Crazy at Walmart

Our local Walmart is making some changes. Well, apparently lots of changes. One of the many is that they are closing down the fabric department. Bad news, good news. 

The bad news is long-term: some of the elderly who sew won't have easy access to fabric. The closest is about a hour away and few drive through Alexandria to get there.

The good news is short-term: fabric is on clearance. For $1 a yard. Yes indeed, you read that right. $1. Per. Yard.

Now I'd heard that there was a big clearance. But I wasn't impressed when the sale was only a dollar off the regular price. 

But when Mrs. Flora called and told me that the store had gotten in additional fabric to clear out, I had to find out what kind of fabric. Let's just say I came away with a few pieces. For a total of about 40 yards. Oops. So much for the fabric diet. Haha. 

Some of it I have specific plans for. I cut out a skirt the same day. 

Other pieces are already folded and in the stash. 

Other pieces are sitting on the worktable waiting. I'm not sure what they are waiting for but that's okay. They are bound to start niggling at me. Does fabric sitting out do that with you? Quibble with you about just what it needs? 
(or maybe a quibble)

GSQA Show Entries

Today was the deadline to enter quilts into the Gulf States Quilting Association biennial show. So yesterday I entered three modern quilts. That's what I'm counting as my finish this week. Although I did get some sewing done, nothing is complete.

I planned to enter five quilts, which is the limit, but decided that two of the quilts are too large. I can't afford all of the costs of entering shows. The two large quilts are too heavy for standard mail and won't fit into the flat rate box with the quilts that are going.

Modern Scrap Sampler

I thought about this for a few minutes. I wanted to know, in general, the total cost of entering a quilt show.  This is what I came up with: 1) you need to be a member of the guild or association; 2) you pay the costs to enter the quilt(s) in the show. Of course, 3) you have to get the quilts there, so pay for shipping. No matter what, 4) you know you want the quilt(s) back, so pay for shipping again. All total, I will spend $80 to enter these three smallish quilts.

I may want to go to the show with my guild, that's more money for transportation, meals and shopping (maybe?) Add these in and I've hit $100 before I consider the question of shopping. I guess I know the answer to that question. :) Do you get to do much shopping at shows?

Now don't misunderstand me: I am president of our local guild and know how much everything costs. Even little prizes and treats add up quickly. So I get it, the guild is trying to raise money. The problem is that I'd really like to participate more in state, regional, and national events but, honestly, I can't afford it. Not being able to participate hurts my heart: there's a whole world of quilting out there. Oh, how I'd like to be a part of it somehow!

I'm open to suggestions for ways to be more involved without it costing more than, say, my monthly water bill. If you have any ideas, please pass them along in the comments.


I'm also adding this post to a few...

Link Ups!

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!) 

Win? Me? Really? YES!

A few days ago I got an interesting email from Leanne at She Can Quilt informing me that I, me!, was a winner of (now get this) the big prize on the September Scraptastic Tuesday linkup. Yea, big prize--$40 gift certificate from Mad About Patchwork.
(No affiliation, they're all just good, generous people.)

Then came the next email telling me the gift certificate was ready! Now do you think I had waited to start shopping. Not me! I know a good thing when I read it. 

So I already knew that there was a sale happening--40% off. And the softest fabric in the prettiest colors was waiting with bated breath to come to Fleur de Lis Quilts! 

Shh, don't say it out loud, but I added some yardage above the $40, and you know in your heart that every quilter reading this blog would have done the same.  Now there was one little caveat: the postage was pricey. I did at least ask if there was another option. But by the time I knew the answer three minutes later, my little heart couldn't let go of that gorgeous fabric. 

So I paid the bill. Who's really going to tell me I can't? Well, too bad for them. I did. And there it is. Now all this took place at some point last week. On Tuesday there was a package in the mailbox. Just that fast and easy.   

I ripped into the package and petted and loved, and we had a photo session. Then I petted some more and loved. And showed Cotton (no one else was home) and he was as excited for me as anyone else in this overly emotional family.

So there you are: sometimes you think you're not so lucky (or maybe you spent all of your luck, cause that can happen) and then with almost no effort at all, a package appears in the mail because you won something. And when you get to choose the something, there's the extra winnings of getting to go shopping. 

Thanks again, Leanne! The fabric is perfect! I loved every minute--shopping, ordering, (code for asking goofy questions) and petting! Girl, I had fun petting my little yards of fabric. (It's been a while since my last fabric fix.) We should do this again soon, but let's wait till Katy answers goofy questions from other customers.  

Thanks Mad About Patchwork! Some of the best customer-service people work at your place. And though I tried her patience, Katy could not have been nicer. If she beat on her computer a few times, it's because she was dealing with me. You can forgive her now. 

