I told you last weekend we went to Minnesota for a baby shower for my niece Ariel.  Well we left as my sister left.  We take many of the same roads home only she keeps going after I turn off.  We were first to leave but they were right behind us.

We needed gas so stopped off in Albert Lea, Minnesota to get it…they went on and we waved as they passed.  About 45 minutes later we were to Mason City and I begged the girls for a chance to stop at JoAnn’s.  I needed a muslin for an upcoming project I’ll be starting soon and needed quite a bit of it.  I have all sorts of muslin here but it’s all in 1/2-2 yard pieces and I needed more.

Imagine our surprise when we walked into JoAnn’s and there was my sister and the crew she traveled with.  They were needed a few things including some things for my sister’s grandchildren for camp which they were leaving for the next day.

Here’s the goodies I found…..

For some reason the colors didn’t show up the best.  There is a half yard of the colored prints all in rainbow colors.  The teal (blue) has more in case I bind the project in that.  The muslin if 5 yards worth…the bottom one is grey.  I know it looks more brown in the photo but it’s actually grey.

I was really happy with my finds.  This is the start of two fun projects I have planned.  I drew them out last weekend and now I have fabric.  Now I just need time.

As we left we said good-bye to my sister and crew.  They were still shopping.  There are four of them and all are crafty.  There were four of us but I was the only one feeling crafty.

Stay tuned if you want to see what new projects I’ll be working on soon.

I ran to do errands on day last week after childcare.  Happily my favorite thrift store is open until 6pm so if I can get out the door at 5pm-make the half hour drive-then I have 30 minutes to shop.  I love that they are open until 6pm now.

Anyway…check out my treasures.  Fabric bags for $1 each.  I’ve been starting to collect novelty prints.  I want to do a baby quilt that has the letter “A” and then is surrounded by novelty print pieces that have items that begin with that letter.

I could see that there were quite a few novelty prints included in the bags so even though I didn’t need any more fabric, I bought them….Check out some of the goodies.  This will help my collection for sure.

I also found bags of buttons.  There were several more bags there but I didn’t NEED any more buttons.  I just like them.  All of my button collection has lost all of the color too so these will add some color.  I do anticipate my button box getting more use in the future as Carver gets older and I need to entertain him in the sewing room.  These bags were very colorful.

I have always wanted a pincushion collect but surprisingly I never find them.  This day I did.  See the chair pincushion?  It was 50 cents.

I also found this crocheted “bag” of marbles.  I don’t know what I’m going to do with it but I thought Kayla would love to see it.  I think it suppose to be  a turtle.  There’s kind of a head where the drawstring closes.  Interesting…

I love my thrift stores…Everyone tells me I have the best ones, and truly, I do.

I’ve been busy working on my Zuckerwatte quilts….yep, quilts, as in TWO of them at once.

I was looking ahead on the pattern and saw that I need an inner border AND I need a bias binding.  I don’t have yardage in pink here.  Ya, I have lots of quarter yard cuts and fat quarters but yardage…No.  I put that on my list that should I get to New Hampton, I’d check out Material Magic.  They are going out of business and all the fabric is now 40% off.  Well as long as I needed some, there was my best option.

A couple days later I ended up going.  You guessed it…I went to get this…

and came home with this too!!  In my defense, these are all pieces that I have confidence that I will use.  I cuts for borders for a batik quilt….that made good sense.  Batiks are typically more expensive so it’s a good deal, besides, remember me saying I have very little in my stash that is more than a quarter yard cut?  But, there’s more….. [Read more...]

There is a wedding coming up on Hubby’s side of the family.  I need a quilt.  Hmmm…what to make, I don’t know.

I was contemplating choices the other day when I was eating my lunch.

It’s hard when I make a quilt that I know I am going to give away.  I want to make a nice quilt, but I don’t want to fall in love with it and want to keep it…but, I don’t want to give a dud of a quilt either.  What to do?  What quilt do I pick.

I thought about making something with batiks.  I feel like for a modern day couple that I don’t know the best, they are a safer bet….Batiks aren’t Civil War and they aren’t brights.  Somehow they seem safer.

It’s Hubby’s niece so I talked to him about it and of course his comment was “do what you think is best”.  That’s it.  I don’t know what is best.

I got this far in the decision….I am leaning towards batiks so when we were in town the other day with Hubby I asked his if we could stop and pick up fabric for the quilt…I don’t know why I asked as I still don’t know what quilt I am making.  I’m kind of leaning towards an Irish Chain done in batiks but still, I”m not sure.  We stopped at the fabric store in New Hampton that is going out of business.  I went in and came out with this…. [Read more...]