Fabric Frustrations

So I am working/directing a project for our Women's group at church. I believe I have mentioned this project in a previous post. We were trying to use what we already had on hand to keep costs down. After much back and forth, my daughter and I decided we needed to use black fabric to frame the picture blocks. Now I have used black fabric in several quilts in the past. In fact I am more likely to use black than white in a quilt because I like bright colors and I think black makes them pop more than white.

I just want a solid black for framing picture blocks and for binding. Of course, because I am on a deadline, I can't find a plain solid black fabric. Not in my stash, not in the local Wal-Marts, not online, at least not in time for when we need it. As I have said before I don't have a local quilt shop.

This living in the country, far from Quilt shops is for the birds. I sometimes need to be able to do things spontaneously. Sometimes it takes my vision a little while to get it right and when I finally see the whole picture I need to be able to buy what I need to complete it. So I am frustrated.

How do I deal with this frustration? By buying fabric of course. I found some batiks at the Wal-Mart. A really cool black and gray one, a gold one, a golden brown one and a purple one. They also had some greens, a blue, a dark purple, and a red. I will have to go back for those. Anyway I spent way too much money on fabric, I really didn't need right before Christmas. But I did find a black with a very small white polka dot. I think it will work for the frames and binding. It will be cute but not as dramatic as I had pictured it.

So now my stash is a little bit bigger. Lately, I have been buying more white on white tonal fabric, to do more traditional quilts using 1930's prints. I have also been buying more bright colored fat quarters and batik layer cakes. I know I have quite a few pre-cuts and I am not sure what they will become. I need to go through it and figure out what I actually have and what I need to add. I know I am most likely not moving to the bigger urban centers where the quilt shops are, so I need to find a way to have what I need in my stash. That is at least until I can open my own Quilt shop.

I wonder if I could write and apply for a grant to preserve the Historic and Social art of Quilting. Maybe I could use something like that to open the Quilt shop. Any grant writers out there willing to do some pro bono work? 

A Vacation Without Quilting

So I took off work for a week and headed out west to see family. It was a rather chaotic weekend mostly because nothing was planned. This is not the way to get things done. My husband was trying not to pin anything on a schedule so there wouldn't be any ruffled feathers. Oh by the way that doesn't work.

There were several people to see not the least of which was our newest grandson. There were also a few things we wanted to do. Hubby wanted to go get geodes and opals. I wanted to visit a few quilt/fabric shops. it would be nice if we got to visit Gossners Foods. I worked there for almost 9 years while he went to Utah State University. We wanted to eat at the Mandarin Garden. And Hubby also wanted to catch an Aggie game while we were there.

So what did we manage to do:

We spent lots of time with his parents. Maybe a little too much time.

We did see our 27 yr old daughter and her family. They drove up from Winnemucca, NV. This time the grand daughter was a little less wary of us. She was lots of fun.

We spent an evening with some close friends and one of his brothers and his wife at a casino in Jackpot NV. It was good to see them. The seafood buffet was good and the veterans ate for free because it was Veterans Day.

We spent a couple of nights with another brother and his family. They have all grown up so fast.

We saw our 19 yr old daughter and her family which included the newborn grandson. We were there for his blessing. The other grandparents were there as well and they had a nice cook out after the blessing.

We had a failed attempt to get opals. We think we found the area but ran out of time. That resulted in hubby getting very frustrated. But gave us an afternoon with our second and third sons.

We had 2 evenings with our second son and his family and a sister and her family. One evening with another sister and her kids.

We did make it to Gossners and we even managed to bring home some of the best Swiss cheese in the world. I realize I am biased but Gossners Swiss Cheese is the best. It however is not the same Gossners that I worked at. It has grown by leaps and bounds.

The Aggie game was too late in the evening, and Hubby was too tired so that didn't happen. But Dinner at the Mandarin Garden did. It was our favorite restaurant when we lived in Logan.

What disappointed me was we did not manage to visit one quilt shop or fabric store. I was in the west. In both Idaho and Utah. Yet I did not manage to visit one quilt shop. I have been missing the plethora of quilt shops in Idaho and Utah. I just wanted to go in a few and  see what they had, what was new, and maybe buy some fun fabric.  I like to touch and see fabric and well I don't get to do that here.

I did go to the fabric section of a Walmart. Just about all of the Walmart stores in Idaho and Utah have fabric. I bought some pretty Christmas fabric and several yards of a blue print that will make a nice back for my daughter quilt. (if she wants to use it. She is picky)

So my vacation was a success in that I got to see the grand babies and my 3 of my kids and their spouses. Oh and our extended family.

But I had a week without quilting.  Next trip I swear I am going on a quilt shop hop. I just have to figure out where and who to get to go with me. I also have to figure out how much I can afford to spend. I think I will be hoarding cash for a little while. Maybe I will go to Hamilton, Missouri. I might even look into doing a retreat.

