Cleaning Up

Yesterday I went to Hamilton to shop with my quilty friend C - we hit the fabric district cause I'm looking for drapes. I found something I liked - it was $8 more a meter at Fabricland than at the textile place - so I'll be purchasing it at the textile store. I don't have a picture of it handy though.

Then we hit a new quilt store called "Needlework". It was cute and had a lot of character and not a lot of inventory. What you see on the website is what you get.

Finally we hit Ann's - a store that sells almost all stretch fabric for dance/skating costumes. C purchased some fabric there to create something for a friend and I picked up a little stretch lace.

All in all, a good day.

Today I've been doing the  housework house blessings jobs. After the main floor was tackled, I moved up to the sewing room.

These are the befores:

from the door

from the door

from the sewing table

the floor

Then I started cleaning and putting away. You'll have to wait a day or two for the reveal.
Now that I see these photos again, I have to run over to see if it looks any better after an hour or two of cleaning/tidying: yep, better but not yet done.

It was a slow sewing week

I had a super busy week last week with work and life stuff. This week should be better and I'm really looking forward to Easter weekend.

I finished up I10 tonight. At first it was a frightening combination of paper/foundation piecing and applique - I was brave and it turned out great.

It's all that's on the design wall this week:

I10

My quilt guild is having a show in May and I really want to put something in. I'm going to take a stab at finishing the red and white Hunter's Star. This weekend will be the deciding factor in timing I think.

Wish me luck!

p.s.  I'm hooking up to Patchworktimes for Design Wall Monday.

Monday - Design Wall Update

This time last week I was on vacation, enjoying the sun and warmth. Today I was huddled by the fireplace and it's snowing - winter's not over in Ontario yet.

I sewed one block since last week - B12.

B12

the Dear Jane part of the design wall - 1 more block done

the whole design wall - no progress on the snowmen this week

I'm linking up to Patchworktimes to see what everyone else got done. Wonder who else was on spring break last week?

A & E Pharmacy, fabric, and appliace store

Today I went to the store the Martelli lady recommended. It's called A & E Pharmacy and doesn't have a website, so I was a little leery.

They have a lot of fabric! and most if it's on sale - sort of. I think it was definitely worth the visit. Here's some photos:



Kaffe Fasset / Amy Butler wall




I think this is Kate Spain




or maybe this is




the Kona solids section - they might just have every colour

 I need some notes for myself:
-everything brought in in the years before 2010 was 50% off
-everything from 2011-2012 was 20% off
but, there were a lot of restrictions - mostly everything I would want.
A lot of the fabric is a little dated - the newest things I could find were pearl bracelet and some Seuss - for sure the Seuss is restricted in the sale.
They won't cut fat 1/4s either - only skinny quarters or larger.

It's comparable at home to a Len's Mills store - the prices are decent but the stock a little dated.

I didn't buy anything. They didn't have what I really wanted and I'm not stash building right now. Everything I look at now looks like something else I need for my house - new floors, a new chimney, the garden, and so on - takes some of the joy out of shopping.

If I'm down here again I'd stop in again though - it's always worth a look.

Vacation Shopping

Today I hit a new store  - I thought it was a fabric store, but that's not what they really sell. It was the Martelli store and they sell their own line of rotary cutters, mats, and rulers. I was thrown off when I walked into the store and was asked if I knew about their products - I said no. Then someone came out to give me a full demonstration.
I'm sold - bought a cutter and blades. The cutters are supposed to allow you to be more accurate and I think will reduce cutting fatigue because it uses different muscles than the usual ones.

the rotary cutter and pack of 5 blades

close up of the package

I think I saw these people demonstrating at the Sewing Show last Spring. I'll let you know how it goes.

Tomorrow (or the next day) I'm going to a quilt shop called A & E Pharmacy - that's not a typo. The owner of Martelli Notions told me to go there. There is no website but I found a blog review.  There is one other place I might try - Magnolia Quilt Company - but it's a bit of a drive and there's no website and I haven't been able to find an online review either.

I hit Joann's today but nothing there that I wanted to buy.

Design Wall Monday

Here's what's up there today (well, actually on Sunday night):

Mar 3

Two of the four snowman are appliqued in the top piece - this is for  my Under the Stars quilt.
The bottom two pieces are this month's Dear Jane blocks started - I have 11 to do this month in total. We have to do 11 a month now so that we're finished piecing by the end of 2013.

I'm linking up to PatchworkTimes - check out what everyone is working on there.

More Dear Jane

I got to spend some time today sewing. I think I'm over half way sewing the square blocks for Dear Jane (there are 169 total) - there are 52 triangles and I don't remember how many of them are finished. My total number of pieces so far: 2235. That sounds like a lot more than I thought I'd sewn.

A10 - looks a little lopsided in the picture

D9 - successfully paper pieced