Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Mardi Gras at Marden's!

Yippee!
Yesterday was sunny and mild with virtually no wind. We keep watching the snowpack melt back, inch by inch. It was the first day since November that I could see the seat areas of my wooden deck furniture, but mind you, there was still a foot and a half of snow on the deck itself! LOL Spring makes us delirious. I was cheering to see grass, even as brown and muddy as it was, it was GRASS!!!!

I took the day off from being Felix's devoted URN (UN-registered nurse) to run away with seven of the ladies from my quilt guild on a field trip. We met in a parking lot and carpooled the 50 minute drive into Sanford, Maine to a department store named Marden's. Marden's is famous for their no-frills merchandising and rock-bottom prices. They put Walmart to shame. And they have a large fabric department in the Sanford store.

We were there to buy 100% cotton quilting fabrics, much of it "Quilt Shop Quality". Prices were $2.99 to about $4.49 per yard, which is a fraction of the cost at full retail. Most of these fabrics are either overruns or previous year's designs. It is guerilla marketing at it's best! I spent (or as Obama would say, "invested in...") all my birthday money on 35 yards of gorgeous cloth.

I had never been on this yearly trek before. It was such fun to chat all about our various quilt projects with each other and ooh and ahh over the yummy color selections we found. We shopped 'til we dropped! Then we went out to a cute antique-themed pub, named The Back Street Cafe, and indulged in gynormous sandwiches with even bigger glasses of raspberry iced tea.

I got home to enjoy a cup of coffee and found that my wonderful husband, Felix, had made one of my favorite suppers, American Chop Suey! But he REALLY NEEDED NAGGING!!!! He had NOT kept his foot up all day (diabetic/infected toe) AND had forgotten to take his diurectic pills from the morning at all. Sigh. I hope to make him behave tomorrow because Thursday we go to Dr. Vignati, the vascular surgeon, and I hope for good reports.
Here is what my fabric booty looks like before I prewash it all. Can you tell that I love RED!!!!! And purple is my neutral. Well, actually, I did get a big bunch of neutrals for Bonnie K. Hunter quilts. And one of my neutrals was a pale celadon or celery tone that fascinated me. I love just sitting there gazing at the pile going moony-eyed. What a goof I am!
 If you look at the middle fabric, it looks like a red. Can you believe that it is actually a chocolate brown with a medium-sized hot pink figure??? Here are some close-ups:





It was a fabric that grew on me, like an ugly bulldog that looks cute, so I bought 3 yards! LOL! I'll use it for borders, maybe?


1 comment:

Katie said...

oh my goodness I'm so jealous - 1) of your day with the girls 2) that you have a store that sells cheap fabric so close by and 3) of that gorgeous brown/fuschia fabric. hahah That definitely is a unique find!

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