Time to refurbish ... or re-fabric

Three things to be happy about:
(1) getting your new quilting magazine
(2) Neutrogena Rain Bath shower gel
(3) a spur of the moment outing

You can never have too many brick-and-mortar fabric stores, if it's a good one!

About 2 weeks ago Fabric Place Basement opened a store in our area, and yesterday my friend Sandy and I went to check it out.

We were pleasantly surprised!

The fabrics were plenty, the manufacturers were recognizable - names such as Riley Blake, Hoffman, Kaufman, Andover, Free Spirit, Michael Miller, Benartex - and the prices were kind to our wallets.

Most of the cottons were $6.99, except a few that were $5.99 - an excellent price!

You never know who you'll run into in a fabric store, but you can almost guarantee it'll be another quilter.

This lady shared a picture of a beautiful double wedding ring quilt she's making for her son's birthday, and a beautiful full length embroidered wedding veil she made for her daughter.

Kindred spirits seem to gravitate toward each other!

I wanted to get a few more greens and yellows, some of them can go right into the last few EP blocks.

I told Sandy I wish this store had been open when I was gathering my fabrics for the EP mystery, could have gotten some great purples!

Of course, more neutrals are always, always needed!

When the lady who was cutting my fabric got to the piece on the left, she stopped and stared at it. Then she said "What are those things??" Tomatoes!  That bolt was from a section marked "for the kitchen" or "inspired by the kitchen."

Something like that.

Fabric harvesting 101 - always include some fun fabrics in the bunch!

I like the doodly squiggles on the top piece, and those fish are really cute.

And words get my attention every time.

I noticed this after I got home - I don't know that I've ever bought 100% certified organic cotton fabric before.

What is it, anyway??

And last but not least, I had to have a piece of this black and white.

I love words, and these are all words that I like - Raspberry danish! Triple fudge chocolate cake! Oatmeal raisin cookie!  Banana walnut bread!

All the other pieces were 1/4 yard, but I got a yard of this one.

That was our excursion, we enjoyed every minute of it!  Have a great Friday, start a new project, pet some fabric, sew forth and sew on ...

Ten twenty-two

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a footbridge in the fall
(2) pens clicking open
(3) honking geese migrating

This post is brought to you by the number 1022 - which is today's date and also happens to be my house number!

Last Friday I did one of my favorite most-looked-forward-to things - the annual shopping trip to Lancaster, PA, with the Faithful Circle Quilters!

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day for our trip - sunny with just the right amount of crisp "fall is here-ness" in the air!

This year Sauder Fabrics was not on the agenda - sadly it closed in December 2015, so we substituted Burkholder's instead, a fabric shop not too far away that's housed inside a converted barn.

Although Burkholder's offered a 15% group discount, the prices were still a bit higher than I'd like to have seen, so I stuck to their sales aisle.

Since Bonnie is about to announce the colors for this year's Quiltville mystery and the only teaser she gave us is that it will have neutrals ... my goal this year was the same as last year - to beef up my neutrals and blacks.

I didn't get to see all the fabrics in Burkholder's - they have tons and tons - but I think I did a pretty good job in their sales aisle!

After Burkholder's came lunch at Shady Maple Smorgasbord (yum!!) with just enough time to dash down the hill to Goode's drygoods store for more fabric.

Then it was on to the Kitchen Kettle area in Lancaster for shopping at Zook's (20% store-wide sale) and The Old Country Store.  Zook's had some great fabrics on their $3.99 shelves!

In the Kitchen Kettle jam and jelly store I picked up a jar each of their pumpkin butter and strawberry preserves.

Delicious - I should have bought more than one tiny little jar!

So that was our annual trip, I'm looking forward to next October for more of the same.


And a reminder - if you're a U.S. resident and would like to own the crumb blocks that I am giving away, go HERE and leave a comment.  Tell me how you'd use crumb blocks, I need more ideas!

Sew forth and sew on til later

Another one bites the dust

Three things to be happy about:
(1) fresh tomatoes
(2) e-books
(3) spray adhesive

While I wasn't looking, Hancock's in Gaithersburg sold 99.999% of their fabrics!

I was in this store last month; they had fabric coming out of their ears, but the prices hadn't been dropped enough for me to buy anything I didn't need...

I mean, reduced to 40% off????  That's the same as a regular sale at JoAnn's!

Among the stuff they had but I don't need and wasn't tempted by were some books, embroidery floss, thread, Christmas junk, some 2016 calendars (75% off, they oughta quit) and some upholstery fabrics.

But I did get this fabric though - black and white is always good, 3 yards of gold that I can definitely use.

I got the green Christmas fabric because I liked it - and it felt good!  Large enough for a backing.

All at $8.99, minus 75%.

I can use this 10-1/2" square up ruler, it was the only one left, just hanging there.

Not a bad deal for $6.40!

So the last day for this particular store is this week, I think it's April 21.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking on a border treatment for the Scrap Crystals quilt, this doesn't look too-too bad I guess.

I've been looking for a piece that's a sort of blue and green muted swirly stripe, that I know I have.  I remember seeing it about month ago, so frustrating!

I'll keep looking though.

Today will be a no-sew day for me, I'll be out and about - there's a jackpot with my name on it waiting at Maryland Live casino!  My friend Brenda and I want to do some happy dancing before we come back home.

Sew forth and sew on til later,

Road trip revealed!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) #2 pencils
(2) scented soap
(3) just going for it!

So, where did we go on our road trip two days ago??

Here's a broad hint!!

It all started with an idea... Sauder's just took further reductions on their entire store, why don't we go back to Lancaster just one more time?? As I mentioned in an earlier post, I wanted to beef up my blacks for the 2015 Quiltville mystery, so we just took advantage of the new reduction, and headed out!

