The Rain In Spain Falls Mainly on the...

It's sneak peek season and fabric is popping up all over. I don't know why, but i always love to make a giant pile of the whole collection once it arrives. It gives me a chance to see the range of colors — and i guess it doesn't hurt that i get to handle each of the prints (with maybe a teensy-weensy bit of oogling) and smooth my hand over them while stacking it up. More peeks to come soon, but in the meantime, you can see a little more here and here. Terrain will be at Quilt Market (without me, sniff, sniff), and is due to ship this September. Two prints will come in double-sided pre-quilted fabric and three prints will come in coated fabric. Lots of possibilities!

Annnd,

We try to reuse and recycle as much as possible and sometimes that includes using a bit of ingenuity and a lot of creativity. For instance: do you buy lettuce in the grocery store that comes with one of these green velcro bands?

We do! And some other veggies (like broccoli and asparagus) come with thick rubber bands that we can't get ourselves to throw away! We keep them in the drawer with our aluminum foil and saran wrap:

Ok, we eat a lot of lettuce...and yes, it's a little out of control. But those velcro strips are so useful for storing open bags of things like this:

or this:

or for training a rose bush like this:

or trellising a vine like this:

Pete uses them to cinch around his pant leg so it doesn't get caught in the chain while riding his bike. And in the summer, we use them to fasten our tomato plants to the cages. Got any other ideas for these thingies?? How about any recycling tips you use around your home? Would love to hear them!