Fabric Buying: How many yards should I buy?

The past few weeks I have been sorting through my overwhelming collection of fabric. Yes, for most of you this may only take a few hours or a couple days, but for my toppling stash, it can very easily take a couple of weeks! :) As I am sorting different pieces into piles for projects, several thoughts are running through my mind - Why did I ever buy this fabric? Why didn't I buy another yard of that? Oh, I wish I had the coordinate to this floral! I'm tired of this fabric; it has sat on my shelf for over 5 years and I still haven't used it.

Often I will end up with more fabric than I need for a project or not quite enough for what I am wanting to do. What are my guidelines for buying fabric? Everyone has their own ideas, but here are a few of my thoughts...

When I first started sewing and buying fabric, I had a 3 yard rule. It didn't matter what it was, if I liked it, I bought 3 yards. In my mind this gave me enough for several kinds of garments, lots of quilt blocks & borders and plenty for cutting and stitching errors. Several years later, I knew my 3 yard rule had to change. Not only was I running out of space to store all my fabric, but my checkbook just couldn't handle the expense.

I desperately needed to develop a new strategy for buying fabric, so I came up with the following rules:

• It's a piece I love & can use in various ways, 3-4 yards.
• It's something I like & don't have anything that is similar, 2-3 yards.
• I absolutely love it, but don't have any idea what I'll use it for, 1-2 yards.
• It's unique & different, but not my favorite, 1/2 - 1 yard.
• It's on sale for a fantastic price & can be used in a hundred different ways, whatever is left on the bolt.

Now, with quite a fabric stash built up, I don't always buy following those guidelines. Over the years my taste and thinking in fabric has changed. Some fabrics I have used and am now tired of trying to use in new projects. A few are dated in the sense that some prints and colors are popular for a time and then go out of style. I have also developed more of a feel for which fabrics I will be more likely to use and what projects I can create from them.

I still love fabric and will indulge in several yards here and there, but not to the extent that I did in past years. I try to keep in mind the following:

• I'm using it for a project right now, whatever I need plus 1/4-1/2 yard extra.
• It's a solid, marbled, textured, or tone on tone print that can easily be used to stitch embroidery designs on, plus many other uses, 3-4 yards.
• It's a novelty fabric, floral design, kid's theme or Christmas print and I love it, 1-2 yards.

What's my theory behind these guidelines? If I am only purchasing a yardage amount for a project, I like to have a little extra. That way if I make mistakes such as figuring wrong measurements or cutting wrong sizes, I'm still ok. A solid, marbled, textured or tone on tone fabric is perfect for embellishing with embroidery; for obvious reasons - the designs will show up on these fabrics versus a busy print. Not only are these pieces great for embroidery, but they also work well for blending or coordinating novelty and floral print fabrics. A fabric that is an obvious or busy print is more limited and can't be used quite as many ways as a solid, so I try not to buy as much of it. It can easily be incorporated with several solids or tone on tone fabrics.

This lets me get the fabric I need, while letting me purchase some fabric for future use. It keeps my fabric stash in check, but doesn’t let it dwindle down to nothing! There are still times when I enter a fabric store or go online and buy more than I really need. Or as my mom used to say when I would come home with a sack full of fabric or another box of fabric arrived at our front door, "You just can't stand it; you just had to buy it!" But when starting a new project, I try to use fabric from my collection with maybe only needing to buy a piece or two to blend in with what I already own.

Do I regret having the fabric that keeps my shelves overflowing? No, definitely not! Maybe I went a little overboard, but I have found it very useful to have multiple pieces in several colors of prints and solids. I can pull out pieces and coordinate the colors I want for whatever project I am currently work on. I may only need one or two additional pieces to complete it or perhaps none at all.

The next time you are ready to buy yards of fabric, keep in mind what you are going to use it for. Is it just something you love and will not really use? Or is it a marbled or textured piece of fabric that can be used to stitch embroidery designs, blend with floral or novelty fabrics or used as a quilt backing?

Do keep in mind that your fabric buying habits and ideas will change. There will be times when you are sewing more projects with prints versus solids or batiks. Or perhaps two or three colors will grab your attention for several months. There are most certainly no rights or wrongs in purchasing fabric, just different ideas. Thinking about what you are buying and the reason for it may help your stash to be put into quilts and other projects instead of just sitting on the shelf.

