An Awesome Saturday

.It was a day full of driving and shopping with my two buddies, Bailey and my hubby. We headed out to Lancaster County with our own agendas. First stop was Beikers for lots of juices peaches to make peach jam. 

There was an adorable Amish girl and her mother sitting outside selling peach smoothies. 

I couldn't resist and I realized that I guzzled down half my smoothie before I thought to take a photo! The girls mother was happy for me to snap a photo of my smoothie maker! (Usually they are camera shy. )

The next stop was our favorite produce stand. 

Bushels of Roma tomatoes for $4 each. Watermelons for $2. Heirloom tomatoes for 50c each. All on the honor system. Most of you know that I have turned the kitchen over to Don. Lots of work!

The next stop was for me. 

Hinkletown Sewing Center. It's Bernina heaven. 

And if you think the Amish are shy and retiring, you haven't met Irv Zimmerman and his daughter Irma. They have a twinkle in their eye and a lilt to their voice and can upsell anything. I had done my research and had a good idea of what I wanted. Besides a great price and a good trade-in price, I went home with this beauty. 

There was still daylight, so we headed to Lititz. Patti Strine, Program Chair for a guild I had visited last week told me about a fabric store that I had never visited. In Lancaster? Really? How could that be? I thought I knew them all. Of course I had to check it out. 

Weavers Dry Goods. Don't let this view fool you. Once you enter, the shop goes on and on with some very good prices. The fabric was well organized and I found lots of bright, clear fabrics. I'll be heading back. Among my purchases was this great matchbox car fabric. 

I used it for my first sewing project with my new machine to make pillowcases for ConKerr cancer, now called A Case For Smiles. It's my quilt guilds community outreach project for the month of September. Most people choose pretty fabric suitable for girls. Of course, being the mother of boys, I had to choose fabric suitable for boys. 

A wonderful day, capped off with an outdoor lunch at a dog friendly restaurant in downtown Lititz with a little more shopping - just for fun. 

My Bags Are Unpacked And I Have A Giveaway

I have finally unpacked my bags.  Since it was hot in Bali, there weren't very many clothes to unpack.  Just shorts and t-shirts.  So, the majority of the contents of our 4 suitcases was fabric.

How much fabric did I buy? Lots.  Fabric shopping WAS the highlight of the trip.  I did go fabric shopping twice.  OK, I'll admit it.  I bought over 65 yards of batiks.At $2.50/meter,who could resist?

 Plus some jelly rolls, pre-cuts and fat quarters and the white fabric that they are all displayed on is the blank white fabric that is used to start the batik process.

My favorite batiks that I have not yet seen here in the US are these animal themed batiks

And I even found an adorable shirt covered with lizards for Henry

And most of my other purchases were made of fabric too

Bags and pouches, sarongs and other assorted goodies
But my favorite purchase was this umbrella

Umbrellas were always displayed in the shrines along the road.  Was their purpose to provide shade for the gods? I just know I loved them.  I would have brought home a full size one if I could have, but I was just happy to find this table topper.

To lessen my guilt, I want to share some of my loot.  Leave a comment letting me know that you have signed up to follow me on Bloglovin or that you already are following me and I will choose someone to receive these batik fat quarters including that adorable giraffe fabric, on Friday.  If you can't leave a comment here, e-mail me or FB me after signing up with Bloglovin.

Do You Love Blue?

The color combination of blue and white is heaven to me.  Blue has been my favorite color forever.  I love all blues.  For me, they all go together.  You can't go wrong. Combining blue with white makes a quilt, a room, an outfit,  crisp and clean.  Denim never seems to go out of fashion, but blue does tend to go in and out of style, even with quilting fabric.  So I have quite a stash.  A really, really big stash.  You have to buy it when you see it. About 25 % of my quilting fabric is blue.

 

My goal this past year has been to reduce my blue fabric stash. I actually have a bag of scraps that I just want to use up. It's pieces left over from other projects and outdated fabrics.

 

 This is Blue Scrap Quilt 1.0

 I made it using 2 1/2" strips to make the blocks. 

 Bailey just loves a new quilt.

 I even have a collection of blue and white plates.

 

The back was created from 9" and 18" squares. That really put a dent in the scrap bag.

 

I have 2 more tops that are waiting top be quilted. That will leave me with enough scraps to make one more quilt.  This has really put a crimp in my love affair with blue and white.

 

 

Wednesday's Wanderings #41 - "F" is for Fabric

F is for fabric!

The definition of a quilter in the dictionary should include, "loves fabric".

We love to look at fabric.  We love to touch fabric.  We love to buy fabric.  We love to cut up fabric and then sew it back together.  We are what's called Fabricholics.

Almost every quilter I know has a stash of fabric, because we love to buy it.  Sometimes we buy it because we have a project for it and sometimes we buy it because we just like it and have to own it.  Some of us display it proudly and some of us squirrel it away in drawers, in plastic bins, under the bed and in closets. 

 None of us want to think about how much money we have spent developing our stash! 

