A Crafter's Life, Studio

An Unexpected Treat

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I could not decide what to title this post. I started with “An Unexpected Surprise” but that sounded redundant as “surprises” are “unexpected”. Next title idea as “A Surprise Treat”. Finally I went with “An Unexpected Treat”. (Blog post naming, one of the great struggles in my world…)

This afternoon I attended our Central Oregon SAQA (Art quilters) group. A very awesome SAQA member, Marion, gave me a belated holiday gift – a stash of fabrics!

She wrapped the stash very sweetly in the Japanese fabric wrapping style with a handmade braided fabric ribbon. I opened it in front of her but I have attempted (poorly) to rewrap it to give you a feel of how it looked when she presented to me:

2018-01-18_18-20-28_136.jpeg
A very subpar re-creation of a once beautifully fabric wrapped gift

Inside was a stack of fabric scraps, fat quarters and yardage:

2018-01-18_18-19-45_813.jpeg
Yummy stack!

Here is what the gift looks like laid out:

2018-01-18_18-18-06_809
Yummy pile!

Did Marion randomly give me fabric from her stash? No. The story behind this is a while back one of the SAQA members who lives in Portland, Elizabeth, who is a prolific art quilter, was thinning her immense fabric stash. She posted to our Oregon SAQA facebook group that any SAQA member in the Portland area could drop and take away a haul of beautiful fabrics on a specific date.

Portland is a 4 hour drive for me and as much as I love free beautiful fabric selected by talented art quilters, an 8+ hour road trip was a bit much for free fabric.

What I did not realize is that Marion, who has a good feel for my taste in fabric, was picking me up a surprise stash!

It was a very thoughtful surprise!

Postscript

I so enjoyed the comments on my previous post, Prepping to Make Fabric Bowls, Continued, and so did Terry the Quilting Husband (TTQH).

Believe it or not, he actually returned to my sewing area today (with a gentle suggestion) and worked on a couple more feet of the coil for the fabric baskets/bowls.

2018-01-18_13-23-31_189.jpeg
He’s back!
2018-01-18_13-13-19_846.jpeg
This time Mike the Mini Schnauzer settles into the chair in my studio to monitor TTQH
2018-01-18_13-23-27_312.jpeg
Is Mike comfortably napping or fretting over when this whole TTQH sewing abuse will be over?

Now that we were getting some serious length on completed coil, we needed to do something to keep it organized and accessible (instead of become a twisted mess) for when it was time to make the fabric bowls. So I started wrapping it around an old piece of cardboard (I save cardboard from calendars, etc. to use as a surface when making cards, etc.):

2018-01-18_13-56-16_595.jpeg

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

29 thoughts on “An Unexpected Treat”

  2. Oooh, what a lovely surprise! And as for the eternal struggle of post-naming… TELL ME ABOUT IT! Sometimes I think I’ve come up with something super-original, and then it turns out I’ve used that title before 😆 Hope you and TTQH have fun assembling a new fabric bowl… Is this a collaboration, or is he making one of his own?

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Your friend, Marion, does know your artistic style and taste in fabric. Gorgeous fabric!
    I’m trying to improve my choice of fabric. Do you purchase fabric only with a project in mind? Or do you purchase whatever strikes you? And if you do, how much do you purchase of one fabric if you do not have a plan? I know you use recycled items for fabric, but I was curious about what guides you when you purchase….a plan or your artistic eye?
    As for Mike, I think he is concerned about TTQH . He’s wondering when this will be over.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Oh I wish I only purchased for a project in mind. I admire those who do. However over the years I have purchased on a whim – when I see fabrics that make me smile. Now I do have a nice stash, but the problem with this method is a usually buy them in 1 – 2 yard and many times when I find a project I want to use fabrics from my stash for, I do not have enough of a particular fabric.
      Mike might be happy, I am not sure if TTQH is returning for more coil work without some pleading. Maybe it is time for me to take my turn, ha! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    1. She is a sweetheart! I nearly fainted when I opened the yummy package! Also I cannot imagine that the art quilter in Portland who was thinning her stash was so generous – I wouldn’t have given up these fabrics from my stash 🙂

      Like

  5. A very sweet surprise from a friend! The husband…how sweet also! My DH supports via the kind words, no complaining about the fabric purchases, and sometimes he joins me in my rooms with a latch hook project. He just finished one and needs to get another one going!

    Liked by 1 person

  7. That is an awesome gift! I bet your mind is spinning with ideas on how to use it. 4 hours would be a bit far to go but not unheard of. GO TTQH GO! The roaring looks very pretty all wound in the cardboard. Poor Mike. He looks so 😩.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Beautiful fabrics for a beautiful quilter! I am impressed by TTQH’s willingness to help AND to be photographed! Now about Mike, I think he is gently trying to tell TTQH to start sewing on the napping couch…just so TTQH is more comfortable, of course!

    Liked by 1 person

  11. TTGH is awesome! I don’t think I could pay Robert enough to even do 1” of this. I love that you are prepping bowls in advance (note the use of plural). Miss you my friend. Love the new stash.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. TTGH is awesome! I don’t think I could pay Robert enough to even do 1” of this. I love that you are prepping bowls in advance (note the use of plural). Miss you my friend. Love the new stash.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Miss you too and looks forward to our quilt retreat time in May, hugs! 🙂
      Okay so Robert would not sew basket coil but he is a good quilting addition support husband 🙂

      Like

  13. What a thoughtful gift. 🙂 The fat quarters look very beautiful and batik-inspired. And wonderful to see that TTQH is sewing again. I had never seen a fabric bowl before your posts. That’s really cool!

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Pingback: Stadium Quilts – Quest Quilts

Comments are closed.