#I love the local quilt shop!

[tj-crochets]

Crafting update: - the scrap quilt top is done but I've made zero progress on actually quilting it - I did get to the local quilt shop to get some batting this weekend though! - I also got some fabric. Shrinking my fabric stash is going...not great lol (it's super cute fabric though and I am excited) - I made a Large Mothman plushie body! it still needs wings, eyes, antennae, and maybe arms, but it's coming along - I also made chicken and dumplings! with extra veggies because there were veggies in the fridge to use up - I'm working on crocheting some scarves, because my brother learned to crochet and wants to make the whole family matching scarves for christmas but there's a lot of us and it's a short timeline so I'm making some of them too

[bevanne46]

How to Build a Fabric Stash without Breaking the Bank

Fabric can be expensive but it doesn’t have to be.  If you are not stuck on Name Brands or Specialty Fabric Store Exclusives here are some ways to build your fabric stash without costing an arm and a leg. I have made many beautiful quilts using various fabrics from various supplies. And I believe that the quality is not just in the fabric you use but also in your stitch work and seams sizes. If your seams are less than a ¼” they will not hold (personally I prefer to use a ½” seam allowance). If you are not securing your thread ends, your stitch work is going to come undone. So be sure to watch these things too.

Look for fabric at your local Thrift Store (Goodwill, Value Village, etc.)

I have found some wonderful fabrics in various sizes, notions, storage items and more at my local Thrift Stores. I have even found unfinished quilt tops that I have brought home and added a backing to then quilted. Remember that almost any size fabric remnant can be added to other remnants to make some wonderful scrappy quilts so save your own remnants after making a quilt, you may be able to use it later in another quilt.

Look for local Fabric Sales held by Quilting Guilds in Your Area.

We have 2 near me every summer.One charges $2 per pound for any fabric. The second one charges $2 per yard for any fabric. Both also sell batting, notions, books, machines, tools, and more.

Look for fabric on Facebook Marketplace, Nextdoor and other sites.

I sell extra fabric on Marketplace and Nextdoor. I have also found several ladies near me selling fabric that I have purchased. And some I have purchased with shipping to me.

Look for older 100% Cotton Sheets at your local Thrift Stores.

Back in the 1800’s and early 1900’s, Quilts were not show pieces. They were real functional blankets that were made from any and all fabrics they could get, usually used clothing. I think there is no reason why we cannot still do that instead of buying expensive fabrics. I have often used clothing, sheets, curtains, and other linens to make some wonderful, usable quilts. And there are some wonderful patterns you can use for quilts in bedsheets from the 1980’s and 1990’s. Note: I always wash anything from a Thrift Store before I use it.

Watch for Fabric Sales and Coupons for Joanns, Hobby Lobby and other Fabric & Craft Stores.

I know some quilters believe that the fabric from Joanns & Hobby Lobby is poor quality but I have not found any bad fabric from these stores.  We do not have a “Quilting” store close to me and because I’m handicapped, I will not drive an hour or more just to buy expensive fabric.  If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to afford to quilt.  I will also buy fabric from Walmart but I am more careful with my selection there as most fabric at Walmart is good but I have had one or two pieces that I felt were poorer quality.

Watch for Fabric Sales and Coupons for your Local Quilt Shop.

Quilt shops will also have occasional sales and/or coupons so if you prefer to shop at these locations take notice of when they have sales. Also ask if they ever give discounts to seniors or military.

Use New or Older Clothing.

I have made a lot of beautiful Memorial Quilts from a loved one’s clothing and T-Shirt quilts. I will use jeans, work shirts, uniforms, flannel, cotton, polyester and even some knits.  These can be a little trickier to work with because they are often stretchy fabrics but they will add a wonderful texture and visual variance to your quilts.  I recently found a pair of cotton pants with Mickey Mouse on them. I fell in love with them because they were so colorful, and I love bold colors. I found several other cotton fabrics that matched the colors in the Mickey pants and made a bold colorful quilt!

Rethink Your Backing Fabric

No one ever said your quilt backing had to be all New Cotton. You can use Fleece, Flannel or Bed Sheets as well. On many occasions I have found some wonderful fleece blankets on clearance and used these for my quilt backing.  Joanns right now has a great clearance sale on Flannel fabric. The best part about using some of these is that you can get then in a wider width so you may be able to make your backing in all one piece instead of 2 or more like when using regular cotton (unless you want your backing to be in various colors/patterns).  You can also use new or older cotton bed sheets for a quilt backing. Again, you can make your quilt backing in one solid piece with a sheet!

Check the Clearance Section for Your Favorite On-Line Stores

I have several on-lines stores that I love to shop from (e-Quilter, Missouri Star, etc.) but sometimes they can be expensive so I always check the clearance section of these stores. There are times I will find some beautiful fabrics on clearance so will purchase it then look for matching piece everywhere else so I can get the best deals. Also check for on-line sales from Joanns, Hobby Lobby and other on-lines stores that sell fabric and/or sheets.

Check Out Your Local Garage, Moving and Estate Sales

I have found some of the best deals at moving and estate sales because often the seller is willing to bargain with you. I once found an estate sale where a family was selling off all their mother’s quilting and sewing items because she had passed away and none of then sewed. There was more fabric and notions than I would have used in a year so I found lots of thread and items I purchased at a great price.

Note on Batting

I know that many quilters believe that the only batting you should use is expensive cotton batting. I disagree.  There are many forms of batting. Cotton/Poly blends, Polyester, and Fleece. I love cotton batting but cotton will break down quicker than polyester and I want my quilts to last a lifetime so for most of my quilts I actually use Polyester more often than not. I have taken the backing off many older quilts to do repair work and the cotton batting inside was all balled up and a real mess.

