Finding Fabrics

I’ve been sewing since I was 7 or 8. My first machine-sewn piece of clothing was a 70s floppy blouse made from my mom’s old yellow curtains and some lace. I sewed many of my clothes in middle- and high school, thus assuring my freak status. It did mean I always had bits and pieces of fabric leftovers, off cuts from this or that outfit, lying around.

When I got older, I started sewing for the house: curtains, cushions, couch slipcovers, and whatever. In 1990, at the age of 23, I took my first quilting class. I started by buying 1/4 yards of fabric. Now I buy 1/2 yards unless I need it for something in particular like a backing or a background where I know I need more than that. Over the years, many people have gifted me fabric, some randomly sending it through the mail, some giving me gifts at Christmas and birthday, and more commonly, divesting themselves of THEIR stash by moving it on to me. I rarely say no. When crazy people say things like, “I have too much fabric and I need to get rid of some,” it just confuses me. One woman about 10 years ago went through her stash and gave me about half of it. I still don’t really know why. She was a smoker, so that took some work, but I wash everything anyway. My SIL sent me offcuts from when she quilted. When my grandmother died, I got all the leftover pieces from all the pajamas she had made as Christmas Eve gifts over the years…talk about vintage. I did actually pack a bunch of those up and sell them on eBay for quite a profit. I kept small pieces of some of the more interesting ones.

So this show came up on the radar for a group I’m in called California Fibers. The Loft at Liz’s is a gallery in Los Angeles that does a Diverted Destruction show every year, suggesting people use recycled materials to create work. Our group was chosen to do a show there this summer, and Liz got us access to those upholstery fabric sample books you see when you go pick out your next couch or whatever. I chose one that was texture, not a lot of color really…

Mostly because I couldn’t visualize my process in any of the others. I’ve removed all the labels off the back and cut them out of the book, then ordered them vaguely by color. OK, there’s some pink and red in there, and even some green and blue…but none of the pieces are particularly big, which might be a problem. I could also paint over them. This is an option I have used before.

So I have a drawing for this one…

I think the big pieces will lend themselves nicely to using texture…but I think the major body pieces might be an issue. Still trying to figure that part out.

The other drawing…because I’m apparently supposed to do two…

Has more detail and really lends itself to being done in cottons…just because of the piece sizes…so for this, I turned to my second recent stash of recyclables: Mariah.

Mariah texted me around the new year and asked if I wanted some of her offcuts from making quilts. She’s made baby quilts and sold them around town, plus she’s made some beautiful batik quilts for her family. But once you have these long strips or tiny triangles or squares cut, they aren’t good for much except making a big pile in the sewing room. Since she was pregnant with baby number 2 at the time (born last week!), she was trying to clean up and pare things down, so we filled two trash bags with fabric…here’s halfway through my color sorting at home.

I still have the problem of small pieces in general, though…although there are some large pieces in there that I took for backings. They aren’t really body appropriate though. There’s a LOT of blue and brown…

Not very much white or gray…

And these randomly pieced bits that are leftovers, which I’m trying to figure out how to get into the quilt…I think I can do it…

So the biggest problem with this batch, besides folding it all or figuring out how to store it, is how to make sure the quilt isn’t a crazy mismatch of stuff, because I can’t choose from my whole stash. I might need to piece the background if I can’t find something that’s recycled, in my stash, and appropriate. There are about 10 fabrics that were big pieces that are currently in the dryer, but most of them would compete too much with the image.

So there’s that. Sometime this week, I’ll start picking fabrics out for this. Until then, know that the show will be June 27-September 8 at The Loft at Liz’s, and one of these pieces will be there. And I’ll keep you updated on the process as I muddle my way through it.