I went to my LQS the other day, armed with a gift certificate I got for Christmas. My LQS is a crazy place. It is a tiny space absolutely CRAMMED sooooo full of fabric, books, fabric, notions, and fabric that two people can barely pass each other in the aisles. Half the merchandise is covered by other merchandise. I love it on a certain level, but it's pretty impractical. Often when I go in there I get seduced by the half price fabrics. The last time I went before this I spent way too much money on 1/2 price Jinny Beyer and Nancy Clark prints that are probably like 10-15 years old. The owner of this shop never gets rid of anything. But with my gift certificate I thought I should indulge in full price fabric, since all regular price fabric was 25% off anyway.
So anyway, shortly after I started looking around I remembered my resolution about buying fabric to fill in holes in my stash. That's a good goal, I just realized that I'm not entirely clear on what the holes REALLY are. I never really know what I need until I'm doing a project that calls for a certain thing and I don't have it. I thought about my list in my resolutions post. I mean yes, greys and oranges are areas of need that I identified a while ago, but I've been buying them for a while so I don't really feel that desperate for them anymore. Chocolate browns I really want and don't have, but the ones I looked at in the shop didn't really strike my fancy. Solids I could probably get a better deal on at a chain shop that sells Kona. And polka dots? Are polka dots really a need??
I hope so, cause that's what I bought. Polka dots, border fabric for one of the soon-to-be-finished tops that was only waiting on border fabric (got fabric for the other one later), and a couple of pieces that I just loved. After all, it was a gift certificate. I have the right to buy SOME stuff just for fun if it's a gift.
Dots. Why do I love them so?
Border fabric on the left, useless multi-color prints that I love*, and Beatrix Potter fabric.
*Not really useless, I suppose, but this is exactly the kind of thing that I am ALWAYS buying and don't need.
I've started cutting and sorting scraps for seven, count 'em seven, scrap quilts. I made a list of scrap projects I want to do, figuring that I could cut several at once. There were too many, so I pared it down to the most essential seven. I don't have my scraps organized in any way, because I enjoy the process of digging through the bin and cutting and sorting when I'm ready to do a project like this. Doing seven at once is going to take a while, but so far I'm enjoying it. I need to clear off the table in the bedroom so that I can leave the cutting project spread out there, rather than putting it all away at the end of every session. The table is intentionally covered in my Texas scrapbook project, because I want to force myself to finish it. It is not a "fancy" scrapbook in any way. There is nary a sticker or a bit of decorative paper to be found. I just want to put pictures and memorabilia into a book in the plainest fastest way, and it's taking me forever. But, wanting to use that table for something else is a pretty good motivator.
3 comments:
I love your new fabrics. Aren't dots on the list of basic needs, right next to chocolate?
Seven scrap quilts is the short list? Wow! Really sounds fun. I'm trying to work up a bunch of scraps for various quilts to stitch up as leaders and enders while I work on other projects. Definitely a good use of fabric, but it takes time to prepare.
If you always buy fabric you love to work with than it will always be a pleasure to look through your stash and find something to do. Who cares about what the pattern calls for--do what you want!
Dots are very versatile additions to most quilts--and they come in such cheery colors for the most part.
I agree with Debra: buy what you love. Anything you find that you need will be there at the store when you need it.
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