I lost my sewing mojo and I can't find it. Anywhere.

This summer has been absolutely non-stop so far with house improvement, medical appointments and assessments for one of the kiddies, and zero sewing.

Don't get me wrong - I love my home improvement - just check out my IG feed:

...but it's becoming a bit overwhelming, and frankly, really bumming me out.

The main culprit is our leaky, wet basement. Last month hubby removed all of the drywall on the masonry wall so that we could find the source of the water. Scratch that - sourceS.

panorama of the basement right now. Sh*tshow.

It was dark and oppressive before, but now with exposed studs, all of my stuff in chaos, and no organization whatsoever I'm feeling SUPER bummed, overwhelmed, and totally uninspired.

The tough thing is:

- before we can close up the walls, we need to deal with the leaks.
- in order to deal with the leaks, we need to dig holes outside to apply waterproofing/sealant to the cracks.
- before we can dig holes, it has to stop raining.
- it would be a waste to paint the top walls since we're ripping them down when we re-drywall (I've considered doing this anyway...but it feels like I need to get as much of the outside stuff done around the house while the weather is warm...)

Then, when these non-stop thunderstorms finally cease, and we do manage to get the cracks dealt with from the exterior, we'll need to pull up the basement floor and seal the walls and floor just to make sure that no water ever (okay, that's unrealistic for Chicago, but minimal water) enters the basement. Which we can't afford.

So. I'm stuck in this crazy chaos for the indefinite future, and it sucks.

Does anyone know anyone at House Crashers or something? Or maybe a cabinet and construction and waterproofing companies which would like to give me an awesome space in return for some fabulous quilts??

I jest. Sort of. ☺

I'm trying hard to get my mojo back. But I'm bummed. And pretty much never stop moving with some project or activity around the house or with the kids.

Any tips you've found that help you get re-inspired??

Oh, man.

If you're on Instagram, and you're a fabric-holic, you'll probably know what I'm talking about -

it's #thegreatfabricdestash

(The Great Fabric Destash)

and it's bad.

Very, very bad. Especially when you're on a tight budget.

So let's say - hypothetically speaking - a certain Canadian Expat, perhaps a little homesick and maybe a little down - spent an evening drowning her woes in gorgeous pictures of wonderful fabrics all over Instagram.

And maybe she realized that it had been forever since she really bought any fabric that was for herself.

And maybe, she went a little nutbar. About Denyse Schmidt.

OOPS.

Here's how it works if you're not on Instagram:

When you post a photo, you can add a hashtag and a search term immediately following it, like this:

#diy

...that hashtag term is clickable, searchable link, and will pull up every Instagram post of every person who ever used that #diy in their post.

So!

Let's say you need to destash a bit of your fabric. And you want to sell it quickly, and not muck around with an online site.

You can post your destash item with the hashtag #thegreatfabricdestash and people (like the crazy Expat mentioned above) can search that term and see what people are selling.

I may have relieved one IG user of some of her Denyse Schmidt stash:

Denyse Schmidt, Freespirit Fabrics, "Franklin"

Denyse Schmidt for Freespirit Fabrics, "Chicopee"

I also may have added some of Bonnie and Camille's gorgeousness to my stash this week - come on, Vintage Modern? On a bolt? In 2015?! I had to - see the post and pictures {here}...

I'm cutting myself off now.

Jeepers.

Talk about falling hard off the wagon.

Linking up to the fabric-stashing, textile-hoarding enabler, Molli Sparkles for his Sunday Stash Share!

Today I had the great pleasure of doing three things:

1. Hanging out with a bunch of my Chicago Modern Quilt Guild buddies
2. Shopping. For fabric. Of course.
3. Learning about gorgeous Italian threads made by Aurifil...

Some gorgeous Aurifil swag & samples, and then I found some out of print gems - namely Vintage Modern and Marmalade prints by Bonnie and Camille for Moda!