Last week Tuesday, my Saved By Zade contact met me at work with two boxes of fabric. She knows I don't want fleece, but a lot else goes. These boxes contained quilting cottons, flannels, corduroy, and some other stuff that may be linen?
Everything went into the wash first. Five loads of laundry and two VERY dark color catchers later (I did a red load and a blue load) and I had a stack of fabrics to work with!
It is a BIG stack and was threatening to topple my ironing board, where I stashed it on the end. They're loosely folded here in an effort to minimize wrinkles, but they are getting ironed as I go.
But I needed the ironing board, so I stashed them in a big box. The cats had been kinda using the empty box, but I snatched it. Well. Apparently they're still going to use the box...
Freddie also got into the act, but I didn't catch him on camera. And Gabby spent one day in the sewing room with me (she got tired of the bedroom and made a dash for it when I had the door open - Toby was in hot pursuit, but I locked him out of the sewing room for that day), but she was too busy sniffing everything and making note of the small changes that had been made since she was last in there to bother with the box of new fabrics. (Eventually she got tired of that and started demanding pets.)
Anyways, to keep a quilter friend who isn't able to sew much this week due to playing nurse to her mom post-knee-surgery, I took photos of each fabric as I pulled it off the pile to iron and use. So I'll share with you what I've worked with so far!
Dogs? Okay, some of the kitties have canine siblings.
(But why is there a padlock and key?)
This one made me a little dizzy to sew!
Hard to see here, but the top half of this fabric is printed heavily with blue and looks like denim. It is not. It is a coarser weave, almost like a linen, but not as nubby. I cut off the blue part and made hammocks. I think this lighter half will become cage curtains, but I have to figure out that pattern...
This one looks a lot like a linen, but the more I pressed it, the more I smelled a polyester scent, so maybe not. It's pretty and would have made a nice sundress, but it was donated for the kitties and I don't wear dresses. (It also had a few spots of discoloration (small) that I noticed after working closely with it.)
So there are some doozies in there. And more to come!
But the kitties aren't going to care. The volunteer I work with is so pleased with all I've done and could not thank me enough for my work. Heck, these are fun! (In fact, I'm itching to get up to my sewing room and start on fabric 11!)
I decided to keep track of how much fabric I got and what it yielded. I have a hand-written tally sheet and am doing the nose-to-fingertips measure of yardage, so it's not exact, but so far, with these 10 fabrics, I have used 20 yards and made 26 hammocks. If I decide to cut up the white with stars and strips, that will be three more hammocks.
I'm guessing, based on the number of loads of laundry, and where I am in the pile, that I'm about a quarter of the way done. Of course, there are more ironing board covers, so how does one count that as yardage? But I'll guess it will be close to 80 yards when I'm done. And not all is 40-ish inches wide - some are wider. That's good, though, because it allows for better use of the yardage based on the sizes needed.
No quilty stuff this week.
Today I've been making goodies for work. Tomorrow starts our "Black Friday" sale and, if last year is any indication (also started on Tuesday), we will be swamped in the morning and then things will level off later. On Friday, we'll be twiddling our thumbs.
Add in that our weekly delivery of new stock is also tomorrow, we will be a little on the extra crazy side. Plenty of folks in the store to do stuff, but the guys doing stock will not be entirely pleased to be pulled away from that task (it's a big job and they work their tails off) to help with regular stuff. So I thought taking in caramel corn, chocolate chip cookies and no-bake cookies might help? I joke that I buy my friends with baked goods and some days that statement is a little bit true!
My kitchen was a disaster for a bit today, but it cleans up nicely. And I, of course, get to sample everything to make sure it tastes right!
Happy quilting!
Katie
3 comments:
Thar's a nice variety of fabric - and the kitties won't care what it looks like - as long as it's comfy. I'm so glad that you got to sample everything to make sure it tastes right - LOL - ;))
Wow, that is quite a variety of fabrics to play with. Sounds like fun creating for a worthy cause. Hope the kitties all enjoy the goodies you make for them. Hope your co-workers enjoy the baked goods and appreciate what you do for them. That sounds like fun, too and yummy!
I just love that you are so committed to making kitty hammocks (and other kitty stuff too). I’m doing two little Christmas kitty quilts for Alfie and Darla, but I really need to make some more kennel quilts for our local Best Friends shelter. Have a nice Thanksgiving!
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