Nothing Heals the Soul like Discounted Retail Therapy

If my husband really knew what I do during the day, he'd go to his grave. With great dreams of making up several quilt tops in the next 4-8 weeks, I decided I needed to acquire a little fabric. In all reality, I probably didn't "need" to, but I discovered a fantastic online shop, and couldn't resist. Four days later, I had eighteen new yards of yumminess. Best of all, none of it was over $3.50/yard! If you have never visited Whittles, it's worth your time. The Beach fabrics I bought were not from there, and were not quite as good of a deal, but I was so tickled to find the Friendship by the Sea prints that $7 per yard seemed awesome.

Marcus Alfresco prints

some Freespirit Chocolate Lollipop and Freshcut

(may favorites....) Rowan Carla Miller peacock & other prints and a couple Andover Eden floral/butterfly prints - Lousy picture, but GORGEOUS fabrics

a few stash builders in black & red & whites and a lovely Martha Negley on the end

...and to my "beach" fabrics - some I found locally for $3/yard

The Elizabeth Studios (left) Friendship By the Sea, which are so sweet, will be the essence of a couple picnic/beach blankets I plan to make. The panel below, which I have 2 yards of is also from this line. I found the beachy huts print at Joann's. It's a very nice quality print snagged up at their 40% discount, and coordinates with the other beachy fabrics really well.

Some months ago I won a runner up giveaway from Anna. In May I think, a package arrived, postmarked from Singapore. I was intrigued since I was not expecting anything (the giveaway had been 4-6 months prior). She sent me a bunch of Noah's Ark prints from Debbie Mumm. There were 3-4 fat quarters and 2 lovely panels. Finally (in my quest to move out some novelties, and to make my Project Linus goal of 52 quilts), I pulled out these fabrics and made this.

Now, I am not religious whatsoever, and I don't think that these donated quilts ought to have any religious affiliation either. But I also think that many children can relate to the story of Noah's Ark and appreciate this. Making this quilt also gave me an excuse to try out some great new thread. Lisa sent me a 1200yd spool of thread last month, and I wasn't sure when I'd use it since I didn't have a quilt in blue or gray in the que to be quilted. It came from here. After I quilted the Noah's Ark quilt, and completely loved the thread I searched out where to find more of it. Much to me complete surprise, these spools of thread are only $2 each!. I have been using King Tut (40 wt) and often Coats&Clark 50wt from Joann's, mostly because the latter is easy for me to get whenever I need it. I love the way the King Tut looks, but I sometimes have tension issues on my machine with the 40wt threads, so it becomes a bit of a Love-Hate relationship. Now the Connecting Threads thread is a 40wt, and the variagated is not as nice as the King Tut's in that the colors change every few inches, but I think I could really like quilting with the solid colors, and the price is perfect!

It was kind of sunny when I took this, but here is the back of Noah's quilt...

...On another note...

I should call this the Mis-Adventures in Margaret's Long Arm Quilting.

Last weekend I took 2 flimsies to try quilting on the HQ16, which I may end up purchasing. Before you read further, know that these are LOUD, and not the most lovely of flimsies. THey are total scrappies, with an objective of using up that gosh ugly yellow (actually a Henry Glass) fabric. It is on the back of both quilts too. These will be donation quilts, but they are far from my favorite concoctions.

On this one (actually the 2nd one quilted), I used a clam-shell groovy board. It was definitely harder to get into each point neatly than I thought. There's a closeup next. You can see at some of the points where I did not get them sharp. It actually took longer than the next quilt, which is free quilted. All in all, not too bad though. I guess.

And here was the 1st quilt done on the LA. More icky brown and yellow, and a novelty deer print that I am happy to see go. I free quilted this one, and tried to quilt it similarly to the Noah's Ark quilt so that I could compare them. It turned out pretty well, and was not that hard either. The biggest difference in these 2 quilts and ones done on my machine is how much more taught the backs are. The quilt frame-rack does a very nice job of keeping the backing smooth.

In time I know I will get my curves smoother, but it's not bad for the first try. Now, to wash these three quilts and bag them up for their new owners.
****Giveaway!!!****...of the most awesome kind...

And lastly, since I don't want to decrease my chances of winning this too much, I have posted about it last. Kellie (aka DontLookNow) is giving this away! It is amazing like all of her quilts and pillows. Have a look if you want it in your home. Me...I think it'd look smashing in my daughter's room (or mine!!).