more fabric store rantings

Okay so now they're saying "there's nothing close to me."

And then I search for them and find out there's 41 quilt stores in a state the size of New Jersey they can't drive to because "it's too far."

Don't people drive in those little tiny eastern states? Is 30 minutes so excessively far you can't go by yourself?

Hell, I drive 10 miles *one way* just for GAS!! I drive 96 miles *one way* to go to my quilt guild meetings and to sew for the afternoon with friends.

Sad, sad, sad, the ways people will put limitations on themselves and then turn around and whine about it.

controversial views

Apparently I hold some rather controversial views on fabric buying. I expressed surprise at how many people list walmart as a fabric source on a message board and got the standard "it's all I can afford" and "it's the only place within spitting distance" whines in return. I call bullshit. Every LQS puts fabric on sale and this isn't the horse and buggy days, you can drive farther than 10 minutes to get to a store.

I bought fabric for 3.50 a yard friday at a LQS. That's very affordable. Anybody that's posting on a message board is also perfectly capable of buying fabric online. I have bought fabric as low as 3.75 a yard online. And you don't even have to have a credit or debit card for most of the places. You can send them a check or money order.

Bullshit I say.

They say they don't need the quilt snobs telling them otherwise. I say they're shooting themselves in the foot buying fabric at walmart. Walmart demands its manufacturers lower their price by 10% every year. Once you've offshored the manufacturing to some country you can get away with 10 cent an hour wages the only way to lower costs is to start lowering the cost of the goods. That means cheaper quality griege goods and cheaper dyes. Then you lower the quality of the printing process. When the manufacturer has lowered the cost as far as possible then walmart just stops buying from them and finds a new manufacturer in another country that can pay 5 cents an hour and starts all over.

People will put their own neighbors and friends out of work just to buy cheap Chinese goods and then turn around and complain they can't afford anything else when their own good jobs left for China.

Yeah, I know it's controversial and an unpopular view. But ya know, I don't care. If everybody cared more about where their goods came from than how cheap they could get it this country would likely be a whole lot better off. Walmart has not done this country on any other country any good. If anything it has seriously hurt this country.

I've lived in poverty. Don't tell me "I can't" I know better.

Quilt class rebel

I belong to this big guild that only meets four times a year. The class in October is the Orion Star. The quilt shop owner here is giving the class. She wants everybody to purchase a $200.00 kit to take the class. But, the colors are UGLY. Or at least I think so. So I told her I would take the class but I want pink, yellow and orange. She said she would see if she could pull the fabric off the shelf in those colors. The off the shelf kit would include the backing fabric but it would still be $200. But. But. Even if I had to buy all the fat quarters at 2.50 that's still only 70 bucks and I know I can get quality backing fabric for a really reasonable price.





So, that means she's charging each person at least a $100 bucks for a class fee. I don't know about you all but that seems pretty excessive to me. Especially considering I took two classes from a national quilt teacher in April for $60 total for both classes. And this class is a sew on this line, cut on that line, remove paper class.



She called me back the other day because her store is never open and you have to call and make an appointment to shop there. When I called I didn't get an answer and I'm not driving all the way over there if she's not going to be there. So, when she called me back I told her I had taken a look at the fabric in my stash and I would rather make the quilt from my fabric stash and for her to figure out how much to charge me for the pattern and the Thangles and a class charge. She said she thought she could do that. I'm not paying more than 40 bucks. I don't mind people making a profit but I think she's gouging people.



Then two days later at the other guild meeting she totally ignored me.




I pulled these from my stash. I need one more orange. I have a couple I can still choose from if I can't find one that goes in this range better. The fabric they're sitting on will be the main border and there's an orange and a pink that I have enough of for an inner border and the binding. I *know* she doesn't have near the selection in these colors in her store that I have right in my own stash.

scraps happen

And happen and happen and happen. I've got a three drawer cart crammed full of scraps. That's the biggest problem, it's crammed. Just any old way.

