More Birthday Blocks! (Originally Posted 2-11-2010 on Wordpress)

 Both of the blocks that were completed were for carilea.  I started with the one at right.  Of course, once I'd finished it, I realized that I hadn't paid enough attention to the directionality of the dark blue fabric :P

I'm a little behind on the birthday blocks, thanks to having caught the mother of all 24-hour flu bugs - no doubt picked up from my son's playgroup.  But really, I only need to do ONE person's blocks for the month and then I'm caught up with 2010.  Then I'll get started on the angel blocks from 2009.

If I were less lazy, I might tear it apart and alternate the way those large HSTs were going.  But really, I am that lazy, and decided to call it a day.  I figured if it really, really bothered me, I'd change it.  Instead, what happened was that I received an absolutely scrumptious blue in the mail from fabric.com (easily my favorite website for purchasing fabric from).

So, having fallen for this delicious fabric, I had to cut into right away.  And what better reason to cut into a new fabric than for a birthday swap?

I promise, that lighter fabric is actually a sage green!  But I digress...  Isn't that the loveliest fabric in the center of that block??

It's Aubrielle Damask Blue by Marianne Elizabeth for the Classically Home Collection from RJR Fabrics.  I debated some of the coordinating prints, but not a one of them screamed my name the way this one did.  I really, really need to find a pattern in which to showcase this print even better.

Hmm.. Perhaps I'll get a couple more yards of it, and a couple yard of cream and sage, because I am really digging how this block looks.  *sighs*  As if I didn't have enough projects floating in my head.

At least fabric.com is having a Valentine's Day Clearance Sale!  AND they've got coupons for President's Day.  *grins* I might make out like a bandit - not that my stash needs much more in the way of additions.

I also put together this Blockade block.  This is actually the block I selected for myself.  I'd been wanting to put one together, just to see how it would turn out, and circumstances worked out that I ended up needing to put one together.

So far, I'm really pleased.  The aquas in my stash tend to lean toward more blue than green, but I'm not terribly picky about what I get.  I just think it'll be really fun to see the diversity I end up!

In other news, I've been consumed with re-organizing my stash.  I've added about $500 in fabric (full retail value) to my stash - for about half that price (Thank goodness!).  This has necessitated taking a cold, hard look at some of the stuff that's been loitering in my stash without purpose.

My tastes in fabric have altered dramatically since I first began purchasing material thirteen years ago.  Back then, I essentially stuck to very tiny prints that remind me of Civil War Era prints.  Whether that was an unconscious design choice on my part, or simply what was available at the time, I don't remember.  Anyway, with these new fabrics coming into my home, I realize that those really, really ugly fabrics needed to make an exit.  I'm never going to use them.  My eye passes right over them when I'm considering fabrics for a quilt top.

Currently, they're sitting in a box on the floor of my sewing room, waiting for me to contact a woman who posted on Freecycle that she was looking for crafting materials.  They're not the best materials, or the prettiest, but they should help her get started anyway.  And at least, if they end up in a landfill somewhere, I won't have put them there myself.  I'll have at least tried to give them a new home.

Anyway, in a few days, when I'm out from under Birthday Block Swap deadlines, and the massive amount of ironing, re-ironing, folding, and re-folding ahead of me, I'll be posting pictures of my prettified stash, and the newest additions to it.