Supply vs. Demand

I remember trying to explain to my husband (then boyfriend) in 2010 why I had purchased the end of three bolts of fabric I happened to stumble across, just to turn around and sell it.  I told him, if I wanted to, I could probably get $40/yard for it.  I was paying $6/yard, it was found on the sale shelves at the back of the store.  It was Flea Market Fancy (FMF), the original.  He was astounded–”you mean, there is collectible fabric?!?”  Well, yeah, kind of.

I never bought any of the original FMF, when it was new and full price.  I never laid eyes on it until it was essentially sold out and “in demand” as an out-of-print, hard-to-find fabric.  I did have an original FQ bundle of Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries, but it got used up on a project(s) I wasn’t quite thrilled with and basically went to waste.  (Forgive me…)  I’ve seen fabric from both of these lines go for over $50/yard.  I did sell my bargain FMF fabric at a profit, but not that kind of profit. 

Do you plan to buy some of the Flea Market Fancy Legacy collection?  I haven’t decided.  The new colors seem very different from the originals, which was the primary quality of the original fabric that drew me, personally, in.  The original (photo courtesy of dsquilts.com):

The new (photo courtesy of Red Pepper Quilts):

The soft aqua blue seems to have more green in it, the grey is certainly a nice additon, but the greens are not the bright, unique greens of the original.  I understand, it’s a re-release, and it’s an updated version.  I get that.  Just not sure I’m as crazy about this one as I was the original.

Do you think the re-releasing of some of these lines of fabric (FMF Legacy Collection, the Mono-Pez prints by Moda, etc.) is going to pop-the-bubble, so to speak, in the high cost of OOT/HTF fabrics that we’ve witnessed over the last two or three years?  Or, because of the internet, blogs, flickr, etc., there will always be certain fabrics in high demand and short supply? 

p.s. for those of you annoyed by Blogger’s word verification for comments (I know, I find it ridiculous as well) I tried going 48 hours without word verification, the spam comments and moderating comments drove me mad–so word verification is back.  I’d love for you to leave comments anyway–painful as it may be.

Have you Heard?!

The Modern Quilt Guild will be holding its first conference next February (a year from tomorrow!) in Austin, Texas!  Please check the website to find out about all of the wonderful things that will be happening at QuiltCon.

Stash Management

Last week’s post led to some great conversation in the comments… the consensus seems to be I’m not the only one who thinks a second or third time before making that fabric purchase now that prices have jumped.

So, next topic: after you acquire it…  how do you organize your stash?  I used to organize mine roughly by color, but always kept dots and stripes separate, and novelties were separate.  I also kept certain designers separate (Amy Butler, Heather Ross, etc…not sure why, I just did)  Yardage and pieces of fabric were all over the place… it really wasn’t working for me anymore.

So, I pulled all of my fabric out of every shoebox, cupboard, wire basket, plastic tub, project bag, and every other hiding place I found (I don’t really hide it from anyone, just sometimes stuff it away to get it out of the way!).  And I started refolding it and sorting it by color…

The living room floor looked like this for quite a few days as I folded, sorted and started to put away.  Anything that wasn’t a quilting cotton (I sew clothing, too) or was truly a vintage piece, went into a separate tub in my studio closet.  The batiks I have also fill a tub, so those were tucked away in the closet, too.  Flannels and fleeces are all together in a storage bag under the guest bed (in my studio).  Everything left was a quilting cotton…

Solids kept separate from the prints seemed to be the right choice for now.

