Stash Additions and More...

Well, after Joann's Firefly summer sale and my eBay splurges, I have added more to my stash once again. I don't think I will ever be able to declare a hiatus from purchasing fabric - most fabrics lines just aren't available in stores long enough for me to do that. Nor can I resist walking into a fabric store and petting the pretties :)

The three horizontal fabrics are for my crane panel. Well, except for the repeat stripe. It's in the wrong colorway. I couldn't tell from the craptastic photo of it on the eBay auction, but I only spent $2.99 on it, so I really can't complain. I'll just make do with what I have in the correct colorway.

The verticals, from left to right: King's Road "Belle" in the rust colorway. I really, really, really want to find some of it in the ruby red colorway. To. Die. For.

The pink is a large scale Tracy Porter print. I absolutely adore her designs. The bluey flowers are just an addition of two yards or so to the yard already living in my stash. I love this print. The pale pink is a very traditional print, which is sort of an odd purchase for me now. More and more, I've been getting into very bold, graphic prints. The paisley I thought was just fun. I couldn't resist it. And the last floral is from an Asian-inspired line carried at Joann's. I just liked the color saturation in it.

And now to rave about the eBay purchase I was waiting for most eagerly: the Sewline Mechanical Pencil.

I LOVE THIS PRODUCT!

It is, hands down, the best tool I have ever used to mark a quilt top (and I've used everything, from soapstone and graphite, to a silver pencil, to a regular pencil with very soft lead, to those "vanishing" ink markers). I tested both the white and black leads (made of CERAMIC!). They went on so smoothly and with the amount of pressure I would use for regular writing. Then, the real test... Could I remove the markings? Oh, hell, yes. So easily too! Even better, I could hardly tell where the markings had been. After washing the quilted top, I won't be able to tell at all.

Seriously, buy this mechanical pencil. You will be so happy you did. I'm already planning to go back to eBay and purchase the pink, green and yellow leads.

In other news, I'm nearly done with the pincushion for my swap partner. I'm really enjoying the process of making it. It would be done, but I was waiting for one last component to arrive, again from eBay. No pics yet - I want it to be a surprise when my swap partner opens her package up. I also picked up a small giftie to add to her package. Hopefully, she likes it :)

I'm also done with all of my nine-patches for the quilt-along. They're sashed together, and I've got the sashing stripes done. Just have to stitch them all together, but this is what the blocks look like put together:

I decided to go with a plain white cotton - it's been forever since I purchased just plain white cotton. It's a Kona cotton - Joann's started carrying them recently. I'm in love! I love the feel of this stuff in my hands. It's so nicely woven, with nice weight and texture. Definitely my choice of brand whenever I have need of a solid in a design from now on.

Well, I think that's enough rambling and typing for the day. I have sewing to do!