Friday, June 9, 2017

Yellow (Fabric) Journalism

Around here, we love to read. Every evening we each curl up with our reading material of choice (mostly ebooks because we can make the print larger), but sometimes regular print books, magazines, or our e-subscription to The Washington Post. And sometimes, during the day, I even SEW on books. That was the case this week when I made the yellow bookshelf (5, 12” blocks) for my Rainbow Bookcase.

Here are 4 shots, going from left to right (the way we read) of the yellow bookshelf. I think you can click on them to make them bigger.

In this first, left-most shot, you can see some old favorites, “Walk in the Park” and “Flowers are Happy Things”. But look! There’s a Cosmopolitan magazine. And how about that large “Juggling Summer” book? The birdie is hiding on the left side of the book, out of sight. You will soon see why.


Moving along to the right, we can see “Animal Quackers” and a globe, my own wacky pattern. I regret not tilting the globe, but obviously my left brain took over there. The globe is sitting on “My Universe”.


Aha!! Now we see why the bird was hiding. There’s a cat hiding behind the stack of cat (and other) books. After he is done knocking the books off the shelf (a trick he probably learned from Molly), he will probably nap. I think the bird is safe.


And finally, the last of the books on the shelf; poetry, “Li’l Rascals”, and “Madrona Road”, among other best sellers. LOL.

I have always planned to use plain gray to make the shelves and bookcase border, and to find a book-themed print fabric for the back of the quilt. Those plans changed on Friday, and  later in the post you will see why. Anyway, below is a shot of the yellow shelf with last month’s green shelf. Those are 60” wide (plus seam allowance) rows.


In other RSC sewing, here are my 16 Plus blocks. These do not excite me at all, and I am thinking of either setting them on point or mixing with another block (like some rails) to jazz them up. But I think I’ll get through all the colors first before deciding....


I’m linking up to Angela’s Rainbow Scrap Saturday. We would love for you to join us or just stop by for a great fix of eye candy!

This week I finished quilting my Stars and Stripes Quilt. It finished at 62x70”.  This is my 13th quilt finish so far this year.


Here is the pieced back.


I also sewed the remaining four crayons for my crayon quilt; 2 blues, orange and pink. My goal is to finish this one off during the coming week.


I’ve always been a fan of local fabric designer (and son of tole painter Donna Dewberry), JOEL DEWBERRY. Two years ago I was able to accompany the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild (I’m no longer a member) and visit his home to purchase his fabrics at steeply discounted prices.  Last year, I believe he was in the middle of building his new home and they did not have a sale. This year, he made the announcement of his annual sale on Instagram, so cousin Kim and I went today. I’m not kidding you when I say that these are bargain basement prices. The fabric ranged from $1 to $6 per yard; and the more expensive were the home dec weights.

Here is what I got.  First picture; these are my 5-yard cuts (except the pink, which was 4 yards).  That gray wood grain on the left is the new “shelving” and backing for my bookshelf quilt! The print on the left (along with 3 from the next picture) will become an Arizona-themed quilt for my DSIL and DBIL, another of Bruce’s siblings. The two pinks are a planned quilt for a friend, along with the green in the next picture.


These fabrics are all 2-yard cuts, except the 1 yard of gold.  Total: 28 yards of fabric.


My cost? You’d think it would easily be over $200, or at least over $100. It wasn’t. It averaged $3.50 per yard, so you do the math.....  (PS - Kim bought 8 yards for $16).

What a fun week!  My flower pots are all planted and Bruce has run the drip irrigation to them. They are absolutely loving the warm hot weather.  Today I`m going out before it gets too hot to work in the yard. I’ve got roses to deadhead and our front rock parkway to rid of weeds. Then I’ll make a strawberry-rhubarb pie with our garden rhubarb. And the rest of the weekend is sew, sew, sew. Life is good!

