How to Spend $50

Earlier this week I told my BIL I would help him out and process one of our closed databases and create the quarterly reports for him. His department is way behind the production calendar and these reports are ones that I've been doing for 13 years. Since the work was recently passed to his department it would take someone twice as long as it would take me to do them and they simply didn't have the time. To show his appreciation he gave me a $50 gift cheque. How nice of him.

So what's a girl supposed to do except go fabric shopping with extra money? So, that's what I did today. My first stop this morning was at Staples. Last weekend I ordered an A-4 binder from Unikeep for holding my Butterfly Garden patterns. Unikeep binders are great. Unlike binders that close depending on how much paper is inside, these binders act like small boxes. They sit on a shelf like books and aren't awkward at all. I have a whole collection of them in various sizes that I use to store projects, patterns and my class printouts from Quilt University. Anyway, I went to Staples hoping they could 4-hole punch the patterns so I could keep them in the binder. No luck. They don't have a 4-hole punch. Too bad! I'll try one other print shop in town to see if they can punch the patterns for me.
From Staples I went to the fabric store that is close to my office. This store carries batiks, Laurel Burch and Kaffe Kasset fabrics. I seldom find any fabric I like in there, but they were having a sale so I thought I'd check it out. I wasn't finding any fabric and then I remembered why I really don't like to shop there - they tear their fabric. I hate the sound of fabric tearing, sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. However, I did find a 30 x 108 inch remnant of 300 count off-white cotton sateen for $8.50. This fabric will be great for stitcheries. It is super soft and I can't wait to get started on a new project with it.

From there I went to Marden's Surplus. For those who do not know about Marden's they have an absolutely stunning fabric department. They carry quilt shop quality fabric - Thimbleberries, Moda, and batiks. But, the prices start at $2.99 a yard! Yup, you read that right, $2.99 a yard. Plus they generously cut the fabric. If you ask for a yard, you generally get a yard plus 5 - 6 inches extra. If you buy what's on the bolt you get an extra 10% off. It took me 45 minutes, but I chose the five fabrics below for my Butterfly Garden quilt. I will probably add some of the fabrics in my previous post as I go along in making the quilt. The floral prints are the same design, but since no piece in the quilt is larger than 4 inches finished I don't think it will be a problem. The green piece is an example of the generous cuts they do at Marden's. I asked for a yard, but the piece on the bolt was nearly two yards so she gave the piece to me for the price of one yard - $2.99!

After Marden's I still had $25 left of the gift cheque so I decided to stop at the LQS not far from my house. I didn't find any fabric jumping off the shelves into my arms. However, Eleanor Burns Fussy Cut Trio rulers did find their way into my hands. These will come in handy making this quilt and I'm sure many other quilts someday.

On Thursday I also received my Presencia threads for making this quilt. Aren't the colors yummy? Besides the 5 grams balls I also received a skein of matching floss for each color. I would take the time to wind the floss onto floss cards, but my empty floss cards are currently packed away.
I guess I should stop planning this quilt and start making this quilt, huh? Too bad football play-offs are on now. I doubt I'll find my way back into my sewing room until tomorrow morning.