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Friday, November 5, 2010

Step 2: Buy stuff

Once I decided to make a quilt and I settled on the format, it was time to start buying stuff. Due to my living situation right now, I have no earthly idea where my tiny sewing kit is. I mean, I know that it is in storage and I could point to it's location (within 5 meters) on a map, but I don't know exactly which box of 80 it is in. So I decided to start a sewing kit from scratch. I spent a couple of hours at Joanne Fabric and built up my stores. Over a few trips to various shops, interspersed with research online, I procured:

  • containers for my fabric and for my notions
  • bright orange 100% cotton thread for the basting
  • white 100% cotton thread for the piecing
  • a rotary cutter (with which I have had trials) and a self-healing mat...or two
  • size 9 sharps
  • straight pins
  • those sideways thread snippers that my mom has in blue and I love the feel of
  • a pin cushion
  • a general book on quilting
  • magnets

I also went a little crazy with the fabric.

Can you believe I thought about doing a Christmas quilt AND a regular quilt!?! At the same time!? Yeah, I quickly realized that was unrealistic.

Also, I started by buying fat quarters. Then I did some math and realized that I would be able to make 42 hexagons out of each fat quarter. That is far more than I need from each fabric.

Thankfully, Joanne accepts returns if the fabric is unwashed and uncut. (yay!) Also, thankfully, Joanne's and the quilt shops around here will cut just a few inches off a bolt. And! And! People sell scrap packs on etsy!

Thanks to my down time at work, I have recently developed an obsession with etsy. It is so much fun to look through all the vintage staplers, handmade bags, old flour canisters, piggy banks that are really owls, and fabric. OH THE FABRIC.

Thanks to etsy, I am now aware of some awesome fabric designers.  Heather Ross is one of my favorites. She uses interesting color combinations, and her prints are filled with a great deal of whimsy! I love it! She has done fabrics with gnomes, tadpoles in jars, goldfish in bags, rapunzel in her tower, seahorses, mermaids, and abstract patterns. Unfortunately, I am not alone in my love for Heather Ross, and so her fabrics seem rather hard to find, and expensive. Just today I got in a scrap pack that advertised Heather Ross scraps. I plan on using every available inch of them.
Far, Far Away II by Heather Ross

Now that I have lots and lots of fabric, and all the supplies I need (for now anyway), it's time to start making things!
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2 comments:

  1. mandghallNovember 6, 2010 at 7:04 AM

    rach- this is soooo cool. i'm excited to see how it goes. Many times I've thought of quilting and have made a few patchwork skirts for Susannah. But usually I fizzle out when the math and cutting seem so definite. Keep it up and let us know how it goes:)
    love ya!

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  2. rarNovember 16, 2010 at 1:30 PM

    Thanks Maggie!
    One thing that drew me to this project was that there is less math and not as much need to be certain about things up front. I got my numbers for how many hexagons I need from an online calculator.
    For now, I'm just buying fabric and cutting squares and making hexagons. I'll figure out how I want to lay them out later. So this type of quilt goes well with my schedule and my procrastination. :)

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