More Great Bargains

Rather than to go into the full-blown background on Terry's stash sale, just click this link back to the post I wrote in September. I made some purchases that first time around and shared those with you here at this link.

Terry did not clear out as much fabric as she had hoped she would, so she held a second sale about 2 weeks ago, and advertised it to a somewhat wider audience. In the intervening weeks, I'd made some mental notes about pieces I could look for to enhance a few projects I have ongoing. Here are my latest additions from Terry's generous sale.

Believe it or not, some of this has already been used. The navy stripe on top has been used for the borders of the Veteran's quilt I made for JoAnn's Florida guild. Click this link and scroll to the bottom to see the finished quilt top. It worked perfectly for the border. And I have just a bit left over to use for 2.5-inch squares or some future whim that strikes my fancy.

The bottom red fabric will enhance a quilt I worked on at the 2015 Canter's Cave retreat. It was a kit called 19th Century Reds, and I miscut some yardage. This will hopefully replace the boo-boo. It is a pretty big piece of fabric, so there is a good chance it will serve as backing, as well.

The navy blue piece - a very old Thimbleberries - will be used for a border on a UFO. Ages and ages ago (like late 1990s), I hand-pieced a whole bunch of scrappy navy and neutral churn dash blocks - or are they monkey wrench blocks? - I've used both names. After aging for 10 or 15 years, I sewed them into a quilt top, on point, which is currently enjoying a new aging process. I was lacking just the right navy for the border. Well, folks, we have a winner. I think I will select one of the neutrals for a narrow inner border, then add the wider navy outer border. Wonderful plan.

I bought one additional fabric that is not in this grouping for I'd already put it into the bin with the project it is going to enhance. It was a neutral stripe, and when I get around to working with it, I will be sure to let you know it came from Terry's.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Stash Enhancement

This is bargain-style stash enhancement, too -- the very best kind.

I mentioned in a recent post that one of my friends was selling her stash (not all of it, but a very significant portion of it). I was quite interested in making some purchases, yet at the time I was shopping, no specific needs came to mind, so I bought dark neutrals. I always seem to need background and/or neutral fabrics to complete a color combination, so this gave me a perfect opportunity to do just that.

These are all good-sized cuts of fabric and will serve me well on several quilts. I have a couple of plans already forming for some of this. These fabrics were either 2-yard or 3-yard cuts for the most part. That is just right, in most cases, for a decent quilt. Since I don't have anything specific in mind, anything I make with these will be as big as the neutral will allow. That will be just fine with me.

Now that a few days have passed, of course I am thinking of specific quilts and thinking of things I should have looked for. Hindsight, you know. I expect Terry will have round 2 at some point, so I will try to keep these specifics in mind.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Stash Enhancement

It has been a very long time since I've typed those words!! Yes, I bought some fabric last week; in a week fraught with several distressing events, I did have some high points. While quilting with the Frankfort girls last Friday morning, we learned from Terry that the lovely folks at Old Town Fabrics had pulled some French General fabrics and moved them to the sale table. Who could resist? A sale! French General! After quilting, Jan and I went shopping.

The top two pieces are border prints; I bought only a half yard of each and plan to use these in some future POTC creations. The bottom two pieces are 3-yard cuts and I envision using these as "neutrals" in some future quilt. I have a good-size tub of French General remnants, so this might help give order to whatever quilt will come of said remnants.

It's April Fool's Day! Will you be tricked? Knowing me, I probably will be. I will be on my guard, however.

I did finish my book. Very good mystery. I had a couple of plot points worked out ahead of time, but there were still surprises which I'd not anticipated. We have our book club meeting in Columbus later this morning, so I must be off!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Retail Therapy aka Stash Enhancement

It has been a very long time since I bought any new fabric. I have done remarkably well at shopping from my stash. Yesterday, though, I found myself in dire need of some Bottom Line thread for a quilt I am getting ready to do, and so I jaunted in to Old Town Fabrics for a couple of spools.

And while I was there, I thought I really ought to treat myself to some half-yard cuts just for stash building, you know. *wink*

Old Town does a bit of incentivizing on these. There is a big basket always full of them, and you get 5 for $20. That works out to 2.5 yards for a decent price. I selected 3 neutrals, plus a cheddar and a purple - two colors that I typically have in very limited variety. Now I am a happy camper, and I can stop procrastinating about getting this quilt finished!

More on that tomorrow, hopefully.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Retail Therapy

While in Amish Country on Tuesday, Sharon, Dee and I visited Mrs. Miller's Dry Goods in Charm. I have shared this wonderful quilt shop here in earlier posts, as it has long been a favorite. It has been so long since I made random purchases, so this was quite a treat I allowed myself. *wink*

Since I seem to be teetering on that slippery slope towards the insanity known as English Paper Piecing, I picked up these two essentials--3/4" hexagon templates and glue pen refills.

Fat quarters. The blue and yellow will likely end up on a pillow for our screened porch; the red and teal set might see life as a zipper bag like the one shown here; and the brown, gray and black set seemed to be suited for EPP.

Four of these items are 1-yard cuts; I think I can never have enough neutrals in the stash, and that gray dottie one may end up going in the tub with a project I've had simmering that will use grays and yellows.  The larger piece is a 3-yard cut of white-on-white, and I have been finding myself using these more often of late, so that falls into the stash enhancement category, too.

I continue to try to use from the stash, but every now and then a gal has to shop! I think I maintained restraint and at the same time, got some real useful additions for upcoming projects.

