Monday I told you that I was cutting a quilt from scrap batiks fabrics that had been gifted to me. Well I got as far as I could and then I needed more fabric. Saturday was the day for me to go shopping.
I needed neutrals for the Garlic Knots quilt that I had started cutting. I almost have everything cut out except for the neutrals. I think this is going to look awesome in batiks.
As I was cutting the scraps up into pieces for my scrap users system, many pieces were 2 1/2″. That got me thinking….I was sure there was a Bonnie quilt that used 2 1/2″ pieces. Yep. This one, Texas Tumbleweeds. Well I might as well get the stuff for this. We have a wedding this fall and this would be a perfect project.
Then I noticed that there were a lot of green 2″ scraps in the bag….that got me thinking. I remembered that my friend Connie had mentioned that she was planning on making Scrap Crystals from Bonnie Hunter’s More Adventures with Leaders and Enders book and do it batiks. WOW! I loved the idea and it would make perfect use of all the green 2″ scraps that were in the bag. I ended up cutting most of the blue scraps into 2″ strips and all of the green into 2″ squares. I could tell I would be short blue but I had all of the green I needed except for sashing…so I needed sashing and neutrals again.
That meant a shopping trip. I decided to go to New Hampton. There are two shops there and two shops is better than one…right?
First I went to Material Magic.
I got quite a haul. Want to see?Lots of neutrals, all in batiks. I know fabrics can mix but I thought being I’ve not done a batik quilts before, I wanted to do it up right and go all batiks. I got quite a few…honestly, I got a cut of all the neutrals that they had. I also saw that they had a strip of 2 1/2″ strips and I grabbed that too. That would work great for the Texas Tumbleweeds quilt.
I got this for Garlic Knots. I got enough for the stones in the border and enough for the binding.
I got this for Texas Tumbleweeds. I was a little disappointed when I got home though as I forgot to get fabric for the blocks that have the brown. Oh well. I’ll go back another day.
I got the bottom fabrics for Scrap Crystals…and the top jelly roll was a whim. I’m not completely sure what is going where but that’s what I got.
All of that was 30% off as Material Magic, in New Hampton Iowa recently announced that they are closing. The sisters have been running the store for 22 years were recently approached by someone asking to purchase the store. They thought the timing was good and are selling. They are starting to offer liquidation sales….it might be worth a trip if are you local-ish.
The ladies always offered great friendly service. They will definitely be missed.
I betting I’ll be back to get a few more things before they close for good.
From there I stopped at Quilters Window…also in New Hampton.
They don’t a big selection of batiks…I got a cut of all the neutrals they had and selected a couple blues too.
I am so excited to cut into these and be sewing with batiks….sometimes, it’s the little things.
No shopping trip is complete without a stop at the thrift store….Shirts were 25 cents each.
I’ve been passing some on to a blog reader. I’m guessing she’ll get a few of these but not the orange one you can see in the back of the pile. That one is MINE! I have so many now that I only keep of couple of my very favorite hard to find ones and pass the rest on.
So that was my shopping trip. It’s been a long time since I shopped at a quilt shop more than simply running in and grabbing a cut of fabric to finish a project. I love a little stack of quarter yard cuts of fabric….I don’t know if the check out lady loves cutting them for me…but that’s my standard request. A quarter yard please….I make mine scrappy!!
Great selections, Jo! The batiks are beautiful! Enjoy!!
I was chuckling as I as reading your post – one thing sure leads to another, doesn’t it? And all of a sudden we have started several new quilts!
I have finally found some thrift stores around here, but 25 cents a shirt. No way, most go for $2.50-5.00. I did luck into some fir $1. Do you buy any 100% cotton shirt? I grabbed about 12. I noticed that the ones from Magellan and other sporty brands are a beautiful soft weave. Can that fabric be used with more closely woven cotton from shirts? Oh, I ‘m down three shirts. My husband grabbed to wear!
Jo, I would say you had a successful shopping trip! Lots of beautiful fabrics you brought home! Cannot wait to see them in your future projects….
Great batik gathering! I love doing quilts in batiks! My En Provence was done in batiks.
I find Hancock’s of Paducah online to be my best resource of batiks! I shop the sales and pay $4.99-$6.99 a yard.
Today was a fabric shopping day for me as well. I got 3 yards of a drool worthy dark green batik, background for a QOV, and another piece I need for border on a quilt. Also got a new 12.5 inch ruler – I figured after 22 years, my old one needed to be retired. It was a spontaneous decision, and got to spend the day with 2 of my best friends – a real bonus! lunch was included of course. Great day out!
You mentioned that fabrics can mix, but you wanted to use all batiks this time. I’m a fellow longarmer, and what I’ve found is that your stitching will change when you go from batik fabric to non-batiks mixed into the same quilt, and sometimes the change in look isn’t pretty. You can’t adjust the tension to fix that. So good idea to go with all batiks! That way you won’t have any tension woes antwhere on the quilt.
I love batiks and am always picking up FQs but I haven’t put them into a quilt yet. What do batiks go for in the mid-west? Here in the Pacific NW they go from $12-16/yard. Believe it or not, our Walmart has gotten a very limited selection of batiks, all the same print but rich colors of red, green, brown, navy and purple for $9/yard.
I am amazed at the price of shirts at your thrift shops. A couple of years ago, our national name thrift shop had $1 day for certain color tags. Then it was $1.29 now $1.79. Took all the fun out of it. I rarely go any more.
I need to be able to find shirts for that price. I’m going to be doing a quilt soon that needs seven shirts, 2 light and 5 darks. Hubby was out and about, so I asked him to look at a thrift store for me. I love that he’s willing, but he missed some of the instruction and paid $4 a shirt! If you have extras, I’d be happy to put them to work. Love your thrifting!
Please tell me where to find the Garlic Knots pattern.