Category: crafting

Every May the Textile Museum holds its “More Than Just a Yardage Sale”, which is like a giant rummage sale, with all the goods having been donated to the museum throughout the year. There’s tons of fabric, yarn, craft stuff, patterns, and household textiles, and it’s super fun! I was there on Friday morning when they opened – there was a line the length of a municipal parking lot waiting to get into the tents when I got there. It’s free to check out, so there are lots of people. It gets crowded in there but I managed to pick up a healthy amount of stuff that I’m really excited about. I didn’t really even go into the yarn tent at all!

The big pile – I added up all the yardage, and I got nearly 30 metres!

Wools – I didn’t realize at the time but the thick fabric on the bottom left is actually a bundle of about five 1m cuts. The others are 2-3m continuous yardage.

Clockwise from top left – red wool, chambray, jersey, and something that feels like maybe a wool/rayon blend. There’s 3m so I’m thinking maybe a nice skirt or two for the fall.

From the quilting section of the sale. I might use the yellow or the green for the binding on my current quilt.

Lastly a few boxes of tapestry wool – I think it would be perfect for edging and/or embroidering on wool fabric for a blanket!

If you don’t get along so well with crowds or having to elbow your way in to see things, I’d suggest going in the afternoon – the first shoppers are done and there’s a bit of breathing room. The truck just keeps unloading stuff throughout the day and on Saturday, so it’s not like you can really miss out on anything! I’m very inspired for my summer sewing this year.

I made a pieced quilt in high school – it had a tree on it, made from half square triangles and big solid blocks. Machine pieced, machine quilted (stitched in the ditch). I was doing a lot more sewing back then, including bags and skirts. Not that I knew what I was doing, far from it. I really think sometimes I’m just not precise enough for sewing, which is why knitting is so great for me!

With the spring weather coming (eventually, anyway), I really need some lighter covers for the bed. I can’t really sleep under just a sheet, but even my lightest duvet is too warm and too big! I’ve been thinking about a whole-cloth quilt for ages, so last week I finally went down to the Workroom on Queen West, and picked up some supplies.

My boyfriend and I use separate duvets for sleeping (like this) so I don’t need a full width cover. I just went with 2m of regular 45″ wide quilting cotton and trimmed the batting and backing to fit. For the backing, I’m using a duvet cover from Ikea that doesn’t actually fit any of our duvets!

I think I might be more about the process of actually quilting, rather than piecing and making an intricate quilt top (although who knows, that might come later). The fabric I picked is actually perfect for some easy quilting because it has lines on it! I’m just hand stitching along the diagonals. I think it’s going to be great, and I’m really enjoying having something other than knitting to work on in the evenings.

My stitches aren’t perfect and I’m sure I’ll mess up somewhere along the way. I’m okay with that.