Sore Feet and Empty Wallet

Did you a hear a thud out there in blog land?  Feel the ground shake a little?  Hear the rattle of cups and saucers in your cupboards?  That was me, falling off the no-buy-fabric wagon.

And Wowee did it feel great!

I haven't bought a smidge of fabric in over a year, so I felt dizzy and giddy in the fabric stores (yes, plural). I had noticed I had little yellow and orange in my stash, during my recent reorganization. I've grown very fond of the sunshine colours in the past couple of years - it takes so little of it to brighten up a quilt. And I found the turquoise fabric in the sale bin, so bought the last of it - almost 5 metres.  I came home with 12.5 metres and none of it floral! If you poked around in my fabrics for a while, you'd understand how remarkable that is.

So, I haven't trimmed any HSTs today and I haven't touched the 9 patches.  I had to shimmy past the crumb quilt hanging in the doorway of my bedroom to get down the hall with my purchases.  I hung the quilt top there as an reminder and insentive to finish putting together the backing and binding.

I pieced the last of the crumb blocks into a strip with some blue fabric to add to the backing and found two fabrics in stash to piece together in strips for the backing.  I've had both of these forever and being able to get rid of them in a backing is exciting.  I'll still have enough of the solid colonial blue to back another quilt, unfortunately.

We went to Walmart today.  I haven't been to Walmart since they stopped selling fabric and batting and am not likely to return any time soon.  I picked up a ball of cotton knitting yarn to make some new dish cloths and two larger crochet hooks - the big one because I've been tempted to try crocheting fabric strips to make a rag rug.  It's just a thought....

I found a 10 metre bundle of irregular white flannel on sale for $2 per metre.

A quilter on the Stashbuster Yahoo Group recently posted that she had used flannel as a quilt batting for a light-weight summer quilt. At $2 per metre, I thought it definitely worth a try. It's a freaking mystery to me how quilt batting can have nearly doubled in price, at the same time as our dollar has climbed to par with the US dollar..... can anyone say gouge?

Queen size batts are now $70. Ouch! Luckily I still have some batting from my purchase of an entire bolt (at a half price sale). I'm eager to try the flannel. Even if I find it too thin and have to use two layers, it's a bargain at the price. I've been advised to wash it in hot water and dry it at high heat a couple of times before using it in a quilt.

My feet are aching and I'm still full from brunch (ten hours after eating).  I may just go through some quilt magazines from the relative comfort of my chair and get back to sewing tomorrow.