Some of the best priced deals on fabric are the Fat Quarter sales at retail quilt shops when they offer $1.00 per FQ with a 20 or 25 piece minimum. It's a win-win; you get quilt shop quality fabric with great variety for $4.00 per yard and no shipping, the store gets to move out last year's stuff to make room for newer lines. So you go in there and you buy a bunch and bring it home. Now what?
The haul above is from The Quilt Patch at 133 Bedford Center Road (Right near the Dunkin Donuts off Wallace Road) in Bedford on their sale that is now through the 14th of July. http://tinyurl.com/74psuam This is a link to their sale ad if you are local.
I like to keep fat quarters fabric briefly in the plastic shopping bags while it waits to be prewashed in Orvus and then dried on the clothesline to be virtually wrinkle-free. ONLY after it is washed is it ready to go down into my Quilt Cave. There I carefully refold it to have all the raw edges inside. Yes, it takes time, but this is enjoyable time, petting and fondling fabrics! It gives my brain a chance to record colors and patterns that I have picked out and brought home to use.
The Joann's lined oblong baskets for $10 are a good deal with a coupon or when they go on sale for 50% off. Then they are only $5.
Then when you fill them with goodies, you can do a lil' sorting if you like.
A basket for neutrals, one for Civil War, one for Christmas, one for general colors; these are the catagories that work for me. They sit on the shelves and I can grab a whole basket to bring down to view them. If fabric is too awfully hidden away, I FORGET that I have it! LOL! I need to SEE my stash.
I want to also acknowledge a wonderful trade that came in the mail from Julie K! Julie sent me a whole bundle of 38 pieces of moody lights that I think will work great with my Kansas Troubles bundle. Aren't they gorgeous?? Thank you so much, Julie! I hope you are loving the strips that I sent to you, too. Julie has a marvelous blog that you might enjoy as much as I do. Here is a link:
http://juliekquilts.blogspot.com/
Some of these beauties are Civil War lights that I recognize from The Mothership (Keepsake Quilting).
Here they are beside the Kansas Troubles bundle. Nice, eh?
Now, if I can just screw up my courage enough to settle on a pattern and, gasp!, CUT INTO them. Oh my. No, I'm not ready yet. I'm hoarding them! Sigh.
Here is what I DID cut, my nickel lights and darks for the September swap.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QuiltvilleSwap/ There are ten sets of ten nickels each; five lights and five darker ones.
Here they go into their one set per baggie. There is still plenty of time if you want to join in the fun!
If I hurry, I can get them shipped today.
Raven likes rides to the Post Office! LOL!
Why don't you bring me, Puppy-mom?
I like to keep fat quarters fabric briefly in the plastic shopping bags while it waits to be prewashed in Orvus and then dried on the clothesline to be virtually wrinkle-free. ONLY after it is washed is it ready to go down into my Quilt Cave. There I carefully refold it to have all the raw edges inside. Yes, it takes time, but this is enjoyable time, petting and fondling fabrics! It gives my brain a chance to record colors and patterns that I have picked out and brought home to use.
The Joann's lined oblong baskets for $10 are a good deal with a coupon or when they go on sale for 50% off. Then they are only $5.
I want to also acknowledge a wonderful trade that came in the mail from Julie K! Julie sent me a whole bundle of 38 pieces of moody lights that I think will work great with my Kansas Troubles bundle. Aren't they gorgeous?? Thank you so much, Julie! I hope you are loving the strips that I sent to you, too. Julie has a marvelous blog that you might enjoy as much as I do. Here is a link:
http://juliekquilts.blogspot.com/
Here they are beside the Kansas Troubles bundle. Nice, eh?
Here is what I DID cut, my nickel lights and darks for the September swap.http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QuiltvilleSwap/ There are ten sets of ten nickels each; five lights and five darker ones.
Raven likes rides to the Post Office! LOL!
4 comments:
I like your dog's quilt. It looks to be the same as the one you've just finished, with assorted green squares. I think I *need* to make one like that. :-)
What a great idea to use the baskets for fat quarters. I just picked up a couple of those baskets at a garage sale and now know what I'm going to do with them. Thanks for the tip! We are cooling down today in Ohio. Yea!
What a great idea for my 30's fabrics. I'll wait til I get a 50% off coupon tho! I have a Joann's in Holyoke, 4 towns north of here.Right now there in a pile under my sewing machine table. Thanks Vic. Love all your various baskets. Girl after my own heart.
OMG Vic your KCT fabrics make me DROOOOLLLLLLLLL *wipes drool off of chin*
For my FQ storage, I use the plastic "shoe boxes" from the dollar store. They're stackable and have lids. I keep them in a cubby away from the sun so the fabrics don't fade.
There's a couple problems with this though.. 1) They're not very pretty like your baskets and 2) They're freaking overflowing!! I have 3 just for my BLUES!
But, I do like that they are easy to label, and easy to get in and out of.
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