Now when I am doing the Quilt-as-you-Go method I use a Fleece batting. The fleece can be cut into smaller pieces, fabric added to the top and then sewn back together to make wonderful quilts. And the batting doesn’t get stuck in my machine.

Shop Around for your batting to find the best deals. Sometimes Joanns has a sale on batting but the best price I have found so far has been Walmart on-line.  I can buy a 96” x 9 yard Bolt of Poly Batting for just $30 on Walmart on-line. This bolt will make 4+ quilts depending on the size of the quilt and I will have lots of left overs for smaller projects like pillows, etc.  For me the best part is that because it’s 96” wide, I don’t have to piece together my batting before I can sandwich my quilt!

[strange-august]

Tag Yourself as Aesthetics I resonate with

Changelingcore: Broken insect wings, wildflower meadows, catching tadpoles, lingering mist after it rains, wet shoes from the damp grass, the feeling of moss under your hands, collection of strange trinkets and objects, taking your stuffed animals on adventures, doodling on your clothes, busy hands, wading knee deep into a lake, screaming into the air to ease frustration, organizing and reorganizing your treasures, bird calls, animal howls, digging in the mud, chewing on your lip until it bleeds, bruises and scrapes, the urge to live in the woods and never return to regular society, knotted hair, forest shrines, putting flower blossoms in your hair, flooded swampy areas, jumping from short cliffs

Suburban Gothic: Hot muggy air sticking to your skin, the buzz of florescent lights, flickering street lights, budget popsicles, late night drug store visits, muffled arguments, an old clock ticking, guady wallpaper, gossamer curtains, dusty cotton sheets, faded quilts, dog barkings, milkshakes in an empty diner, broken windows and graffiti, abandoned train tracks, 24/7 laundromats, rusty swingsets, shadowy silhouettes, semi-abandoned malls, sounds of far off traffic and train horns, driving around at night while soft music plays on the radio, tv static, junk yards and pick-n-pulls, holding hands with a stranger, urban legends, varsity jackets, broken glass on the road, crumbling buildings, local television channels

Cuddle Party: Excited giggles and hushed whispers, condensation on drinkware, running through an empty field hollering and whooping in the dead of night, sitting on the porch in rocking chairs, drunken "I love you"s, old cartoons, classic disney movies, five dollar pizza and breadsticks, singing out loud in the car, finding new places to explore, county fairs and arcade visits, eating fair food and screaming your lungs out on rides, trying to earn as many tickets at the arcade and still winning cheap prizes, being the last one to fall asleep, casually sleeping all together in the same bed, holding hands in crowds, if one of us isn't having a good time none of us are, wondering how long these days will last

Cryptid Academia: Listening to video essays while sketching cryptids, exploring abandoned buildings (legally and illegally), pocket knives, blackout curtains, newspaper clippings, viewing the night sky through a telescope, visiting natural history or science museums, old typewriters, info dumping conspiracy theories on friends, making plans to investigate that never come to fruition, tearing yet another hole into your clothes climbing over fences, shoddily patched up clothes, keychains and aluminum pins, novelty socks, analog watches, Buzzfeed Unsolved, cryptid podcasts, sprint training so you can outrun whatever is chasing you, rubiks cubes, sore fingers from mending, thrift shopping, essays only about cryptids

Desertwave: Billowing winds, sandstorms, wind chimes and suncatchers, succulents in handmade clay pots, aloe vera plants on the kitchen windowsill, the distant howl of a coyote, faded winnebagos, the soft hiss of patio misters, campsites and trailer parks, large rock formations covered in graffiti, picking up trash, the crackle of a bonfire, cacti and joshua trees in the backyard, never getting the sand completely out of your shoes, dusty clothes, laying in a hammock watching the stars, water balloon fights, hot springs, mexican ice cream bars, rocky desert mountains, plots of sand and plants that stretch on as far as the eye can see

[snowfolly]

✨Prepare for an unsolicited info dump✨

I was tagged by @vixstarria , thanks so much for the tag friend!

• Do you make your bed?: well, I kind of just roll up the quilt/sheets so that it covers the bed but it always looks like shit lol.

• Favorite number: 7

• What’s your job?: I have.. a few of them. I do contract graphic design work for a local publishing company, I’m an artist and design my own T shirts/stickers and also do commissions - I love my jobs :> (well aside from the publishing company that one sucks)

• If you could go back to school would you?: Hell no, I hated school 😂 no… I just had undiagnosed adhd and struggled to keep my shit together. I made decent grades bc I always seemed to find a way to finagle things and make it work (mostly), but yeah the only thing I liked about it was meeting my best fren in college.

• Can you parallel park?: Ain’t no way. I’m a good driver for the most part but I can’t parallel park or back up into spaces for love nor money.

• Do you think aliens are real?: I’m positive that in the vast expanse of space there are many other intelligent beings but I don’t think they’re coming to earth. I’ve seen UFO’s multiple times in my life (with other ppl they can back me up lol) but tbh I just think it’s secret human technology that we plebs could not possibly fathom.

• Can you drive a manual car?: NAH

• What’s your guilty pleasure?: Good god I should feel guilty about all my pleasures but I reckon it’d be chugging Coke Zero and (7 times out of 10) staying up waaay too late for any responsible adult to be staying up.

