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!

adding to the stash (again)

I’m still on a yarn and stash diet. I haven’t fallen off the wagon. My rule was that I could buy any yarn or fabric as long as it had a specific (short term) purpose. There should be no adding to the stash just because I love something, or because it’s on sale.

I have not broken the rules with my most recent purchases.

Firstly, there was this fabric for my niece’s baby’s play quilt. All except the solid are from The Very Hungry Caterpillar range of fabrics.

The left photo is a glimpse of the top which I have finished and the right is the backing fabric (to be used in conjunction with the spots and solid).

The green in this photo is the backing and sashing fabric I have chosen to go with my Christmas Tree embroideries and the waves fabric is to be the backing for a cushion/pillow which I’m making as a gift.

I won these two sweet Japanese fabrics in a give-away on Val’s blog.

Val also included this little handbag charm – how cute! I didn’t see it until I went to take the photos today so a special thank you, Val, and please forgive me for not mentioning it in my email to you.

Carol, at FunThreads, sent me this little package of fabric for the I Spy quilt I plan to make for my grandsons. Thank you so much, Carol. It was very kind of you.

This is Older Grandson’s favourite fabric square.

I’d better move that I Spy quilt up the “to do” list, I think!

As for the yarn, I have purchased only two 100g skeins.

Yes, I know it’s acrylic and I said I wasn’t buying any more acrylic but I have a bag full of acrylic yarn to use up and a great idea in mind, so I purchased these two because they were on sale and because they were colours I didn’t already have in my collection.

I didn't buy this yarn but it is now in my stash. It is 100g of Crazy Zauberball – a yarn for making matching socks becasue two strands of yarn are placed alongside each other and dyed together -- giving a perfect match!

This was the prize for the most popular item in the One Skein Challenge at our knitters’ guild meeting last month. Thanks to all the members who voted for my Extended Swallowtail Shawl.

Time to get back to those WIPs  that I mentioned in my last post! One is now finished so there should be a celebratory post soon!

this, that and a winner!

Just some bullet points today -- a little bit of this and that!

• Today DD and I are going to attempt to do some practice on the quilting frame. Thanks to all the readers who wrote tips and advice for us - we have taken it all into consideration and will let you know how we go this time.

• The last of the twenty five blocks that DD and I sent to Jan Mac at Oz Comfort Quilts last month have been used in the quilt shown below. The block on the bottom right and the the block two above it were made by either DD or I.

photo borrowed from http://ozcomfortquilts.blogspot.com/2011/11/time-for-three.html

• The winner of the three novels by Claire Donohue is

... Sana Saroti!

Congratulations Sana -- please let me have your postal address and I'll get them into the post as soon as possible next week.

• And I'll finish with another fabulous quote I've taken from Bonnie Hunter's website.

yarny gifts

Back in September, I was supposed to tutor a workshop on knitting socks from the toe up. It didn't happen because I was sick. A very dear non-blogging friend, D., was going to assist me with the workshop. She always has socks on the needles and normally knits her socks cuff down but she is willing to give other methods a try.

We met a couple of weeks before the date of the workshop to talk and to correct any mistakes in my sample pattern (which D. had test knitted). That day, D. realised that I did not have any hand knitted socks of my own.

A few days later these arrived in the post. They are Nanner Socks from "wendyknits" and the yarn is Julie Spins Superwash Merino (colour: Pickle). Unfortunately the socks were too small; I couldn't easily get them on over my heel. But I was very grateful to be the owner of such gorgeous, beautifully knitted socks.
About a week later, another parcel arrived from D. Inside were these socks in my favourite colour. They are Simple Socks by Cat Bordhi knitted cuff down in Hedgehog Sock yarn (colour: Hush). Before the weather got too warm for socks, I wore them on several occasions.

I am very blessed to have such a wonderful and generous friend. Thank you, D.

On top of that, Sally, who blogs at PomPom, celebrated her 2000th post with a give away. I didn't write the 2000th comment but apparently I am the person who has commented the most so I also won a prize. Thank you, Sally.

Some yarn-y goodness arrived at my place a couple of days ago -- sock yarn made in Germany by Schoppel Wolle. Sally wrote that she has never seen this yarn in Australia, so I can only assume she bought it on a recent trip to England. Looking at the packaging, I think the colour way is called Sputnik Welle (which translates, according to Bing, as "Sputnik Wave"). It is 100g of very soft hand-dyed yarn -- two strands dyed together to get identical socks. The packaging even comes with instructions to unwind the two strands without getting into a tangle! How cool is that?

spring fever / book give away

Thirty four years of marriage and twenty years living in the same place means an accumulation of clutter! Unfortunately, more "things" keep coming in and the walls are not made of elastic!

In an effort to find an indoor home (that is not the garage) for my quilting frame, WM and I have been "spring cleaning" or, more truly, de-cluttering. We have emptied cupboards and wardrobes, thrown away, given away and tidied away!

And still we're nowhere near done!

...and no closer to finding a permanent home (at this address) for the quilting frame.

But at least I have a tidy linen closet, and most of my yarn is now in the same room - even in the same wardrobe!

In the spirit of de-cluttering, and because I believe in passing on my good fortune, I am offering you the chance to own three books by Claire O'Donahue.

Basically they are murder mysteries set in a small town in New York State. The central characters are Nell and her grandmother, Eleanor, who owns the local patchwork shop "Someday Quilts".

I won these books in a giveaway on Cindy's blog. I have read and enjoyed them and now it's time for them to find a new home. If you would like them (international readers welcome), please leave a comment on this post. I will use the random generator to pick a winner on Monday 7th November (Australian Eastern Summer Time).

Good luck.

Friday Night Knitting Clubgive away

Several month ago, Carol from Pins and Needles sent me this book. I put off reading it for several months - it was to have been my reward for achieving a certain goal. I have not achieved the goal but have recently finished reading the book.

If you have not read it and would like to, please leave a comment on this post before the end of the month and I will mail it to you. If more than one person requests to book, I will do the democratic thing and pull a name out of a hat at random.