Stash Report Week 19, 2013

Yesterday after the Mega Quilter and frame were moved out, I ran a couple of errands, went to a couple of quilt shops and went to a quilt show. The first quilt shop was Stitches where I got some tools for the Avante. I will show those later today when I get some pictures. :)

At the quilt show, I picked up a book of patterns for Civil War fabrics. I have quite a stash of reproduction fabrics and I think this will help me use some of them.



There were some great quilts and inspiration at the quilt show! I will show those later as well. :)

Since I was so close to Fabric Shack already, I just had to stop into the Village Family Restaurant for some peanut butter pie and lunch before heading to the Shack. Even though I was just at the Shack in April with the Southern Invasion, I didn't shop for projects because I wasn't sure what I was going to need. Today, I picked up the fabrics that I will need for a quilt for my cousin who lost everything in a fire in March.

I think that I am ending up with a fall colored quilt, but they are fairly masculine colors so it should be OK.



And here are all of the fabrics together. I have since pulled out a few that I felt muddied the others.



Now, I just need to find time to start cutting. I am using the Sweet Treat pattern from Judy L.

Fabric added this week: 9.08
Fabric added YTD: 40.99

Fabric used this week: 0.00
Fabric used YTD: 21.86

Net Fabric Used: -19.13

Stash Report Week 47, 2011

Friday, I took the day off work to work on some things around the house. Once I decided to take the day off though, I made plans to meet up with Lynn from the CMQG for breakfast and a trip to Joann's and a local quilt shop that is closing. There are 2 quilt shops in my area that announced their closings within 10 days of each other. Of course, there are a few that have opened in the last year and a half so we are not lacking for shops in any way.

This is what I picked up! Fabric for the cow quilt. The strip is the accent in the blocks and will be the binding. And of course, I read the pattern wrong and didn't get enough of the pink and the black so I will have to go back. Darn! lol



I also picked up some awesome strips and ric rak fabric for bindings. And since I haven't won the 100 blocks issue yet, I got one of those at Joann's.



And nothing used this week.

Fabric added this week: 8.50
Fabric added year-to-date: 138.72

Fabric used this week: 0.58
Fabric used year-to-date:116.28

Net Fabric Used: -22.44

I think that Maisy was upset that I didn't bring her anything back.

Black Friday shopping!

It started on Wednesday night when I was stalking the JoAnn's to see what was out and where it was in the stores. I saw that these items were 25% off. Woo hoo!! I picked them up because I knew they would be needed.



This morning, I headed out around 5:20 to wait in line at JoAnn's for the deals. I hit Starbuck's first for a Chai Tea Latte (YUMMY!!!) and a snack. When I pulled up to pay, the cashier said that the car in front of me paid for my order and said, "Happy holidays!" I decided to pay for the order in the car behind me. What a great way to start the day! It still gives me the warm fuzzy feeling!

I went to JoAnn's and there were 2 cars parked in front of the store and no line and there was still 20 minutes to wait until it was open. I waited in my car enjoying my snack and tea until 5:52 and then got out to get a normal cart. Once I got out, all of the other shoppers followed and waited patiently in line. When they opened the doors, we all filed in and got to shopping. I was surprised that there was not a frantic grabbing of fabrics like I have seen in past years. I was joking with 2 of the employees at the cutting counter that I was going to stop for donuts for the store, but we don't have a Dunkin' Donuts close and they seemed bummed.

Once I finished at this first store, I was going to head home, but figured that the deals were so great and some things were not at this store so I headed to the bigger store about 15 minutes away. I was still one of the first 100 customers so I ended up with 2 free pairs of scissors that they were giving away to the first 100 customers. Score! :-D Most of this yarn is for my granma to make booties and for her to share with the ladies in her Senior group to make baby caps. I did get some flannel for pillowcases and some fleece to make a dog blanket for my aunt's new dog.



When I left the second JoAnn's, I headed to a different shopping area and figured that I would stop by Bed, Bath and Beyond to look for another Christmas present and I was greeted with a coupon and a big smile there. I found a display of what I was looking for, but not the specific item. I was helped by 2 employees and they found what I needed and I was able to leave there with another thing marked off my list. I was so impressed by the 2 employees that helped me and the cashier that I found the manager and thanked her and told her how nice it was to stop in.

After that, I headed to Target. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I also didn't find any unhappy or rude shoppers there despite the crowd. I made a stop at PetSmart (see below for pictures) and then hit a bakery where I picked up some cookies. On my way home, I dropped the cookies off at the JoAnn's that I shopped at first this morning. It felt great leaving them a little token of appreciation!