• Tattoos?: I have 3, snowflakes on my right ankle (bc I’m a special snowflake but no actually I just really love snow lol), a pair of small wings (that I drew/had tattooed on me when I was 19) on my left shoulder and a garbage heap that was supposed to be the start of a back piece with a spine/roots that was tattooed far too deep (it’s scarred all to hell), crooked and ruined me of ever wanting another tattoo again lol. Seriously… it’s awful. (But I do want to get some small fandom tattoos one day)

• Favorite color?: I’m an edgelord so my favorite color is black (I know it’s a shade not a color)… color wise I guess probably purplish colors

• Favorite types of music?: Neoclassic/classical Instumental is what makes my soul sing, but alternative folksy music and varying degrees of ‘rock’. Post mortem themes are a plus (edgelord)

• Do you like puzzles?: sometimes, when my brain cooperates!

• Any phobias?: oh god… yeah. Worms/centipedes/ maggots, claustrophobia, games with underwater elements (thanks Ecco the dolphin for that irrational lifelong fear), mouse/rat traps (it’s the snapping), things cutting my hands/feet, ripping off a nail, lots of bugs in one space, calling people on the phone

• Favorite childhood sport: LOL

• Do you talk to yourself?: I have adhd and work from home, so yes, nonstop. I also talk to myself when I’m shopping (I judge everything very hard ok, the items and prices — they need commentary)

• What movies do you adore?: I don’t watch a lot of movies (adhd) and I’m not super fond of any of them aside from the LOTR movies and like… slingblade (for the quotes)

• Coffee or tea?: I love coffee but it doesn’t love me (and low acid/caffeine coffee just doesn’t hit the same) but I also drink liquid death tea nonstop so I guess Tea wins lol.

• First thing you wanted to be when growing up?: A paleontologist lol… then just an artist.. damn I dreamed so big, so bold

No pressure tagging @ollysoxisfree @littol-rascal @shanaraharlyah @jellymellydraws and anyone who wants to do the thing!

[creations-by-chaosfay]

As requested, here are pictures of some fabrics from my stash. These are the fabrics that stand out and aren't used as background. Others can double as background though. I won't photograph everything because, even as small as my stash is, it's still a lot. I didn't photograph fabrics already pulled for quilts I plan to make, nor my precuts because that's a lot of fat quarters. If you pay me to take pics of those, I might reconsider.

Remember, when you commission me, I will go to the local quilt and fabric shops to purchase fabric if I don't have what I need I my stash. Want something with a sunflower theme? I don't currently have that fabric, but I can acquire it.

This will be a long post, and I need to reblog multiple times to get all the pics in.

There are several metallics hereand one fabric collection.

A collection is fabric made to go together.

A few random rainbows. Because I love rainbows.

Butterfly prints never fail to catch my attention.

Funny and cute prints, especially when they involve cats, will always draw me in.

I'm really looking forward to cutting these up. They're gonna look sooooo cool!

Asian fabrics are another favorite.

[the-laridian]

Repostober 29

(2021) Apocalypse Quilt and matching Apocapillows.

I love these "apocalypse" fabrics and was thrilled to find a reasonably priced fat quarter bundle of them. The background was bought at a local quilt shop.

This is very much in my "someday I will finish this for myself" queue. 

I still have some yardage of the fabrics, I just don't know what to use them for - plus there's a bad case of "they're so cool, I can't cut them up" going on XD

[lifeisstrange-incorrectquotes]

Frank: Listen. Don't talk to me like I'm some kinda fuckin' chump, alright? Because I'm not. I'm a businessman. A family man. Man of the people, man of the church. Man of the country. I'm a patriot, a veteran. A man of God, a missionary... a postman.

Frank: I work at Jamba Juice, okay? My dog is spayed. I've got letters ready for me at the notary republic. I know a cobbler. I make my own quilts. Love beans. I shop locally. I, uh, I support local causes.

Frank: I take a cruise ship every three months. I wear reading glasses. Uh, my daughter has braces and my eyebrows are shaved. My friends are all geese. I live in a house. I have a head. My clothes are all combustible. My medicine is over the counter, except for one prescription.

Frank: I, uh... I have a shirt that reads "If you don't like me, go fuck your mother." I, uh, am inside of the Matrix. I live in a home with no windows.

Frank: I have lasers inside my brain. There's a shark in my bathroom. My dog sleeps in my bed with me. I have a mouse under the rug. My friends are all dead. I went to India once. I like bowling.

Frank: So don't talk to me like I'm some kinda fuckin' chump, alright? Because I'm not.

[20dollarlolita]

Picking quilt prints to use in lolita fashion

You're going to find different opinions on if you can use quilt fabric for handmade lolita fashion. Some say that it's fine, and some say it'll never work. The actual answer is really simple: you can definitely absolutely sometimes in some applications use some quilt prints, maybe.

Aren't we glad we've cleared things up?

One of the difficult things about using quilting fabrics in lolita fashion is that prints that read really well in a quilt do not always read very well in a garment. Quilts are made up of small squares of fabric, usually somewhere between 12" (30cm) and 2" (5cm) on a side. This means that a lot of quilt prints are meant to have the majority of the print contained within that small space.

Garments, on the other hand, especially lolita skirts, have very large amounts of fabric in them. I cut a lot of skirts at about 88", or twice the full width of the fabric. When some patterns repeat every 7" or so, it starts looking boring or muddy when it's gathered up into a big lolita skirt.

Quilts also are generally viewed from up close. The backing of a quilt is a large expanse of fabric. However, it's also usually only viewed from a couple of feet away, the distance between a person and their bed or their lap. If someone is viewing my skirt at the same distance that they're viewing a quilt, they are much too close to me.

