My Sunday Stash!!

I have splurged a little lately. Ok, maybe a lot. 😉 But, in my defense, the majority of it has been on quilt backings. It seems like I am finishing things a bit too quickly and quilt backing adds up man!!
Moving on, anyone who follows my blog knows that I am a Tula Pink lover. So, I was plesantly surprised when her new line, Foxfield came out. I didn’t love it! I didn’t hate it, but the love wasn’t there. I held off and held off but than a naughty person, I shall call her Julie, brought me hers to see in person. I was a goner.

I can honestly say, while I still don’t love every print, the majority of them are pretty great. Not sure yet what this will become but it was added to my Tula Pink cubby to reside with the rest of its Tula family.

I didn’t lay out all my fabrics but Julie did!!! Go here to see them all individually if you so choose too.

I have another quilt finish to show you but need to get some better pictures. I will work on it. Now that I am up to 4 quilts that need to be quilted, this girl is officially on a quilt break!

See you soon!!
Jess

Linking up to Mollie Sparkles Sunday Stash. Go check out what others are stashing this week!!

Quilting and Sewing Expo

I am not really sure where to begin with this post. I could make it extremely long but instead, I am thinking that I will make this one all about the Expo itself and then do one with all of the classes I took and the projects that I made. I am a wordy person. 😉

The Quilting and Sewing Expo was held downtown at the convention center in Raleigh. It was a Thu/Fri/Sat event so I made sure that they could live without me at work and off we headed on Wed evening. Julie and I wanted to make sure that we were there bright and early on Thursday morning for our first class.

We stayed in a hotel that was connected to the Convention Center by an underground access. It was so convenient. Leave the lobby, take a couple of escalators down and there we were, right at the registration desk.

These are just a couple of pictures that I quickly snapped after one of my classes:The convention center was huge. We came in on the first floor and there were 2 more levels (that I knew about) above us. The Expo was held on a level down from the registration. Crazy huge.

It was also pretty crowded! It was really great to see all of these folks (men and women!) who share this love of the same hobby that you do. Sometimes living in a small town, you kind of feel like you are in it alone. Thank heavens for the internet and other blogs. And of course, good friends like Julie.

Thursday and Friday both classes during the day. After the classes though is when the shopping fun started. Go thru some double doors and behold:
ahhhhh….I do believe I heard angels singing when I saw this view. We were descending into this huge mecca of anything sewing, quilting, or arts related. Machines, furniture, thread, fabrics, a quilt show, entertainment…I could keep going. It was heavenly.
Suffice it to say that we didn’t make it all the way thru the first day. In fact, I think there were still vendors that we hadn’t visited by the time we left on Sat.

I did end up with a lot of fun purchases. A scarce Good Fortune Layer Cake, a couple of Christmas Countdown charm packs, and a quilt kit using Art Gallery fabrics (OMG…these are so soft, they feel like a mix of satin and silk).
The best purchase was my thread. Recently I discovered that “Big J” is sooo picky about thread. She does not like my ample supply of Connecting Threads thread. I have been using some extra spools that Julie gave me of the good stuff that Big J loves, while waiting to purchase some at the Expo. They had a show special so I ended up getting 4 different cones of very neutral colors. 4 cones & 1 spool = roughly 11,000 yards. Yikes!! I shouldn’t run out of that for a very long time. Hopefully! I also picked up a thread/cone stand to use with them (the cones can’t go on the thread holder on the top of the machine). Eventually I would like to start stocking up on the smaller colored spools so that I have some different colors for quilting. The cones are great though for piecing since I do so much of that.