Satin Stitching Tips

Satin stitching is a fun and simple stitch to do when you are stitching applique pieces. What's the trick the corners and inside and outside curves? Print and laminate the following guide for helpful tips when satin stitching.

Hankie Blankie Pets - New Friends

Check out the brand NEW collection of Hankie Blankie Pets - New Friends! A cute little frog, bouncing bunny and quacking duck will greet your eyes just itching to be stitched! Look for just the pattern with complete directions for stitching the animal plus the digitized animal faces on a CD!

This new collection is just as fun to stitch as the original Hankie Blankie Pets! Need a quick and easy gift for a special little someone? This is the perfect solution. You can even embroider a name in the corner of the blanket!

How did that stain appear?

How did that stain appear? It just happens. One moment your project is clean and stain free. All of a sudden,a drop of blood, ink or oil appears. What can you do to take out your unwanted stains? Try some of the following solutions.

505 Spray Adhesive - 505 is a wonderful spray adhesive to use when sticking my fabric to my stabilizer when I am stitching machine embroidery designs. But occasionally some of the adhesive gets sprayed on the fabric. Sometime it is caused by some residue left over from spraying too much on the stabilizer in the hoop.

Use 90% rubbing alcohol (not the drinking kind :)) to get 505 out of your fabric or project. The 90% is important; not all stores stock that percentage. The lower percentage bottles will not be as effective as the 90%. Look for this in the pharmacy departments of most stores. If you still cannot get the stain out with the alcohol, try using Ecover Citrus Cleaner & Degreaser. It's an oil based cleaner that can be found in many stores or online.

To prevent this, always spray your stabilizer, not your fabric with 505. Avoid spraying too much 505 on the hooped stabilizer before sticking the fabric on top of it.

Blood - Yes, I try to keep my fingers away from sharp objects, but invariably a pin, needle, pair of scissors or rotary cutter finds its way through to my skin, drawing either a drop or a bucket of blood. When I can't get my project out of the way in time, a red spot appears.

Treat the stain right away with hydrogen peroxide. Use a cottonball or clean cloth to blot the stain with the peroxide. This will easily take out the blood. Rinse in cold water and treat again if needed. Another option is our own saliva. Your own saliva has enzymes that will treat your own blood stains. I know it's not the most appealing thing, but it does work!

What's the preventative action to take for this kind of stain? Just keep your fingers away from sharp objects! :)

Ink pen or machine oil - Ink pens are all around my sewing room and as hard as I try to keep them contained to one table, they tend to walk toward my fabric. Machine oil will sometime get on my fabric after I have first oiled my machine.

Any oil based cleaner in your laundry cabinet will take out most ink and oil stains. I like to use Ecover Citrus Cleaner & Degreaser or De-Solv-It; they both work very well with ink and oil stains. I will get the stain out of the fabric with the cleaner and then wash it with some soap and water to be sure I have removed all the remaining residue. There could be a slight ring or shadow created if not all the cleaner is rinsed out. You can find both these products in many stores.

Try to keep ink pens away from your fabric and projects. Throw away any pens that leak or leave blobs of ink. To keep oil stains to a minimum, sew a scrap of fabric through your machine after oiling it. Keep sewing until oil doesn't appear on your fabric. If your machine will sit unused for several hours or a couple of days, you may need to stitch on a fabric scrap before sewing on your project.

Trying to create embroidery flops...

As I am typing, my embroidery machine is stitching away behind me. As soon as the design is finished in the hoop that is on the machine, I have another hoop full of fabric ready for another design. So what exactly am I stitching? Well, you are probably not going to believe this, but I am actually trying to create some bad embroidery designs!

Yes, that is correct! I am trying to make hole in the fabric, misplaced outlines or some design that just didn't turn out right! Our monthly embroidery club class is this Monday and the theme is: Embroidery Flops & Fixes. When the design doesn't look the way it should, can it be fixed or is it destined for the trash? If it can be repaired, how it that accomplished?

In order to show how to fix the embroidery mistakes, I have to have some samples of mistakes that commonly happen. And yes, I have a whole pile of shirts, towels, wall hangings and other projects that just didn't turn out right over the past 5 years. But some errors I have fixed and already given away, so new mistakes need to be made.