They filled a wire basket by themselves:

I always thought the FQs I kept on the shelf unit above my cutting table were the extent of the FQs in my stash.  Good heavens, was I ever wrong.  I found all of these FQs (mixed in with bigger pieces, most were unfolded so not immediately recognizable as a fat quarter):

That’s nearly 150 FQs there (which nearly doubles the number of FQs I thought I had)!!  They ended up organized by color as well (with some still displayed on the shelf over the cutting table):

So, do you want to see my neatly organized baskets of color?  The WHITES and GREYS…

the BLACKS and BROWNS…

the REDS…

The ORANGES the YELLOWS and the PINKS (and the very few purples I have)…

the GREENS (I do love green!!!)….

lots of BLUES and AQUAS…

 

The baskets/drawers go into this metal storage system (Antonius by Ikea), and even though my photo is terrible, it looks so much better that it did before when the baskets were crammed too full, nothing was folded nicely, and my system of sorting had gone out the window months ago (Sorry, I didn’t think to take a “before” pic!).

Everything in the baskets are 2 yard or smaller cuts.  My bigger pieces of yardage are folded uniformly and neatly stacked on a shelf in the closet.  I think I will like being able to see “at a glance” if I have anything in my stash for a quilt back or larger project:

So, there you have it, my stash of fabric and how it is now stored.  So inquiring minds want to know:

• Do you organize your stash, or is your’s all piled togerther in a box(es) or tub(s) with little to no organization?  

• Are you one of those “in color order” people like myself, who finds it far more useful and accessible if it’s uber-organized?  

• Would you rather organize by designer, by style/genre (florals together, 30s together, stripes together, dots together…) 

I really want to know–I’m genuinely curious!

Unconscious Foresight

I shared this on Twitter and Facebook last night:

“Now that quilting fabric is over $11/yard, I’m grateful I had the foresight to stock up”

I was being cheeky, of course, but there is definitely some truth to it.  Maybe stashing/acquiring/hoarding fabric was not really a conscious endeavor… but in hindsight, I’m thankful to I have a good sized stash of fabric to work with. 

You see, once the retail price of quilting cotton went over $9.99, I became very aware of the reaction my psyche had to seeing the $10+ price tag.  And I have to say, it prevented a lot of purchases that would have otherwise been impulse buys.  And, now that the Fall 2011 fabrics have all been hitting the stores at near, or over, $11/yard I’m only buying what I have an actual immediate project in mind for or need for.  This is incredibly rare for me when it comes to my fabric obsession.  

I’ve been reorganizing my stash, hence the Instagram photo in the first place, and as I was folding and refolding and sorting fabric, thoughts swirled in my head about how my purchasing habits have changed and evolved over the past five or so years.

I’m curious how you see it…

Have the higher prices of quilting cotton in the U.S. slowed your buying any?

Are you buying just as much as you did two years ago?  

Are you buying more because the variety of prints and collections on the market are greater and more varied every season?

Do you close your eyes and ignore the price when you find a print you adore?

Do you buy the fabric anyway because you want to support the fabric dealer (LQS or website dealer)?

Threads of Creation

My mind, the new business venture that’s in the works, and certainly this blog, are all creative machines with multiple interests.  About fifteen years ago, a friend called me a ‘jack-of-all-trades, but Master of none’.  It was the first time I heard the expression, and I thought it amusing at the time it was said, but upon further reflection, I came to see it as a slight insult.

Even though my primary interests now revolve around fabric and quilting–and have for many years now– I could just as well have written a lifestyle blog, an interior design blog, a travel blog, an art blog, a foodie blog…. All things I have an interest in.  That’s why, sometimes, my writing ventures a little off the quilting path.  

source: http://wetpaintaz.com

I’ve always had diverse interests in music, what I liked to read, different craft techniques, different art mediums… I adore antique and vintage furniture and decor; but crisp, cutting edge contemporary design floats my boat, too.  I’ve always thought being, or sticking to, one thing rather stifling!  A characteristic of the creative mind–but certainly not a flaw.  That said, many times over the years I’ve found myself apologizing for not being more focused, more goal-oriented, more “left-brained”.