This is about prints, but I'm going to include a couple of fast tips about quilt fabric. 1) If you're making a garment with quilt fabric, lining is not optional, even in skirts. 2) If at all possible, when you're still learning how to spot good lolita quilt prints, go to a physical store. Ideally, see if you can go to a quilt store with a lot of prints and a lot of collections. Just like how we need certain scales of print for our garments, quilters need different scales of prints for different applications in the quilt. Quilt collections have coordinated fabrics with several different scales, so if you find a fabric that you love and that just plain won't work, you have other options of related fabrics. For what it's worth, most quilt stores can get you higher quality prints for less than you pay for them at Green Craft Store and other similar fabric places. Your local quilt store can't necessarily match Green Store's $5/yard thingies but they'll have pieces comparable to Green Store's $18.99 prints, but for $12.99. If you find the perfect

So, let's break into the main thing about working with quilt prints for lolita fashion: how well does any given fabric look when a large chunk of it is viewed at a distance. Shopping in a physical store is great for this, because you can see the scale close up.

We're going to talk about motif prints (prints with things on them, like animals or food or plants) instead of geometric things like polka-dots or stripes. There's plenty of existing images for how to work those things into a dress, so I'm going to jump in to the more complex element of picking detailed prints.

If a fabric can work largely depends on four components: how large the motif is, how far away the motifs are from each other, how the motifs are laid out on the fabric, and color palette/contrast.

This print, while cute, is something that I won't use. It does fine in one of the categories, and not fine in three of them.

Motif size in this case is how big the dresses on the print are. Here, you can compare them to my thumb. What size of motif you have is going to depend on your garment. A headbow, which is much smaller than a skirt, might need a small motif, so that you can see all of it in the finished piece. A skirt can use a much bigger motif, since it's a very large space, and the whole motif will be visible. These dress motifs on that pattern are large enough to show on a skirt, but small enough to be visible on a bodice. This is a motif of a usable size.

Motif spacing is the one that's going to kill most print spaces. Let's look at how much space there is between the dresses. There's pretty much none. There's a few filler patterns in between, which clutter up the space a little bit. However, look at just the dresses in the print. While this condensed space works really well in a quilt block, they don't have any breathing room.

On a lolita print, we often have more space between the motifs than we have motif. This is very hard to find in a quilt print, but remember that it's the look we're going for. Another element of motif spacing is how much fabric you go through before the motif repeats. If we use the dress with the yellow bodice as our reference point, we can see that it repeats twice in the 22" of fabric that we can see. This isn't too close together, but keep in mind that a fabric that repeats the print every 10" is going to have the same print motif a lot when it's on a skirt.

Motif alignment is just taking into account that garments are inherently directional. Your dress has a distinct top and bottom. You can't put on your socks upside-down or wear your blouse with the collar around your waist. Because clothes have a top and a bottom, prints that are intended to be viewed from any angle often look like part of them is upside-down when you use them in a garment. If we make a dress out of this dress fabric, half the dresses will be flipped.

Color palette is how many different colors there are in the fabric, as well as how close they are to each other on the color wheel, how much contrast there is between the lightest and darkest shades of each color, and the colors in general. For this print, we have a lot of colors: teal, yellow, pink, white, and a little bit of green and brown.

When we plot those colors on a color wheel, we see that the colors aren't particularly close. We have two of the most dominant colors being directly opposite on the color wheel. While it's totally okay to have complementary colors in your print, when both of them are dominant colors, the print can start to read as muddy when you look at it from far away. You don't need to plot every print on the color wheel, but it's a good way to show where the colors fit.

So, let's just look at a bunch of fabrics, and how I feel they do and don't work for lolita fashion. Some of this is just kind of my opinion. Some of these would look okay with good styling, and some wouldn't look okay unless there's good styling. But let's jump in.

Here's some small prints with geometric repeats. I like the teal one for lolita. Even though you can't really see the details from a distance, you can see the geometric stripe pattern. When you get a little closer, you can see the pattern, and the motif there is a nice lolita-applicable concept. I grabbed the one on the right because I thought it reminded me of a skirt by The Black Ribbon, but when I looked it up, it didn't look at all like that. That said, it still looks okay from a distance. The color reads as green, and isn't muddy or ugly. You get a little bit of geometric texture from a distance, and you can see the motif when you're a little closer.

Here's some that don't work. While the cupcakes and the teapots are both nice ideas, and we love cupcakes and teapots in lolita prints, they're not in a good presentation here. The teapot fabric has the teapots so close together that you can't actually tell what they are from a distance. The cupcakes are also very tightly packed together, making it hard to tell what the image is. Look at the cupcakes with the light brown swirl on the top, and look at how many times you can see it in this one image. The fruit is another example of the repeat being too close together, as well as having a bad color palette. You can see how many times the red fruit repeats, as well as how the red and green right next to each other doesn't read well from a distance.

Not sure why I stuck these four in the same collage, but let's go. Up top, we have some fabrics that don't work due to color palette and texture. Some of these are actual rainbows, and the way they're arranged gives them the feeling of movement. When this is on a garment, it starts making your eyes tired. In lolita fashion, we don't want people to be exhausted just looking at us. The gray one would just read as kind of messy and dirty, since the print is a more grunge print. The ones on the shelf also have the same problem of either having too many colors that are too far apart on the color wheel, or having really irregular patterns that would read as dirty or messy.

This coffee one is something that I really want to work, but the print spacing kills it. On the left, we can see that the standing coffee lady three times in a single 11" square. Also, between every large motif is a lot of filler text. Sadly, this just reads as a mess from a distance. This would be a lot more usable if we could delete all the "it's coffee time!" text. As far as fabrics go, it's not the worst on this list, but it's not ideal.

