Notes of a Middle Child

Oh, to live on Happy Street!

Happy Street, where flowers bloom, doggies romp, and every day is your birthday.  Oh wait, today IS my birthday! 

The big 3-4 which is actually feeling pretty old right now.  I can no longer claim "early 30s" and have to adopt the "mid-30s" moniker.  I don't know about you, but most of the time I feel about 14.  My favorite thing about birthdays is not answering your phone.  Then, at the end of the night, listening to all your well-wishing messages.  I especially like that a lot of people sing you Happy Birthday 0 sometimes well (like my musician brother-in-law and sister), sometimes not so well (everyone else). 

I used to try to plan a big birthday outing with all my friends - bowling or a bar - but found that organizing it stressed me out.  So now I try to do nothing for my birthday except get taken out to dinner by my husband.  And I pamper myself a little.  Today I'm going to walk a few extra blocks to get my favorite chai beverage before work.  And I'll probably spend at least 20 minutes this morning debating the merits of my favorite takeaway lunch spots before treating myself to a nice lunch.  Of course it wouldn't be a birthday with presents, so I also picked up some on-sale Superbuzzy fabrics as a gift to myself.  I am the best gift giver ever!

 

Moda Blossom Fabric

 

I'm a sucker for anything "bird" so I was excited to see the new Moda Blossom fabrics.

See more at Z&S (who is having a store-wide 10% off sale ending tonight!).   

Fabric Report

So I took advantage of Z&S's storewide sale last week and indulged a little bit.  In my defense, these are mostly half yards.  But new fabric always inspires me to sew so I'm not going to feel too guilty about it.  As much as I'm a proponent of prewashing fabric, they are so nice when they're unwashed, unwrinkled and folded up like this. 

Here are my favorites of the bunch.

You'll remember my angst when the gnome fabric was out of stock everywhere so I'm so excited to see that both the blue and yellow versions are now abundant.  And I couldn't resist these doggies from Heather Ross's Lightning Bugs line.  I have to say, her fabrics are so soft!  Perfect for kids.

I knew I would love Joel Dewberry's woodgrain fabric - who was I fooling by only ordering it in one color?  I'll be getting more of that for sure.

These are the first I've ordered from Amy Butler's Nigella line.  They are described as suitable for home decor or clothing which seemed weird as most home decor stuff is on the stiff side.  These really are a happy medium.  They have a bit of structure, but would drape decently.  My only disappointment is that online it looked like these two matched and I had visions of Frenchy bags dancing in my head.  In reality one is an olivey brown and the other is decidedly black.  But who says I have to be all matchy-matchy right?

I was hoping to do a bunch of sewing this week, but I'm working out-of-the-"office" (which means I'm leaving the house!  And pajamas!) this week so it will have to wait a bit.  I hope you are all inspired by your own fabrics and making more great stuff, as always!   

Joel Dewberry Fabrics

I was reading It's (K)not Wood the other day and they posted some very cool woodgrain fabric (in eight colorways no less!) by someone named Joel Dewberry?  Who?  I assumed the link would take me to a high-end $70/yard home decor company, but no!  Joel Dewberry is a new fabric designer and his stuff is being sold at regular old fabric stores and quilt shops like Purl and others.  Not that I'm buying fabric right now of course.  He has three lines and the site says he designs both quilt-weight and home decor fabrics.  Here are just a few that I liked (who doesn't need hot pink woodgrain fabric I ask?). Joel's website is well-designed and I'm going to keep my eye on the Fresh Ideas section which is so far empty.  So this post is just a little heads-up for all the other fabric fiends out there (you know who you are!).

Mrs. Rahmlow's 2nd Grade

I'm sure you've seen this fabric around (from Moda's Mrs. Nelson's 2nd Grade series), but, of course, I put off buying it until it was impossible to find.  What's up with that anyway?  Does anyone else have anxiety about fabric going out of print?  Why doesn't it work like books - The Grapes of Wrath isn't going out of print anytime soon?  Call me naive, but doesn't it seem counter to economic logic to discontinue popular fabrics that are continuing to bring in lots of money?  File this under: "Well, what do I know anyway?

