to hold so please do comment if you’ve got suggestions!

These are some of my scraps. Some are big and some are small. Drop me a comment with your two or three favorite colors (I would advise you stay clear of purple as I have no purple scraps!) and if you’re the winner I’ll put together a nice big bundle of scraps in those colors!

I’ll pick a winner on Monday morning. Good luck!

But I guess that the gray dots were on the brain because I’ve started a new quilt with them.  First I pulled all of the basics that I currently can’t get enough of:

I love a rainbow!  Notice the 100% lack of purple.  That’s not because I chose to leave it out.  That’s because I have zero.  Absolutely none.  And you know what, I’m not sure that I mind so much. Anyhow, some editing was in order so I came up with this.

And a bad photo of the very very beginnings of the next quilt:

I’m thinking that including gray solid is in order. We’ll see what it becomes…

Love,  Alissa

A commission that will have no white included! I’m so excited to be pushed out of my comfort zone with this fabric and quilt. Can’t wait to get started.

Today is my last day on the most recent job… Oh beloved sewing machine – we are soon to be together again!

Happy weekend to you all!

Yes, I have finally moved on from the tri-colored random bits of felt! If you don’t have one of these, I can’t recommend it enough. I use a piece of batting thumb tacked to the wall. Simple and transformative for your design process… At least for me it was.

- Wished I had a friend having a baby boy so that I could use these fabrics for a quilt.

Maybe I’ll make one even though I don’t. I’m liking these primary colors right now.

- And of course, I worked on quilting The Beast.

I’m never pebble quilting a queen sized quilt again. Never. Ever. Again. I’m sure the pay off will be great but good god it’s taking freakin’ FOREVER! One more session that’s a couple of hours long and I should be done though. I’ll be happy to have this quilt behind me.

Wishing you all a great short work week!

Yes. I hang my head in messy stash shame.

But NOW…!

There’s even room to grow! Had to lose a small table to fit the new book shelves in, but it’s definitely worth it.    And after I did all of that… I sewed!

I had a great time, but I have to say… we modern quilters are just not in the least represented there. At least not in what’s for sale… 450 booths and I spotted ONE YARD of Heather Ross. IN THE WHOLE PLACE! And it was HUGE.

Forgive the lousy photo but you’re looking at a convention center full of fabric – with only one yard of Heather Ross mixed in.

What do you all think? Do they not know we exist? Do we not go to these events enough for it to be financially worth it to vendors who do sell our style of stuff? This is an interesting topic for me seeing as clearly we are the next generation of quilters. Why aren’t they trying to appeal to us more? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

But I shouldn’t complain because I still scored with the loot and had a blast digging through all the bins and bins and bins of fabric! I got a lot that I’ve never seen before. There are pros to being exposed to the enormous quilting world you don’t know (read: the non-internet based one!).  And there were deals to be had… prices varied a lot, but overall, after searching through the place forever, I found some beautiful stuff.

Fat quarters:

Yup! A bit of Flea Market Fancy!

The half yard and up bits:

The red Mingle was the only colorway I didn’t have and wanted.  And while you would think the fabric crazed ladies would be fighting me for it at $7.00 a yard… nope!  That was one of the good things about no one else in the place having my taste!

And I mean lil’ cowboys?!? How could I not…

Aside from the frenzied fabric shopping, there were some really beautiful quilts on display. Mostly very traditional, but also some that weren’t at all. I apologize for these horrid photos but I just had my little not so great camera… I linked to the artist’s site if I could find one.

Castle Wall by Trudy Kleinstein. My close ups of this came out fuzzy (found one here) but every tiny little “stone” you see is appliqued on there!! Amazing!

Leaves of Grass by Betty Amador – One of the handful of improv. pieced quilts.

Hospital Rising by Ginny Eckley

Red Owls by Karen Peirce

Overall I had a great time, but it sure did make me feel like they don’t know that all of us modern quilters are out here… Here’s hopin’ that changes soon!

And amazingly generous friends!

Elizabeth sent me some Heather Ross fabrics for no reason other than that she’s just so so nice!!

And the last thing that makes me happy?  Friday! It’s Friday!  Today is my last day on my latest job (I’m freelance) and I feel like school’s out for summer! Wheee! Hope that you all have wonderful weekends!