I've made plenty of mistakes in the past, so it shouldn't be hard to come up with several, right? Nothing could be farther from the truth! When I want so badly the needle to break and make a hole in the fabric or the outline of the bear to be in the wrong place, guess what? It is finished without holes and the design outline is perfectly in place!

How come is it that when I want mistakes, it is the hardest thing to do? When I need that perfect design with no mishaps, why is it that I have problem after problem? Never fear, I will have that hole in the fabric, even if I have to take a pair of scissors to it! And my design will have a misplaced outline, even if I have to move the design to make to outline out of place!

Will I have mistakes, bad designs and ruined projects to show on Monday? Yes, I will; but it was not accomplished without a struggle!! :)

Note: If any of you ladies who will be attending Monday are reading this, I will be carrying in several pile of flops. I don't want to be the only one with so many disaster designs! So remember to bring your own mistakes & fixes so we can all learn new ways to correct our embroidery mistakes! :)

Red & White Blocks

Here is my pile of red and white blocks that I sent to Clare for the Leukaemia quilt project. Get in on the fun and share some of your own red and white blocks to support an excellent cause! You can read more about the Leukaemia quilt project here.

There are over 20 blocks in the pile, although they are not anything unique or as creative as some of the other blocks donated that I have seen. Just quick to stitch pieced blocks...

Clare - these blocks should be arriving in your mailbox soon!! :)

Prewashing Without Tangles!

Prewashing your fabrics is absolutely necessary before cutting or stitching your quilting fabrics. Why? Fabric shrinkage, color bleeding and eliminating fabric finishes are all reasons for prewashing your fabrics. If you are like me, it is not such a big deal to wash and dry the fabrics. The not so fun part is all the raveled edges created as it is tossed around in the washer and dryer. When you pull the fabric out of the dryer, raveled edges and all, the threads have wrapped themselves around the fabric, causing pleats and wrinkles that are tough to press out.

Here's a couple ways you can prewash and dry your fabrics without the tangled mass of threads! The best solution I have found and love is to serge the raw edges of the fabric. A serger is a machine that trims and overcasts the fabric edge with a serged stitch. This will prevent the fabric from raveling. It's quick and easy to serge down the raw edge and then pop it in the washer and dryer.

Instead of using a serger, you could also stitch a zigzag down the raw edge of the fabric. Or if your machine has an overcasting stitch, you can also use that. This will keep down the amount of raveling that occurs.

If you do not own a serger, there is another method that works well. Cut a 1/2" triangle on all four corners of your piece of fabric before washing. This will prevent most of the raveling and fraying. You will still have a few threads dangling from your fabric, but not so much that it wraps around the fabric as it is tossed in the dryer.

Have you noticed that cotton fabrics with a metallic finish don't ravel? Last year I washed several pieces of fabric in preparation for a table runner and was amazed to discover that the two metallic pieces I had, did not ravel at all. Not even a single thread. Usually,even if a fabric doesn't shed much during washing, the raw edge has a wave to it or looks distressed. But the metallic fabric edges looked just like they did when it was cut from the bolt! So be sure to add some metallic fabrics to your prewashing pile! :)

Electricity is back!!

Our electricity is back and our house is back running at full power! I can actually walk into a room, flip the switch, and -WOW- light floods the room! We take for granted the electricity and how we use it in so many ways in everything we do. But I am so glad it is back! :)

What is the Benefit of Starch?

Starch...why do you need to use it in your quilting? That was the very question in my mind several years ago! In my mind, starch is that old fashioned stuff that you used many years ago to aid in the pressing of garments. I will have to admit that I have never used starch up until a few years ago, but now it is a permanent part of my pressing equipment. A fellow quilter introduced me to starch and now I can't press my quilting cotton fabrics without it!

Starch adds body and stability to cotton fabrics. It is a useful aid in ironing creases and wrinkles out of fabrics. When starch is sprayed on cotton fabrics, it adds stiffness to the fibers which makes the fabric easier to cut and stitch. If your fabric is pressed and starched before you cut out blocks or small quilting pieces, it is much easier to cut and stitch the fabrics together. This is especially helpful with angled, bias edges because the bias edge will stretch more. If it is starched, the amount of stretching is reduced when it is cut and stitched. The smaller the quilt pieces, the more advantageous the starch will be to you.

