Thrifty Acres: Future Fabric Fun

Hello! I head to the fabric store when I plan on sewing a garment, but for craft projects I'm fine with material from secondhand sources like thrift stores, estate sales, or even the decluttered stashes from family members or friends. It's fun to collect fabrics from here and there.

And of course it's fun to make something with these fabrics too. I'm currently working on a quilt that will likely take me a long time (months? years?) to finish, but it's been a great way to go through my fabric collection.

But recently (like last night) I gathered up material for a couple of short-term projects:

A bunch of blue fabrics for a bevy of blue birds. The completed birds will be strung together to become a hanging decorative piece. This will replace something similar that's gotten rather faded. 

At the beginning of this post I commented that I've collected fabrics from a variety of sources. One source I hadn't mentioned was where I'd made my most recent fabric purchase: an interior design firm that was participating in our town's sidewalk sales this past weekend. This business was selling discontinued fabric sample books for 25c each. 

I found one such book whose samples were all 100% cotton. The samples are large enough pieces to sew into cloth napkins, so I happily purchased the book with that in mind. I mentioned my intent to the employee who took my quarter and she thought it sounded like a great idea.

Here's what some of the fabrics from that sample book look like:

Yes, I like the color blue, but this pattern also comes in green, dark red and rust. 

Close up of that top pattern:

I think this will make a nice napkin, and it'll be an inexpensive way to add a little "luxury" to my mealtimes. 

Both the napkins and the birds will be quick projects, which is good since who knows when my quilt will be done!