The blue fabric at top left is a good choice! You can see how much space is between each flower. It's a nice, empty space, and it reads well when you gather the top up. I'd wish that it'd have more detail in the print, so the flowers could look better up close, but I went through so much fabric here and it was nice to find one that felt good.

Top right, we have two small motif fabrics, with very different spacing. When you look at both of them from a distance (bottom right), you can see how the one on the black background reads more yellow than black, and the one on the white background reads as dots on a white background. This is just something to keep in mind when you're looking at motifs.

On the bottom left, we have two prints that have some color palette issues. The green one has some lovely leaves that could work in some more classical applications, but it doesn't look good from a distance. All of the green shades are very close together, without a really dark shade to make the shapes distinct from a distance. The butterfly one also doesn't have enough dark colors to look good from a distance.

Here's a nice example of why shopping at places that have collections is a nice idea. This line has an all-over pattern with bird's nests, and a border fabric with a much larger print. If we stacked these two, we'd have a nice print on our hem, without the large print being too big for a bodice. The bird nest fabric has a more wide print spacing than some other prints. While I wouldn't use it as a standalone fabric, it works well when paired with the print. The extra-large scale of the border fabric helps the all-over fabric look more spaced out.

These terrifying baby animals with too long of eyelashes would feel like it wouldn't do too well as a dress. The print is nice for a skirt, but kind of big for a bodice. There's a lot of colors here: orange, gray, green, yellow, pink.

However, there ARE dresses that use horizontal stripes all over, which have mostly this color scheme. The pop of green is unusual, but not unheard of. This is one of those ones that is going to need some really careful styling. This is also why it pays off to window shop and make lists of things you do and don't like in lolita fashion.

This one is pretty damn adorable, and it's got a wider spacing than most prints, but you would have to figure out how to come to terms with the fact that no matter how you cut it, some teacups will be upside-down.

If you can find some border prints, definitely consider them! Most premade lolita print dresses and skirts are made of a border print fabric. This geometric metallic print isn't an ideal example of a border print for lolita fashion, but it does demonstrate the different ways that motif spacing can work. If you look at the very center of the fabric, you'll see that the little motifs have a huge amount of space between them. This is more the spacing that we want for many of our pieces. At the bottom, they're all packed together, and in the middle, they're spaced out like most quilt prints are. It's okay to have a lot of detail on the hem of your skirt. The petticoat holds the print out and makes it more visible. If the print is just at the hem, it doesn't overwhelm the whole piece, even if is much closer spaced than you'd want in the area around your waist.

So, let's get some basic guidelines for buying quilt prints for lolita fashion:

a) How much of the background color of the fabric can you see? To make sure you're getting good spacing, you want to see a lot of background.

b) How many times does a part of a print show up in a 10" square? Is there a big, notable piece that shows up multiple times in your sample space? Watch out.

c) Can you determine what's right-side-up and what's upside-down on this fabric? If there's highly directional motifs, you don't want your garment to always look like it's on wrong.

d) how much does this look like fabric used in extant lolita pieces? If you get this fabric, are there references available for how to style it? It never hurts to have some references for what you're trying to make!

And now, a quick reminder about buying fabric: quilt fabric shrink, maybe a lot. It often comes with a sizing on it, which makes it easier to quilt with, but harder to determine what the fabric will really look like. Having worked in Green Store for almost five years, I can assure you that I've never personally seen their quilt fabric shrink more than 10" in width when it was first washed. I'll leave a significant pause after that statement and let you fill in some blanks. Some cheaper quilt fabric will shrink a whole lot, or lose pigment, or really change feel when you wash them. Some expensive fabrics will do the same. I really recommend doing a prewash with liquid fabric softener on the first wash. I know a lot of people hate fabric softener, but you only need to do it once per project. If you don't mind smelling like pickles and reducing the longevity of your garment, you can use white vinegar instead of fabric softener. Just get that sizing out and pre-shrink your fabric so that you know what you're working with.

As a final note: the more you actually transform some fabric into a garment, the more you're going to learn about how to do it. We all have things we look back on and wish we changed. Don't let your fear of it being imperfect stop you from making the thing you want to make. It will be imperfect. It will always be imperfect. Everything is imperfect. We learn when we make decisions that weren't ideal. You will learn when you try.

Some old posts from this blog that are related: Print Scale from 2018, and A Quick Guide to Prints from 2015 (Which, yes, was actually photographed with a potato. I believe that camera was 2.1 megapixels).

[msweebyness]

Akuma/Theater Kids Mother’s Day Plans

Howdy y’all! This is what I imagine the Akuma Class and the Theater Kids did for Mother’s Day! For background, you can look at my Akuma and Theater Class families! @imsparky2002 @artzychic27

Marinette sewed a beautiful new Hanfu for Sabine and they got dinner at her favorite restaurant. She also went on a motorcycle ride around Paris with Gina.

Alya, Nora and the twins spent all day in the kitchen cooking an entire Martiniquan banquet for Marlena. Alya also made a montage of photos and videos with her mom for her personal blog.

Nino made a mix of all of Margie’s favorite songs and he and Chris made her favorite dessert. Well, they tried to…

Chloe stole Audrey’s credit card and went on a shopping spree with Zoe.

Sabrina and Tanya went on a mother-daughter shopping trip and got dinner together.

Juleka and Luka treated Anarka (with help from the rest of Kitty Section) to a performance of a bombastic heavy metal version of Drunken Sailor, and they all slept on the deck under the stars.

Rose cleaned the entire house for Lily and arranged a beautifully decorated tea party for the two of them in the backyard.

