Inspirational!

I went to WalMart this morning to get a plastic drawer unit for my sewing room, to store sorted (!) quilting  scraps. These look tidy, but will soon be a mess if I keep them in those large bins (which I need for garment fabric anyway; they were a temporary solution):

Free time the past few days (plus a few hours that could have been spent at my desk, producing an income) has gone to folding fabric and tidying up the sewing room. So far I've only done the quilting fabrics. Garment fabric will be tackled this afternoon. And the sewing room isn't much tidier, as I've created quite a mess pulling stuff out so I can see what I've got.

Anyway, a good chunk of the fabric wrangling this week went to sorting through what has become a substantial pile of scraps from both quilt and clothing projects. I realize that serious quilters will laugh themselves silly at what I call a "substantial" scrap accumulation, but it feels like a lot to me. Clearly it is time to make a scrap quilt to use up some of the itty bitty pieces that aren't quite small enough to throw out but are hardest to justify keeping. I'm thinking something like this.

In the meantime, more storage drawers had emerged as an urgent necessity, so off to WalMart I went. That's twice in one month, which is a lot for me, as it is my store of last resort as much as possible. However, it's the only place in town to realiably find something like this at a decent price.

The big thrill came when I wheeled my cart back to the car, and "excuse me!"... a young woman approached. "Can you tell me who makes your skirt," she said. "It looks perfect for summer."

"I designed it myself," I replied, immensely pleased with myself.

"Oh, I thought maybe it was a Lily Pulitzer," she said. "She does such bright florals."

She brightened up when I said I'd made it, so I showed her it was just a simple drawstring a-line, very briefly described my process (I piece the main fabrics before cutting a self-drafted pattern, same front and back), assured her it was something she could do on her very basic sewing machine (straight stitch only), and suggested she Google "self-drafted skirt pattern" when she got home, for pointers.

"Go make yourself a skirt!" I encouraged. "You can do it!"

I hope she does.

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PS: I also stopped at the craft store for some fabric paint, stencil sponges, and spray adhesive, so I can get creative with my old T-shirts, Alabama style. First, though, I need to finish cleaning up the sewing room.