A Little Box Pouch

What to do when you realize you have all the necessary Christmas gifts for the family gathering except for one—your [virtual] sister-in-law? You dig into your treasured shibori stash, find a tutorial you like, and whip up that one last gift. The treasured shibori fabric was destashed by my friend, quilter MaryLou Alexander. MaryLou’s quilts all begin with high quality undyed fabric, which she scrunches and folds and stitches and dyes with either MX dyes or natural dyes, before cutting and piecing and machine quilting. (She’s currently in her natural dye period. Everything in my treasured stash comes from the … Continue reading

A Second New Top for Vacation

Our flight to Mexico was scheduled to leave early on the morning of January 2; we would drive to Cleveland on the afternoon of New Year’s Day to stay in a hotel near the airport. I had packed on New Year’s Eve. That meant I had the entire morning of New Year’s Day to sew one more top for Playa Maroma. I dug into the stash and grabbed a poly knit I had picked up several years ago at Fabrix in San Francisco. It was not a “me” print, although I’m not sure the real “me” print exists. I’m ambivalent … Continue reading

Tiny Treasures Tray

A few days before Christmas, I realized I needed a gift to put under the tree for the Jazzman. I buy him this and that throughout the year when I see something he needs or could use, so there was nothing I could think of to get him so he would have something to open at the family gathering. I had seen this Tiny Treasures Basket & Tray pattern a year or so ago on the Noodlehead website. I knew I wanted to try it sometime. Now I had an opportunity, and I had two coordinating fabrics in my stash … Continue reading

Courtney Top for Mexico

Vacation plans always make me want to sew. Surely I have some nice piece of fabric in my stash that will make me feel chic on vacation. And this trip was no exception. We’re on a week’s snow escape vacation, and judging by all the weather reports from NE OH, we timed it perfectly! Two nights before we were to fly out, I dipped into my stash and found a silky rayon I purchased several years ago at Fabrix in San Francisco on a shopping trip with Shams. Then I dug into my StyleArc pattern stash and Courtney called out … Continue reading