Kim and his sisters took Mai to an indoor extreme sports facility…and she proceeded to completely kick her children’s asses.

With Markov’s help, Max made his mother an incredibly detailed digital holographic map of the known universe.

Alix and Salma went bungee-jumping before going to dinner and a pro-wrestling match.

Ivan (with help from his dad) made Galina a new bench for her garden, where she likes to sit and read. (it had the family’s names carved in Russian.)

Nathaniel painted a mural for Aya’s cafe of their whole family, and took his mother out for lunch.

Missy visited her mother’s grave and left flowers, sitting to talk to her for a while.

Jesse took Imelda to a local flower show, and they made dinner together. (Mylene also made a flower wreath and card for Imelda, because that woman is more of a mother to her than her own ever was.)

Ayesha made a hand-drawn animation for Megan as card outlining the reasons why she loved her.

Dot and Dolores spent the day helping Enid reorganize the house.

Petra and her godmother went to a pottery studio together, making gifts for each other and for Petra’s dads.

Roxie took Rydel to a concert for a band she loved, who happened to be performing in Paris.

Anthony bought Sylvie a basket of all her favorite teas and they had a horror movie marathon.

Candace and Sandra had a mother-daughter spa day.

Eri and Ryuji took Sasami to a showing of one of her childhood favorite plays, and after that they all gave each other makeovers.

Staci and Yumei just went out on a walk around Paris, doing whatever they felt like.

Margo and Dagny spent the entire day baking and doing crafts together.

Brecken and his sisters made a quilt with treasured family pictures for Rachel and spent the day helping Annie at the shelter.

Soo-Yeon, like Alya, spent all day making Mi Cha’s favorite foods, and after that, they played one-on-one basketball in the backyard.

Parker and Cissy did a mother-daughter obstacle course and went to the gym together.

Mona and Bindi had a movie night and bought all the junk food they could possibly eat.

Evie wrote and performed a song for Carolina, with parts for each of her siblings.

Eloise and Chet had a gaming session with Roerva, who’s actually better than both of them.

Anais took Olive out for dinner and got her a card. Their mother isn’t one for big gestures of affection.

Ondine and her brothers made the mistake of trying to make Haggis like Elsie’s mother would, but…they ended up just ordering a pizza and watching a movie.

Happy Mother’s Day, ya’ll! Shout out to my mom, who is the best! Leave your thoughts in the comments and reblogs!

[mirith]

I went to a yarn store!! My local store closed last fall and the nearest one to me is an hour away and is mostly for sewing/quilting. Their yarn selection is very small and limited. So I just haven't been to a yarn store in a while.

Going to knit a Prismarine (pattern on ravelry by Alina Appasova, app won't paste the link in) scarf with this! They had a pretty sample in the store and I'm excited too see how these colors knit up.

Do not ask me how much I spent. My boyfriend guessed $45, and said "oh no" when I replied, "I wish".

This one was beautiful! It's Three Kittens Needle Arts. Near Minneapolis. (was visiting for work so I'm not sure how to be more specific, Google says Mendota Heights?).

It's large and has so many yarns and samples of things. Nicely organized. Big table for classes or people to drop by and knit. Lots of books and notions. And it was busy!! On a Tuesday morning!

It made me wish I had a LYS still. Decades ago my town had five. One by one, they closed. The last one to go was the only one I had known, having moved into town almost ten years ago. And now that's gone too.

I don't think the lady working at the Minneapolis shop understood my excitement to touch yarn. She probably thought I was a bit weird. Whatever. I love yarn, what can I say.

[tj-crochets]

Hey y’all! I have another kind of weird question for you. I’m weirdly feeling kind of homesick for like fast food chains from the west coast that aren’t on the east coast, and I’m especially missing being able to get decent like meat-and-rice bowls from a variety of places East coast/southern US people, do you have any recommendations for good chain restaurants* that are not available in California? (for people who weren’t here for my “oh no I’m moving how do I handle cold” posts, I moved from California to Tennessee last year) It does not have to be places with rice bowls, that’s just the main thing I’m missing. Well, that and good burritos?  *I do eat at small local places when I can, but I have uncommon allergies and it’s frequently easier for me to get an accurate ingredients list from a chain restaurant because they have a customer service division. Also it’s hard to get recommendations for local places without specifying exactly where I am lol

[roo-bastmoon]

Remembering Nana today...

Interestingly enough, it was my 93-year-old grandmother who sort of led me to BTS. Today is the second anniversary of her passing, and my rambles about that are under the cut.

So, just to give you a visual: my Nana was a lot like Rose from the Golden Girls but, like, not in any way a ditz. She was a very practical Capricorn, but she looked and spoke a lot like Betty White from that show.

Nana practically raised me. I spent literally every weekend with her, from the day I was born until my parents divorced and we moved away when I was 13. Every Friday, my folks would drop me off at her apartment, and she'd make me homemade mac and cheese for dinner and vanilla ice cream for dessert (I did NOT like to try new things). Then we'd watch Full House, Perfect Strangers, Golden Girls, and Empty Nest on TGIF. After that, it would be bath time and bed.

Fun side note: I was an extremely independent and stubborn only child. So I always insisted on bathing myself. Not wanting me to drown on her watch, Nana would sit in the bathroom with me and read me poetry while I played with my Tub Town toys. But the poetry would always be the most macabre stuff--like The Spider and the Fly, or The Wreck of the Hesperus. I am not saying I was scarred for life by this, but I'm also not saying I'm normal, either.