So my next project is to dump it all out and at least sort by color. That way when I look for the perfect yellow to make a sunflower I don't have to dig thru all three drawers! And then I'll quit just stuffing the scraps in there.

While I sort I'll cut 5 inch and 4 inch squares for a scrap quilt for a great niece. I make a square in a square block and they're sashed in black. I have one started for a great niece and then she had a baby sister so now I need two of them. These two will be #7 & #8 of these quilts I've made. Everybody keeps having girls. The one in the pic isn't as pink as the first few I made. I'll make sure I get more pink, yellow, orange and purple in the next two.

Oh and I have the August "Year in a Snap" block done finally! I may go ahead and get the rest of the blocks done before I quilt them since I have a month and a half to go before I need to have the August block ready to hang. Plus that gives me time to go thru the scrap bins. That way I can find what I'm looking for for the next 4 blocks.

Do something with this shirt!!

This is the wall hanging I made for my father in law. My mother in law said "do something with this shirt and I'll pay you for it." It took me a while to figure out something to do with it but once I did it didn't take long to make the wall hanging. I'm really happy with the way it came out.

SAD

No, I'm not unhappy. That's Seasonal Affective Disorder. Most people think of winter depression when they hear the term SAD. A small percentage of the population suffers from summer SAD. Summer SAD is insomnia due to too much sunlight. I just read about a study they did in some northern latitude countries on suicide rates. They go UP in the summer. It's all that midnight sun that keeps people awake.

I've come to think of it as nap season. I really can't take drugs for the most part, I'm either waaaaaaay too sensitive or allergic to everything for that. I can at least nap during the day when the light level stays the same. If I can go to sleep in the afternoon then I can take a half decent nap. My room is very dark even during the day so that helps some.

Needless to say I don't get as much done during the couple of months of nap season. The worst is from about the end of May until the middle of August or so.

I live for fall.

a quilt show! plus! bonus!

I went to the quilt show in Denver a week ago. Oh my!! Loads of totally cool quilts and awesome work! I fogot my camera so you'll just have to take my word. One of the coolest quilts was a Judge's Choice winner. It was called "Bouncing Bubbles." It was the simplest "turning 20" type of pattern done in vibrant colors. It was what she did with the quilting and embellishing that made it a real stand out. As suggested by the name the quilting was circles. There were about three sizes of circles over the quilt and she did something different in each circle and then embellished with hot fuse crystals and beads. Oh so cool! I suppose I should also tell you about the best of show. It was an appliqued scene of a bridge over a stream with trees and rocks and such. What made it so outstanding was the size of the applique pieces and the style it was done in. Most of the pieces were about half the size of a regular postage stamp and they were irregular in shape then they were individually raw edge appliqued and it was multi layered to give it tons of depth. Plus she got the perspective exactly right and her water was flat.


Plus! Bonus! I got to hang with my bff. She really is a bff. (that's a best friend forever for all you non texters)


We've been thru a wide range of crafting and needlework together over the years. I finally settled on quilts and she's gone off in a whole new direction building doll houses. Or rather miniature houses. They're soooooo cool!! It's a good thing too, her macrame always looked like something the cat hacked up and her crochet squares always ended up sort of triangular. Her doll houses are perfect though and she does "dressed beds" that are just to die for gorgeous! She adds silk embroidery pillows to some of the beds for a real special touch.


I have one of her earliest doll houses. It's called the Lilly. She "bashed" it for me and turned it into a New Orleans French Quarter style house. Bashing means she changed it from it's original style. Originally the balcony was just a roof and it didn't have French doors and it didn't have that ultra cool back screen door. My Lilly lives in the middle 1930s.




I brought home another doll house. This one is the Laurel and it's done in a midwest farm house style. It's going to live in the middle 1950s. You can check out some of her work on her blog. It's over there ----> in the blog list, Deb's minis. She's done some seriously cool work.