Uglies of the Fabric Kind

A to Z challenge letter of the day is U, so I am going to elaborate on fabric uglies. The above grouping of 9 patch pieced patchwork came in a bag $3.99 at thrift. I thought I had a bonanza, but noooooo.🙈 Every single piece of fabric is poor quality and UGLY. 

I can't even pretend to crapht this group into something. God Bless mystery crafter's soul, assuming he/she has departed this earth. Why else would bags of this stuff show up at thrift? There were four more bags that I passed up. 

I first ventured into the subject nearly 10 years ago on my post lets-talk-uglies. No one will talk about it! So hush, hush. "Just use up the fabric honey ..." in my best fabric-police voice. 

Let's face it, some people don't have an eye for color or how to "marry" fabric. Ugly fabric turns into ugly quilts. 

I am chuckling to myself as I write this. Lawd knows I have made some abysmal quilts, especially early on. 

I give credit to the creator who at least tried the craft, even when it turned out ugly. 

What can be done with a bag of remnants?

Post title sung to "What Do You Get When You Fall In Love?"

I had seen this bag of remnants at thrift before but I passed on them because I had just donated a large bag of the same. Half off day this Memorial Day weekend meant the remnant bag was only $2.25, so I thought "why not?" 

I knew the work involved to process this material.

It had to be washed because no matter how clean the home, fabric picks of the occupant's scent. 

I ironed the material while still damp and then trimmed. It turns into a tangled mess when you don't use a mesh bag. I had too much fabric to use that technique this time. 

This aqua/orange companion fabric of different sizes and cuts can be worked into a sampler. There were a few pieces of feedsack prints and others, all keepers, no uglies.  

When I first started buying fabric secondhand in bags or lots, I would separate it all by colors. Now, when I see mystery quilter had purchased a fabric collection, I keep those pieces together. 

I hope to get some quilting done this weekend as I bought a new walking foot and some size 16 needles. Fingers crossed my next post will feature a bound quilt. I am also shooting for completion of my composition quilt for the county fair. We'll see, I have been highly unmotivated now heading into the summer months. 

On my creative plate now are the composition quilt (nearly quilted), the vintage fan quilt (needs to be bound), the nifty novelties quilt for a hop this August (needs to be bound), and the  magnolia needlepoint I began on challenge this February (1/2 complete, goal to finish by November to have framed). 

Summer Socials

Cameron Park Hospice Thrift held their Summer Solstice Event this weekend. There were Hawaiian shirts, beach items and kitsch galore. For just a few dollars, I picked up the flamingo tissue centerpiece, a souvenir ukelele, two strands of painted beads and a pink sarong. We have a summer social coming up next month at work and these items will jazz up one of the treat tables. 
 
The shopper checking out in front of me purchased over $100 of truly amazing party goods - one item I didn't think to snag was a large ceramic conch shell, you could fill it with anything. 

My birthday is on June 25, so I treated myself to a mystery box of fabric purchased from one of my favorite online retailers. Course, I tried to convince myself I didn't need more fabric but I have been showing restraint at the thrift shops, not purchasing everything quilting cotton. I will catalog the treasures inside the box. Hoping it isn't a box of uglies. 

A log cabin square done in pinks and blues peeks out
along with a hint of a purple batik and a batik firefly
SOLD me on this collection

Mystery box in lineup

In other news, I continue to participate in the 2018 Monthly Color Challenge with June's block being purple. I goofed up and didn't save the image on my iPhone. It posted to IG but I can't copy it. 
June color block.  Link to host and pinwheel pattern june-color-challenge.

Awaiting word on my media access pass to the California State Fair. I am interested in what all that entails. 

Suffering through 100+ degree heat this weekend, I am more in the mood for scanning rather than sewing. The scanning is the project of converting 35 mm photo slides to digital images. I've just scheduled a visit in July to see my 90 year old mother. 

How have you been beating the heat?

I destashed the uglies

A sneak peek of the Vintage Fabric Quilt top and backing (nearly finished). I made the mistake in another creation of cutting the kitty cat panel into small borders when it really presents best in one piece. I will put a teal polka dot border on the top of the backing.

As promised, I destashed my uglies aka my ugly fabric. I filled an entire paper grocery bag full of fabric.

My quilt journey started with amassing over 40 xxxxl Hawaiian print shirts and processing them into workable material for piecing. I made a number of quilts from the fabric but have since lost the inspiration to continue along that vein. I did keep a few of the pretties, just in case.

We had a heck of a storm on Sunday here in Northern California. I took off work the next day to avoid flooded streets and roads. Part of errand running included thrift shopping plus a $10 credit on points earned so my day's haul was $11 and change.

There is an Ugly Christmas sweater with amazing detailed beading (to go up for sale in a few months) a cornflower button up shirt, a fun t-shirt and a doll ($1.25 on sale) for steampunkage. There is quilt publication of Favorite Applique Quilts but best of all, Scrapcrafts from A to Z.  I plan on doing another sewing-themed (loosely based) group of posts for the A to Z Challenge in April. I'll look over this book to see if it will work for my purposes. The gray floral fabric turned out to be a circular table cover. The small orange labeled packets contained pieces of costume jewelry. 

We've been staying warm and dry - now I need to concentrate on setting up that new sewing room!

Linking up with Leanne at shecanquilt.ca for:

Let's talk uglies

The uglies I am referring to are the fabrics that are, well, just plain ugly. I recently organized my fabric remnants by color and got rid of my uglies - sent to the Great Thrift Shop Beyond.

I am certain other quilters/fabric artists do this. I mean you can only hide so much of the uglies scrapping them out. Here is a perfect example of what I consider to be uglies offered through shopgoodwill.com. That poppy fabric I think is the best of the bunch, but the rest - uglies.




If you have any blog hops or challenges planned, please leave a comment with the info or email me at tvonzalez at gmail.com.

Ending the post with baby doll mugshots, tore up 1 and tore up 2. Both inmates at shopgoodwill.com. (Yes, I spend way too much time on that website.)