Anyway, those were our Friday nights. On Saturdays we'd get up at the crack of dawn to go flea marketing with her two younger sisters. She would give me $1 to spend on my "trashy treasures" -- but it was the 80s, so I could make it stretch. After that, we'd all go to a buffet lunch. Then she'd take me in the afternoons to the local library, where I would pick my books for the week.

Another side note: My parents were not big on buying toys, but I could have any books I wanted. As a young kid, I used to take a flashlight and hide in the bathtub at night so I could read past bedtime. I figured I was being super sneaky because they couldn't see the light coming from that room. But we lived in a tiny house with only one bathroom, so of COURSE they knew. Mom told me years later that they thought it was funny I was being rebellious by secretly reading YA novels in the bathroom when I was in elementary school. Nana, of course, let me stay up as late as I wanted to read. I digress.

As the years passed, even when I went out of state and the country for school, or moved across America to take jobs, Nana and I emailed every day, called once a week, kept in constant touch. When I moved back to my home state 13 years ago, I sort of became her caregiver and weekend companion.

This time it was my turn on the weekends to make her food, take her shopping, drive her around, get her books from the bookmobile. She raised me, and then for 10 years, I took care of her.

I loved my Nana. She was funny and soft-hearted and well read, but she grew up *dirt poor* and never got to see the world except through books and the TV, so she was always very humble and a bit shy. She loved me so much--she was the only person in the world who would listen to me drivel on about anything, and still be interested.

At 93-years-old, she died of a sudden heart attack on August 30, 2021. Emergency personnel were with her in her apartment, so she wasn't alone or in pain very long, but I couldn't get to her fast enough to say goodbye. Mom and I identified her later, at the hospital.

I am grateful she had a long life, and didn't suffer, and wasn't alone. But my family is very, very small. Just Nana and Mom and me. And after the whirlwind of taking care of her funeral and packing up her apartment and donating everything, suddenly there was just all this free time--these empty hours I usually filled taking care of Nana.

I just was so lost.

I started trying to read, or quilt, or watch movies. I got into some K dramas for a bit. Nothing really interested me. Then I started watching dance compilations on YouTube before bed.

And one snowy December night, I found a Steezy video where Brian Puspos was reviewing Jimin's dance style. I had no idea what it was. It was like this weird impulse--as if someone moved my finger to hover over and click that video...

You cannot imagine how every nerve-ending woke up. My brain suddenly came online. (I was a semi-pro ballet dancer as a kid, and I knew the absolute second I saw Jimin that he was a master who trained relentlessly--nobody had to point it out to me.)

For the first time in months, I FELT something other than grief.

I watched every single video of him I could. I had no idea who BTS were, didn't know anything about Kpop. But eventually I found more videos, I listened to their songs, and later I discovered Jikook, and I made online accounts and I watched RUN episodes, and I got to go see Yoongi as my first-ever concert, and now I'm making my way through In the Soop and Bon Voyage.

In fact, pretty much every day since I discovered Jimin, I've been thinking about, learning about, and trying to support Jimin and the people Jimin loves.

Jimin and BTS got me through the grief at losing the person I loved most in the world. They saw me through uterine cancer, and the surgeries, and mourning the fact that I can never be a bio mom now. They got me through the medical tests and the chronic fatigue and pain I've had for the last 4 months.

I really love our boys. I may not understand or love everything about them or their company or their industry, but loving someone doesn't mean thinking of them as demi-gods; it means being loyal even as they grow past any flaws.

To be honest, I feel like I owe Jimin my life, in a way. I was in a really, really dark place a year and a half ago. Jimin was the only joy, the only reason to keep going (besides my mom and kitties, of course).

Now I own every digital release BTS has put out--the whole discography, even the skits. I try to vote on all the apps whenever I can, and stream on premium family bundle accounts for Spotify, YouTube, and Pandora; I also do free trials for Tidal and Qobuz. II've never done any of this stuff before, never been a fan of any musicians, but I really, truly do try to return the favor.

It's a bit hyperbolic to say they "saved me" because lots of people cope with grief and illness and loneliness and it doesn't mean they just throw in the towel.

But BTS helped me stop surviving, and made me want to really live.

Plus, even when I'm too sick to go out or call up my friends, I can always get on my phone and come here, to chat with my fandom friends. I don't know most of their real names or faces or anything about their real lives, but we all love BTS; we all talk about and work together for BTS.

Nana would have loved that. (She also would have let me talk her ear off every day about Jimin and Jikook and the Tannies because that was her love language.)

Is BTS a replacement for real, genuine human interaction? No. Of course not. It is, at the end of the day, a band. Not a life.

But it also feels like getting to know 7 people I'd be honored to be friends with, if we ever met. People I want to support so they can achieve all their dreams--because they always pay it forward, too.

I sometimes wonder if Nana guided my hand to click on that video that day. Maybe she was looking down at me and thought "Ah, this will be good for her. This will be healing."

Probably not, but still, I'd like to think that. I'd like to think it was Nana who led me to the Magic Shop.

I miss her. I love her. I still can hear her voice in my head every day.

But I'm gonna be okay. (The future's gonna be okay.)

There's still so much to look forward to and work to be done. Fighting!

