Nancy Halverson Stash Enhancement

I have been trying to be very selective of my fabric purchases lately and Nancy Halverson's new Christmas line, Tidings, was on my list.  Prior to last year, I had a couple of Nancy's books in my stash, but had never made any of the projects or collected the related fabrics.  Then she came out with her I Believe line last year and I was hooked.  Not only did I want to make every project in the book, but I loved almost every fabric in the fabric line.  Dawn and I went shop hopping one Saturday and we managed to find enough of a selection to get me started and then I filled in the rest with a couple of on-line orders.  Since then, I've acquired a few more of her books so I have more projects for which I need her fabric LOL. 

This was my Nancy Halverson fabric collection as of 2009, except for one of the yellows that is some other fabric line, but which I am already using in my first "I Believe" project, the one that started it all LOL.  Oh, and the burgendy on the end isn't Nancy's either, but will be used for the main quilt in the I Believe book.  Aren't they gorgeous?

The thing I realized right away while collecting this first batch was that while Nancy's fabrics play very nicely amongst themselves from one line to the next, they do not play very nicely with the other fabrics in the sandbox.  This kind of bummed me out since I have such a large stash that I'd like to use, but I decided that I would just keep building my "Nancy" collection and then choose from that when making her quilts.  I keep it separate from the rest of my stash so it doesn't accidentally get used for something else.

So back to the new Christmas line, Tidings.  I found that one of my favorite local stores had the entire line, but decided that I needed to wait for a sale to get it since it was priced at $9.99/yard.  I figured they would have Christmas fabrics on sale in July and that I'd pick them up then or end up getting them on-line if they didn't have a sale.  As luck would have it, Dawn and I had a quilting day on Saturday and she alerted me to an email coupon that the store had sent out for $10 off a $50 purchase.  We were planning to go there anyway to look for a fabric for her project, so we printed two coupons and were on our way.

They didn't have her fabric, but I hit the jackpot and not only got the Tidings fabric that I wanted, but some beautiful pieces from the Garden Song line, which is one of the books I have.  We split the purchase so we could each use a coupon (sort of cheating I know), but it brought the price per yard down to about $8-ish, which had been the price I decided I could pay.  Too bad our sales tax is now 9.8%, which added almost $10 to the total price.  Blech.

Anyway, here are the beautiful blues, pinks and creams I got:

And the reds, greens, and golds:

Oh, and Dawn has been using this fabric in the quilt she's currently making and I've wanted some ever since she got it so I picked up a third of a yard of this one too.  I might have been able to resist if it was just dots, but dots wtih lime green.  Well, that was just too much to resist.  LOL

Quilting Thread Stash/Thread Review

I spent last weekend preparing quilts for quilting.  In addition to finishing UFO's, I'm trying to prevent any new quilt tops I make from becoming UFO's waiting for the quilting and binding.  Over the last couple of years I've really built up my quilting thread stash so when I have a batch of quilt tops ready for quilting I break out my thread stash and start auditioning.  While I had everything out for this last batch, I thought it would be fun to share my thread stash with you.

First up is my Essentials thread stash, with a few others thrown in this box.  My entire Essentials thread collection was my Christmas gift from my sister last year.  The colors are just yummy and the threads I've used so far have been wonderful.  You can check them out here.  They run sales on their thread, so keep an eye out.  My sister picked up all of the sets I requested at 30% off last November and that sale ran through January I believe.  Also in this box are a few Valdani threads that I haven't used yet, overflow of my piecing thread that didn't fit in it's assigned container, and five spools of YLI thread that didn't fit in their box.

Next up is my King Tut thread stash.  With the exception of 8 spools that I purchased in February during a 30% off sale and a couple of random spools purchased separately, the rest of this thread was purchased for either 50 or 70% off during a quilt shop closing in late 2008.  At those prices it was definitely worth building up a stash.  The colors are gorgeous and this thread quilts up great.  If you want to check out this thread, go here.

Next up we have my Sulky rayon, Gutermann cotton, and DMC embroidery threads.  These were the first machine quilting threads I bought before I really knew what I was going to do with them.  I bought them during great sales at Joann's and thought it would be great to have a lot of colors.  I have used some of the rayons for machine quilting and they are wonderful.  The DMC embroidery thread did well for quilting as well, although I probably wouldn't buy it again for that purpose as it's pretty thin, but it works well for small quilts that won't get a lot of abuse.  I'm currently using the rayons and the Gutermann for machine applique and they are working great for that purpose as well.