Something that non-quilters might now know is that stashes need to be managed.  How do we manage our stash?  We do it by organizing and folding and refolding, especially when we are done with a project.  We also make an assessment from time to time.  This is when we realize that there may be holes in our fabric collection, whether it be a color or pattern.  This gives us another good excuse to buy more fabric.  After all our stash is our palette.

I spent this week "managing" my stash. 

Messiness, fabric on the floor and bulging shelves were a few of the motivators.  It is rewarding to see my fabric organized and neatly folded.

It is not a big stash.  I have seen much bigger, (not to mention any names my dear friend S). 

And it's not a small stash.

As written in Goldilocks & the 3 Bears, it's just right for me. 

But that will not prevent me from buying more.

So, F is for fabric.

I started with a low contrast printed piece of fabric.

Then I used my printer to print the word "fabric" in a contrasting color,

over and over again in many different fonts,

just like there are many different types of fabric.

After printing, I layered it with a low loft batting and quilted it.

The quilting obscures the words somewhat and that makes it a happy little surprise, once it is noticed.

Then I used my favorite sequins in chartreuse to decorate a large applique F (for fabric!!)

How do you "manage" your stash?

Or don't you?

Recharging In Lancaster County, PA

Lancaster County , home to a large population of Amish, is a little more than an hour's drive from my home. I love to drive out there for the scenery, the Amish and THE FABRIC. All 3 of these are important to help me recharge spiritually and creatively.

When you drive out Rte 30W from my home, you come down a long hill and you see a magnificent view of an Amish farm and their patchwork fields. You know you have arrived. It is my friend Nancy's favorite view of all. If you leave Rte 30, which you must, and drive around the back roads, you will see acres and acres of farms, dotted with barns, covered bridges, one room schoolhouses, horse drawn farming equipment and Amish.

If you are unfamiliar with the Amish, they are an amazing people who have chosen to eschew modern conveniences. (I know there has been a lot of bad press latley about the puppy mills. Most of them are not this cruel.) They don't use electricity or drive cars. Most of them make their living from farming. They lead a simple life that includes only an 8th grade education.

I have a very good friend, Ann Davis, who loves the Amish countryside even more than me. She loves Lancaster County so much that she bought a house there to use as a vacation house. (She calls it the Faux Farm.) Ann befriended an Amish family and introduced me to Sadie. Sadie has become my friend. She is in her 70's and we have spent hours sitting, talking and quilting at her quilt frame. (I think she must take out all of my stitches after I leave.) She has a ton of kids and even more grandchildren. The funny thing about Sadie is that she does have a phone (mainly to check her pacemaker). It cracked me up one day when she telephoned my house. "My Amish friend is on the phone!". She will also jump in my car or Ann's car for errands, visiting or just to go get an ice cream. She reads the newspaper and is ready to converse about world events.

Ann is an amateur photographer and gave me permission to share some of her photos. She has a wonderful eye for composing. (Don't think I haven;t thought about using a photo of hers for a quilt.)They really make you feel like you are there. If you want to see more of her artistry , check out her blog: http://fauxfarmgirl.com/.

So the 3rd thing that recharges my battery on this road trip is a visit to the fabric stores. Here is my opinion (and shared by some of my quilting buddies) of the best.

• My favorite is Hayloft Fabrics (http://hayloftfabrics.com/). It is located in Morgantown, right off of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It is located upstairs from Martins', a grocery store. They have LOTS of current fabric, batiks, batting, and novelties. Their prices are discounted, plus they will give you a guild discount if you have a membership card. PLUS, when you are done shopping for fabric, you can go downstairs and treat your family to some baked goods like whoopie pies, sticky buns or shoefly pie.


• If you get back on the turnpike heading west, take the next exit west. Close to the exit in Denver is Sauder's. It is located in the basement of a house. The prices are great and they even have remnants and fabric at $1.79/yd. They have lots of batiks in the $6 price range. They also have a section of bulk food at really great prices - flour, pasta, cereal, candy, snacks and spices.


• Also in Denver, but quite a ways away, is Burkholders (http://www.burkholdersfabric.com/). I like 2 things about this fabric store. It is a great place to find the "basic" type of fabric - like fossil fern. They have these fabrics in almost every single color there is. The prices are discounted and again they give a guild discount (12%).

If you head to Intercourse on Rte 340, you will find a little village with tons of shops. There's a heritage center with an informative movie about the Amish. There is also a great restaurant called Kling House. And a few quilt shops:

• Zooks has lots of current fabric at discounted prices. They have some of a lot. But around back is a hitching post for the Amish buggies. Watch where you walk.
  
• The Old Country Store (http://theoldcountrystore.com/) has fabric, but the reason to enter the store is to see all of the locally made crafts including lots of finished beautiful quilts. Upstairs is the Peoples Place Quilt Museum (http://ppquiltmuseum.com/) with changing quilt exhibits - free admission.

If you still have some time and energy, keep driving west into the city of Lancaster. The Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum (http://quiltandtextilemusuem.com/) has a large collection of Amish quilts and it is located right near an indoor farmer's market. (The origin of this museum was to house the Esprit quilt collection.)