Fabric Blessings

A lot of my stash has been given to me over the years. I am always grateful when I'm gifted fabric, because it allows me to keep making quilts and other things for charity without going broke. Do I use all gifted fabric for charity? No. Sometimes a piece of fabric I've been gifted is exactly what I need for a personal project. I've made DH scrub tops from gifted fabric, I've made clothes for kids or grandkids from gifted fabric. I've used gifted fabrics in quilts that I've used as gifts or that are even in my house, BUT, the majority of fabric I've been gifted ends up in charity projects. 

This week I met up with a quilter 20 years my senior. She's got some health issues that are making it harder for her to quilt, so she's passing on a lot of her fabric, but keeping enough to do some projects when she feels up to it. Normally when someone gives me fabric, they pack up what they don't want, and I just take it home and sort it out. Usually, anything I won't use, my sister will, so we can put a lot of sewing supplies to work, whether it's quilting fabric or any other sewing supplies. This was a bit different, in that she wanted me to choose what I wanted from her stash. 

I have known this woman's husband for several years, because he rides with DH's scooter club. I had never met her until this week. I don't know about you, but going into someone's house whom you have never met, and just asking for stuff had me quite nervous. Add to that, I've recently helped my mom with downsizing her stash, and I know how emotional that can be. I really didn't know what to expect. 

As it turned out, she and I hit it off pretty well. Since I make a ton of scrap quilts, I asked it she had scraps hanging around. I know that most people do not use their scraps as quickly as they make them, so I figured that was a safe thing to ask about. She had two medium sized totes full of them, so I took them all. She had me look through her drawers of fabric, and I tried to pull out the smaller pieces. In my fabric drawers, I don't have anything smaller than a fat quarter, because once I cut into a fat quarter, I cut any leftovers into my scrap user system sizes. Once they are in scrap user sizes, they are stored with my scrap user system. I know all too well, that what works for me, is not necessarily what works for someone else, so in her fabric drawers I found leftover border pieces, squares of fabric up to maybe 10", plus fat quarters and larger pieces. She does sort her fabric by color like I do, and even has her repro fabrics stored separately just like I do! She keeps her solids separately too, and I don't, but it was fun to see how we were similar and how we were different. I have a lot more space for quilting than she does, so I have a lot more options. 

I did take a lot of her novelty fabrics, because I make a lot of I Spy quilts for kids, and then we got into her larger pieces of fabric. She didn't really have a good storage option for her larger pieces, so I told her I'd take whatever she didn't want. She kept out a few pieces she really loved and I took a lot of what was left. She also had a black track bag full of fleece, that was stored on a shelf so high you needed a big ladder to get it down. After thinking about it, I said I'd take the whole bag. I figured it if was being stored in that inconvenient of a location, it wasn't likely to be used, and fleece is a great backing for kids quilts. 

I tried to be aware about how she was feeling about things as we went through her fabric. I had asked early on about what she most liked to work with, and she immediately answered batiks. I didn't even look in her drawers of batiks, because I want her to keep what she loves working with. I mentioned that I work with strips a lot, and she dug out all the jelly roll strips she had, some of which hadn't been opened. She said she doesn't like working with strips very much. I chimed in with the fact that my least favorite pre-cut is charm squares. I'll use them if I have them, but I prefer other precuts over those. 

I haven't had time to go through all the fabrics I brought home and sort them, but here's an idea of how much I brought home. 

 This is pretty big box. the bottom half is all scraps, and the top is larger pieces.

This box is a lot smaller but massively overflowing, so it likely has the same amount as the larger box. I also have the black trash bag of fleece. 

This is one of my favorite fabrics I got, and there is enough for me to make myself an iPad sleeve which I've been wanting for quite a while. 

Did I take too much fabric? Did I not take as much as she had hoped? I can't tell. I can tell you I am looking forward to incorporating her fabrics into my projects, and I'd be happy to meet up with her again just to talk, no fabric gifting required. 