I got these blacks - they'll add a lot of texture to the quilt, something other than just black-and-white.

The colors don't read true in this photo, they're not that dusty looking.

Words - I like words!!

Just can't resist em.

Sauder's was deliciously empty of crowds, but look at some of the shelves!

This is just one aisle, there was still fabric left but not as much as when we took our bus trip three weeks ago!

Can you say "echo!"??

A girl can always use more neutrals, right?

... right??

I ended up with two - yes, two! - pieces of grey for the constant fabric.

I bought the one on the right at Sauder's, then when I saw the one on the left at the Old Country Store in Lancaster I liked it better - so I got that one too!  Words, ya know?

Either will do the job, I think.

With these additions, I'm all ready to start the mystery when the first clue is revealed!

So, that was out road trip - another go at Sauder's before they closed the store!  In addition to Sauder's, we stopped at a Weaver's General store (red!), Good's Drygoods (and Shady Maple smorgasbord, of course!), Zook's Fabrics and The Old Country Store.  We both had a great day and got what we went for - and what we didn't go for too!

So long again, Sauder's, we're sorry the farmer's son is taking over the house ... even your leaves all deserted you...

Sew forth and sew on...

Fabric goodies from Lancaster!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) home made chicken soup
(2) a foot massage
(3) mint flavored toothpicks

This is what my shopping cart looked like as I chose fabrics from Sauder's on Friday.  My focus this trip, as it has been for the last two trips, was to beef up my neutrals stash.

As you know I like scrappy quilts and I like a lot of Bonnie Hunter's scrappy patterns, so when I buy neutral fabrics I use her guidelines - anything that has a white, cream, beige or tan background.  Any color or pattern can be printed on the foreground, but if that background reads as a neutral?  it works like a charm!

I found a few pieces on their remnant table that I just had to have!



The pieces on the right are the only exceptions to my neutrals - now take a look at what I got!

The pictures should get biggie sized if you click on them!

Aren't these gorgeous?!

There's a little birdie in there, perched on a musical score - its called Girlie Girl,  by Dana Brooks for Henry Glass & Co.  They also had the birds in pink, but I kinda like the blue.

I like words!

That find-a-word piece is different; I think I've seen it around but I never bought any of it before.

Some fun pieces!  Good morning, good night, wake up and eat!  Is the Kellogg's piece a neutral?  You betcha - the background makes it qualified!

Lots of variety in these pieces...  I like the boldness of the piece on the left; it's called Paper Dolls Around the World  by Sibling Arts Studio for Blue Hill Fabrics.  There was just over a yard left on the bolt, so I took it all!

This piece was from the $2.99 flat fold table at Good's; it's called Garden Romance, by Hoffman.  Pretty!

I like the variety of fabrics I got, I like that they add lots of variety to my neutrals stash.  They have been thoroughly petted and are waiting to be snuggled in next to my other neutrals.  Love it!  Now - how many of these can I use before our trip next October???

That's it for now, have a great Monday - sew forth and sew on til later!

Lancaster 2012

It's been a long time between blogs, I know!  I haven't had much of anything to post and I've been busy behind the scenes, including moving furniture (and stash!) around in one of my bedrooms so I can get a new bedroom set delivered.  Salvation Army will pick up the old one but they won't disassemble the bed, and it has to be moved out of the way before my new bedroom set can be moved in.  BUT the new stuff is coming the day BEFORE the old stuff gets hauled away... try and figure that one out!  Sheesh, a girl needs a break!

That's where the happy part comes in...

Yesterday was the annual shopping trip to Lancaster and the Kitchen Kettle area with the Faithful Circle Quilters (hi MaryBeth!!!  I've been doing the Lancaster trip with MaryBeth Little for a long time and just yesterday discovered she's  the MaryBeth who's one of my followers!)  Anyway, at the crack of dawn I scooted down 16th Street and picked up Emily from my Bee, and we headed out to Columbia, Maryland to catch the bus.


Sauder's, our first stop, had rearranged their shop a bit since last time - I don't have too many photos to share but I wish I'd gotten a couple inside the shop, it looks neater and there's a lot more light.   And... they got rid of their outdoor toilet!


I've been on a serious fabric diet for awhile and I haven't been buying a lot of fabric... in fact I haven't bought any  for a long time!  But on this annual trip I allowed myself some freedom - if you're like me your stash is traditionally low on neutrals.  Since I'll be cruising with Bonnie Hunter to Alaska in August, my mission on this trip was neutrals and more neutrals!

I have no idea what her quilt design will be, but since I need more neutrals and the design will probably include neutrals - I can't lose!

I fell in love with these cute prints from Marshall Dry Goods' Storybook Collection.  I only got six quarter-yard cuts at $2.99 a yard, so it didn't expand my stash too much or dent my wallet.  I feel pretty good about staying on my fabric diet!

I couldn't resist getting a half yard of this cute Peanuts print from Zook's in the Kettle area; if I made an impulse purchase, this would have been it...

I like words!  These just had to come home with me...

the one on top supports breast cancer research; there are two Christmas fabrics and another with quilt-related phrases.

In the Kettle area I bought a bag of eleven bean soup mix that I've been wanting to try.  Charlene says it's pretty good, so I'm looking forward to making it when the snow flies!  They always have such cute decorations and novelties in the Kettle area.  I thought this spider pumpkin holder was so halloween-y...

The weather couldn't have been better yesterday, I loved it!  And so, after a great day of shopping and the excellent smorgasbord lunch at Shady Maple, Terri the bus driver delivered us safely home and we bid each other a fond farewell til next year...

Sew forth and sew on...