Fabric Collections

Are you a fabric collector?  Do you quilt or sew or anything that you buy fabric for?  I am & I do.  Not as much as I used to which is pretty good considering I work in a fabric shop & would love to buy a lot of what I see.    But recently I made myself a rule - with fabric I really like, I must not buy any for a least a month.  Then I can reassess how much I still like it.  Like all new things, the excitement will eventually wear off.  Usually.  Some fabrics move fast, so I do too...  lol  That doesn't happen quite so often!  We had some of this range at work - Vintage Modern, though not the flannel range...  

I really, really love this range.   But I was good & I didn't buy all of it yet.  Except - & there is one exception... the beautiful retro looking white dot on red.  It was such a crisp red so I needed it.  So I got a big chunk of it before it disappeared.  Probably a really silly thing to do at the time but I did.  Fortunately, because it is all gone now.  It was so good, it took barely anytime for that bolt to vanish!  

Last week we got this new Kaffe Fassett fabric in.  It looks like tie-dyed spots on it & I decided it would make a great hat for me.  So I got enough for a hat for me.  That was all.  I am so not a fan of Kaffee Fassett fabric!  Not at all.  We have some bolts of his stuff at work but we are quite selective in what we get.  Mostly it just doesn't suit our clientele I think.  We are probably a bit behind the times in our town.  lol  

My other problem with fabric is that when I make something using a range, I want to do the whole quilt in that range.  I have a really hard time mixing in something that doesn't belong!  I found a customer just like that the other day.  It made me wonder whether most people find it easy to mix a range with other fabrics.  I don't like to.  I am a bit fussy.  Even with a backing for a quilt I will try to find something to match from the range.  I  wonder if many of you are like that.  Do you match fabric because they do go together or do you stick to a designers collection?  I know if  I have just a couple of random pieces of fabric I will mix it up with others that match it, but if there is a dominant designer I will try to use all those & nothing else!  Maybe I need to spread my wings a bit.  I do have a couple of quilts that aren't designer-ist!  (for lack of a better word! )  But I also have the ones done with just a range of fabric, right down to the backing & binding.  

Last week I sorted out my fabric bundles.  I got some of those groovy ziploc clear cases from Officeworks & put the ranges in those.  I also tagged them with the amounts of fabric in them!  Very organised & efficient I think!  It's quite handy actually as now I will see what I have enough fabric for when I get around to using them.  As far as the Vintage Modern range pictured above?  After sorting last week, I found I have a range in almost those colours already!  So that was worthwhile really sorting it out & thinking it through.  I was thinking my beautiful red with white dots would look great as a border on it, but I am struggling with that because it isn't the right collection!  I just don't know if I can bring myself to do it!  Weird aren't I?  Please tell me you are like that too!  It will make me feel so much better!  

Now I have found myself attacking a jelly roll I had in the cupboard.  You know, if you actually unpack one of those things it is unpacked forever!  Not to mention you end up rather fluffy!  I had this roll out for a while & decided on a whim yesterday to sew some of the strips together while DJ was asleep.  Crazy stupid brain of mine!  I had no pattern planned for it yet, but what can sewing them into twos hurt already?  I think I know what to do with it now.  At last!  So I have just been sewing them into fours!  Well I couldn't get on here to blog before now so I had to do something while I waited my turn.  Now I really should be sleeping.  So this post is full of waffle as it turns out, but it is also something I have been pondering about whether there are many like me who like to sew using only fabric collections...  

Goodnight!  Have a Good Weekend won't you!