Sewing memories

Most people who know me well (my kids and a few close friends), know that I can be a little obsessive at times,  not bad obsessive, but obsessive none-the-less.  When I discover a new passion, I tend to jump in with both feet, the arms, the legs, the whole body and soul.  So it's not unimaginable for me to over buy when I'm stocking up on supplies for my new found passion.  In fact I can be so overly obsessive that I can sew out of my stash for years without really putting much of a dent into the stash.

So where does - "Sewing memories" come into this all?  Good question!!  Most of my fabric buying trips are with friends and family.  Sometimes I buy all the fabric with a quilt in mind, like my daughter Sara's quilt from last year.  Sometimes the material is purchased a little bit here and a little bit there.

The picture to the right is my youngest grandchild after he was born almost 2 years ago.  His rag quit was finished shortly after he was born.  Most of the fabric was purchased on a trip to Salt Lake City, UT years before he was born.  You can't see the cats behind his head very well, but that was the first material I spied in the shop.

Last year, I finished up a rag quilt for my darling daughter (the youngest) that fits on a queen size bed, see the picture below.  I used something like 12 yards of flannel.  For a normal person they probably would have pretty well depleted their stash, me????? LOL - I still have enough to do the two quilts below (another 10 or so yards of fabric) and I still have lots and lots of flannel left for another project(s).  In fact I've probably used close to 40 yards of material from my stash without buying more.

The fabric below was purchased at a great shop in the Olympia area - Bayside Quilting, when I was in WA on business and then spent the weekend with a friend.  I can remember pulling the fabric - I loved the colors blues and green on one side and oranges and reds on the other.  You can see the red in-between the blues and greens and a few orange on top :)  So when I put this one together I got to remember a great weekend which ended in buying a second suitcase to take my fabric home in, won't go into how much I got on that trip, but the 12 yards in this quilt was only part of the weekend's purchases.






The blue baby quilt was fabric I got in KY at a shop that closed within a few years of being opened.  The lady who owned the shop was really a nice person, but not much of a business owner.   I got these fabrics at one of her last ditch sales to save her business, along with the blues I got some other fabric in the same design, but different color, which has been used for other baby quilts, or given away to friends who needed to supplement the material for a rag quilt.

I took a Thimbleberry class from her too maybe 2008 or 2009, can't remember which year.  Still working on that quilt, but hopeful it will be finished soon.  Moving the due date from end of 2012 to May 2013, which will be my son's birthday.  More to come on that as time goes on.

The material for the quilt above was purchased a little bit here, and little bit there.  Didn't buy it with the intension of putting it all together, but knew there would be more little boys in my future that needed to be kept warm on a winter day.  A lot of it was purchased as my oldest grandson went through various ages - there are trucks, space ships, bugs (does a little boy really ever get out that stage?) and dinosaurs.  So when I was pulling the material for this quilt, they all just seemed to go together, hoping that the quilt will grow with my grand nephew, he's less than a year now, but the great thing about flannel quilts is they get softer with use, so I encourage people to use them and wash them, they aren't meant to be put up, they are meant to be used.

One of these days I will actually sew a memory for me, but until then I will enjoy the shopping trips and then re-live the shopping trips when I sew them together.

Hope everyone either gets a sewn memory or makes a sewing memory for Christmas they year.  I know I'm sewing up a storm of memories :)  You will see the pillow cases hopefully by the end of next week.  Looking forward to a 4 day weekend!!  And then a trip to Let's Make a Deal with the people I work with, don't think I'll be chosen, not all that out going, but will try :)  Mama news a new car!!

Sandy