A new way to shop

So we've all had to find new ways to shop for pretty much everything over the last couple of months. Online shopping has become the new norm - well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. I'm sure for some things that people will get back to in-store shopping as soon as they feel comfortable. Some quilt shops have been doing huge business with online shopping. It seemed like an easy change for some of the shops as they ramped up their presence on social media to keep customers informed of the stock they had. I saw a note from one store that had to suspend new orders because they couldn't keep up! 

Today, we're entering another era of online shopping. In Canada, we have a fabric distributor, which I think everyone is familiar with - Trendtex. Their job is to bring fabrics in from the US fabric companies and sell to quilt shops. Then quilters would go to quilt shops and buy the fabric. Trendtex was a distributor only and did not sell to the public. 

Today - that has changed. You can now buy DIRECT from Trendtex. YES - so if your local quilt shop didn't bring in the entire collection of whatever you wanted and Trendtex did - then guess what? You can buy what you're missing, or you can buy the whole line if you wish.

Do you have to buy the entire bolt? No - you can buy a meter or two or yes - you can buy the whole bolt if you want. I was browsing their website this morning, and they have pre-cuts, yardage, and the prices are on the website.

Shipping is $15 or free for orders over $149.  NOW - here's the catch. You MUST have a store code to order. If you're on the mailing list of a local store, they will likely have sent you a code. Simply enter that code when you're shopping, and the store gets credit for your purchase.

The big issue now is which store code do I put in when I order? Well - your favorite, of course. Which one do you want to be around forever? Memorize that code - you CANNOT order without the code. The prices seem to be the same as in a quilt store - approximately $20 CDN per meter.

There are LOTS and LOTS to choose from on the Trendtex website - be prepared to spend a lot of time. You can search by collection, brands, designer, color, etc. Here's the link to their website - check it out.    And don't blame me if you buy something!!!!

I can't imagine what's going to happen at the Trendtex warehouse today. There is going to be a team of busy beavers eagerly cutting fabric bolts into yardage and shipping orders. This is something they have never done before, as they only previously cut and folded the fabric onto bolts and shipped to quilt stores. I imagine it's going to be crazy busy!

Is this a good thing? Well, yes and no. OH - these are all yeses, but I'm sure there are nos.

• It does allow the customer (us) to get easy and, hopefully, cheaper access to fabrics that we might not have had access to before. How many times have you got to the end of an order from a US shop only to cancel when you saw the shipping costs? 
• All the fabrics are in ONE spot - so you don't have to be searching for specific pieces of a collection that are located in different stores. 
• And in an ideal world, and if they have staffed their warehouse correctly, you should get the fabric in a much more timely manner. Instead of waiting for it to ship to the quilt shop, and then you go pick it up, it comes directly to you. 
• Plus, the local quilt shop is kept in the loop because they get credited for fabric that their customers buy. Let's see how it goes!

OH - these are all yeses, but I'm sure there are nos. Well - here's a no. If the customer isn't in the shop, they don't make those impulse purchases!!!


I'm not going to place an order - at least not now. I already have four packages of fabric that I'm waiting to arrive. I'm also waiting for my mini-quilt. Those four packages will give me lots to do, plus I'm waiting on some batting to arrive to finish off a couple more quilts. I don't need to buy anything at this point in time. But when the time comes, and I know it will, I know where to go.

So yes - it happened again last night. A lady came ripping down the street to a red light so she could turn right. I had the right of way, and she literally just cut me off as I was about to step off the sidewalk. I'm not exaggerating here - I could have reached out and touched the van she was that close. Why? Why is there no regard for pedestrians? Well, I'm going to need to start walking with a sharp object in my hand. I know - that's bad, but seriously, I don't see why these people keep getting away with these bad driving habits.

We had a great UFO club meeting in the morning. Oh my - we are busy beavers, to say the least, and that little carrot of losing $10 is a huge incentive. I'll share tomorrow what happened, but let's just say that I didn't lose any money.

I was messing with my little triangles to make scrappy half-square triangles. The one on the left is what I had made, and while it looks like there is a lot of contrast, there really isn't when viewed at a distance. The one on the right - is much better.

Two different half-square triangles

Why is the one on the right better than the one on the left? Well, the dark fabric on the left has a lot of the SAME values in it as the light fabric. They are the same grey tones. The dark fabric on the right is different than the light and, as a result, has much better contrast.

I'm sitting outside waiting for dinner when I heard a rat-a-tat noise down the side of the house. Is that the neighbor doing something? Or is that something else.


Sure enough, I walked around the side of the house to find this fellow merrily munching on my fence!!!!

A woodpecker on the fence

Not sure what he found in there, but he was drilling a nice hole. I'll have to keep an eye on him.

Woodpecker drilling a hole in the fence

Speaking of buying fabric, here's one of the hardest things to buy. White fabric!!! I need some more white for a project. I don't have a ton of white in my stash, but I want to make do with what I have. So I'm trying to "color" match.

Does this white look good?

What about this one? 

I think I like the top choice myself. The two whites won't be touching each other in the quilt, so it probably doesn't make a whole lot of difference, but whites are tough to match up. Some are more cream-colored, some have a definite yellow cast to them, and well - some are very different from each other.

I also got busy and finished trimming all the quilts. So I owe a few e-mails to their owners for pick-up, and I now have a HUGE stack of quilts to bind.

Quilts to be bound!

I hope to get some of that done in the next couple of days. WAIT - be realistic. I have to get the homework for three projects done before Tuesday night. I did a lot of cutting and sewing yesterday, and I'm good with two of the three projects. Pictures are taken for one, and that just needs to be written up. I'm sewing on the second one, and then I haven't started the third project. But I'm keeping up to date! Something I've never done in the pst.

And I have five projects, plus my UFO club, to keep up with. I'm thrilled with my progress so far this year. It's great to stay up to date, not lose any money and well, just enjoy the project with the others.

I'm already thinking about possible projects for next year. The virtual thing has gone over very well, so if you don't live close enough to me to participate in a physical class, I'll be doing some online stuff again, including the UFO club. If you're interested and have a great project to suggest, send me an e-mail so I can add it to the list.

I had a good chat with my Dad yesterday. Holy - his brain just won't shut off! He's building stuff, ordering stuff, and well - he's just a happy camper. Just like me. Thanks to the best Dad in the world for giving me the mental strength, strong character, and cheerful disposition to really get the best out of life.

Make sure you have July 18th and 19th marked in your calendar. That's the dates of our next Virtual Retreat. Get your projects cut out and get ready to sew all day. Well, you can just stop in to say hi, or you can stay all day or anything in between. It's going to be a wild and fun day!!!

What did I learn yesterday? OH, something significant. From time to time, I activate the INSERT function on my keyboard, which is very annoying when I'm editing. It writes right over existing text on the screen. I had no idea how to turn it off. Well - I found out which key I've been accidentally touching, and now if it happens again, I know how to turn it off. I've only had this keyboard for how many years? As a matter of fact, I've almost worn the lettering off some of the keys.

My keyboard is losing the paint on the keys

On that note, I'm out of here. We have our Monday sewing today, and I've got stuff cut and waiting to be sewn. Then I need to hit the computer to answer some e-mails and get some homework assignments written up. So I do not have to travel to events, but I probably take the same amount of time (or more) to write up the assignments. Which would I rather do? Write - that was easy!

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!!