Stash Report Week #7...

February 19 - 25, 2012

(Warning: I'm very wordy today!)

Wow, what a week!  Not in terms of quilting though.  Very little happening on that front right now.  I am trying to finish my February Schnibbles quilt, but haven't had much time to work on it.

I traveled out of town last Sunday.  It was just a day trip and the weather was pretty bad.  Monday and Tuesday were spent preparing for another trip - getting the shopping done and the house cleaned and other such errands.  I was supposed to leave for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival on Thursday, so of course, the dog came down with a bug on Wednesday.  And by bug, I mean a bad case of diarrhea.  A really bad case.

There was no way I could leave her alone in the house while I went on a trip, but Mr. Quilting Bug was really sweet and said he would stay home with her.  He also wasn't feeling too hot.  Then on the way home from work Wednesday night, he was in a car accident.  Praise God he's OK!  Although the car didn't fare as well. I really prayed about whether or not God was telling me to stay home, but didn't feel that was the case.

However, while I was gone, Mr. Quilting Bug informed me first that he was sick with a cold and second that we had to go car shopping this weekend.  Ughh!  We had planned to buy a new car in a couple of years, but I definitely wasn't prepared for it so soon.  We spent the entire day Saturday car shopping.  It was stressful and I was worried about making a huge mistake.  However, we finally purchased one, got a great deal and I'm pretty happy with it.  I'm also praying that it lasts me for the next 10 years!

In the end, I'm glad I went to the show.  I was really impressed with the quilts this year.  I'll show you some of my favorites in another post.  I was there both Thursday and Friday.  There were SO many vendors there as well.  Probably 3 times more space was occupied by the vendors as opposed to the quilts.  Like the dutiful shopper I am, I made my way very carefully through them.  And after 2 days, this was the sum total of my fabric purchases...

Fabric purchases from the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show

I bought the little bundles of pink and blue 6" squares to use on my Ladies of the Sea quilt.  The FQs of Little Gatherings is for a lap size quilt I have planned.  The thread is Kimono 100# silk thread.  I've heard some good things about it and want to try it out.  So that's a total of less than a yard.  I'm surprised I bought so little fabric.

I did make a few other purchases at the show.  I bought a couple of Creative Grids rulers.  I'd like to slowly replace my existing rulers with these, because I think they're so much easier to use.  Of course, the key words are slowly replace.  These rulers are definitely not cheap!  It was almost $40 for just the two.  If anyone knows of a great place to purchase these online, please let me know...

New Creative Grids rulers

I also picked up a few more purse stabilizers.  These are great for the bottoms of bags, much sturdier than using cardboard.  I do plan to make some more bags/purses in the future, although I don't know when I'll get around to it.

Bag bottoms

My big purchase during the show was some thread.  They had a great deal on So Fine thread.  I like to use this when I'm quilting on my frame.  I also picked up the color charts to order more if I need it.

New threads for the quilting frame

I did have a great time at the show, but I was surprised by a few things.  Most of what I was looking for, they didn't have this time.  There were tons of Fqs and lots of Civil War and novelty fabrics.  There were very few Charm Packs, Jelly Rolls or Layer Cakes and most of those were older lines of fabric.  Fabric prices were also much higher, which I did expect.  The cheapest I saw FQs for was $2.85.  I had hoped to pick up some of the Blueberry Crumb Cake or Rouenneries Deux  fabric, but didn't see a scrap of it there to purchase.  But like I said earlier, there were some gorgeous quilts!

So back to the Stash Report...
Purchased-this-week: .75 yards
Used-this-week: 0 yards
Purchased-to-date: 5.5 yards
Used-to-date: 17.5  yards
Net used: 12 yards

I'm still hopeful that I can finish my Schnibbles quilt by the end of this month, but I'll have to work on it a lot over the next couple of days.  We'll see if it works out or not.

By the way, Mr. Quilting Bug is quickly recovering from his cold and poor Gabriel is also on the mend.  Although she still looks pitiful, she no longer has the screaming meemies...

Gabriel, recovering from her tummy bug

Until later...

Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. 

Psalm 105:1 (NLT)