Yesterday's Mail

 

Yesterday was a Good Mail day™ because my subscription box from Pink Door Fabrics arrived. It is chock o' block as per usual with all kinds of fun stuff. But I have to say, I really really enjoy the boxes and have a hard time throwing them away. I've been using them for storing current projects, they're roomy enough and easy to move around. Better than buying even more P.O.T.S. (Plastic Organizer Thingies).

There's always a pattern included and this one is super intriguing to me, I've always liked this block but have never tried it (due to the curves and needing to make templates. Well, it includes the acrylic templates, and equipment for doing it EPP style. There also directions for piecing it by machine. We shall see. I quite like the examples on the pattern cover of the fussy cutting these great Tula Pink fabrics.

I'm excited about the Renaissance Ribbons that were included, they're so pretty and match the fabric so well. Another Sewline fabric glue pen is always useful, now I can have one in my to-go box and one in my workroom, some very pointy butterfly scissors, John James Milliners needles, a spool of DecoBob for hand sewing. Oh and a package of seeds, alyssum.

There was also a swatch deck with pictures of each of the prints in the Untamed fabric line. Not sure what those are really for, maybe I can use them in a collage?

Untamed is all about flowers,  there are no animals included in any of these. Except for the check and houndstooth fabrics, it's all gorgeous flower or plant related shapes like seeds..

I really enjoy the variation of patterns used in the backgrounds of the florals.

I'm really into the rainbow houndstooth fabrics. And the patterns on the seeds (or water droplets).

The neons are Very Neon.

A lot of these would play very well with other Tula Pink fabric lines, there are similar motifs that are similar and the colors would work together.

The Tula Pink solids are super pretty. The fabric quality is very good for a solid.

The neon checkerboards are super stinky with the heavy neon print. It's very stiff and plasticky as well. I hope that it washes out and softens somewhat.

Always fun to check out the selvedges.

I like the colors on the selvedge being represented in water droplet (or seed) shapes.

I used my laundry marker to write in the names of the solids, just in case I end up needing more of one color.

Looking Closer

 

I'm looking more closely at the fabrics I just purchased, and this one, that is a print of various shibori techniques is really even more striking in person than it was online. I'm realizing now that the way that it's printed, one could cut out the various squares and set them off with a matching cream or brown. It's really got a lot of depth to it for a commercial print.

So mysterious, when the selvedge quotes get cut into. I'm guessing it's supposed to say: "Goodness will never be wasted in any way."  I quite like that sentiment. This fabric is named Koraju which means collage in Japanese.

Next close-up is the unusual selvedge edge for the Mountain fabric. Now that I'm seeing it in my hands and in a picture, I think I might have to incorporate it into the mini quilt I'm making for the Curated Quilts Utility challenge. You're supposed to use utilitarian fabrics for the challenge and using up the edge of a fabric counts in my mind. Plus it's quite an interesting color compared to the base fabric. More on that later. This fabric is really lovely, it has such a nice sheen to it, and it's very soft. I haven't washed it yet, so we'll see how it does.

Selvedge Sayings

 

Selvedges used to be quite boring except for the little circles or squares of colors from the fabric. But now, they're much more involved and well thought-out or even designed. I'm finding that I love the little sayings that are printed on selvedges these days, I think it's another thing I'm going to start collecting. Kind of like keeping fortune cookie fortunes. I think an assemblage of these would make a cool pillow or part of a jacket. Or a lampshade, I need to do something about the lampshade in my workroom. 

But I swear I'm not going to go as far as to make a giant circle skirted dress out of them or anything. Oh my goodness people are selling packs of random selvedges on etsy?!? I know I know, I shouldn't be surprised, but yet...I genuinely am surprised.

Sewing is good for the heart

Not all who wander are lost

There's so many more of them already in my fabric stash, but I'm not going to go through all my fabrics and cut them. As I use fabrics I will though. Maybe I'll put them in one of the glass block containers I usually put thread bits in because it would look pretty.