starting the New Year in the right way

How?
By adding to the stash, of course!

Last week, I visited the Big Box Store (not the real name of the store; it’s a crafts and home-wares chain store) to buy some fabric to bind Dotty Bright. While there, I found myself in the yarn department and picked up a couple of bargains that weren’t advertised in the catalogue (they were specials in this store only).

Let me explain: The store had some yarn they wanted to clear so they marked it down to clearance prices. It wasn’t moving quickly enough, so a sign on the table advertised 50% off the clearance prices!

So here are my purchases:

Firstly, sock yarn (as if I needed any more!): I don’t have these two colourways and at $2.50 for 100g I couldn’t resist! This particular yarn, at full price, is $11.99 for 100g.

And no, I’m no trying to brag; I want overseas readers to understand how much we pay for craft materials here. Remember, this is a chain store with discount prices, sock yarn at my local LYS starts at $24.99 a ball!

Secondly, what I consider my bargain of the month – not only was it heavily discounted, but the sale yarn included my favourite colour!

It’s a 90/10 blend of cotton/silk. It was marked down to $3.00 a ball and to clear it out, they were taking another 50% off. Twenty balls (all in the same dye lot) for $30.00 – what a bargain!

On Saturday I returned to the store. This time I had DD with me. It’s a rare treat for her to get out without the boys so she made the most of it. I could say it was all her fault but it wasn’t really; I had already made up my mind what to buy before I got there.

Before I go any further, overseas readers probably need to know that fabric in this chain store normally starts at $12.99 a metre, and in Australian quilt stores, fabric starts at $24.99 a metre. (Just take a moment to absorb that…     Okay, you can resume normal breathing now!)

So you can understand that when I say “bargain”, I mean BARGAIN (sorry for shouting)!

I bought three metres of each of these fabrics for $4.00 a metre (yes you read that correctly!) That amounts to a discount of 67%-75%!

These fabrics were purchased with the intention of using them as backings. I’ve used the top one already! (yes, that means there's quilting in progress but that's another post)

And I bought at least two metres of each of these solids. The normal price of homespun in this store is $6.99 a metre – at $4.89 a metre it seemed like a good time to stock up. (What’s that? How much is homespun in LQS? Oh, $14.99 a metre! Do I need to remind you to breathe again?)

Navy, Natural, Black, Sand, Petunia, Grass Green, Chestnut, White, Fig, Iron, Regatta Blue

 This fabric was bought for sashing and binding.

DD found these two fabrics in the remnant bin and somehow they found their way into my purchases. The one on the left is homespun, more reddish than shown here. The one on the right is flannelette.


And finally I bought this fabric to make a quilted tablecloth for our new glass topped (outdoor) table. There is enough there to make a couple of placemats for when there is only WM and I.


And, it doesn't stop there: I won these eight fat quarters from a give-away late last year on Wish Upon a Star blog.

Thanks Mrs A! I don’t know what I’ll do with them but I’m sure I’ll think of something!

So, I guess I’d better get sewing!