Shopping for Fabric!!!!!

Ahhhhhh - shopping for fabric.

This is the MOST enjoyable stage of quilting for a lot of quilters. I know, I thoroughly enjoyed the process for years. Now I look at my AWARD WINNING stash and think - what am I going to do with it all?

And have you noticed the change in style of fabric right now. Very retro, very unusual colour ways and lots of big designs, lots of open designs. GONE are the calicos!!!!!  

I am trying VERY hard to NOT purchase any more fabric  UNLESS it is for a specific project that I am trying to finish or I do not have anything "suitable" and I use that term with caution!!!

Case in point - I am working on Monday Mystery #2 from This and That Patterns. This time Sherri is suggesting that we use charm squares. I have never worked with a charm pack (5" squares) to make a pattern and I thought this would be a good occasion to give it a try. I love this new line of fabric called Countdown to Christmas. I only have a layer cake (10" squares) of this line. While my personal shopper (Marian) was at the quilt show on the weekend, I asked her to pick up a charm pack for Countdown to Christmas. And she managed to snag one for me!!!!   She is the BEST personal shopper around. I just hope she doesn't catch on and start charging for the service. You see - she THOROUGHLY enjoys shopping and enjoys it even more when it is NOT her money that she is spending. (I am sure her husband is quite happy as well)

Countdown to Christmas charm pack

Now the only problem working with a charm pack is that it might NOT exactly meet all the requirements. And yes - I was short a couple of squares and the binding for the project. However I remembered seeing yardage of this line at The Quilt Bee in Fonthill. I went through the pattern and the charm pack - figured out what I needed and gave them a call. Yep - they could accommodate me by phone and I got my fabric ordered. I am able to pretty much get step three complete without the new fabric so I am happy about that.

By the way - The Quilt Bee moved into their new space one week ago. The grand reopening is on November 26th. I hope I am able to make it - I think it will be a lot of fun and I would love to see the new space. We saw it under construction and it was GORGEOUS.


Then I had ONE more missing fabric that I had to find. Yesterday I posted a picture of those nine patches that I was working on over the weekend. And I did not have enough of that center fabric. See.......

I am missing the diamond fabric that is in top left of the photo

Hmmmmm - how to search for this?????   I started by calling the store where I originally purchased that fabric. Nope - they were out. Then I did a Google search. Found a couple of stores, but I decided to start with Fat Quarter Shop. It was the first store that popped up and I had spent a LOT of time perusing that site the night before. Let's just say that this store/web site is a GEM. If you want to see ANY of the current and upcoming lines of fabric - they have EVERYTHING (well it seems they have everything) on their site. You could spend a LOT of time there. It is an on-line shop somewhere in Texas. Anyway - the woman I spoke to was so FRIENDLY and so HELPFUL. She did not have that particular fabric, but got me directed to several stores that did have it. She spent a few minutes doing some searching for me. I was blown away. I was sorry that I didn't have anything to buy from her site - but I will be going back when I need something!!!!  

Now here is another interesting link. As she was searching -  I was thinking - where is she searching? where did she get the SKU number?  After she gave me all that information, she said she was searching on a VERY useful web site and I should try it next time I am looking for something specific. And what is the web site????

It is called Quiltshops.  You plug in the name of the fabric/designer (the more specific - the better your search results) and all the matches to your search criteria will pop up, showing the SKU number, the name of fabric, a colour photo of the fabric and where it is located. It was a very PAINLESS experience to get my missing fabric. I ordered 1 yard of it and found something else on sale which might just go nicely with my row robin exchange that we just completed. If it doesn't work on the front - it will make an awesome back.

Now I bet you are wondering how my crazy internet shopping experience turned out - the one where I shopped from the pictures for the Kaffe Fassett fabric. My personal shopper not only buys, but delivers as well! and brought the fabric bundle up to the retreat on the weekend when she stopped by for the reveal of the round robins.

Remember - I wanted oranges, with some pinks, reds, browns, golds maybe a bit of green thrown in. This is what I got...........

This is what I got - not bad!!!!!!!

And here are the fabrics with the shot cotton that I have for the inside borders (it isn't that dull in real life)

The ONLY thing that doesn't really go is this - which was supposed to be the inside border beside the big flower one next to it. I DO NOT think I will be using this one in the quilt. We must have got the numbers wrong!!!

