Stash!

I pulled out some fabrics from my stash, and the old embroidery tin, to get ready for the new projects starting next week. I didn't have as much embroidery thread as I thought, and it's a 1.5-2 hour drive to a place where I could shop for some, so I leaped onto eBay and bid on an auction and won! The package arrived yesterday, and I couldn't be happier. The thread is just beautiful, and including shipping, cost about a third of what it would have been in a store. I like those kinds of savings.


I think the fabric all looks nice together, for the most part, but I think more darker fabrics might be needed to balance the lighter ones, don't you? My eye seems to be drawn to the crazy quilt squares that have dark fabrics in them. Hmmm.  Looking at the photo, now, there do seem to be quite a few darker pieces. Not too many prints, though, maybe there could be more of those? I'll have to rummage through my stash some more.

Some of these fabrics came from our local thrift store, where they sell remnants. We live out in the country, so there are only a few places where fabric is available. Walmart is one, a small quilting store is another that carries some very nice but very specific types of patterns of fabric in cotton, and the last is the thrift store. The thrift store fabric is usually a pretty good quality at very low prices, and there's always a wide variety of types and colors of fabric. At least four in the photo are upholstery weight, and those all came from the thrift store. I always wash it, but I have a lifetime habit of throwing any new fabric into the wash first, anyway, before sewing with it.

Where do you get your fabric and embroidery supplies? Are there places online that are good sources I haven't stumbled on yet? And what do you use for embroidery thread? The auction was for DMC #5 perle, which I'd read was a good weight for crazy quilts because of the heavier weights of fabric sometimes used, but that was just one person's opinion I read. The last I embroidered was with just six strand floss. Is that fine for crazy quilting, also? I'd like whatever I do now to look nice, so any advice would be welcome!

Next, I'll pull out ribbons, buttons and beads!