My Charlotte’s Baskets quilt is really coming along. I knew I’d need some sashing fabric so I decided to make a trip down to see LouAnn at LouAnn’s Quilt Garden in Oelwein. It’s always a treat to see LouAnn. She has a pretty good selection of batiks so it took indecisive me quite awhile to decide what to get…and then of course I couldn’t pick what I liked best.
I ended up with a couple options. I’m growing my batik collection so I felt comfortable getting both options and then deciding once I laid it out with some finished blocks.
Check out this print. Notice that there is a “stripe” of flowers across the fabric. Wouldn’t this make an amazing border on a quilt? I loved it!! I ended up getting more than I needed in case I don’t use it on this quilt. I figured that I might want to miter the border so the flowers meet so an extra cut of fabric would be needed.
I tried to pick something that might go with them….the only problem with this, it’s “cooler”…and I like a warm tone to my quilts. LouAnn suggested that I think about getting out of my box. She did it in a super sweet way…..and it got me thinking that maybe she was right.
But then look at this….That green is my fave so picking green is out of my box too.
Mid shopping I got a call from Craig. Kalissa was working and he had to go on a service call. (Craig is a farm mechanic and often farmers call him out and he has to go fix the machinery) Carver was at a babysitter and needed to be picked up. So Grandma to the rescue.
That left me not knowing for sure which to pick so I got all of the fabrics.
I ended up leaving without taking pictures of the shop. LouAnn has a lot of new samples and fabric in the store since I gave you a tour back in August….I was frustrated with myself that I didn’t take time to snap pictures. LouAnn was so fun to chat with…she’s one of the sweetest gals I know. She did remind me about the upcoming reunion retreat that will be coming up. I promised her I’d write more about it here once she had the details in place. Boy, oh boy, that sounds like something fun to look forward to!!
Stop by tomorrow…I am auditioning these fabrics for the quilt and need some help deciding what to do.
You can find LouAnn’s Facebook page here.…she’s been adding new pictures so you might want to check it out.
All the fabrics are pretty but since I’m not a green person, I choose the cream fabric. How nice there is a retreat coming up. This time you and Kelli can sit and sew. Have a great day!
Love your selections! And getting out of our boxes is a good thing.
Can’t wait for the reunion retreat! Looking forward to hearing the details!
Just wondering if you still accept donations to your “stash.” Since you were cleaning your sewing room, I decided to clean mine. I have more than one fabric which has never been cut into and consists of a couple of yards. Didn’t know if you wanted more goodies.
YES! I totally do accept more “donations” to my stash. I love it. When I cleaned out my sewing room, it was more of a cleaning like…am I really going to make a wool project, project with men’s ties, anymore T-shirt rugs. It was more of a cleaning out of crafts and more of a focus on quilting type of cleaning.
I love all your batik choices! I also struggle making a decision when buying batiks, since I love almost all of them! When I first started making quilts with batiks, I couldn’t imagine putting regular cottons in the mix. Now I’ll sometimes throw in a regular cotton from my stash if the color is just what I’m looking for, and I often throw some batiks into a regular cotton quilt. (Yes, I know they’re ALL cotton … LOL!). Anyway, just thought I’d share my thoughts on batiks. Love all your quilts!
Oh, I like the green too! And the border looking fabric …can hardly wait to see what you do with it! Great batiks you’ve been finding.
Does Lou Anne’s take and ship online orders?? I’m loving your Batiks, just learning to like them myself too.
Jeri Oldtisme@aol.com
I am sure Lou Ann would take online orders. She is SUPER helpful!!