Cloth of Many Colors

I love cotton cloth. It's great to sew with and making sewn and quilted items at the holidays for gift giving is something I enjoy.

In rearranging the workspace and changing out the rooms, I'm setting up a little area for sewing. I had so much fun making the little amulet bags for the charm / bead / clasp swap that I decided it would be nice to have the things I need available.

I ran across some of my hand dyed cotton, cut, pressed and folded as fat quarters.

Odd name, isn't it? Here's the definition:

FAT QUARTER: A quilter's unit of measure from the 44" wide fabric bolt, a yard is cut in half lengthwise then in half widthwise, to create a piece 18" x 22" that allows more creative use than just shearing off a (9" x 44") one-quarter yard of fabric.

Since I'm thinking of some holiday projects to make using hand dyed cotton, I thought some of you might be doing the same. I'm putting a few fat quarters of my hand dyed cotton in the expeditionD shop, and I will add some narrow strips too.

The fat quarters (18" x 22") are a good size if you are making quilt strips or sewing applique. The hand dyed cotton has many beautiful variations in color, sometimes in the same color family and sometimes two or even three colors, as the dyes blend and merge. And because they are dyed together, they seem to magically blend with each other.

The strips will be useful for jewelry or ornaments, to tie as a decoration or use on a necklace for the chain. Wrap wire around the ends to connect to a wire wrap bead chain for a little fiber accent.

So many ideas, so many projects, just not enough time!