Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Holiday Fabric!

I managed to get a bit of hand sewing in during our holidays. Kununurra to Darwin is a mere 832 kms away so I made a start on my Honeysuckle stitching.

One of the best things about going to Queensland was that finally after 4 years of online chatting and blogging together, I got to meet AJ! She arranged a whole day of fabric shopping for us! Any excuse hey? Her sister Carissa came along as somebody had to type the addresses into the Navcom from the back seat! And we thought we were pretty clever all managing to dress in blue tops and denim bottoms!

We meet at a place in Eagleby which I think was called Fabric Frenzy? It was kinda a seconds shop, one third fabric and the rest toys and cheap kitchenware. I still managed to get 7 meters which is the blues, reds and orange in the bottom of the above photo!

Next stop was.... um, I can't remember! I brought this pattern here, Japanese Fans by Judy Niemeyer. It's foundation paper piecing which I could technically print onto paper myself but, its already done on A2 sized sheets and that will save sticking A4 sheets together so that sold me!

There was a Spotlight next door so we popped in and I got some more thread and upgraded to a larger carrier!

Then we drove onto Patches Indooroopilly. A great shop!! Was my favorite. We drove up and parked out the front but the car in front of us wasn't quite in their marked spot, so we decided to reverse and park at the back of the shop in the customer parking. We looked at the shop window and saw the "Yes we are open, please come in" sign, all good, so we go park. Walk back down the driveway, look in the window at the display and then we notice the "Sorry we are closed, please come again" sign. Huh? We are standing there under the veranda talking amongst ourselves that didn't the sign just say open? We check the opening hours and it closed at 2 and it was spot on 2. So we are standing there going oh no!!! And then the door opens and a lady says "I can hear you ladies, would you like to come in?" and she very kindly opened the shop for us! An hour later...... I got the pink and green fabric in the top left of the first photo and all the fabric around the Japanese Fans pattern (except for the white, Mum gave that to me for Christmas). The lady behind the counter was lovely and took these photos for us. AJ wanted us to stand in front of this quilt as she is going to make it! It was the perfect shopping trip, thanks AJ!

Then a few days later, Dad drove Mum and I and the girls over the border into New South Wales to Fantazia Fabric Land! All $10 a metre except the back wall which was $12! Great range. I got a rainbow selection of tone on tone prints in the top right of the first photo and I got at last the backing fabric for my daizee quilt, the green floral, 2.4 meters wide.

And then I got home to have more fabric waiting in my mail box! Ad sent me up this bundle of white on white for Christmas and when we got back there was this parcel from Bec of fabric that I brought from her shop before Christmas! I would like to say publically that I am not puchasing any more fabric till SIT in March!

5 comments:

Tine said...

Beautiful fabrics!!

Jan said...

Wowsers Helen I am envious. What a trip, and hoe nice that lady reopened her shop for you three. I guess she knows the go with quilters needing their 'fix', though I must say you have quite had your share now. And good on you too, life is to short to deny ourselves such simple pleasures.
Well that's my statement.

Cheers.

Meredith said...

How did you get all of that fabric home??? Did the others have to empty their suitcases? Who needs clothes, bathers, beach towels...

Poppyprint said...

What a killer stash enhancement!!! You three look so cute in your matching shopping outfits. AJ's shadow quilt will be great - there were 3 queen sized ones at my guild's last show and people loved them. It's a great pattern to show off gorgeous prints. AND wow, that Judy N. quilt is gonna be a stunner!!!!

Samantha said...

I'm super belatedly catching up on blogs- but I *think* the quilt you all posed in front of was designed by a really good friend of mine here in colorado... do you know the pattern manufacturer, by chance??