Material Girl
I’m not sure when my love of fabric began. I’m pretty sure it was at a relatively early age though. I remember watching mom at the sewing machine with her heavy duty (not cute) double knit fabrics. I could never get into the polyester thing. I was always drawn to the cotton stuff. I had even been known swipe a cotton hanky and try to make something out of it…desperate times called for desperate measures!!
Being at TG&Y is my first vivid memory of getting lost in bolts and folds of fabric prints. Mom sewed a lot of her own clothing in the 70’s using that heavy duty, not cute, double knit stuff. Not interested. While she was shopping for her kind of fabric, I was lost in the florals, stripes and prints of the cotton sort. I would often beg for remnants even though I had no idea how or what I would use them for. If enough hankies went missing maybe she would eventually give in?!
Fast forward to now… the decision to enter a fabric store and make a purchase is entirely up to me…therefore…
I absolutely, no question about it, had to get a yard of the Yoga Frog fabric. It made me smile and it could potentially make something cute and useful some day. Same with the Weenie Dogs in Rain Boots, the Retro Televisions and Radios, the Old Bicycles, the Hippos and Hula Hoops…the reasonings and the list of prints goes on and embarrassingly on!
Now, who ever came up with what is known as a fat quarter is a fabric addict genius! I am able buy an 18” x 22” piece of irresistibly cute fabric for around $2. This is like fabric candy at the checkout!! Old Lunchboxes, Paint Brushes, Vintage Salt & Pepper Shakers, Clothes Hangers, Old Aprons, Those Whirly Things From an Elm Tree…hello?!...no question about that one!!
The closet in my sewing room has 6” deep shelves, the length of the closet and up to eyeball high to hold my modest little array of fabric cuts. Each shelf has neatly folded fabrics arranged by color, by intention or by theme. Throughout the rest of the room there might be a basket or a little crate or birdcage here and there with small folds of those extra special, uniquely fantastic fabrics. There may even be a tote way back under some things that has a million tiny little scraps of some fabric sacrifices. Because even the most minute little scrap can bring a happy remembrance of the original cut!
I see no end to or need to try and curb my little obsession for fabric. For who’s to say that if the neatly folded Yoga Frogs or Typewriter Keys or Tricycles or Amish Wagons never get ‘made’ into anything…is that such a bad thing?! They are, after all, still serving a purpose!
All this mentioning of fabric makes me want to run to the quilt shop…Have a nice day!!