The pups were very excited to see me when I got home.



They were more excited to see the goodies that I brought them!

My Retreat Purchases

I figured that it was about time that I showed everything that I bought while on retreat in Shipshewana. Someone commented on one of Judy's posts that it is really called Ship-Shop-shewana and that seems like a correct assumption, too! lol

On our way up to retreat, we stopped in a few shops and in the second one, I really had to tinkle. Their bathroom for the shop was in their house and the sink was the kitchen sink. After that, I sort of felt like I HAD to buy something. Luckily, I found a couple of fabrics that I could make do with - a purple for the witch wall hangings and a couple of yards of the black that has sewing notions all over it.



While we were at Caroline's, I was just about to make a clean getaway when I saw these little beauties. Actually, I saw the purple one and bought that and as we stood there chatting, I saw the black one and got that, too. Very handy little note pads!! The black one has all kinds of post its inside! Carolin, the owner, said that the designer of Quilt Happy items is a local gal and also produces Knit Happy and Scrap Happy items. They had all kinds of things in the shop once we started looking - water bottles, coffee mugs, traveling mugs - but I just stuck with these guys.





Once we were at retreat, we only went to Yoder's and Lolly's after that. I got the pattern and the thimble on our first trip to Yoder's.



And I got that magazine from Lolly's for making a purchase. It was an older magazine, but I had never seen it so I was happy to get it to look at!

And here is what I purchased at Lolly's to get that magazine. Blush! A layer cake and 3 yardage pieces to make a quilt and a purse. I love this fabric!!



Maxie thought it was for him!



On our second trip to Yoder's, I got this fabric. Some Halloween for the witch wall hangings and a couple of other fun prints for I Spy quilts.



I think that Maisy just likes the ice cream! Or she is appalled that I brought the cat fabric in the house. I can't tell. :)

Stash Report be damned!

Yesterday, I had more than one package in the mail!

Earlier in the year, the Paris in the Fall by This and That was revealed and Amy and I fell in love! We chatted about this quilt almost everyday and searched the web to see how much it would cost to buy the kit. We decided that while we would love to do the BOM through the Fat Quarter Shop, it would just end up being way too expensive. If we couldn't find it for less, then we would just let it go and watch blogland while other bloggers made the blocks and the quilt.

One day, I just to be searching for the quilt BOM and I found Craft Town Fabrics where they had several options for purchasing the BOM. One was to order the entire kit - patterns, blocks and finishing kit - with just one shipping cost. WOW!!! I sent the link to Amy and asked her to look at it and make sure that I was reading the site correctly and she agreed that it looked like we would save at least $100 ordering the BOM as a group. WOO HOO!! We both signed up immediately!

Well, it wasn't supposed to ship until November! Amy and I got emails on Tuesday that the kit was shipped and it was in my mailbox on Wednesday. Talk about service!!!

Here's the picture of the whole kit.



And here is all of the fabric that I am going to have to add to my stash report this week.



At least it is gorgeous! So much prettier in person! I'm going to have to start cutting the fabric and putting the blocks in a new BOM binder! :)

Shopping in Shipshewana

While some groups of gals went out exploring and shopping everyday that they were at retreat, Becca and I only went out to the Amish quilt shops twice - once on Friday morning and once on Saturday morning. That was enough for us! We had planned on only going once the whole weekend, but once we looked around Yoder's, I knew that I wanted to see Lolly's before settling on what to get. For the whole weekend, there were only 2 things that I was looking for - more orange fabric for the Which Witch? wall hangings and a Scottie dog 30's fabric for Barb.

I was very impressed with the selection that Yoder's had! A huge color wall with about half of that dedicated to Kona solids. Maybe Bella solids, too, but I didn't look too closely. And it looked like a vast majority of the fabric was $7.98 a yard. Great price for current Moda lines!! I was very impressed with how well it was organized and I found it extremely easy to find things that I was interested in!





The samples were pretty great as well! A lot of variations in the patterns and the fabrics used.



They also had an AccuQuilt GO! out that they were demonstrating. *sigh*



Once I had picked up a replacement jacket and Becca and Sally, our roommate for the weekend, had shopped, we headed over to Lolly's. I didn't take a lot of pictures in there because of the camera batteries, but rest assured that it was also an amazing shop!

With spectacular samples! This one looks to be a postage stamp quilt.