One more thing: everybody go over there to Mad About Patchwork and just look at the pictures. No, seriously. Go. Tell me the picture below doesn't meet your aesthetic tastes. That's what I'm saying. And if you buy something at 40% off, you will have made a great deal. If you pay postage, that's on you!

Leah, thread, and a WIP

A couple of weeks ago I loaded a WIP that's been sitting for a while on the "to be quilted" pile. I had a fab time learning and practicing new motifs. Leah Day's quilting design gallery is my go-to inspiration site. She has 500 designs--imagine! 


I've written about motifs from her website here on "Crazy X" and here for "Math Is an Expletive."  Looking through the motifs and choosing the ones I want to try is a great pasttime when sitting in waiting rooms. In the past I'd draw the motifs on paper or a white board to get some muscle memory going, but now I just stitch. 

Sometimes I end up with a crazy mess, but those seem to disappear once I have lots of other quilting around them. I'm not much of a detail nut, so I tend to see the whole picture. Quite often one of her designs will inspire something new and different from me. That is pretty awesome!

Anyhoo, (sorry Leah's website is definitely a squirrel) I was almost finished and ran out of thread. I didn't even see that coming. Really, I was rolling along and suddenly I was not. I found another cone that was really close in color and decided to use that. But that did not work for long--I ran out again! Nothing in the entire studio would work after the second cone. Believe me, I tried.

That meant ordering thread online, and it came in today! 
If all goes well I'll have a finish in a day or two. Thanks to Superior Threads (not an affiliate) for their excellent service and prices. 
I love the thread.

I've purchased from Superior Threads at quilt shows, but this is the first time I've ordered online. Their website is user-friendly and talk about convenient since it just appeared at my door. That means I didn't have to haul thread around with me. 

As computer savvy as I think I am, I'm not much for shopping online. Are you an online shopper? If so, which companies do you use for quilting supplies?

Off to Vicksburg and a Quilt Show

Pam, the president of my quilt guild invited me to go to the Vicksburg Quilt Show. Vicksburg, Mississippi, is about three hours away, so we left very early in the morning and got home pretty late. But, oh my, was it worth it!

Pam is a quilt shopper, but I must admit that I pretty much kept up with her. We visited every shop booth and saw every quilt. I took 100 pictures (my phone died) and bought more than I planned. Who's surprised? Me! I'm generally pretty good at self-control, but apparently I lost myself. 

What did I get? Oh, a bit of fabric, a fancy stiletto/seam ripper, a flying geese ruler, and four old wooden thread spools. 

Check out this little pile. My favorite item is the stiletto/seam ripper. Ironically, it's the piece that I hope I don't use too much. I had such a difficult time deciding on the handle color. I finally chose the wooden handle. 



I still have to learn which end is which. The stiletto is gold; the seam ripper is silver. 

But the prettiest part is the wooden handle. I really like the two tone gray and beige.

The four wooden spools are for a fun project once I can get to it--a tuffet pincushion. 

Ha! There are three small pincushions sitting on my worktable waiting for filling and closing.  I'm still hopeful that I'll get to those and now this one. I really want to make a tuffet, so when I saw some mini tuffets in one of the booths, I seriously considered buying a kit. 

It didn't happen. There's no way I can afford to pay those prices, so Richard will have another project to cut the wood for the base. I think I've got all the other items, and I'm fairly sure that I can create a pattern. Now to find the time...

I'll leave you with a couple pictures of the wonderful textual fabrics that I bought. I can't believe that I bought this many fat quarters, even though some were on sale for $1.50 each! Yay! Unfortunately more of them were not on sale. Three yards total. That's not so much, right? 

Wait, a text fabric tuffet would be cute!

Krotz Springs Quilt Show (pt 2)

Yesterday I told you about the Krotz Springs Quilt Guild Show that my friend Pam and I attended on Saturday. The River City Quilt Guild visited with a quilt show from about five of their members. 

As each member came up to show her quilts, she explained how that quilt came about, whether it won awards, and interesting details about the quilt. Two very accommodating guys held the quilts up and passed them off to two sweet ladies who folded the quilts once it had been shown. All very neat and orderly. 

 These aren't all of the quilts that they showed, but I didn't get pics of every one. Sorry about that, but there were too many to include them all anyway. 

This little animal quilt, which the maker said came from a kit, was very popular among the audience members. The animals have attitude and shoes, which certainly increases the cuteness factor.

The flip flops were also quite popular. I think it has something to do with the colors and popularity of flip flops. 

Hope you enjoyed the trunk show. Thanks to the River City Quilt Guild for sharing their lovely quilts.