Think about small squares, triangles and other weird angled quilt pieces. Cut several 2 inch squares from a cotton fabric. Then cut the squares diagonally in half to form a right triangle. Stitch two right triangles together, along the diagonal, bias edge. It's tough; the fabric wants to move, scoot and flop. Now try doing the same thing as above, but spray starch the fabric before cutting or stitching. See the difference?

Starch is also useful when embroidering on lightweight fabrics. If you starch your cottons or other lightweight fabrics before embroidering the design, this will add body to the fabric, helping to prevent the puckers that sometime will appear around the edge of a design. I have done this many times and have found it helpful to starch my cotton fabrics before stitching, especially if I am stitching a dense design.

What kind of starch is the best to use? Starch is starch; it is available in a ready to spray can or liquid concentrate formula. You can purchase different strengths of starch so you are spraying a light or heavy solution on the fabric. It can be sprayed on dry cotton fabric and pressed with an iron. Or it can be added to your load of fabric in the washing machine as you preshrink your quilting cottons.

Spray starch is available in an aerosol can ready to spray in two strengths: light or heavy. This is a good choice if you are just going to be using a small amount of starch or just spraying pieces of fabric that are 1/4 yard or less. Lay your fabric on the ironing board, wrong side up. Lightly spray the fabric with the starch. Carefully lift and press your iron across the fabric. Don't try running your iron across the fabric or the iron will just stick and cause the fabric to bunch. If possible, press the starched fabric with the lengthwise grain; parallel to the selvedge. The crosswise grain tends to stretch more which can distort your fabric as you are pressing.

For larger pieces of fabric such as 1/4 yard to 2 yards, it is more advantageous to use the liquid concentrate starch. You can still spray the starch on the wrong side of the fabric and press it by mixing water with the concentrated starch in a spray bottle. For most projects, fill half the bottle with liquid starch and half with water. You can vary the strength by how much water you add to the starch. If you desire a stiffer feel, add 1/4 part water to 3/4 part starch. If you are needing just a touch of body, add 3/4 water to 1/4 starch. This is by the far the most economical way to go.

If you are planning to starch multiple yards of fabric, you may want to consider adding liquid starch concentrate to your washing machine when you prewash your fabric. Wash and dry just like you normally would and your fabric will come out with a little more body and stiffness. The stiffer you want your fabric, the more starch you should add.

From personal experience, I find that spraying starch on fabric after it has been washed is the most effective and economical way to stiffen my fabrics. If I want just a little more body and have many yards to do, I will add starch when I prewash my fabrics. I have found that I need to add a lot of starch when prewashing if I need a lot of stiffness in the fabric.

If time is an issue, starching and prewashing at the same time is better. Starching a section of fabric that will fit on the ironing board at a time with a large length of fabric can take quite a while. But consider this...why not plan your starching and pressing around a time when you can be watching tv, listening to the radio or doing something else at the same time? This will help the boring task to go by faster and you will be able to accomplish two things at one time!

Not sure that you want to spend the times starching before starting your project? Try out a few quilt pieces and see what you think. Try starching a piece of fabric before you stitch an embroidery design. Give it a try and see what works best for you. Although it does take more time, in the long run it saves me time and frustration when cutting and stitching my pieces.

Picture Fun!

Left to right: Jena, Serena, Krissa

Both of my sisters have been home over the holidays and it has been such fun to have all three of girls together...talking, laughing and just plain being together.

A new year had begun...

Another new and exciting year has begun! There are so many ideas and projects to look forward to in the
months ahead. I have been making lists of things I want or need to accomplish in the next few months and the
list is long, but definiely something to anticipate.


The first thing I am really anticipating right now is the return of our electricity. Here in western Kansas,
we had a severe ice storm last week that left us without power since early Saturday morning. Without our
generator and the couple hours of power it provides for us, I have no idea what we would do! One thing I do
know is that I will really appreciate electricity; something that we take for granted everyday until we are
without it. :)

At least now I am able to be online a few hours a day when the generator is on. Because of all the ice and moisture, I am easily disconnected. But I can get online for a little each day and feel like I am not completely cut off from the online world. Over the weekend I was getting desperate!! I have never felt so helpless without power AND the internet!

Hopefully the power will be back on soon! And perhaps my life will return to normal schedule!