The Sewing Summit is next month! I found out about the conference last year. But only after it was over. So I was determined not to miss out this year. I set an alarm on my phone to buy a ticket and again set an alarm to register for classes. I got lucky and got six of my eight first choices!

And now I need to make a name tag, maybe a carry-on bag, and a fabric envelope. There are a lot of projects I could make, but I’m also taking two classes and JW is home with me all day. He’s a busy guy so we have full days.

What am I working on –

Dr. Seuss quilt

And three different hexagon projects, which are all moving along quickly! Here I just one, which I want to enter in the Craft Buds  Craft Book Month blog hop when the time comes.

After all the folding and organizing and putting fabric into boxes and on shelves, I finally was able to sew.

I wanted to make something I could finish, so I made a cathedral window pincushion, using the tutorial linked. The button is a polymer clay button made by Lisa Clarke of the Polka Dot Cottage. I think the button is perfect.

I bought a yellow flower button for the yellow, blue, and orange pincushion. I haven’t secured it to the pincushion yet, and both pincushions are still lying flat on a shelf.

Here is another pincushion – a triangle log cabin. I ended up misreading the pattern and cut my strips 1.5 inches rather then 1.25. A quarter of an inch really isn’t that much fabric but it does make a difference! If you follow the pattern, your pincushion will be six inches on each side, mine ended up larger at just over 7 inches. Clearly I need to go back to using my 1/4 inch foot if it’s just over.

In all of my folding and sorting, I picked a few fabrics to keep out of the larger, overall stash.

Native, cowboy, and western themed fabrics – I rarely pass up any fabric of this theme. Some of the Native fabrics are downright hilarious, and I have to have them.

I mean look at this! Little boys playing the guitar, singing, looking solemn, little girls smiling and dancing, and other little boys war whooping! Plus, headdresses and cactus’! If that’s not hilarious…

Mixing cultures is typical when it comes to Native products, which completely drives me (and so many others) crazy. It’s one reason I want to figure out fabric design. I want Native fabric that looks awesome, not hilarious.

Tone on tone fabrics, color on color. I love the look of these. On the top right is vintage sheet fat quarters, the bottom right is scraps or smaller pieces of white on white fabric.

This is a shelf on a ladder bookcase I have. From left to right: charm packs and fat eighths from Pink Chalk Studios Charming Solids monthly club, two linen fabrics, a stack of 30s fabrics, and fabric that matches the modern quilt guild colors. I bought the modern quilt guild fabrics a few months ago, when they announced a contest that included submitting a block. I still have until August to submit so I need to get on that!

Over the next month or so we’ll see if my current fabric storage system is going to work. I may need my fabrics out where I can see them, instead of in boxes on shelves. I hope it works out though, I don’t feel like I have much choice in our new place and just have to make do.

There are numerous blog posts and sites that detail how to organize your fabric, sorting it by color, size, fabric type, or collection. I took this move as the chance to organize my fabric. I knew it would have to be refolded and sorted and decided to use Jeni of In Color Order’s method – she has a series up called the Art of Choosing, after the first few views she really dives into color so the entire series is really great. I used the second video she did for the series, on folding fabric, which turned out to take quite a while. I knew I had a lot of fabric, but refolding and organizing your stash really shows how much you actually have!

A lot of my fabric was together either for a project or still together in the bundle it was purchased in. This pic is from instagram! I’ve mentioned it once, but if you are there, my user name is tsoniki.

I packed my fabric in plastic bins, “only” two were busted up in the move, but my fabric wasn’t harmed in any way.

Batiks! I am part of a batik club at a local quilt shop in Washington. I decided to stay a part of the club, they are going to mail me my fabric each month.

After I folded I organized using her organize your stash post. I decided to keep some fabrics separate from my overall stash. The batiks being one group.

Batiks in a box! I have a lot of my fabric in boxes like this, or small plastic bins. Right now, the batiks fit, but they won’t after a couple more months – unless I use a bunch up! Better get to sewing.

 More fabric pictures to come. 🙂

Here is Alice and a fast strip quilt!

I made this back in January, or around there. Rather than sewing the strips to each other and finishing in about 45 minutes (the last video I saw had someone finish in just over thirty minutes!), I added four and seven inch white rectangles. I had no idea how it would turn out, and I wonder if you can plan this? I am guessing not.

I think it looks great! This is a batik jelly roll that I have had for ages and didn’t know what to do with it. I needed something quick and easy, that I could say I was done with. This was the perfect project.