Friday, October 30, 2020

It’s an OFF (October Fabric Foraging) Month


I’m using the word “foraging” loosely in this post since the truest meaning involves the acquisition of food by hunting and in my case I’m replacing “food” with fabric which helps explains how my Finally Finish and Flimsies came to be in October.  It started with my foraging in my Halloween stash  to make face masks after having a funny exchange with Demando asking me to make him a Halloween mask, responding with a “you know you’re 38 years old look” and then realizing he meant a face mask made with Halloween fabric. I came across some wonderful collection of past purchases and decided I needed to make some quick projects with them after putting it off for so many years.  I would like to mention that fabric foraging was very frequent during the days we weren’t at the GP House.

The first project which is a Finally Finished is the Mr. Halloween table runner which I had a charm pack, a fat quarter and some yardage of this past Thimbleberries collection.  I only had a fat quarter of the wonderful focal print which I wanted to keep intact so I designed a table runner around that and used the charm pack as accent squares along with the stripe fabric.

Quilting was simple wavey lines with black Aurifil thread.  Normally I don’t back my quilt with fabric from the same collection but decided to use the orange/black argyle print since I wasn’t able to use it in the top and didn’t think I would have another use for it since I have very few pieces left of the Mr. Halloween collection now; okay maybe enough for some placemats. This table runner measures 20”x38” and it’s a wonderful addition to the other Halloween/Fall quilts adorning the house now.


The next project is the door quilt made with Robert Kaufman’s Eerie Alley which I’ve accumulated some fat quarters and yardage. Again, I had just a fat quarter of the focal print and sort of used the same layout as the Mr. Halloween table runner but I’m calling it a storm door layout.  As I’m writing this post, it is still in a flimsie state and the plan is to quilt it the same way as Mr. Halloween.  This door quilt measures 28”x62”. Sadly, 31 days in October may not have been enough for me to finish in time to hang on the door for Halloween enjoyment.
As I was working on the above projects, I remembered the 8” appliquéd and embroidered Cat block designed by Half Pints made several years ago and waiting to be made into a pillow using the the fabric pictured above.  I am not a pillow person and can only see this in between the mouths of one of our dogs and not sitting pretty on the couch or shelf.  
So, I thought to finally finish this long waiting project, I would make a wall hanging instead by bordering with with a Thimbleberries black print and a wonderful fat quarter of a Simply Spooky print by Indygo Junction foraged once again in the Halloween stash.  Easy straight line quilting with Black Aurifil thread, which is getting a lot of use with these Halloween quilts, paired with the black and white mini check for the binding made this 20” square quilt what I thought was going to be my favorite finish of the month.  But it’s not, it’s the next quilt.

October was #6 for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen Challenge which was my Wizard of Oz flimsie made in 2006.  On a side note, that was the year I returned to the office workforce at the community college after taking a brief hiatus when I quit working at the local quilt shop, one of the reasons being I was accumulating too much fabric. I was then trying to balance working and quilting and made this flimsie after feeling bad that the fabric was sitting in my stash since 2000.  A simple quilt of double four patches with a plain block of the focal print which was also used in the border was made.  It was a flimsie for so long, I added it to the Dirty Dozen Challenge so it could be finally finished.  This flimsie, sad to say, was more of an annoyance and something I thought didn’t have any fondness for and was I wrong.  After quilting it with alternating diagonal straight and wavey lines starting at the border with soft yellow thread, I’ve become quite smitten with the many prints in this collection, especially the focal print.  The collection was designed by Beth Bruske, David Textiles and I don’t know the source of inspiration for the prints.  Even though it was approved by the L. Frank Baum Trust these are not from the original books.
I was ready to bind this quilt with a yellow print, not from this collection, but decided to use the perfectly pink gingham I found or foraged in my pink stash. I needed to offset the green and gold to make this quilt a little sweeter. For some reason, I did not set aside the binding in the drawer which I usually do. This quilt measures 40”x50” but it feels and look larger.
Some mysteries surrounding the making of this quilt is that I cannot find my remaining stash of this fabric which I know I had. After several time foraging around the studio I decided not to make myself crazy and just go with the thought that I must have donated it when I wanted to stuff the box full and made a mental note that I would remember doing this.  I don’t do good mental notes. But I’m hoping it will appear since I still have 1.5 yards of the blue fabric used for the backing left.  I’m also wondering why I didn’t make a Yellow Brick Road by Terry Atkinson with this fabric which would have been cliche’ but cute.  I know she just celebrated the 20th Anniversary of this wonderful pattern and guess I could commenorate or commenomake with the second collection of Oz prints from the MGM movie but right now I’m not liking these prints so much.  Maybe a little more fabric fermentation or another 10 years will make my heart grow fonder over them.