Thanks so much to Chantal at Hyggeligt  for getting this sorted out for me!!!!!

Kaffe Fassett - Mossy Radiation quilt from the book QUILT ROAD

Speaking of this quilt - a number of our Monday girls took a class for this last week and here is what they look like.

Judy's quilt - I didn't get a picture of it by the end of the day, but she had the final set of striped triangles on. We will trim it up next week so she can add the final borders. GREAT job Judy!!!!   Judy is scaring us as she started with adding borders to panels and NOW - well we better watch out!!!!

Karen - her fabric criteria - all the fabrics have flowers. Do you recognize some of yours Barb?????   I do like the borders to be a definite colour - makes a better statement.  I helped Karen trim the quilt and she was going to put borders on it. 

Wow - OK - so I was supposed to do the reveal for the round robin but I have run out of time. I have to get my homework finished for my Elm Creek class this morning.

I have time this afternoon and will try to get the reveal posted.


Have a great day!!!!


Ciao!!!!!!!

The Night before Retreat..................

And all through the house, not a creature is stirring.........................



EXCEPT for the crazy lady who is going on retreat!!!

She made a list of things to do - checked it twice - everything is under control

UNTIL she checked the calendar and realized that she has to have TEN blocks ready for Tuesday morning for her Elm Creek class.

Now she is scurrying like a mouse!!!!!
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Ah - what else is new. I need to get ALL those Elm Creek blocks done or at least cut out - they are very time consuming and seem to pop up when I least expect them!!!

I am getting ready to go on a quilting retreat for FOUR days. Leaving at 6:30 AM. Oh yeah - can't wait!!!!!!   I even added ONE MORE BAG of projects. I think I now have enough to keep the entire group going for the entire weekend - never mind what they brought to work on!!!!!  

I will share some of that with you when I am back - but wait - I now have my iPad - I can update the blog while I am away. No pictures though - unless I figure out how to make that happen.

Got to keep this short because - yes - I now have to find time to cut TEN blocks for Elm Creek.

However I have been asked many times - have you ever shopped for fabric over the internet. I thought I would share a couple of stories with you. The first has NOTHING to do with the internet, but just a recent fabric purchase.

1. I broke down and decided (with the help of my trusty fabric/colour consultant - Marian) that I would go with the same colours as Sherri chose for one of the options in Border Creek Mystery. And yesterday I found a local store that had EVERYTHING I needed so off we went and got the whole kit and caboodle (although I think we forgot the binding).

Border Creek Mystery fabric for the Quaintly Queen size (what am I thinking?????)

The fabric is gorgeous (not that keen on the print, but it is nice together with the others). That will be next week's job - catch up on the two installments with this size. 

2. The second fabric shopping story is about a quilt designed by Kaffe Fassett. It is called Mossy Radiance Quilt in his book called Quilt Road (I think - it is upstairs and I don't want to run up and look).

Anyway - here is a picture of a quilt made by one of my students in another class.

Mossy Radiance - is this not gorgeous or what!!!!!!!   She didn't really like it - I should have offered to buy it off her!!!!

 I really like the mix of colour and it is orange (ish).


When I was leaving the CreativFestival - just going up the loading dock for the LAST time, here comes a woman with a cart full of Kaffe Fassett fabric and just look at all those oranges/golds/browns. Hmmmmmm - that would make a great replica of this quilt. I found out where she was (southern Ontario) and called her the other day.

Yes - she would take photos of her Kaffe Fassett fabrics and send them to me so I could shop. I mean how ACCOMMODATING is that?????????????????    She sent me numerous pictures today and I shopped from those photos. In this picture - I'll have some of the first, fourth, and eighth fabric. It was pretty funny.

And who was this accommodating person?????   The store is called Hyggeligt. The owner is Chantal and she is very nice!!!!!!    Check out her on-line store.

Hyggeligt


Just so happens that she will be at the York Heritage show this coming weekend and Marian is going to the show, so she can pick up the fabric. It will be interesting to see what it all looks like together!!!!!   Definitely a quilt with a story!!!!!


Here is one of the pictures she sent me......................

Can you tell which ones I chose???????

That's it for tonight. I've got to get at least a couple of those blocks cut out, but I really really want to go to bed and read. Hmmmmmm - cut blocks or read???????


Have a great day!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!