Frenzied Shopping

As expected, I joined in on the Day-After-Thanksgiving shopping extravaganza. Resisted a lot, but bought more of what I needed than planned.

Mill End Textiles had a 60% off coupon and 1/2 off most other fabric. Located in MN, WI and the Dakotas, they carry a lot of end-of-run fabrics. You never know what they have. I used my coupon to get an entire bolt of marbled pink quilter's cotton for $2/yard. Also purchased some shirt fabric and a little Oriental fabric to send to a swap hostess who helped me a couple of months ago.

Today (Saturday), I took a run to Joann's. Bought about 6 spools of various cotton threads for 50% off. I was VERY disappointed to discover that they have discontinued literally all name brands of batting. So, from now on if I want something for a bed quilt, I will go elsewhere. I will likely continue to use the Soft and Crafty hi loft for tying, but I know that I will need to get 2 batts when I do. I do use Mountain Mist (the only brand they seem to have kept) for wallhangings. They do have Fairfield 80/20, but I've used it before and prefer Hobbs for my scrap quilts. I continue to get Quilter's Dream at the local quilt shop - that stuff is LUSH. Couldn't find anything to spend my 50% off coupon on so bought another skein of Bernat Sock Yarn. Bought some cute pink stuff too.

After that, I went back to Mill End because I had another 60% off coupon. Found ANOTHER bolt of backing fabric, this time a lovely oriental with pink flowers. The pink in the flowers goes well with the pink I bought yesterday, so this makes an ideal selection for a Reversible quilt. $2 yard. If you compared this fabric with a quilt shop, it is a little thinner. But it does compare favorably with Hancock's and Joann's higher end cottons.


I bought the Nov./Dec. 09 Quiltmaker magazine for the cover quilt (pictured left). I was disappointed to find out that it is done using fusibles. However, I really have to get over my resistance to that technique and just do it. I'll bet this will make a fabulous quilt. On the other hand, I may make the wall quilt to get my feet wet. I'm just resistant because I think that the fusible will make the quilt stiff.

I also like the tree quilt in the same issue (pictured right). My sister has requested some small wall quilts and this one would certainly fit her outdoorsy theme in the living room. This is a crib size, so I'd have to make it a tad smaller, but what a cute way to use up strips of green!

My energy levels have finally picked up from the H1N1, so I'm hoping to get some things accomplished now! Winter Fun is not quite half quilted. I needed some different blue thread to finish the quilting and now that I have it, I can move on with finishing the quilting, so that I can pin the other half.

Big Busted is Done!

I've now completed the Big Busted quilt. Final size is about 45 x 65 inches, so a lap quilt. The front was done using only stash during a quilt-a-long at Stashbusters. The batting is sewn together leftover strips from previous projects. All of the batting was the Joann's Hi Loft Soft and Crafty from last year, not the inferior product (IMHO) that is being sold now. I find hand sewing batting strips, especially thick batting strips, much better than machine sewing as it doesn't interfere with the loft. The backing is a royal blue Joann's Snuggle flannel and the binding just a new fabric that brought out the blue tones in the front of the quilt. The primary fabric used in this quilt is the last of my Millennium fabric for the Millennium quilt I was never able to do (due to illness). I was finally able to get past my disappointment of not being able to swap during the 1998-99 period and this project really is what did it for me.