Some more finishes made possible with more fabric foraging:

A simple Ernie quilt made from Two Canoe Scraps given to me from Kathleen after sort of whining from me and foraging through the Cotton+Steel, Zen Chic and Crazy Mom stash so I would have enough for this 40”x50” quilt.  Right now it is in a flimsie state, but the plan is to quilt it with horizontal straight and wavey lines and then donate it.
And look at the fun greens I foraged from the many green bins for October’s College Challenge hosted by Patterns by Jen for the Ruby Crown Kinglet.  Olive Green was this month’s color and I think it looks awfully wild with the lime green, almost Citronickle print.  If you’re wondering what Citronickle is, it’s a yellow green which I call Citron and Wendy calls Pickle and she came up with this name which is quite fun as the color.
Since I used the word “forage and foraging” so much in this post, I thought I would include a photo of the many acorns I foraged in the park at the GP house during the past weeks to feed my squirrels.  I’ve collected at least three full boxes and am still feeling some aches but it was worth it.  Acorns and fabrics feed my squirrels.  I’m hoping one of the studio squirrels will tell me where the missing OZ fabric is.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween.  Also, please remember to VOTE! I already did.

7 comments :

  1. Oh my! You had a good October. Love all of your fall/Halloween sewing. You even were able to rescue that pillow into a wall hanging! Good for you. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. Oh my, you have been a bit busy over there, frolicking and foraging in the forest of fabric fun! I'm particularly delighted to be mentioned in your post, and I'm smitten with the Half Pints cat!!

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  3. I chuckle every time you mention feeding your squirrels! (You would not do this if you'd ever had them get into your roof - and party all night long above your bedroom ceiling! Lolol!)
    Your pandemic-production is so impressive!

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  4. P.S. Can you point me in the direction of posts explaining your grandparents' house?

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  5. Wow, what an over-the-top October! So interesting in you talking about 2006 and 2000 when I just included at the end of my DrEAMi! post, a little witch hat quilt I made in 2003. :-) With Halloween fabric of that same vintage. Foraging in the fabric stash is another level of zen for me. Great makes and I had a good chuckle at and mental image of the look you gave Demando over his mask request!

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  6. How about a Mini Brick Road quilt from your YBR fabrics? That would work up a lot faster. You had a productive month, foraging in the fabrics, Rose!!!

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  7. Hi Rose! I saved this post to read when I had a minute. Who knew it would take me a week. Geez. Lots of great foraging going on! I pretty much love the Wizard of Oz quilt and fabrics, and a yellow brick road would have (and may be) fab. I just adore your olive green block! And the color citronickle. I think it's catchy and will definitely become popular throughout the land. How was Halloween with Ms. Micah? I wonder what she chose as a costume? Those are a LOT of acorns to feed your squirrels!! Holy moly but I'm glad they'll be happy with you and won't want to wonder around to your friends. Take care and {{hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne

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I appreciate your comments but due to traveling and my ineptitude with typing on either my iPhone or iPad, my response may be somewhat delayed. Thank You for your understanding.