Sunday Stash and TLP March Update

You’ve heard me rave about the local PA Fabric Outlet before. They carry tons of $5 a yard calicoes from Makower, Andover, and Free Spirit along with other brands. And, often I get a 50% off coupon for the sale calico rack, which brings the fabric down to $2.50 a yard! Thank goodness I’m confined to the sale rack and the coupon doesn’t apply to the entire store. That would be very, very bad. The store has a rule that if you don’t turn in your coupon, you get removed from the mailing list. Brilliant marketing because I in no way want to get cut from the mailing list. So, I trekked out there last week even though it felt like the coupons lately have been arriving fast and furious.

Those spools jumped right out at me. I’ve been drooling over them for some time in the regular price rack, so when they dropped to $2.50, I snagged what was left on the bolt. The dress form fabric  I did buy at the $5 price. I love the color, and I’m stocking up for summer sewing when I want to branch out into projects like zippered pouches and needle cases and other small goodies. These will make the cutest little sewing accessories.

 

Of course, I posted my Pantone quilt very recently. I’m linking it today to The Library Project – March Update because I pieced it using the In the Neighborhood pattern that was one of my goal projects for the year.

 

I found some backing for it in the $2.50 bolts. I don’t think the 3 yards that were left are quite enough, but I had some fabric left from piecing the top, so I should be set with a little piecing. Admittedly, the color is not spot on, but I think it’s close enough.

 

And, here are some of the other $2.50 fabrics I snagged this time and the last that I was able to go. The Denyse Schmidt fabric on the top of the pile is going to help fix the contrast problems that I’m having with my Gimme Diamonds quilt, which is another library project for the year. The dots on the bottom are another possible backing find since I snagged several yards and think they would look great on the back of a modern quilt. The cherries might become more aprons for my Etsy shop or something else fun for the kitchen since that would be part of the summer goal to branch out. And, that blue fabric with the zig zags will most likely find its way into a sailboat quilt since I’ve had a hankering to make one for awhile.

Linking up to Sunday Stash at Molli Sparkles.

Sunday Stash – Pantone color challenge

I’ve been falling behind on my quilting goals lately (though not devastatingly so), so I wasn’t sure I was going to get to use this lovely radiant orchid bundle from Pink Chalk Fabrics (sorry, looks like they are out of stock…). But, last night, I did a little marathon cutting session, and now I think I can get a quilt top finished in time for the Pantone color challenge, especially since I thought it had to be all done by March 12th, but I just double checked the rules and found out that it doesn’t have to be done until March 21st. Yay! This can go into spring break if necessary ::imagine my excited face here::

 

In case you want to get your hands on some of these fabrics individually, Pink Chalk does have many of them. Here’s a list:

Kona Violet – that’s the solid that all the other fabrics are sitting on.

Top row left to right:
Joel Dewberry Aviary 2 Lodge Lattice Lilac
Andover Textured Solid Amethyst – I’m actually not 100% sure on this one, but I think that’s what it is…
Allison Glass Sun Print Party Streamer Dahlia
Mystery fabric — not sure what that one is
Allison Glass Clover Sunshine Snow Globe Plum
Kona Berry

Bottom row left to right:
Kaffe Fassett Spot Lilac
Allison Glass Sun Print Corsage Fuchsia
Joel Dewberry True Colors Wood Grain Violet

I think there 2 fabrics from this stack that I might not wind up cutting into, so stay tuned for a giveaway between now and when I show the completed quilt top. I’ll check in with a tiny sneak peek once I get a little more of it together.

Sunday Stash – Singing in the Rain Edition

Look what came in the mail this week! It’s the fabric that I’ll use for my bathroom curtains. Those yellow boots are part of the bathroom decor as well. I’m glad that one of the blogs I follow directed me to Connecting Threads because this Galoshes Galore fabric is one that I saw awhile ago, but I never made it back to order it. I guess good things come to those who wait because it’s on clearance now for $4.16 a yard. It’s hard to beat that for curtain fabric. It’s also amazing that I resisted buying any of the other fabric in the line.

Aren’t the curtains going to look fun with the rest of the bathroom decor?

Check back for next week’s Sunday stash here because I’ll be giving away 6 fat quarters from Kaffe Fassett’s Classics line. I won a fat quarter bundle, and some of the fabrics don’t quite have a home in the projects that I’m working on, so I’m going to share the good fortune and pass them along.

