Black Friday, Blue Skies, and Red Wine

This year, I had a wonderful Black Friday. My mother, Liam and I drove down to the Waterloo Premium Outlets and shopped for the deals of deals. We lightened our purses considerably (purchased a few purses) and had a very good time.

We spent the night in Geneva on the lake at a very pretty hotel. We took Liam for his first swim in a pool and thoroughly relaxed, dined, laughed and enjoyed ourselves. We didn't do a lot of waiting in lines and we just tried to enjoy the beautiful sunny day we were blessed with.

On Saturday, after room service (so fun) we made our way to Joann's for the shorter lines. I found some really adorable fabric and added quite a bit to my stash. For the first time in a long time I didn't even look through the remnants bin, I just bought what I wanted.

I'm not sure if the crosswords or the Eiffel towers are my favorite but they both called to me from the shelves!

I cannot tell you why but I loved this Rooster fabric, love, love, love!

And I thought this fruit was pretty darn cute too!

Someone very special has a mother who clipped this pillow (also pictured below) out of a magazine and requested one if I found some free time. As I've said before, there's nothing I like more than requests.

So while I was in Joann's I picked up some very adorable fabric and mesh. I heard that the very special someone is very interested in dinosaurs as of late. So once I get these Christmas Tree skirts out of the way, I will whip up this pillow and get it in the mail for Christmas. I'm pretty sure my little brother Matthew would appreciate one of these as well.

And lastly, I purchased some fabric for potholders, (again by request) how wonderful! I've only ever made one but I can't imagine they should be that difficult, only time will tell.

I also purchased Insul-Bright, which is the special lining that goes inside of potholders and provides more of a buffer against heat. The instructions suggest including a layer of Warm and White batting to absorb any moisture. I am slightly unsure as to where the regular batting would go in an oven mitt? Should I put it inbetween the fabric and Insul-Bright or inbetween the Insul-Bright and inside of the mitt? Anyone have experience with this?

Weekend Purchases

There is something about remnants that I just can't ignore. I love them, I buy them whenever I find them, no matter how different, interesting, unique, colorful or dull. I have a true love-affair with fabric and I'm ok with it!

I love Remnants because they are:

1. usually 50% off,

2. just enough fabric without being too much,

3. usually something I wouldn't normally buy,

4. and always leftovers of what someone else thought was pretty or useful.

For all of those reasons they make a perfect addition to my stash!

Remember my last fabric purchase? I bought nearly 19 yards, this time, I've expanded to 23. I just can't help myself, I found the only fabric shop in the country where NO ONE goes there to buy remnants. I can literally just venture there once a month and walk out with over 30 100% cotton 1/2 yard pieces of fabric half-price.

So I purchased these...

and these...

and then fell in love with this fabric...

So I bought fabric inspired by it, to make a fall quilt around it.

Now that all the fabric is washed, dried, ironed and folded it can be put away and I can concentrate on more important things; like cutting into my new fall fabric and making a fabulously festive quilt!

Still Busy

As the summer winds down my weekends definitely haven't. My husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on the 5th of September. We had a wonderful time although I spent very little time doing anything crafty.

So this last weekend I buckled down and tried really hard, well sort of. My intentions were pure, my enthusiasm was present, my thoughts were in order... but so were my friends! And therefore, I accomplished very little aside from eating pizza, watching football and hanging out.

To continue the fun, today was my first day of work at a new job!

So, despite all the events I've attended and the very little bit of quilting I have done, I did manage to go fabric shopping. I guess you can say I had a little bit of pent up shopping energy.

I found some really pretty seasonal fabric.

And a bit more and some pink.

And some very adorable black, grey and white numbers.

As well as some very pretty blue and green fabric.

Now, the only problem is finding something to make.

I saw these in a store while I was on vacation, I thought they were absolutely adorable! I'm pretty sure I could make these, no problem.

I have also received a request for some superman inspired quilts for twin boys. I believe they are around 2-3 years old. I went shopping the other day for some superman fabric and this was the only pattern I could find, not in flannel. It seemed a bit violent for the recipients, or maybe it's just me?

I was hoping for something with a little less fighting going on, I feel like this is gang superman fabric with the graffiti lettering and such... the search continues!

If you find any please send me the links, I'm looking for something a little bit more adorable than the above!

Yardsale

Don't you just love yardsales? I absolutely do! Most of the time there is nothing worth the dollar, but then sometimes you get REALLY lucky!

Last weekend I went to five yardsales, they were all horrible. Everything was overpriced and far from good condition, so I finally gave up searching and went home. Then to my surprise, my next door neighbor was having a yard sale and the deals were phenomenal!

I got this chair for $3, it can easily be recovered if necessary or left as is, I LOVE the polka dots!
For some reason, Daisy doesn't like to be left out of a photo opportunity.

I know you're asking, "Do I have kids?" Nope, but maybe someday, so in the interim this will sit in my closet. $3 is $3 whether you have a child or not. Besides, my cat does think it is a fun place to sleep.

Did I mention that it's a rocking chair... soooo cute!

And last, since this is a quilting blog, I found a sewing machine. It is not in pristine condition, but absolutely worth $5. I turned it on, it works beautifully and comes with a few different feet.

I will probably use this when guests come over and we have duel crafting projects, I can think of a few times when this would have been handy to have around the house. It did not come with a manual so it's a good thing I'm mechanically inclined, seems to work a lot like my Kenmore.

Yes, there were other purchases as well. I also purchased some life jackets for a dollar a piece in pretty good condition. We have a boat, which I often refer to as the "bucket of aluminum" in our garage, lol.

Overall, the best $12 I've spent in a long time!