One of my favorite shopping moments was definitely sitting at this Koala sewing desk/cabinet. It has a remote-controlled lift, a collapsible extension table on the back, and it closes up completely so that it just looks like a cabinet. With a great sewing chair included. Of course, they had many show specials so it was hard to walk away. It’s the first time that I had seen them in person and if nothing else, it was great opportunity to see what they had to offer and all the different options that are available. This is something that I will seriously think about a little ways down the road. 🙂

All in all, Julie and I had an amazing time!! We fell into bed exhausted every night and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. We were there to experience it all and that we did. Go here if you would like to read all about the classes that I took, what I learned, and what I got to make.

On a parting note, check out this car cover! It was so neat looking in person. I believe that it was a guild that had put it together. Very cool.

Stay tuned tomorrow for all the nitty gritty on what classes I took, what I learned, and what I got to make!!

🙂

Happy Hump Day!

Halfway thru the week. Got 2 paper piecing squares done so far this week. 2 more to go. (4 a week is my goal)

Jaime- If you are reading this, I haven’t forgotten about your pirate quilt. I am just waiting to get some interfacing and than it is full speed ahead!!

I received a box yesterday from the family,  filled with some fabulous flannels (considerations for the pirate backing) and some minke squares. I swear there is a square of every color known!!  I think that the ahoy matey with the ships is the front-runner for backing.

I was going thru my stash a couple of weekends ago, looking for fabrics to make my paper-piecing blocks when it dawned on me that I did not have a lot of tone-on-tone fabrics. Ok, with the exception of some marbled solids, I had none! I had plenty of main leads but no supporting roles. So, I got to looking. I fast discovered why it takes so much money and time to build up an adequate stash. Packs or samplers of tonal fabric is not to be easily found online.  I kept looking and I finally prevailed. Connecting Threads.  I came up with a treasure trove of supporting actors.

I found some batiks, some brights, some darks, and everything in between. Best thing of all, is that all of the yardage was on clearance so I made out!!

I have a picture of the batiks with some fat quarters but my camers did not photograph the orange well and it is pretty blinding.

Here is some of the yardage:    (JAIME – 4th one from the left is an awesome silver that is going to make a fabulous sword!!!!)

And, the sampler pack that I found. They had a ton of samplers (solids, prints, tonals) and they all looked worthy. (The marbled solid ones were gorgeous!!!) In the end, I chose one that had some specific fabrics that I was looking for. I ended up going with a Fat Eight sampler in part because of the price and because I knew I wouldn’t need a huge piece of fabric for what I am doing.These pieces are 12″x18″. The picture makes them look a bit brighter than they really are. The yellows are all more of a golden tone.

Thats it! I am going to do a bit more researching this week and hopefully this weekend I will have completely decided on a new machine and can get it orderd!

🙂

 

Christmas Catch-up

Ok, update.

Lets see, Mario Quilt is on hold, but it about to come back out in the next few weeks as soon as the holidays are over.

Watercolor is about 20 squares from having all 130 done. Than it is on to putting it together. No sashing so it should come together very quickly. Maybe that can be my weekend goal! ohh, but i don’t know if I have a backing that I want to use for it…hmmmmm…

Lots of baby fabric shopping!!

A couple of flannels:

A couple of light cottons:

and a bunch of cottons with some minky that I got along with my black friday haul:

All of the fabrics on the right are backing fabrics, the pile on the left is baby stuff, a new self-healing mat, a new 12″ square ruler, a few spools of thread and a couple of yards in the middle  for a surprise.I am finding that the more projects I do, the need is there for more neutral piecing thread and more colored thread to quilt with. I go thru thread a lot faster than I thought I would. I got these at a buy one get one free. Next time, I plan on stocking up instead of just a couple. I also was able to get a few battings for half-off at Joanns.

Speaking of surprises, there are a few up my sleeve. One in particular that I am soooo excited about. I started working on it last night and I have to put part of it in the mail in the next week or so. Once I get everything back, I have high hopes of turning it all into a very special gift.

A couple of other surprises are xmas presents. The few pictures I have of those would spoil the surprise if I were to post them so they will not be up here until after the recipients discover that they love their gifts as much as I already do. haha

🙂