Fabric shopping

I got to spend an evening recently at craft night with some of the ladies from church - so I was able to work on my current quilt project and hang out with other grown ups! Wow! It was a fun evening. I was asked where I get my fabric and if I have a favorite store. When we lived in Colorado I had a whole bevy of fabric shops that I liked and I enjoyed making the rounds to find just the right fabric for each quilt. Well, I'm sorry to say that I haven't found many fabric stores here yet. We've already lived here for, um, eight months (?) and I think the very first thing I did when I found out where we were moving was to Google fabric shops in the area. (Yeah, and then I looked for the grocery store - priorities!) You would expect me to have all the shops in the area checked out by now, right? Me, too. And um, I found a Jo-Ann's that's 45 minutes and a toll bridge from here. Instead, I have found a whole world of fabric on the internet. (I can go when I want, and I don't have to drag my kids with me. It's what works right now.) So I thought I would share!

Some of my new online finds:

Fat Quarter Shop
The Calico Cottage Quilt Shop
A Counterpane
Sweet Peas & Angels
Desperate Quilters


And here are a few of my old favorite fabric and quilt shops from around the Denver area (I am glad that some have online ordering so I can still shop there!):

Denver Fabrics (They don't carry much quilters' cotton any more, but I find all sorts of great solids, plaids and stripes there that the quilt stores never have.)
The Great American Quilt Factory
Calico Corners
Quilting Hands
Tomorrow's Heirlooms

Of course, I do find things at the big chain stores - Jo-Ann Fabric, Hobby Lobby, and even Wal-mart sometimes. I have been (pleasantly) surprised this year to find a lot more variety and more things I like in the "nursery" fabrics at Jo-Ann's. One of the big problems that I run into when fabric shopping is the lack of nice, appropriate fabric in the colors that people are using for their nurseries. (Not that people are picking odd things, but that the fabric world and the baby decorating world apparently don't talk to each other.) The other thing is that I am always (OK, not always, but usually) looking for nice plaids, stripes, ginghams and tiny floral calicos and they're a lot harder to find than you would think.

I have to say that I am a lot more picky about getting exactly the color/pattern/style that I want than the stores that I shop in. I like to get higher quality fabric when I can, but I am also shopping on a tight budget. So I get the best color, fabric, and price I can, whatever that may look like today.

My kids with their quilts

I took a couple of pictures this week of Elijah and Molly with their quilts:



I had to wash Elijah's again this week, and I am pleased at how well it has done so far. He's been sleeping with it consistently for a year and a half now and I've washed it several times, and it still looks like new (and as far as I can tell, all the seams are still rock solid). It is really important to me to make quilts that are washable and durable as well as beautiful, so I am thrilled that my own personal tests are turning out well so far!

Here we go again!

I am starting a new quilt. Yes, it's a crazy thing to do - Molly is just 2 months old and just keeping up with the house is more than I can do sometimes and my mom isn't here to help me, and maybe I won't be able to finish it anytime this year, but I want to try. My friend Erin is having a baby girl soon, and since big brother Caleb got a quilt, I can't let his little sister go without. So we will see if I can do it. We are also excited that we are going to have a new niece or nephew in February, so I'll have one more quilt to work on soon!

Molly's Quilt

Molly's quilt is finished! My mom did the rest of the sewing while she was here. This quilt is pretty random, but I really like it. I wanted to make a pretty baby girl quilt that would go with the colors in Elijah's room (which Molly will soon be sharing). I started with red gingham and chambray blue and added pink, lavender, yellow and green in ginghams, florals and dots. The border is chambray blue stripe with eyelet. The back is a light pink dot print. The quilting is in the ditch.

And two more on the way

Well, my mom has done a lot of sewing lately, even if I have been too busy and tired to do very much myself. There is no way that the two baby girls coming this summer would have gotten quilts at all if it weren't for Nana sewing like a maniac!

While Patrick was moving us to RI and Elijah and I were staying at my parents' house, we designed and did all the fabric shopping for both quilts, then cut out and pieced the top and back for my niece's quilt. I left that one in Colorado in my mother's capable hands, now that my part is done. And I hear that it is already quilted and ready to be bound! WOW! I will post pictures when I get them.

Mom and I brought all the fabric for my daughter's quilt to RI with us, and spent the week accomplishing more sewing than unpacking. I laid out the patchwork and Mom got it all put together. Now I just have to add the border, cut the back, quilt and bind it. I'm excited about it, but it'll just have to wait until we get all unpacked and settled in here. Soon!

Rylee's Quilt

Here is Rylee's quilt - my mom helped me finish it a couple of weeks ago (while we were moving into the new place) and last weekend I was able to give it to Rylee when we went to PA to visit. I am glad that the sewing went quickly and fairly smoothly and I'm very glad Rylee (and her mom) like it!
Rylee's quilt is a patchwork of 5" squares in yellow, blue, cream, sage green and pale pink, with a Winnie the Pooh theme. I designed it to go with her nursery (you can see pictures of it here and here), and the fabric on the back is from her set, with a green border. Both front and back borders and the binding are flannel. I think it is soft and pretty. =)

Sewing up a storm - hopefully

Now that Caleb's quilt is finally finished, I have started working on three little girl quilts. I've got a pretty tight time line, but my mom is helping a lot and I think we can do it! We started on my niece Rylee's quilt this week, for which I had already had done the fabric shopping, and the patchwork top is already done! Hooray! Now I just have to design and shop for the next two - our little bean who is coming in June, and our next niece who is due in May. It will be fun to be working on pretty, girly quilts for a change!

Caleb's Quilt

Caleb's quilt is finally finished! Here is the final product. The quilt is a random patchwork of 2 1/2 inch squares in blue, green, yellow and white. There is a combination of gingham, plaids, stripes, and star prints, with a border, binding and back of solid blue flannel. I designed it to go with his nursery theme. I think it turned out really well, and I'm so glad it's done!

Matt's Quilt

Congratulations to our friends Mike & Tori who are adopting son Matt this week. I made this quilt for him on rather short notice - until recently everyone thought he was going to be a girl! Matt is a month older than Elijah, so we are excited to have a new friend.


Matt's quilt is a crib-size patchwork of 5" squares. It is a starry night theme in light and dark blue with yellow. The quilting is in the ditch. I really like all the blue fabrics. I used several fabrics from Noah's, Evan's and Caleb's quilts, along with a few darker blues. The pattern is fairly random with alternating dark and light. I decided not to use a border this time and just used a narrow binding that matches the backing fabric. Simple, but fun!

Evolution (3)

I haven't posted in a long time, but I have been sewing. Well, lately I have been. I took the summer off - since my sewing space is in our loft, which averaged about 100 degrees this summer. But once it cooled off and after we had some guests staying up there, I got started again. Of course, most of the time I don't have a lot of time for sewing, but I try to get an hour here and there. Caleb's quilt is coming along - the body is quilted and I am working on the borders. I was hoping to have it done this week, but some other things came along and it's not going to happen. But I'm sure it will be finished soon! I'll post some pictures as I do the final steps.