I'm still working on luggage tags, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I think by mid- week next week I will be finished. Of course didn't I find a few more scooters I had cut out this morning, But I had enough of the main parts of the luggage tags leftover to use those extra scooters too. Once I finish the current batch of luggage tags, I'll dig out my poly threads to applique the found scooters and then I can finish up the last of this project. I'm not sure how long the luggage tags will last DH, but it should buy me some time at any rate. 

Finally Seeing Progress!

 Any time I'm sewing a bunch of the same thing, I have times where I'm going a little crazy. The last couple weeks I was definitely struggling with that. Although I'm not finished all the prep work for the luggage tags, I'm done enough that I can start assembling them, and alternate between prep work and assembly. 

Now that I'm in assembly mode, I'm seeing progress pretty quickly. I've got about 75 luggage tags completely finished. I'm busting a lot of colored denim for these tags. Most of this batch has the same color on the front and back, but a lot of the tags will have blue or black denim on the back, but various colors on the fronts. Basically, the luggage tags will get scrappier as I go along. These have loops that match the base color, but some of the colors of denim I had, I didn't have matching loop fabric for. In those cases, I'm going to try to match the loop to the appliqued scooter. 

DH and I both had Covid this week. I got sicker than I usually do with Covid, but still wasn't very sick. It was like having a cold, no fever, no aches, just runny nose and cough. Unfortunately DH was not so lucky, and he ran a very high fever for several days. He's still feeling pretty cruddy, whereas I am back to normal. We missed one of granddaughter's concerts, which stinks, but it is what it is. Next week we have two school promotions to go to, plus a birthday party, and we should be able to make those. Since I never felt all that bad, I still sewed every day, and with DH being so sick, we didn't go anywhere or have anyone over, so I actually had a lot of uninterrrupted sewing time. 

I've been doing some prep work for Christmas presents already too! Mostly just making sure I have all the supplies for what I'd like to make. I ordered a few things, and once they arrive, I'll start cutting things out so I can sew them up as I have time. It may seem early to think Christmas, but we've got a lot going on this year, so I need to fit things in when I can. 

Trudging Along

 I had planned on sewing the loops for the luggage tags on my Janome, but my Janome got all jammed up AGAIN! Last time this happened I had to replace the entire needle bar assembly. Sewing through some bias tape shouldn't have bothered it, but honestly, better it mess up on something like that than in the middle of the quilt like last time. It's now at the shop waiting it's turn for servicing. 

I'm still taking turns sewing the applique scooters and sewing the loops. I just unburied my Singer 201.

My mom gave me tons of single fold bias tape, which I normally never use. Since she's given me bias tape before, I've learned to use it for different purposes than it's intended uses. I sew two lengths together, then I use that for loops on luggage tags, drawstrings, loops on zipper bags or potholders. I don't want the single fold bias tape mixed up with my double fold bias tape which I use all the time, so I'm sewing all the single fold bias tape together like in the photo, which is how I will actually make use of it. For now, I'm just tossing in a large tote.

I realize this is a hot mess, but a lot of this will get used for the luggage tags, so I'm not going to try to organize this until the luggage tags are done, and I see how much I actually have left. 

I've now got this many fronts done, with the scooters appliqued on.

I only have this many left to do the applique stitching on. I didn't count them, but less than 50 I think. Per usual, I'm pretty lax about counting. I know I have over 400 luggage tag fronts. I think I have about 400 luggage tag backs with the interfacing pressed on. I actually overcut the interfacing, so if I need to cut more denim backs, I've already got some interfacing ready to go. I have about 400 clear vinyl pieces cut for the information sleeve. But I've got some some more clear vinyl cut to correct length, that just needs to be subcut. I'm thinking I'll be able to start assembling luggage tags next week. As I run of out precut pieces, I'll cut more of whatever I'm short on. When I decided on 400 luggage tags, I was thinking that would be enough for a couple years. Now I'm not sure it will be, but we'll see. I think DH is adding another big scooter rally to his plans for this year, and if we can arrange some smaller events at dealerships along the way, we may use all the luggage tags. 