Linking up with Sunday Stash at Blossom Heart Quilts.

 

Sunday Stash – getting ready for Christmas

Normally, I’m the girl who violently reacts to any Christmas music before Thanksgiving. Everything has its season, and Christmas gets its season after Thanksgiving.. So, it feels weird that I’m getting ready to start a Christmas project, but I suppose that starting a Christmas quilt after Thanksgiving might be waiting too long.

I just finished Christa’s string of pearls quilt along,  and now I’m gearing up to start her modern Christmas quilt along.

I have several other quilt projects waiting in the wings with most or all of the fabric purchased, so I was trying to resist the quilt along. But, then I realized that I already have the rulers that I need. I have no idea why I bought them many moons ago, but I’m glad that I realized they were mixed into my quilting supplies. And then I started thinking, “Well, some modern trees created from fun geometric prints could look amazing.” And, then I remembered all that Robert Kaufman green fabric that I picked up for a steal of $4 a yard during my recent fabric shopping adventure.

I’ve raided my stash and come up with this mix (and I’m liking up with this week’s Sunday stash over at Negligent Style)I think I still need one more green solid that falls somewhere on the spectrum between the light and dark one, and I’ll need to get some background fabric once Christa releases the measurements, but I’m excited to get started on the quilt soon.

Is anyone else planning on joining in?

Oh, I almost forgot something I wanted to mention! Christa is a nominee in this year’s Martha Stewart American Made contest.  How cool is that! I’ve been happy to show her some love by sending some votes her way. I’m glad to see her get recognition since as a  beginning quilter, I’ve found her quilt alongs so accessible and her personal involvement in them so encouraging. I love quilting, but I think finding a blogging community that supports it is part of what helped me stick with it. Voting stays open until September 13th if you want to go check out Christa’s profile; I’ve had fun browsing the other categories as well to see the creativity of so many individuals.

And, finally, don’t forget the Sunday Funday giveaways for today. I’m going to have some really late nights if I’m going to execute my original plan of giving a sneak peek of a quilt when I post my giveaway next Sunday. I thought I’d have all day next Saturday to quilt until I realized that I lost track of dates and need to be at the school all day for a Communication program retreat. Ouch. The retreat is a great kickoff, but how can I get that quilting crammed in this week? Hm…how much sleep do people really need?

Sunday Stash – filling in the gaps

Two Saturdays ago, my friend, Jennifer, who also introduced me to using a walking foot for quilting (thank you, thank you, thank you) took me on an adventure of fabric stores in the area. One of the benefits of living in Lancaster, PA is that I’m close to so.much.fabric. I went to 6 — yes, count them —  fabric stores in one day. Two of them were old hat, Joann (because I had an expiring coupon) and the PA Fabric Outlet because I wanted to snag some ribbon at good prices.

The other 4 stores lured us deep into Amish (and tourist) country, but how amazing is in that on a stretch of road that takes 5 minutes to drive, we passed 4 fabric stores? In case you’re curious or planning a visit to Lancaster quilt shops, we visited Zook’s fabric store (definitely on my list of places to go back to if I need some Kona solids), The Old Country Store (a little bit of everything and a whole bunch of charm and also a place where I’ll go for some Kona solids), The Quilt and Fabric Shack (where I’ll go for amazingly priced pre-cut bundles), and Log Cabin Quilt Shop and Fabrics (an amazing close-out space where I snagged some Robert Kaufman for about $4 a yard).

Without further ado, here’s some of what I rounded up (your sneak peek was thanks to the way this blogging template handles featured photos — goofy).

Though I picked up some fabrics along the way simply because I liked them, I did have some shopping goals. I’ve had the purple fabrics in the background in my stash since April, and after thinking I would go with a purple and yellow or purple and gray quilt, I’ve switched to a bolder purple, teal, and green combo for the Gimme Diamonds pattern that I have. I was able to pull the two teals in the background from the Micro Mod FQs that I still have from winning a giveaway at Swim Bike Quilt. I needed more greens and teals to round out the fabrics though, so I snagged that pile in the front. I snagged the black and red in Log Cabin’s closeout room since I’m a sucker for black and red. And, I have a cute little scottie dog pattern, so maybe the plaid will come in handy.