This morning, I watched a public television program about a group of craftsmen and engineers in Britian who were trying to construct, from Leonardo da Vinci’s never-executed sketched designs, a catapult and a flying machine; it was fascinating.  Leonardo filled sketchbooks with designs and ideas that were never executed, either due to lack of funding or lack of a patron, but often he abandoned projects or ideas so he could move on to the next great idea.  Sound familiar?  I don’t think anyone today would argue that Leonardo da Vinci was not a success, most would agree he was a genius.  He lived just 67 years, and yet he made vast contributions in the areas of painting, architecture, music, mathematics, cartography, civil engineering, hydrodynamics, and science–obviously he mastered many trades during his relatively short lifetime.  His creative curiosity was hardly a character flaw.

That program reminded me that my occasional inability to stay focused on one task, or one project, or one idea, isn’t necessarily a negative thing.  Sure, I do admire those unique people I’ve met that knew at age ten exactly what they wanted to do with their lives (and did it!), while I’m still uncertain in my forties what I want to do with my life; but would I trade my adventures, my creative experiments and the people I’ve met as a result of these explorations?  Probably not.  (Incidentally, at age ten, my answer to the question of ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ was always “an Artist”)

Why do we have to define ourselves as something?  Why should we pigeon-hole anyone or any thing?  Anna Maria Horner had a fun Q & A with her intern, also called Anna, an undergraduate design student.  AMH asked her what she hoped her life’s work would be, dream of dreams.  Her answer was superb:


That’s something I struggle with on a daily basis….I’d like to be able to say at the end of my life that I have spent my days doing the things that I love, whether its photography, painting, designing or whatever, I hope I can look back on my body of work and not see it as work, but rather what I had a passion for. It might mean that I have to choose only one of those (or none of those) to make ends meet, or build a career, but as long as the bill-paying work doesn’t overshadow finding enjoyment in what I do, then I will have lived the dream.


How smart is that for a 19-year-old?  I was a very mature 19-year-old, having had a lot of responsibility placed on me at an early age, but my future goals were certainly not that mature.  I’m now 42, and I’m just figuring out what that smarty-pants intern stated so very eloquently.

January 2012 Sew-In

Our group at Sew-In, a photo by artistdoris on Flickr. 

(Back l-r; Emily, Sherry, Jill M, Penny, Doris, Jill G, Linda H–front l-r; Crystal, Marny, Beth)

Friday evening and Saturday I spent with these lovely ladies at our first Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild Sew-In/Retreat.  We found a converted 1918 Church building that now serves as the Waukee Arts Center to house our two days of sewing; great lighting and lots of space:

We had a few more registered to come that couldn’t make it, but ten of us got together to haul in a few tables, ironing boards and irons, and a design wall, and just spend an evening and a day sewing, collaborating, learning from each other, and most importantly, getting to know each other better!  What a talented and fun group…

Jill M made two baby quilts, start to finish and sent them off to her sister on Monday via FedEx!  TWO BABY QUILTS in ONE weekend!  

This pick Jill took on her swing set at home, borrowed from her blog

Jill G and Marny, of Modern Quilt Relish fame, made a new version of their “Bowtie Pasta with a Twist” pattern.  It was fun to watch them work together and chat with them while we sewed.  

Linda worked on these fabulous paper pieced Circle of Geese blocks, check out her post for her layout!

Linda gave us all (even those of us who have quilted for YEARS) a lesson on how to row piece by creating a web and then sewing your rows into columns (unbelievably easy, and yet, none of us had ever tried it!!!)

New-ish quilters Emily and Crystal were fast learners and each finished baby quilt tops using her method.

There was a lot of chain piecing, lots of rearranging on the design wall, a trip out for lunch, lots of sharing, laughing, and planning.  Overall, a relaxing and fun time!

Here is a shot of what I worked on (not quite finished here), and I’m going to write up a pattern for it, so stay tuned to this space for more on that…

Readers, you know how I love a retreat– now only 25 more days until my next sewing retreat!!!

Happy sewing,

Doris