Stash Enhancement!

I have a confession to make! I bought 15 yards of fat quarters, yardage and two yukatas(lightweight summer komonos in cotton) from Japan. I did it and I'm shamelessly happy! My argument is that stash enhancement unleashes my creativity. The yukatas are stunning - I intend to unstitch them and make a full sized(queen) quilt using several more pieces that are winging toward me as we speak, combined with the indigo Kona cotton from http://www.equilter.com/ that is with it. I'm looking forward to this exercise.

Also shown are 4 yards of Jo Morton's "Fredericksburg" line in green - this is to top up my supply which has been dwindling. Since it's out of print I grabbed it while I could.

The fat quarters are a mix of Moda in the same colours as the 3 Sisters Chocolat line, and a good supply of plum fat quarters for my plum/smoky lavender stash and then some neutral, indigo and red civil war fabrics. A nice haul; keep an eye on this spot for what I will create from this great stash enhancement.

Above is a shot I took the other day just after it stopped raining for a moment. If you enlarge the picture you will even see the aphids on my hanging basket of nasturtiums - what do you do to get rid of them? Any suggestions? The view is toward the road in front of my house - you can't see it because the vegetation is so lush with all the rain.

We have been between a rock and a hard place for the last two weeks as one tropical storm lingered near Newfoundland and another beat its way up from the Carolinas. It has been muggy, foggy, too darned hot and impossible to dry laundry. The sun is weakly poking through finally, so maybe I'll get some laundry done tomorrow - I certainly hope so, otherwise I may have to resort to a laundromat and that doesn't bear thinking about as most of them are not air conditioned!

I'm sitting around alternately quilting and writing this post and finally getting my first coffee of the day into me at 5:30 PM. Wondered why I had a headache until I realized I was in coffee withdrawal. I left for town very early this morning so didn't bother, but hey - look at all the lovely stash that was waiting at the post office.

The last three pictures are of projects I've been working on recently. One is called Janet's Indigo Baskets and these are the trial blocks I just finished this afternoon. Doing a little happy dance because I thought I might have made an error but I haven't so I will go ahead and cut the rest of the blocks out in the morning. This one will be fun. I'm going to be posting it as a new project on http://www.simplequiltmaking.com/ as soon as possible.

This is the first block in another project for http://www.simplequiltmaking.com/ . It is called Civil War Friendship Stars and I have to finish up the rest of the blocks - they are cut out and I have a couple more of them pieced. The fat quarters to the left of the block are a sample of the fabric choices I'm using.More pictures later.

And finally, a corner of my quilt studio, showing several of the projects I have already posted on http://www.simplequiltmaking.com/ - full instructions are available to members. Check it out.

Now back to quilting some more on a sweet little vintage 1972 Paragon Hollie Hobby crib quilt kit I am finishing for my inventory and to display at the 10th Annual Quilts at the Harbour Show that is coming up in late September - will have a picture of it soon. Soft spot for it as my daughter was 2 years old in 1972 and had several Hollie Hobby dolls, nighties and so on.

Catch you all later - warm wishes and hugs!

Janet