Up next are the fabrics that I’m going to use for the Colorblock quilt by Holly at Bijou Lovely. I’ve got to say that seeing this particular quilt on Pinterest might be 55.7% of the reason that I’ve gotten back into quilting. I developed quite the crush on it, and I think it was the tip of the iceberg of me learning about modern quilting. The chevron, dots, and lovely textured gray actually weren’t from my Saturday extravaganza; I pulled the chevron out of a remnant bin and tracked down the others in anticipation of getting ready to make my own Colorblock quilt.

Here are some random fabrics that I’ve picked up along the way, some from the trip with Jennifer, and some from my normal after-church stop at Joann to pilfer their remnants when they are 50% off. The two greens on the right annoy me right now because I picked them up thinking they’d work into the grouping posted below, but I got home and wondered what on earth I was thinking.

And, finally, in the background, you’ll see some fabrics from the charm square pack that I’m going to be giving away on September 15th. I didn’t show the patterned pieces because I don’t want to spill the beans yet, but since I only kept one charm pack for myself and have made myself save the other one for my blog followers, I had to go get some more fabrics, so I can put together this Storytime Squares quilt; the folder fabrics on the left were ones I was able to pull from my stash; ones on the right are ones I located. You might notice some overlap between this quilt and Gimme Diamonds grouping. Yay for sharing!

I’m linking up with Sunday Stash at Finding Fifth.

I’ve also tantalized you by showing off some fabric that I won in giveaways and previewing my own giveaway on September 15th. While you’re waiting for September 15th, you could go enter to win a ridiculously stuffed quilty gift basket at myBearpaw; I entered because I’ve never used Frixion pens or Aurifil thread yet. Hey, don’t judge, I’m still relatively new to this quilting scene.

You also need to run straightaway to the Sunday Funday giveaway. There are seven bloggers joining the giveaway this weekend — yes, seven! It’s the largest week scheduled for the giveaway.

Sunday Stash – It’s Flannel Time

Today I went to my first quilt show. I didn’t have a quilt entered; I’ve never even made a quilt that would come close to qualifying for the show, not even if I were allowed into the youth category. I just wandered around drooling and thinking, “Really? Fabric and thread? Humans can do that with fabric and thread?”

I’ll post pictures soon, but I’ve got to do some editing on the oodles of pictures that I took. Plus, many of the quilts came with touching or fun or interesting stories (or a combo of all three), so I want to spend some time looking at the show book for more quilt info. I want to be passing some stories along with the pictures and seeing if I can find some of the quilters on the interwebs to give them the mass kudos they should earn for their creations.

I added some supplies to my stash because Joann Fabrics is having its 70 year celebration, and even though I have a wish list that’s going to need to be taken to my local quilt shop for fulfillment, Joann was having some crazy good sales that were too good to pass up.

Those pictures are easier to post, so here we go.

Well, I’m all in. I’ve got to make a go of my quilting Etsy shop because that behemoth roll leaning against the fireplace is 25 yards of cotton batting. For less than $3.50 a yard, I figured it was a worthy investment, especially since it’s 90 inches wide, and most of my quilts finish at less than 45 inches, so I should be able to get two quilts per width of batting. Plus, as a bonus, it’s manufactured in the USA. Um…no big deal. I’ve just got to churn out 35 – 45 quilts to use this up, right?

I’ve been wanting to play with flannel in a quilt, so today’s sale prices were too much for me to resist. Anything that hearkens to typewriter keys makes me a little weak in the knees, so I’m loving this print that I found. Gray, teal and lime is a color scheme that makes me drool a bit too. I’m going to have to hide this stuff to make sure I finish off my quilt along quilts before I cut into it.

And, here’s a close up of the other fabric.  I’ve heard that flannel has a nasty reputation for stretching and being a bit difficult, so I picked a simple pattern (at least, it looks simple).  The pattern I chose calls for 13 fat eighths of fabric to go with the main fabric of the quilt, so I picked an array of blues and greens with a little sprinkling of gray. I made the decision to grab the turtle fabric when I realized that fat eighths meant that I was still going to have half of all those fabrics left. Probably if they were quilting cotton, I would have just filtered the leftovers into my stash, but since I don’t have flannel floating around, I figured I’d might as well enact a plan for using up all the flannel that I was buying.

Those are probably quilter’s famous last words.

At any rate, I hope I like working with flannel because I’ve got enough on my hands to make two quilts now. If anyone has any good tips for working with flannel, I’m all ears. I’m particularly curious to hear what you use for batting. Do you use cotton (because I’ve got plenty)? Or, do you prefer something else, maybe even a third piece of flannel…

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