happy october!

Exciting things are happening around here... As you can see, I have gotten a beautiful pumpkin to celebrate fall - and not just any pumpkin, it's a organic pie pumpkin :) Right around Halloween I plan to bake it, puree it and make a yummy pie. It's sitting on a stack pure goodness - free, 100% cotton patches. Yes, you heard right - free! I shall reveal my secret:

Wallpaper books. If you call your local wallpaper store, they will very likely have discontinued books that they would otherwise throw away! A lot of wallpaper books have fabric samples too, which is where I got that beautiful stack. I swear it's like gold to me.

There you can see a fabric patch that perfectly matches the wallpaper sample. I haven't even begun to sing the praises of the actual wallpaper - it can be used for wrapping paper, book-binding, decoupage, note cards, etc. Anything you can use fancy paper for, you got it.

Gold baby, pure gold.

This is how many patches came from seven wallpaper books.


I was positively hopping with glee. Take a look at some of these beauties:

That round of books and fabric was particularly wonderful - I doubt I'll be that lucky again. I did go to another local wallpaper store and managed to get another 10 books (!) and 15 fabric books (!!!). Not quite as fantasmagorical as the last bunch, but beautiful in their own right. I have to sort the fakey fabrics from the cotton and silk ones. Lots of projects are looming on the horizon!

Once I deconstruct the fabric books and sort the fabrics by fiber, I'll start the washing, drying and ironing phase like with the last bunch. Gotta love eco-friendly free crafts, even if they do involve some work.

Soon I will post photos of two finished sewing projects (hint: they are wearable). I hope you all have a wonderful start to fall - and lots of pumpkin :)