After Charm, we drove over to Berlin where we shopped two more stores, but I was content to just window shop--no additional purchases were required, although I did see some French General that really begged to come with me. I resisted. Barely.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Retail Therapy

Oh, how good it feels to make a few fabric purchases! Once upon a time, I bought fabric with wild abandon. Now, I am much more deliberate in my purchases, having realized that I'd best be attacking the stash as opposed to increasing it.

I mentioned in the last post that I got to do a bit of shopping in Cincinnati and Waynesville last week. Let me show you what I bought.

I collaged the pictures; I guess I am getting lazy! This is just so much faster! Anyway, the top left is a stack of yardage all from the Lario line. This line has been on my radar since Sharon P. showed it to me a couple of months ago. I have absolutely no ideas about what this yardage will be used for,  so I will just stare at it for awhile.

The top right is from Sentiments, a line by 3 Sisters. In the back of my mind I have a red and white quilt formulating, and this just looked too luscious to pass up.

The 2 charm packs in the bottom left are by American Jane. I already have some yardage , not from this line, but from previous lines, and they will all work together. There are some wonderfully bright reds and blues in this line.

The two fat quarters in the bottom right photo are gray pieces from the Morris Apprentice line by Barbara Brackman. I have that whole line stashed away for that wonderful quilt - Tapestry - that Kelly had on display at Old Town Fabric Shop in Chillicothe. I figured a couple extra pieces might come in handy; and if I don't use it in that quilt, I could set these aside to use in the gray and yellow quilt I am planning to start soon.

The display at Old Town Fabrics.

My pattern and fabric, waiting and ready to start.

Better be getting busy, hadn't I?? Always so many projects, and yet I spend so much time dithering about what to start next. Gracious!

I think I will try to be productive today; how about you??

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Retail Therapy

I have been quite smug about my ongoing resolve to use from the stash and resist buying more fabric. That said, a girl can only take so much of all this piety!

I succumbed to temptation on Friday. I had 15 minutes to kill, and stopped in to Old Town Fabrics to see what I could see. They had an oh-so-inviting basket of 1/2 yard cuts marked $5 each, or 5 for $20. What a deal!

I bought 10; those 2 blues on the bottom left are the same; this totals 5 yards of fabric for $40+tax. That's pretty close to a 20% savings, so I now feel smug about saving some money while indulging in some rare retail therapy in the fabric store!

Gosh, it felt good.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

I'm Still Doing It

Buying fabric, that is. All I can say is that I'm really glad my addiction isn't drugs or booze. Fabric addiction is far more fun than those could ever be, I'm sure.

The latest stash enhancement came today by way of FedEx. Hancock's of Paducah advertised drastic markdowns on some older Kaffe Fassett and Westminster fabrics. It was irresistable...

Don'tcha just love 'em? Euphoric!

Shopping Anyone?

It has been my intent to use from my stash as much as possible, and resist buying more fabric, or at least seriously cut back new purchases.

And I'm not doing too bad, really. I buy waaaaayyy less fabric now than I did 5 or 10 years ago (and more). I truly have been working at stash reduction with my recent projects.

Now, with that said, let me show you what I bought last week on a shopping trip to Columbus with Terry.

:-)

The main point of shopping on this particular day was to find a 4th fabric to go with the 3 on the right, which were already in my stash. I'd auditioned everything I could find in my drawers and bins and tubs, but nothing seemed to work. This little green print suited me, so now I need a project to go with this grouping.

A sailing quilt made from these fabrics hung on display inside the door of the fabric store. My son is in the navy. Do I need any other reason?

Fat quarters. A quilter can never have enough, right? You'll note a wide variety in my new purchases: Kaffe Fassett, Amy Butler, reproduction prints. Indeed, my likes run the gamut. Also, having a nice variety provides good stuff for scrap quilts, which have great appeal to me. So there, I had a good reason to add to my already burgeoning fat quarter stash.

I bought several of these. I used 2 Civil War Homefront packs on my weekend Schnibbles project.

Finally, here are the newest Scnibbles to be added to my to-do list. The one I made over the weekend  is "Sunday Best."  You can see the finished Sunday Best in my post from Sunday.

Fabric shopping outings - always funfilled. Terry and I had a non-stop gabfest; she bought several "essentials" from the quilt shops; we ran some other errands while in Columbus; all-in-all, we had a great day.

Clarifying my Terminology

In my quilting vocabulary, when I refer to using Kaffe Fassett fabrics, I am actually referring to the family of Westminster fabrics of Fassett, Mably, Jacobs and Nagley. From the very beginning of my infatuation with these fabrics, I've always just called them "Kaffe fabrics." I suppose if I owned or worked in a quilt shop, I would be more apt to make the proper distinctions. Well, why-ever I do it,  here on this blog, I have repeatedly referred to the fabrics inaccurately.

The current project coming together in my sewing room is a Kaffe Fassett design called Broken Dishes from the book Kaleidoscope of Quilts.

 I've had my eye on this quilt for over 2 years, maybe 3, as a result of this quilt's being featured in all the magazines for a thread adverstisement. I'm sure many of you remember it. The more I saw it, the more it called to me.

I began the collecting of fabrics, and before I knew it, I was out of control. I bought about 6 fat quarter packs from an on-line store to start with, and in no time, I had a tub so full, I can't lift it! (Stash building at its finest!!)

I continue to work on my Broken Dishes, slow but steady. I find myself doing the work in steps, i.e. mark the diagonal lines on all the half-square triangles, or press all the seams open, etc. There are so many small pieces that it becomes overwhelming to think about all of it.

Maybe I will switch things up a bit today. I'm thinking about making a few of the border blocks; they consist of larger - and fewer - pieces.