When I first spied this fabric I was immediately brought back to Mrs. Rahmlow's 2nd grade classroom and learning cursive via the Palmer method.  A teacher's pet in every other respect, Mrs. Rahmlow was constantly riding me about holding my pencil incorrectly.  She patrolled the aisles while we practiced handwriting and I played the dangerous game of quickly (often not quickly enough) switching to the correct position.  To this day I hold my pens and pencils "wrong," but I don't think I'm any the worse for it.

Imagine my glee on Tuesday morning when I came across this post over at Pink Trees identifying a source for the fabric.  Quick as a rabbit I hopped over to (Ye Olde) Backdoor Quilt Shoppe and lay claim to 2 yards.  I'd never heard of this website, but was extremely satisfied by their cheap shipping ($2.50 in this case) and quick shipping (2 days in this case).  I'm very sorry to report that this print sold out within an hour or two of my own purchase.  I feel very lucky to have scored some.  While there I found a link to this: a searchable database of 188 quilt shops.  So if you know the name of a hard-to-find fabric, this seems like a good place to start looking for it.  They even show the results as thumbnails which is helpful. 

Putting the super in buzzy

As my crafty output decreases, I feel my fabric input should also decrease or at least stagnate.  But that didn't stop me from picking up a few things after Superbuzzy's latest update.  I tend to be attracted to bold patterns, but then find I don't have many solids or small prints to pair them with so I went with these three understated, but very cute fabrics.

And because I daily lament the inaccessibility to Shinzi Katoh designs here in the U.S., I consoled myself with these small towels (which I think will make excellent burp cloths) and a few smiley placemats which truly make for a Happy Meal.

I love the suburbs, part II

My sister offered to be my chauffeur this weekend and I requested a trip to the Ikea in Paramus, NJ.  My primary goal was to buy things to spiff up the backyard which is currently a concrete jungle.  So I nearly forgot that Ikea sold fabric.  I said nearly.  They had some lovely things and I am kind of kicking myself that I only took home these five.  But I took 2 yards of each so that should last me awhile.   The fabric cutter seemed annoyed to have to, you know, do her job and cut all my fabric so I turned up the charm and chatted her up.  She tells me that Ikea is starting to really push their fabric now which I hope, hope, hope means that they may someday sell it online.  Dare to dream.

This picture doesn't begin to do the fabric justice.  In the upper left corner is a wonderful linen-like neutral fabric which has the texture of linen, but is softer.  The white next to it is a strong broadcloth (I think) that is so crisp.  The red botanical is especially not well represented here.  Rather than a primary red, it is actually a beautiful clay red.  The matching blue botanical is in fact a lush teal.  I think my favorite is the smaller print botanical which I'm envisioning as perhaps a pillow or two on my couch.  I didn't see a single fabric over $7.99/yard and these botanicals were only $4.99/yard.  I know, I know.  I'm already planning my next trip.

Forgotten fabric

Do you ever buy something online and promptly forget about it?  I recommend it as it's so nice to get a little surprise package in the mail.  That was the case with this vintage kimono fabric remnant I bought on Ebay. Gotta love the little Geta sandals.

What's the buzz?

Superbuzzy has posted a new batch of fabrics.  So far I've been able to withstand the temptation for 41 hours.  But I think I'm about to crack.  I managed to keep my last order to three fabrics which I'm still patting myself on the back about.  Here they are:

Agog over ribbons

My ribbon order from J. Caroline Creative arrived yesterday and each one is beautiful.  I know New York has several excellent ribbon and trim shops, but I often find myself paralyzed (with both pleasure and indecision) in those stores and end up buying nothing.  And I love getting real mail so you get to experience the pleasure of the purchase twice - upon ordering and upon receipt.  And even better is when you've forgotten what you ordered, like these cute hippo applique.