[hunting-songs]

TYPES OF PEOPLE: Random Aesthetics

[ 13 | 24] Changelingcore: Broken insect wings, wildflower meadows, catching tadpoles, lingering mist after it rains, wet shoes from the damp grass, the feeling of moss under your hands, collection of strange trinkets and objects, taking your stuffed animals on adventures, doodling on your clothes, busy hands, wading knee deep into a lake, screaming into the air to ease frustration, organizing and reorganizing your treasures, bird calls, animal howls, digging in the mud, chewing on your lip until it bleeds, bruises and scrapes, the urge to live in the woods and never return to regular society, knotted hair, forest shrines, putting flower blossoms in your hair, flooded swampy areas, jumping from short cliffs

[ 13 | 29] Suburban Gothic: Hot muggy air sticking to your skin, the buzz of florescent lights, flickering street lights, budget popsicles, late night drug store visits, muffled arguments, an old clock ticking, guady wallpaper, gossamer curtains, dusty cotton sheets, faded quilts, dog barkings, milkshakes in an empty diner, broken windows and graffiti, abandoned train tracks, 24/7 laundromats, rusty swingsets, shadowy silhouettes, semi-abandoned malls, sounds of far off traffic and train horns, driving around at night while soft music plays on the radio, tv static, junk yards and pick-n-pulls, holding hands with a stranger, urban legends, varsity jackets, broken glass on the road, crumbling buildings, local television channels

[ 6 | 18] Cuddle Party: Excited giggles and hushed whispers, condensation on drinkware, running through an empty field hollering and whooping in the dead of night, sitting on the porch in rocking chairs, drunken "I love you"s, old cartoons, classic disney movies, five dollar pizza and breadsticks, singing out loud in the car, finding new places to explore, county fairs and arcade visits, eating fair food and screaming your lungs out on rides, trying to earn as many tickets at the arcade and still winning cheap prizes, being the last one to fall asleep, casually sleeping all together in the same bed, holding hands in crowds, if one of us isn't having a good time none of us are, wondering how long these days will last

[ 8 | 22] Cryptid Academia: Listening to video essays, exploring abandoned buildings (legally and illegally), pocket knives, blackout curtains, newspaper clippings, viewing the night sky through a telescope, visiting natural history or science museums, old typewriters, info dumping conspiracy theories on friends, making plans to investigate that never come to fruition, tearing yet another hole into your clothes climbing over fences, shoddily patched up clothes, keychains and aluminum pins, novelty socks, analog watches, Buzzfeed Unsolved, cryptid podcasts, sprint training so you can outrun whatever is chasing you, rubiks cubes, sore fingers from mending, thrift shopping, essays only about cryptids

[ 11 | 21] Desertwave: Billowing winds, sandstorms, wind chimes and suncatchers, succulents in handmade clay pots, aloe vera plants on the kitchen windowsill, the distant howl of a coyote, faded winnebagos, the soft hiss of patio misters, campsites and trailer parks, large rock formations covered in graffiti, picking up trash, the crackle of a bonfire, cacti and joshua trees in the backyard, never getting the sand completely out of your shoes, dusty clothes, laying in a hammock watching the stars, water balloon fights, hot springs, mexican ice cream bars, rocky desert mountains, plots of sand and plants that stretch on as far as the eye can see

[quiltffiti]

how did you get started quilting? i love ur stuff and i want to give quilting a go but i’m a little intimidated

I started by looking up blogs and tutorials on google-but what really got me going was attending events at my local quilting shop. Never underestimate the value of your local crafting community-most are more than happy to introduce you to the craft they love!

[ontheoutside-lookingin]

To-do in autumn 🍂🕯️🥧

🪡 Set up my sewing machine and sew. Alter and repair some clothes. Try to get my hands on a dress form. Maybe start a T-shirt quilt from the ones I will never wear but can’t bring myself to get rid of. Maybe make a pattern from one of my favorite dresses. Learn some new sewing skills. Etc

🎨 Draw. Or paint. Idfc. Create visual art and share it. Post it. Put it out in the world. Doodle a little graphic hydration reminder or some affirmations. Make some artist trading cards and find groups to trade. Look up some illustration tips.

🍞 Bake more. Bake things I’ve never baked. Use a lot of cinnamon because I’ve been looking forward to it all summer. Use more produce. Shop at the farmers market down the road. Buy more locally. Cook things I’ve never cooked. Try some crock pot recipes. Experiment with meal prep and anything I can freeze and reheat in portions. Share recipes more.

📖 Read more books read more books read more books read more books read more books read more books read more books read more books read more books read more books read more books read more books

🧘🏻‍♀️Take better care of my body. Stretch every morning and learn some yoga. Do calisthenics throughout the day, while I’m waiting for the microwave to beep or for water to boil, while I’m on the phone, during a commercial break, while brushing my teeth, any time I have a few seconds to spare. And in turn, rest more mindfully. Spend less time dopamine seeking and more time investing in myself.

🏡 Start turning my living space into a place I love to be. Invest in it. Get rid of about 60% of my belongings and give the other 40% a home. Konmari my whole life, or at least begin.

🧶 Finish the crochet projects my aunt commissioned from me a whole year ago now (huge shout out to her for paying me upfront but demanding that I do them at my own pace and relinquish any guilt over how long it takes!)

💞 Be easier to talk to. Be more approachable. Be a better listener. Be a safe space for my partner to unmask. Dig a little seeping in counseling sessions. Work on DBT skills and grousing exercises regularly and celebrate my own progress.

🕺🏻Dance and sing more. Get more comfortable. Alone in my kitchen, but maybe eventually, somewhere more public. Maybe eventually for some cash. Maybe find a drag mom someday.

💧Take more deep breaths and drink more water

[creations-by-chaosfay]

If any of y'all wanna give me an outstanding start to the weekend, and make my birthday awesome, please consider purchasing work from my shop. Tomorrow is the farmers market, and I would really love to get some locally made or grown goods.

I have quilt tops, finished quilts of various sizes and budgets, and digital downloads. Prices start at $0 USD and everything comes with option to pay more than my listed price.

There's also the option of a gift from my Throne list!

Thank you so much!!!