The next picture shows my Robinson Anton 50 wt Cotton collection.  When I bought my first Janome MC6600 the dealer threw in this box of thread.  It's a nice thin 50 wt cotton thread.  I used this thread for the first time in December and it quilted beautifully.  Of course, every thread I've tried in my machine has worked beautifully.  That's one of the things I absolutely love about my machine.  It pieces and quilts with any thread I want to use and I never have tension problems.  Also in this drawer is a large spool of Coats & Clark variegated that I bought at Joann's for a specific quilt.  I had no trouble with that thread either and I used it on both the top and in the bobbin. 

This next box contains my YLI thread stash, all variegated colors.  This is a 40 wt machine quilting thread.  The colors are YUMMY and it quilts up just great.  It's a bit thicker than the King Tut, but it's not bulky at all.  With the exception of the 10 spools I just got on sale, and a few others I purchased separately, most of these threads were again a gift from my sister for Christmas a couple of years ago.  A good source for these threads is Red Rock Threads.  I've ordered from them and my sister also got my YLI gift threads from them.  The prices are good and their service is great, although I noticed when pulling the link that the price of these threads has gone from $4.99 to $5.75.  Hmmm, I wonder why.  Their King Tut price is still the same, so the manufacturer must have raised prices for the YLI.  Anyway, they have a great thread selection overall and reasonable shipping costs.  Many of the random threads that I have, like the Valdani and Presencia, were ordered from them so I could try out a number of different threads without having to order from multiple places.

This last container is what I originally bought to store my thread stash.  Clearly I have outgrown it LOL.  This container now holds my hand quilting thread, my invisible thread, my Coats & Clark variegated collection from Joann's, which quilts very nicely I might add and is very reasonably priced, as well as other random threads.

And finally, I wanted to show you the containers I purchased last December after receiving all of those Essentials threads and having no where to store them.  I found these cardboard boxes at Hobby Lobby for 50% off during the Christmas season.  They are perfect for storing my threads and they are decorative too.  I only see the sides when they are stored, so I don't care that they have Christmas tops.  Actually, I wouldn't care anyway :-).  One is a bit shallower than the other and was just the right depth for the YLI collection.  The taller one is just the right depth for the Essentials and Coats & Clark piecing thread spools which are taller.  They have lids that go all the way down the sides so they are pretty sturdy.  If you go back to the first picture in my post you can see one of the lids in the background laying on it's side.

 

So that's the tour of my thread stash. Hope you enjoyed it and maybe found some new threads to try in your quilting.  Oh, and keep an eye out for some finishes soon.  I have been a busy little beaver in my sewing room and should have something to show for it soon.

Fabric Inventory complete/stash pictures & ponderings

Well, the 2010 fabric inventory is complete.  While it is a bit of a chore, I always like revisiting my stash and finding things I forgot I had.  It also gets my creative juices going and helps solidify my current year goals.  And of course I never get tired of petting my batiks.

In the midst of the project, the mail arrived and look what was waiting for me.  Here's a sneak peek.  Can you guess what the box contains?

Ok, here's a closer look, along with the package inspector, Echo.  Are you surprised?  It's more batiks of course!  Yummy Timeless Treasure batiks off of Ebay.  They were a good deal and cost about exactly as much as the check my sister sent me for my dishcloth sales, so they were basically free too!  How could I pass them up?  They have been counted in the inventory and will be getting washed and stored today.  My inventory sheet tells me that I have almost 700 yards of batiks.  Do you think that's too much?  I don't.  I don't think I can ever have too many batiks.  My dream job would be as a fabric rep for Princess Mirah batiks, but alas, I will have to keep my day job for now, since we like to eat and have a roof over our heads, as do the furkids.

Here's some pictures of my batik stash, as well as the rest of my stash.  I do truly love my stash and wouldn't want to get rid of any of it.  I love that I very rarely have to shop for borders or even backings as I can shop my own "store" 24/7.  Same goes for thread.  I have a huge stash of that now too and I had something on hand for every quilt I just quilted and didn't have to wait for the quilt shop to open in order to continue on my projects.  That is huge for me.  When I am in the mood to work on something, particularly machine quilting, I need to jump on it while the mood is there and get it done as I'm not good at all with "having" to work on certain projects.  The rotation method would never work for me.  I like to work on what I want, when I want to do it, whether it be quilting, cross-stitch, or crocheting.

Oh, and here's a cute picture of the main members of the Quality Control Team, Mutt & Jeff, er, I mean Sassy and Echo.  Can you see how much smaller Sassy is?  She will be a year old in a month and Echo is a month younger than her.  She's a petite little thing.