I didn’t buy any fabric at all on my trip. But I DID do some more shoppin’ on my computer and this turned up!

Yes – I do realize that I used to blog about sewing and not just show you stacks of pretty fabric. Sorry about that.  It will change soon!

Ribbit.

Meanwhile, I had joined in on Chaletgirl’s vintage sheet swap and check out what I got back. I scored!

I can’t wait to sew tons of quilts with all of this new fabric!

I can buy fabric!

Pretty, right??

Oh and there’s a killer giveaway going on over at See Katie Sew. Go check it out!

All these stash posts over at Sew, Mama, Sew! had me ashamed.

That’s right! I’m putting a face to the messy fabric out there!!  You’re out there too, right? I feel like we see so many photos of beautiful stashes, but that can’t be how it is for everyone…  All of us are creative types, aren’t we supposed to be messy??   Right?  Please – help me out here.  You all have messy stashes sometimes too right??

I’m not a naturally tidy person. I’m just not. It’s always a struggle for me to keep my things in order. That said, I’d let my stash get completely out of hand over the past couple of months. I’m embarrassed about it, but this is the state it had gotten into…

And that’s AFTER I gathered it all one place for the photo. Can you believe that the last time I thoroughly organized my stash it ALL fit in that tan bin in the upper right of the photo??  Yeah. That was a long time ago…

I read this incredibly inspirational post by Elizabeth and that was that. I HAD to do something about the horrific state of affairs.

First, a good sorting and refolding lead me to this.

Then a trip to Ikea later and I had this!

Yay! If you click through to Flickr on the photo you can see my notes of what it all is but basically, going clockwise… the basket is my scraps (for me they are very small), the clear bins are less than a yard, sorted by color.   Then there’s my home dec. weight fabric & quilting weight solids, and lastly in the original tan bin, my cuts of a yard or more.

Clearly this isn’t where it all lives in my sewing room, but the shelf it all goes on is tall and deep. There’s no good way to get a photo of it all when it’s put away.  Now I am organized!  Let’s just see how long I can keep it this way…

Been putting the many Christmas gift cards to very good use!! Oh how my family knows me and treats me well!

Some stash building:

Bought up a bunch of Katie Jump Rope with a focus on the fabrics that work so well for man & boy quilts.  I can find florals I love anywhere, but non-girly modern polka dots and plaids?  Much harder!   Otherwise everything in here was 50% off or simply a fabric that I have found I use all the time and I figured I’d snag another yard. Gift cards!  Why NOT spend every penny of them THIS SECOND??

And some new fabrics!

I love these robots like crazy for baby quilts so I got a lot of it with plans to make some baby quilts for an inventory.  This lady is determined to sell a few more quilts in 2009.  Only way to do that is to make some and build an inventory.  This fabric will work perfectly for boy or girl quilts!  I’m progressive – girls like robots too!

Edit: I should have mentioned, the rockets are by David Walker!

And lastly a bit of fabric that’s just for me and that I have no plans for yet.

Pretty right?? Those oranges are from one of Jay Carroll‘s new lines and I need to see them in person before I buy more.  I like all of the crazy animals, but I’m not certain about his colors until I see them in person…

And a quick thought about Lush… I love this fabric line.  Especially this one deer fabric.  And after reading on True Up about the fact that the the different fabrics in the line were cut down and very little was printed (have you noticed how already it is hard to find it?? I’m hording these two yards!) I was disappointed.  Uptown, Erin Michael’s wonderful previous line,  had SO MANY different fabrics in it and was so hugely varied.  I’ll be working away on a quilt and I’ll suddenly realize that I’ve paired two Uptown fabrics, having forgotten that they were from the same line.  (I like to challenge myself by not using two fabrics from the same line in a block.)  So I know that Erin Michael has it in her to come up with so many different beautiful fabrics.  I think that it’s a cryin’ shame that she wasn’t able to do this for Lush. Or rather, she was able but then it wasn’t printed… Seriously.  Moda, what were you thinkin’??

Ok enough about that. Time to get back to my sewing machine! Happy Thursday everyone!

I’ve already ordered mine so I’m thought I’d let you know that you can find some of the discontinued Katie Jump Rope for freakin’ FIFTY PERCENT off at EQuilter right now.

I’m not one for plugs, but that’s a deal I’m so pleased with that I thought I’d share it for those of you who didn’t see it in other places!  KJR is THE line I’ve been trying to stock up on before it’s all gone, so to see it somewhere for $4.47 a yard made my day.