And Becca liked this sample.



Lolly's also had a bargain basement store where everything was $6 a yard and there was a boat of FQs that were pretty cheap, too.

I think that a lot of shops in the 'mall' where Lolly's is are owned by the same people who own Lolly's. I just had to get a picture of this shop because I knew that Barb would just love it!



Can you tell that there is nothing but Minkee in that shop? The walls are even covered by it!!!

When we were done shopping, we headed upstairs and got lunch at Jo Jo's pretzels. YUMMMMY!!! The pretzels were so buttery! I supplemented my meals with grapes and carrots that were in my mug. It was so good, I could've had another pretzel the next day!

The Drive to Retreat

In spite of wanting to get on the road by 7 AM, we were not ready to leave my house until 8:45. This was largely due to me staying up way too late on Wednesday night and therefore setting the alarm for a little later on Thursday morning. I did not want to be driving on 5 hours of sleep. Regardless, once I got all of our things loaded into the car, we were on our way.

I think that the first words out of my mouth when I saw how late it was were, “We have got to shave the quilt shop stops down again!” In Becca’s exuberance to be travelling to a new location, she found 8 quilt shops between my house and Shipshewana and, after a little prodding, she narrowed the list down to 4. She agreed to drop 1 more shop from the list and we were on our way.

Well, we were on our way after a brief detour into McDonald’s for breakfast. No way am I getting up that early on a day off and not treating myself to a breakfast biscuit!

The first shop that we went to was The Engine House Quilt Shop in Berne, IN. I had viewed their website and it looked interesting so I was excited to stop there. Unfortunately, in spite of all of the people that were in the store, no one really acknowledged us the 10 minutes or so that we stood in the middle of the store and looked around. There were signs up showing some kind of deals, but it wasn’t very clear what was going on. There also didn’t seem to be a substantial amount of bolts of fabric and, after floundering in the store for a few minutes, we just left.

The next stop was Nancy’s Stitches in Kendalville. The shop was in the back of a small house and it appeared to be in a room that was added onto the house after the initial building was completed. The space was set up very well, but I felt like the store was a machine store with some fabric and notions added in. In any event, I found a couple of fabrics*** that I knew I would be able to work into my stash quite well.

The last shop was Caroline’s Cottage Cottons in Rome City, Indiana. What a great store!!! Four rooms of notions, books and fabric! And Moda fabric at that! And great samples scattered all over the house!

Luckily, the owner was working and she filled us in on the Shop Hop that was going on and had us sign up so that we could get the discounts that she was offering on everything. And here are the pictures that I took of the shop.

Here is Becca with the owner of the shop.

This shop ended up being within 30 minutes of the Inn where we stayed and we directed several groups of quilters to check out the shop. After visiting the shop, none came back disappointed. I would highly recommend visiting this shop if you are in the area! :)

*** All of the purchases from the weekend will be shown all together in a future post. 

Getting Myself Organized

I realized this week that I have lots of things that have to be done like... NOW! Well, they are not all due now, but they are all things that I should be working on. I was thinking about everything on Tuesday night and my head was starting to spin trying to figure out what has to be done and when. Wednesday, I made myself a list with due dates and I am feeling much better about getting it all done.

I'm going to share it here so that I can keep track and start marking things off.

• Quilt wall hanging for retiring co-worker - more when I get it done and post about it
• Quilt quilt for Shellie - I was stressing about this because I didn't have a quilting plan in my head, but after a few emails with Shellie, I am planning on loading this quilt as soon as I get the wall hanging quilted.
• Quilt quilt for Regina
• Write up last Board meeting minutes for the Guild. As soon as I am finished with this, I will be done with my secretarial duties! :)
• Sleeve help at the Yarn Shop for the sweater (see below)
• Email local quilt shops for the December Guild meeting - we are having a traveling shop hop where all the shops come to our meeting so that the members can shop
• Quilt for Meghan's 16th birthday
• Quilt for Granma's 80th birthday and Christmas
• Prep for October 21st retreat
• Pin cushion swap due Sept 30 but that I would like to mail by Tuesday
• Prep items for Fall Into Fall giveaway

Needless to say, I am feeling a little better about what needs to be done and when it has to be finished. I would also like to be able to get the Which Witch? wall hangings done so that I can mail those out, but they are a much lower priority than the rest of this. But I will be working on them on Sunday when I get together with the Girlzzz to sew. :)

Today, I plan on working on the wall hanging to get that done so that I can show it off. It's very pretty! :)

In just a few minutes, I will be heading out to Lambikin's, the yarn shop, for the next step(s) on the sweater. I finally got the sweater back done this week and we are redesigning the sleeves so they are not fluted. I'm hoping that I can get the front and back sewn together at the shoulders too so that I can get help on the neck finishing and learn the correct way to sew pieces together. Then, I should be able to finish the sweater on my own.



