Fabric Therapy

If ever you are feeling helpless and don’t know what to do for someone who is going through a difficult time, please don’t hesitate just to reach out and let them know that you are thinking about them. The texts and e-mails that have come to us since yesterday’s blog post have been most appreciated. And when I got home from running errands in town, a card was waiting for me in the day’s mail. Someone who had bought my knitting books sent me a handwritten note to thank me for writing them. Joyce in New York, I don’t know if you read the blog or not, but I want you to know how much that card brightened my day.

And I was treated to a stream of live pics from my girls, who had planned a day out together in Seattle to shop for wedding dresses. DD#2 provided the associated running commentary. (We’ve already been informed that she must approve any wardrobe selections that the husband and I make for the wedding.) I enjoyed being able to see the choices. That was the next best thing to being there in person.

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The husband noted that what would help me most right now is a road trip—he knows me so well—but I can’t take off yet. I was awake at 4:30 this morning because my body doesn’t differentiate between weekdays and weekends. (Neither does Rusty.) I went into my fabric room and began rummaging through the stash. Every so often, I like to go through the exercise of pulling fabrics for a quilt. I think of them as my “maybe” quilts. The fabric combos go into a separate bin. Sometimes they end up as quilts and sometimes I repurpose the fabrics for other projects. It’s the challenge that matters.

I ended up with two very different sets of fabric. The first one is modern and geometric:

That print on the bottom was the inspiration piece. Choosing fabrics that coordinated with it was especially challenging because the gray is more of what I would call “greige,” with definite brown undertones. And I didn’t want florals. I am happy with this combination. The prints are a good mix of colors, textures, and scale.

I did go with florals for the second combination.

Again, the inspiration piece is on the bottom. Those two lighter fabrics in the middle look gray, but they are actually nice lavender florals that pick up the same color in the print.

We’ll see if these become quilts. They might be the first fabrics run through the new cutter, and once they’re cut, it’s silly not to sew them up.

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Speaking of the cutter, I got a shipment notification from Accuquilt. The items I ordered should arrive here in the middle of next week. I haven’t yet had an opportunity to play with the new cutter because I need what is in those orders. I am going to have to move the cutter, though, because it’s high time I started sorting tax paperwork.

I also want to make myself another waxed canvas cross-body bag—the Metro Hipster is nice, but I need something just a tad bigger and easier to get in and out of. Unfortunately, AL Frances, the Etsy store where I have been buying my waxed canvas, has fallen way behind on stocking new inventory. They became very popular very quickly (their product is excellent!), and I wondered if something like this would happen. I wouldn’t be surprised if much of their time now is spent filling wholesale orders for custom bagmakers. Their Etsy store lists barely a third of the waxed canvas stock they had when I started buying from them.

Robert Kaufman (the company that brings you Kona) offers Waxer Canvas, which is similar, but in a much more limited range of colors. I also hesitate to buy waxed canvas that was produced outside the US (especially in China), because who knows what kinds of toxins might be in the wax? I don’t think I’m being paranoid about that.