Cathy maroon

16 comments:

  1. I love all of your blocks, but I especially look forward to reading your bookshelves every month. I fought against e-readers for the longest time, but that enlarging of the letters won out. At least until I get my new glasses. Have a great weekend!!

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  2. Your bookshelves are always such a delight! I love the bird and cat playing on the books!
    I have so much to catch up on. I have finally (almost gotten my three boot blocks done for the April RSC! (multicolored scraps).
    This weekend will be a wash. My daughter, her boyfriend and his son are coming to build a catio for my two boys!
    My boys will be pleased as soon as I can let them out there I am sure. Today the two of them had to go get fixed...even though nothing was broken. ;) One of them weighed in at 12.6 pounds, the other "tiny" guy was 11 pounds...if I could only get them to eat something!!!!
    I will slowly but surely get caught up. I just have too!

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  3. The yellow bookshelf is da bomb! Love the globe - what a fun idea! You got some great fabrics at Joel Dewberry's sale - wow! Many moons ago, we lived in Charlottesville, VA and got the WAPO every day. Now I make do by listening to several of their podcasts. "Presidential" - a weekly look at each POTUS. A new podcast is about to start called "Constitutional". Also in the weekly feed: "Can He Do That?"

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  4. Rows, YELLOW blocks, a finish AND new fabric!! Sounds like a WONDERFUL week.

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  5. Great blocks! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your rainbow bookcase. I'm starting a bookshelf quilt for my daughter soon...still in the planning stage.

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  6. The bookshelf tells a story in itself. You must have so much fun searching out the book titles. This is going to be one of those quilts where you spot something new each time you see it.

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  7. Cathy, your posts are always so fun to read! I love those bookshelf rows - they are going to make such an amazing quilt! The fun details you add make them interesting as well as scrappy and colorful. We have been out mowing, weeding, watering etc., just now and it is Hot here. Time to come in and read a book! :). Hope you are enjoying your day!

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  8. Very creative book quilt. One question about your fabric purchase puzzles me. You showed 28 yards of great bargains. Why did you stop there?

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  9. I'll tell you that bookcase quilt is totally freakin' {oops!! pardon my french ;)))} amazing! I just absolutely love how you've done this up. Even included my fave Laurel burch kittycat...This will be a smashing quilt...great work hugs, Julierose

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  10. I love the bookcase rows for sure. Did I see those flag blocks before? I'm in total love with that quilt. I'm going to pin that one. I think I want to try that. Terry had some issues this week and our humidity is Way HIGH so we are in. Wish I could say I am stitching. I'm so lazy. You stole that fabric!!
    Happy Weekend
    xx, Carol

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  11. LOVE the bookshelf and it's contents! I always have fun reading the book titles.

    I'm jealous of your bargain buy! And to think you actually have plans for what you purchased is even better.

    I'm sure your plus blocks will be in the plus column in a nice quilt one of these days.

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  12. Great buys, perfect bookcase fabric! I notice one of your books next to the teapots,is covered with cherries, and probably I have the recipes because I am using the same fabric in my yellow projects. Wish we could get together for tea and cherry tarts, veddy British, of course.

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  13. Your books on the shelves look great as do your crayons. They are fun

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  14. I look forward to seeing your bookshelf every month and yellow is fabulous! Love the globe and the bird hiding from the cat.

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  15. So jealous of fresh garden rhubarb! Priced it at the local farmers market and it would cost a fortune just to get enough for one pie. I love embiggening your bookshelves and reading the great titles. Who knew selvedges are so interesting! Love the cat and the bird too (how about a mouse???).

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  16. My sister was here helping me unpack and she watched as Molly daintily stepped around some knick knacks on a window ledge. But later during Molly's attempt to wake the neighbors, she knocked them all to the floor...only a few survived. Then to top it off, Molly got trapped in a chest of drawers and I damaged one of the drawers trying to free her. Her mews were very sad sounding, but I really freaked when they stopped.

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