DH asked me how much making the luggage tags costs, and the biggest cost is my time. The denim was all given to me, most of the interfacing was from stash, but I did have to buy more at $15. The fusible webbing was from stash and the fabric for the scooters was all scraps. I had to buy more clear vinyl at $30. The bias tape was given to me, and the thread was all from stash. There's really no noticeable dent in the thread. I have enough of all of the supplies to make another 100-200. Some of the supplies I'd have to rebuy at that point, but some I'd still have plenty of. Basically, the $45 I spent would cover 400-600 luggage tags when combined with what I already had in stash. The cost is not the problem, the problem is my time. I don't mind making stuff for him to give away, but I also want time to quilt, and make Christmas gifts, and play with the grandkids, and travel... you get it. If all I cared about was money, this would absolutely be the best option. 

I want to try experimenting with making a few other small things that he could give away. I've been watching batch sewing videos on YouTube for ideas. I saw a few things that are much quicker to sew, and I'm thinking maybe I'll make some prototypes of those and see what he thinks AND I'll see what I think. Perhaps I will stumble on a few things I could alternate sewing on that will give me more variety on tasks, possibly be faster to make, but still give him the quantities he needs. 

There are some things I really like about making the luggage tags. I like it when giveaways are useful items. I really like repurposing and upcycling stuff. Using up scraps, old bias tape, and cutting up old jeans is my kind of project. If you have any good ideas for me for batch sewing that I can make scooter themed, let me know. Bonus points if it uses scraps. 

Modern Technology Quilt

 I have a second finish for 2025, it's the quilt pattern called Modern Technology. I bought it in a quilt kit from Craftsy back in the day, and I made all the blocks for it three years ago, but it's FINALLY a finished quilt! I ended up making more blocks from stash to make it larger than the kit called for, but it was a very fun quilt to make.

This quilt doesn't have a set layout, you can just play around with the blocks and find something you like. I think the original kit was for a twin sized quilt, but by cutting as much as I could from the provided fabric and adding some solids from stash, I turned it into a king sized quilt. Since Craftsy used to give you fat quarter bundles in the quilt kits instead of exact cuts, you could often get more blocks than the pattern called for. I miss being able to shop their fantastic sales, but I still have several quilt kits from them I haven't made yet, so in the grand scheme of things, the fact that they no longer sell quilt kits after being bought out a couple times, doesn't affect my quilting life much. I am glad I can still watch the classes I purchased back then. 

I debated on basting one of the MANY quilt tops in the quilt closet, but I decided my time is better spent trying to finish the 400 luggage tags I am making. I've been cutting the rest of the interfacing I needed and pressing that on the pieces that need it in the evenings. I'm still working on appliqueing all the scooters on the front of the tags, but I'm about 3/4 of the way done with that. I've got two grandkids this weekend, so no sewing time. I am hoping to get more of the clear vinyl cut for the luggage tags in the evening. It may not be sewing, but it needs to be done so I may as well work on it. 

My vintage machine is buried in projects in progress, so I decided rather than starting to quilt another quilt, I will use my Janome to start sewing the loops for the luggage tags. Most of what has my vintage machine buried is all the fabric I'll be using for the loops, so by sewing those, I'll be one step closer to assembling all the luggage tags, and I'll be clearing off my vintage machine. Sewing the loops is BORING, so by going back and forth between sewing loops and appliqueing scooters, I give myself a bit of change. As soon as I have all of either job done, I will be ready to start assembling the luggage tags. 

My goal is to finish all of the luggage tags in May, and if I can get that done, I have two deadline quilts I need to start. One of those is cut out, and the other I am still in design phase. I have two quilts cut out that I could use for the second quilt, but part of me wants to start a new one. I've got the new one mostly figured out, and I have everything I need to make it. No matter what the two deadline quilts will not require any purchases. 

Life has been busier than I expected. I've had the grandkids quite a bit, and been feeding extras for meals. None of that is a problem, but it does mean I've had less sewing time than I expected to have. It will all work out in the end, it usually does.If I don't get something done, I guess it wasn't that important after all.