Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Category Archives: Shopping

A Whirlwind Trip

April 16, 2023 10:09 pm ⋅

Last Thursday morning my SIL and I headed off to the Kansas City metro area.  The occasion?  The start of Hunter Quilt Marts Customer Appreciation sale where everything in the store is 25% off. (I’m not sure is that is true for sewing machines and longarms).  I was in need of quilt batting.  I’m down to about 9 yards on my king roll and maybe 9 yards on my queen roll.

After 12 hours switching off the driving every few hours we arrived at my brother’s just outside of Ottawa (KS).  We visited that evening and Friday morning. We then headed toward the city where I visited with a friend from my previous guild for a few minutes — she was holding some quilt books for me (will do a post on those books) and we did another small task that I cannot do here in Mississippi. Then we kept driving north to St Joseph (MO) where we visited with my sister who had quilts I had purchased from a guild members estate via proxy. We spent the night, heading to bed early so we could get to Hunters Quilt Mart in Centerview (MO).

The goal was to get there by 10:15 or so because we wanted to leave by Noon so we could get to another shop before they closed.  We got there at 10:45.  Oops.

We both had lists.  Ruby started with her notions and notions she remembered from my list.  I headed to the thread.

All of these are Glide 40wt thread which stitches beautifully with no tension issues.  Cool Gray 7, Mercury, Biscotti, Magic Mint, Grape, Salmon, Strawberry Blonde, and Yellow Whisper. All of these are replacement cones except for Salmon and Yellow Whisper.

As for the notions, I picked up needles for the longarm, an 8″ rotating mat, a Hot Ruler, a tube of bobbins, 2 backlash springs for my bobbin case, a new ruler and small snips.  The small snips were not on my list.  They did not have the Brother bobbins for my sewing machine in stock, but now I know exactly what I’m looking for.

That just left backings – not that any of these quilts are finished (or started in some cases).  At the top left is the backing for my Quartered Squared quilt which I haven’t started. In the middle is the backing for Cascade which clearly hasn’t been started.  At the top right is the backing for my Rivanna which is my current leader/ender project. I have just over half of the HST made for it.   That’s the left over FQs sitting on top of it.  At the bottom is the backing for Star Studded, a BOM I started in 2019.  It turns out I only have to made the center star and assemble it.

Although the batiks were calling to me, I remained strong and stopped shopping.  We checked out, stopped by the batting and told them what we bought and headed to the car to unload it so we could load the batting.  A Honda CRV has more cargo room than my Nissan Cube.  The same amount of batting was brought home, but I had plenty of leg room this year and there were 2 us in the car!

Where we went next later this week.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in: books, Cascade, Longarm, notions, Rivanna, shopping, Star Studded

San Antonio Shopping

February 1, 2023 2:28 pm ⋅

Last week I was in San Antonio, so naturally I needed to visit the quilt shops – even though I didn’t need anything.

The first shop was Mesquite Bean Fabrics.  I stayed strong, but my sister did buy the fabric shown above so I can complete this quilt.

The 2nd stop was Las Colchas – Quilt Shop. It is housed in an Sears Craftsman house. The ladies were very friendly, but I still was staying strong and didn’t buy anything.

Thursday afternoon, we hit 3 more shops. At the new Grome’s Sewing Machine Shop in Universal City, batiks were 50% off, patterns 30% off and the clearance fabric was 30% off.  I succumbed and bought a yard from clearance and a yard of batik (top left corner) and the Harrison Shirt pattern.

Then we drove out to McQueeney and stopped in at Fiberworx Fabric Studio.  We found wonderful neutrals (the pile in the middle back) so bought 6 half-yard cuts and split them when we got back to San Antonio.  I also picked up 2 sets of 1/2″ magnets for a project I have planned.

We then had to make a decision — head to New Braunfels or continue east to Luling.  We ended up at HollyDee Quilts at Luling, which was my downfall.  I was born in Texas and lived there until I finished 7th grade, I then moved back and spent another 8 or 9 years there as an adult so, I have a fondness of Bluebonnets.  I bought the 2022 Bluebonnet Shop Hop kit (bundle in top left), a FQ of Texas wildflowers, and a Bluebonnet pattern. My sister picked up several of the Villa Rosa Design pattern cards and needed  2 more for a bundle price and I picked Bohemia and another, which I’ve given to my sister-in-law.

Saturday, I did make it to The Quilt Haus at New Braunfels, but held strong in not buying fabric.

All of the shops had fabric I hadn’t seen here in Mississippi, but I was watching my pocket book and luggage space.

 

Posted in: shopping

What Happens at Retreat…

June 24, 2014 1:45 am ⋅

roadtripfabric

 

There’s a saying “What Happens at Retreat Stays at Retreat”.  Due to the projects I was working on I can’t show anything yet. But it was all not sewing. There was the shopping.

Starting at the bottom center and working clockwise:  Several Kansas Troubles Patterns, a 20 piece charm pack of KTQ lights, a spool of thread that works well with KTQ fabrics, 9 – F8 of KTQ fabrics a stack of KTQ scraps, Perfect Circles (the smaller ones), a light FQ, backing for a secret project, a yard of a cool cat/music fabric, a FQ of a music/Halloween fabric, fabric that I’m not using for the secret project and fabric to make a tie for my husband.  I just realized that I don’t have the ruler that I bought in the picture. Oh well.