Maxie wants a sweater of his own, I think!

2010 Shop Hop Day 2

I know that you are all wondering how I am doing today and I am starting to feel better. My ears are clogged right now, but the snot production has definitely slowed. WOO HOO!!! This makes me happy! lol

OK, on to the meat of the post!! Day 2!

Our first stop on Sunday was Valley Quilts. I love this shop! There are always lots of things to look at and I found lots to bring home with me.



And here is what I brought home. I have something planned for every piece that I bought - either the Which Witch? wall hangings or a past shop hop quilt.



Next was Sulphur Grove. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pics in the shop, so there is no picture of their quilt. I picked up yardage for the binding on the Bento Box blocks.



Our next stop was Appalachian Quilts. We were running short on time and still had one shop left, but after walking around the shop, we didn't see anything jumping out at us so we got pics of the quilt and ran!



Sew A Lot was our last quilt and I think that we were both happy to be able to turn in our passports! Here is there quilt.



And we just kept finding fabric that HAD to come home with us. I think that we ended up leaving there at 4:15 and they were supposed to close at 4!

The monkey fabric was on clearance so I just had to pick that up. The Shopping Girls has doxies on it - you can see one right in the middle of the fabric. And the rest is Halloween fabric! ;)



I'm very happy with all the fabrics and I can't wait to start using it! :)

And on that note, I'm off to bed! lol

A little bad....

This week, the Fat Quarter Shop had the Whimsy line for 30% off and then I found another coupon for 20% off.... Could I pass this up??? Uuuuuummm... NO!! ;)

I decided that I am going to use the fabric and jelly roll to make a Split Decision quilt. I am also hoping to get some things done tonight so that I can start it tomorrow and count some of this as busted this week, too! HA!



I was supposed to wait on Barb to order in case she wanted some, but I was just so excited to order that I forgot to wait for her. OOoopppss!! Sorry, Barbie!!! HOLLLLLLAAAAA!!!!

I think that Maisy agrees it was all a great purchase!!

Bella Quilts

On Saturday, when I went fabric hoarding shopping, I ran into Mary who I worked with at the quilt shop that I used to work at. I chatted with her a little before running to the fabric and loading up. When I was done, Mary asked me to help her pick out a fabric and we chatted about the new quilt shop that opened up the street from the yarn shop. Mary said she was heading to the shop next and I said that I would tag along.

Raven's shop Bella Quilts is located on Main Street in Hamilton and I was excited to see what the shop looked like. I knew that Raven was big into reproduction fabrics so I was anxious to see what she was going to carry. I used to work with Raven at a quilt shop, too. :)

Her shop is sooo cute!! It's not super cluttered or overwhelming and she has MODA!!! No one on this side of Cincinnati has MODA! I have to drive 45 minutes to go to Fabric Shack to see a smidgen of Moda.

With Raven's permission, I snapped a few shots and told her that I would post them on my blog.



Raven loves hand applique and I think that a lot of her quilt classes will involve applique of some sort!



There's Raven at the cash register in the lime shirt!



I don't think that Raven has a website, but the shop is on Facebook.

Don't all of these fabrics just look yummy!!

Now, when the gals are here in April, the knitters can shop at the yarn shop and everyone can wait at the fabric shop for us! lol

I need some help here....

How should I spend my gift certificate at the Fat Quarter Shop? I have been stalking the shop all week trying to decide what to get....

There's the Lumiere de Noel quilt kit... the fabrics are nice and I love the stars, but I just don't know...

The Scattered Stars quilt kit.... This is gorgeous!! I love the colors!

The Whimsy by Fig Tree Quilts for Moda FQ bundle... This fabric is sooo soft - I've felt it in stores... And the colors are so soft and pretty.

Or do I try and wait until August when Berkshire by Blue Hill Fabrics comes out?

Or Happy by Me and My Sister Designs? This fabric just makes me... well, happy!

I'm not sure if I can hold out until August, but maybe I should. I don't really need another hit to my stash report right now...

Is there anything else that I should look at?

Maisy is no help at all!!