December Purchases

My last purchases post before this was at the end of September (post for 10/2/19) so I have refrained from buying for two whole months. But since then I have succumbed to the lure of fabric and associated notions. I do like to post my purchases for a reason other than showing my daughter and quilting colleagues what I have added to my stash. I like to look back when I make something and recall the circumstances of who I was with and where I was when I bought something I press into service. It also helps me appreciate how long something has ripened in my stash.

Oklahoma City OK, December 6th, 2019, Savage Quilter

I visited my daughter Robin and shared some sewing time with her the week right after Thanksgiving. We visited her local quilt shop and I made a few purchases on Friday, the day before I was to leave to go back home to California. I have been trying hard to restrain my fabric purchases, yet I firmly believe that as quilters we need to support our brick and mortar stores. I spotted this set of #2 HB graphite pencils. They would be my supportive, non-fabric purchase from the Savage Quilter.

The ten sayings on them by Bonnie K. Hunter are fun. I think my favorites are: "When I learned how to quilt, I forgot how to cook." and "One fat quarter, like one cookie, is NEVER enough!" It seemed like these pencils would be a pleasure to use and would be unique enough they would stay in my sewing room and not stray. Hmmm. Since I typically use mechanical pencils, now I need a pencil sharpener. Oh well, I could ask Santa or Amazon.

With Thanksgiving just behind me and Christmas imminent, I was drawn to this set of four tea towels by Moda, one of which featured Frosty the Snowman. I have made pillows from Robot themed tea towels (post for 6/9/19)) that came out out great. I could do the same with these tea towels. I was waffling when the clerk said those magic five words. "It is our last set." I have seen several projects using that Frosty image. Plus there is one other novel idea – I could actually use them as dish towels! With all these possibilities how could I possibly pass them up?

Near the checkout counter I spied this animal/floral fabric in a seductive dark deep blue. Yes, this is fabric – not pencils, not towels, not a book, not a tool. Nevertheless, I fell in love with this fabric and I had two very viable alternatives to consider in lieu of impulse buying. My daughter's favorite quilt store has now gone online with over 9,000 bolts of fabric so I could phone or email them to get some if I still desired it once I was removed from close proximity to the temptation. Robin offered me the option of thinking about it – after all Savage Quilter is only about 15 miles north of Robin – and she could pick some up for me if I decided I truly wanted it after some rational thought. But fabric purchase is not rational; it is emotional, and I caved to buy some there and then. Not wanting to cut such a large print apart, I decided it would make a gorgeous backing so I bought three yards. Actually the benefit of buying in person is that I could see the length of the repeat length and add another one-third yard so I need not unwittingly chop off the head of any creature. So much for my two month hiatus from fabric purchase.

Since Savage Quilter has now also gone online in addition to their brick and mortar store, I will not need to wait until I visit my daughter again to indulge. But I probably will wait. Unless I need more of something I bought there, it is so much more satisfying to have someone beside your side, ooh-ing and aah-ing over your choices.

Actually the fabric was the not last item I bought. I guess the longer I stayed in the store the weaker my restraint became. I saw a Cadillac of seam rippers with two size options on either end. I did not have one of those (and survived very nicely without it, thank you). But what if it did make that onerous task of removing stitches easier, relieve cramping in the hand, be faster, be more visible, etc.? I bought it. I have used it already and it is nice having two size options – not necessary, but nice.

Lafayette CA, December 12th, Cotton Patch

On the Thursday less than a week after returning from my daughter's, I attended a Christmas party/ meeting of a longarm group that meets every other month in the classroom of a local quilt shop (local meaning 30 miles from where I live), Cotton Patch. After the gathering I went across the street to browse the associated store. Friends of ours just learned that they will become grandparents so I needed to replenish my supply of feminine flannel to make burp cloths. Here are the options I chose to add to my drawer full of other half yard cuts. I absolve myself of guilt for this fabric purchase since its residence time in my stash is so small. It is amazing how many people I know are having babies and these make great gifts. They do not generate UFOs either.

While I was there I was attracted to the central green print  in the next photo. The green is a very soft shade and the entire print was muted. I bought two other fat quarters from the same line because the green is subtly hard to match. Besides, to quote Bonnie K. Hunter again, "One fat quarter, like one cookie, is NEVER enough!"

I also splurged on the book Sew Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Mary Hertel because the patterns are so quirky cute. Paper piecing is not my first love, but I am quite willing to be patient and creative with it when the results are so whimsical.  The back cover shows some of the completed projects.

But the store purchases were not the worst of the fabric financial impact on me from that day. One of the ladies at the meeting had brought in and shared a holiday quilt she'd made. It's design mixed star blocks with sections from panels. I admired it greatly and took some closeup photographs of the panel inserted areas as inspiration. I have many panels and I thought it clever how sections were added to, squared off and sized to be the same as the pieced Sawtooth Star blocks, and then artfully scattered throughout the quilt top.

She told me the quilt was from a kit and gave me an info card which revealed it to be from Moda KIT36040, titled from the fabric collection To Be Jolly from manufacturer One Canoe Two.  I went home and did some computer research.

Online December 13th and December 21st

I found the Moda kit To Be Jolly available from the Fat Quarter Shop but also by a small independent quilt shop Yellow Rose Jenny who had it on sale at two thirds the price.  I was amazed since when I buy a kit I rarely sew it up until enough time had passed that it is no longer available anywhere. The very next day on December 13th, I bought the kit from the small independent shop and she mailed it out so swiftly I was impressed.

I looked at that kit and my photographs of it and decided that since the quilt had a white background I wanted a lighter colored backing than anything I had in my stash. I did like the candy cane backing set that the Fat Quarter Shop proposed for it, so one week later on December 21st, I ordered it online from the Fat Quarter Shop.

Both these items arrived before Christmas. I wrapped them and put them under the tree and thanked my husband for the gifts. Opening them Christmas morning gave me pleasure all over again.