I sewed, completing a quilt top start to finish with only one sewing mistake and one cutting error. Then I started working on Jared Takes a Wife with the intention of finishing it. Either I can’t count, or I simply didn’t finish cutting the cornerstones for the quilt because I came up 10 short.  As I worked on these two projects my leader/ender was the 4-patches for the border of Candy Sunflower Seeds. By the time I realized I couldn’t finish JTAW, I was too tired to think through finishing Candy Sunflower Seeds.

So naturally, I pulled out my applique project. It was pretty straight forward. Cut along the dotted line – so to speak – and then fuse into place. At that point I called it a night. The next morning, I figured out the cutting plan for the quilt which will be my next leader/ender project and then stitched one length of thread on the red work snowmen.

After I pulled out the machine today, I had to give the machine a bit of a cleaning…

retreatfuzz1

It was a bit fuzzy.  This is what I pulled out of the machine before I started sewing on the binding to my latest finish:

retreatfuzz2

 

Stay tuned to see my latest finish in the next post.

Posted in: Candy Sunflower Seeds, Jared Takes a Wife, red work, retreat, scraps, shopping

All I Needed Was Thread

June 7, 2014 1:14 pm ⋅

shopping0607

 

All I needed was the black thread for Eeyore and maybe a different shade of pink thread for Piglet’s ears. After three stops I came back with a little bit more.

The first stop was a rummage sale at a church around the corner. Naturally, I was looking for shirts. They must have a clothing closet/bank because the only clothes I found were for little kids. But I spotted two rolls of tracing paper for 25¢ each. I think I’m going to like the narrower width. The roll I have is 24″ wide.

Then it was off to Jo-Ann’s for the thread, and if they had freezer paper I would get some since I hadn’t gotten around to locating any. Unless that package on the left has some magic properties that I’m not familiar with yet, I won’t buy it again.  The package of 10 sheets on the left cost the same (if I didn’t have a coupon) as the package of 50 sheets on the right which I bought at my LQS and I know I like the stuff on the right.

I briefly thought about going to the LQS, but it’s three times as far away. Fortunately a friend called me just as I walked in the door as asked if I wanted to go to the new quilt shop.  She was speaking of Creative Hands Quilt Shop & Decorative Painting Store which recently relocated. Sure, why not? And we were off to the store where I found the freezer paper I really wanted, a FQ for the Halloween pile, a new to me product Print N Fuse and a pressing sheet with the hopes that I would find my missing one.

While we were there I nearly signed up for the Plain & Fancy BOM, but I’m not sure how that’s going to work with my schedule.  I’ll have to make up my mind soon….

Now, back to Eeyore.

Posted in: BOM, shopping

Road Trip!

May 31, 2009 9:23 am ⋅


Thursday night my DH took me to one of my favorite pizza places for my birthday. On the way home we decided to look for a wireless router since our router is just about dead and a small TV for DH’s office. We knew exactly what model TV we were looking for — it has both a count down timer and an alarm clock — we just hadn’t gotten around to purchasing it yet. What we didn’t realize was that all of the local Wal-Marts had redone their electronics sections and no longer carried the TV in question.

Seven Wal-Marts later DH gets on line to see if he can find it. He’s not positive, but there may be one in Omaha, NE, Indianola, IA or Miami, OK. Even though Miami, OK is closer by 40 miles, I’m rooting for Omaha or Indianola, IA.

Friday morning I call my friend S and tell her I’m going on a road trip. I don’t know where to, and knowing that will determine if we leave after work/dinner or in the morning. She’s game.

Mid-morning I get the word that we are going to Oklahoma. But since it’s only a 3 hour drive if we leave after dinner we’ll have all day to shop hop home. So that was the decision. I picked up S for Friday night dinner with the girls. We ate and then headed south. We checked into the hotel, then picked up the TV before crashing for the night.

Saturday morning we got up and made our way back to Kansas City leisurely, stopping in quilt shops in Joplin, Carthage and Nevada. There were 4 more more or less on the way home that were participating in an ‘official’ shop hop, but by the time we got to Nevada we were wore out and more importantly out of money.

I fell in love with a quilt hanging in a shop. Normally I’m not big on having the identical fabrics someone else has in a quilt, but I couldn’t identify what exactly it was about the quilt which made me like it. I’ll be making ‘The Night Before Christmas’ which is the pattern in the bottom right corner of the book pic using the blue and white fabrics in the fabric pic.

We had a good time, but this trip did nothing to help me reduce my stash.

Posted in: friends, kits, shopping

Quilts from My Past

May 23, 2009 10:07 pm ⋅

Blue Charm Applecore, originally uploaded by knitnoid.

I can’t tell you for certain what it is I’ve been doing, but it certainly hasn’t been quilting. Today i even went shopping — as in clothes, accessories and kitchen ware. My friend T suggested I go home, take 2 aspirins, lay down and perhaps the urge would pass. After a couple of hours visiting various stores, not finding what I was looking for, I did just that. –OK — I did bring home 3 new t-shirts. I found the cookware on-line and ordered it.. Then I finally sat down to the hand quilting.

So, here’s a pic of a quilt I made for my DH. I purchased the WonderArc ruler and Applecore pattern at one of the quilt shows. Then I decided to make a blue charm quilt. I have no idea what I was thinking. Needless to say, I ended up collecting 200+ different blue fabrics for this quilt. It’s not any bigger (about 70″) because I decided to start working on it. This quilt was the last quilt I made in 2005, finishing it about 8:30 that evening.

Posted in: Applecore, shopping