Any one up for a quilting road trip?

Enough Fabric??????

Yesterday morning, my husband and I were laying in bed, not wanting to be awake yet, and chatting. He asked what I wanted to get done that day. I replied "All I want to do is sew on my quilt." That is all I ever want to do these days. We talked about the kids and he asked how my 24 year old daughter was coming on her quilt and I replied we had run out of the white fabric she was using. I said we have some more but it has a different degree of brightness and I was going to see if I could find some for her after work on Monday. Then he said something that I never thought I would ever hear a man say. Are you ready for this? He said "I don't think you have enough fabric".  Did I get the perfect husband or what? Okay he is not perfect but he is Mine and I am keeping him.

Now do I think I have enough fabric. The answer is a resounding "NO." I do not have every batik or retro print that I would love to have. I do not have near enough geometric prints or enough of a variety of prints and print sizes. I also don't have room for all the fabric I want. I don't have room for all the fabric I have.  I am already kicking hubby out of my studio into a 10 x 20 storage shed to make room for a long arm machine. (By kicking him out I mean his lapidary equipment.) That still leaves most of my stash in bins and trunk in the kids rooms. (not to mention other craft supplies) Shoot we can't even walk into our closet because of sewing machines and bins of fabric. 

So how can he say I don't have enough fabric? First he comes from a large pioneer family. They all sew and quilt. Add to that we both grew up in a culture where sewing and quilting was encouraged.  He stated that there are women have rooms full of fabric. He's right. We both know of women, who have always had a dedicated sewing room. As their families grew up and left they filled the rooms with fabric. Would I like to have that much fabric? Of course provided I had it organized in a easily usable fashion. Alright even if I didn't have it organized. I would love to have a room dedicated to sewing/quilting and a room dedicated to the storage of the fabric.

I have only been working on my stash for about 12 years. Those women worked on their stash for Decades. They also lived/live closer to fabric shops. So impulse buying is a fact of life. There were more fabric shops available and more women sewed. This still true in Utah and lots of Idaho. Even in the little tiny town of Delta, UT there is an awesome fabric shop, Mom's Crafts and Fabric. Mom's had everything, I swear you could find any print you wanted or needed there. I miss Mom's. I should see if they have an online store. I know they are on face book.

There is not a fabric shop within a 30 minute drive of my home. In fact my closest Walmart doesn't even carry fabric. The closest fabric shops are 40 to 60 miles away and they aren't very good. One is a Bernina dealer, mostly machines and some fabric. The other is an alteration shop that is dark, dingy, and dusty. So how do I build my stash to an acceptable level? 

Right now I live in Cairo, GA and work in Bainbridge, GA. Since moving here 8 years ago, Janet's Fabrics in Bainbridge closed as did Suzanne's Quilt Shop in Moultrie. I did take advantage of those clearance prices and spent way more than I should have in both stores. I estimate that I spent close to $1,200.00 in Suzanne's in the last 2 months she was open. That was in 3 trips. The first trip, I had 2 of my daughters with me. We stayed under my budget without even trying. WE were very pleased with our selves. The second trip was just me and I bought stuff that I passed up on the first trip. The third trip and the most costly trip was made with my husband. (I wanted him to look at the Handi-Quilter machine) While I was deciding how much of each fabric he would say just get it all and if I didn't agree right away he would tell the women "she will take it all." They would look at me and I would nod. They told me, he was a keeper. 

The Walmart in Bainbridge does carry some fabric. And that is where I will be looking for the white fabric my daughter needs. But mostly I am buying online these days. I have bought a few things from Craftsy. I have fallen in love with Missouri Star Quilt Company. I buy a lot of pre-cuts from them. Their daily deal is dangerous. Also, I am buying from Connecting Threads. Which is really quite ironic.  When we lived in Vancouver, WA I used to go to the Artist's Club store to buy decorative painting supplies. That store was also the store for Connecting Threads. They were sister companies.  Now that I am clear on the other side of the country I am actually buying fabric from Connecting Threads. But buying mail order/online has it's disadvantages as well. Such as what do you do when in the middle of a project you have run out of a fabric that you need?

Which brings me back to my first post. I want to own a quilt shop. Bolts and Bolts of fabric. When you needed some more you just go find the bolt and sell yourself some more. I still haven't figured out how to make this a reality. I am only about 13 years from retirement age and I hate to go into a lot of debt. I really do think I could make a go of it, if I find the right location and people to help me set it up,  I need to find out what the quilters in this area would like and I need to find some quilters to help me set it up in a logical manner.

In the meantime, I am building my personal stash and wearing out my credit card. How much is enough fabric for you? How are you building your stash?