Playing with Fabric

 

New Fabric Haul

I've been playing with fabric, quite a bit, recently.  I started out with just randomly piecing together some of the scrap pieces of fabric; it was a calming, almost meditative, relaxing activity for me.  I'd trim the resulting pieces into squares or rectangles of no particular size with the idea that I might eventually incorporate them into a quilt top.  

Then, on Saturday afternoon, daughter and I decided to go to Joann's, the fabric/crafts store that is closing down, to see if there were any bargains to be found.  Daughter wanted some beads at 30% off.  I wanted to see if they had any sewing thread (only some specialized machine embroidery thread were available), packaged elastic (the shelves were bare), and fabric, even though I had bought a stash of fabric in December!

I usually stock up on fabric when it goes on sale for 50% off or more, especially when this store used to have their after Thanksgiving/after Christmas clearance sales.  But, now, even with the store closing, most of the fabric were only 20% off.  Which wasn't a big savings, in my opinion, and probably why they had so much fabric left on the shelves in the store.  I stood in front of the holiday fabric shelves, filled with bolts of St. Patrick's Day/Easter/spring themed fabric, Halloween/fall themed fabric, and Christmas/winter themed fabric, as well as patriotic design fabric and checked the prices.  But, the original prices were mostly $9.99 and up and the 20% off discount didn't bring the prices down enough for me to want to purchase them.

Instead, I headed over to their low priced fabric section, where the "project cotton" fabric was originally priced at $2.00 per yard (which is the fabric I stocked up on in December).  They didn't have as big a selection of that fabric, and some of them were the same as what I had bought in December, but, they, too, were 20% off and I decided to get more of that fabric for future projects.

The picture above shows what I bought.  I already had some of the apple print fabric, the solid green fabric, and the pale pink with stars fabric, but, I bought more of them for $1.60/yd.  I bought 2 yards each of the red striped, apple print, green, and orange fabric and 3 yards of the pink.  Most of the fabric on the bolts were pre-cut pieces of fabric (I suppose pieces that were returned by previous customers for whatever reason?)  I had a very nice store clerk assisting me, though.  Sometimes, the precut piece was just over 2 yards, and rather than cutting off the excess, he just gave me the whole piece and charged me only for the 2 yards.

I did want 10 yards of the purple fabric (my favorite color and good for quilt backings, borders, sashing, etc.)  However, that entire bolt seemed to be made up of 2-3 yard pieces.  I think the biggest piece was a little under 4 yards.  I was fine with getting 10 yards of pieces at that price (I could always sew the pieces together if needed).  The sales assistant measured out 10 yards of the purple altogether, but, because it was in pieces, he gave me a further discount and charged me for only 5 yards!  As a result, I paid a total of $25.60 for a little over 21 yards of fabric.  Now, that's a good way to build up my fabric stash, I think.  I was very happy with my fabric purchase.

Speaking of my fabric stash, I had a piece of fabric (bought from this same store, but, several years ago) in the stash.  I remember shopping for it because I went with my daughter and she selected several pieces of fabric with cherry blossom designs because she loves cherry blossoms.  

Close Up of the Fabric Design

This Sunday, I sat down at the sewing machine and stitched up a gathered skirt for my daughter with this piece of fabric:

A New Skirt for Daughter

It's a very simple gathered skirt with an elastic waist band.  But, daughter is very happy with her new skirt with the cherry blossom print.  And I am happy that a piece of fabric I had in my stash was used up.  

I am grateful for:

- Finding fabric on sale
- A really nice sales assistant who gave me additional discounts on the sale fabric!
- More fabric for my stash
- Being able to sew a skirt for my daughter with fabric I already had in my stash
- Daughter being so happy to have a new skirt sewn by me.

Playing with fabric is one of my favorite joyful activities.

I do admit to wandering around the yarn section, too, but, nothing was reduced to a price that I thought was a good deal, so I didn't buy any yarn.  

Have you been to Joann's since they announced their store closings?  Did you find good bargains?  Do you have a fabric stash?  Do you think I went a bit overboard with my adding to my stash?  

Yes, I Did It Again!

Fabric Haul

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I went shopping at one of my favorite stores!  

I spent the last couple of years sewing down my stash. I said I will not buy anymore fabric just because it was on sale, I will only buy if I have a project in mind.  

Well, I did have a project in mind (a holiday gift) and I wanted a fabric with a particular design for that project.  That fabric is regularly priced at $10.99 per yard and I didn't want to pay that much.  Even when it went on sale for 30% off, I dithered about buying it.  It is now on sale for 40% off and I decided that it was the right time to buy it.  

In addition, I had seen a store ad for $1/yard fabric, but, that was, apparently, for netting, which I didn't need.  However, there was a line of 100% cotton fabric, which they called craft cotton, that was selling at $2/yard, which was apparently their regular price!  Well, obviously, I was very pleased to find any fabric for that price.  I filled my cart with several bolts of fabric and took them to the cutting table!

Black & White Prints

I bought one yard of the more expensive fabric I had wanted for the one specific project I had in mind, and all that was left (1.25 yards) of a blue gingham print.  I bought four yards of a purple print and three yards of everything else!  51 yards of fabric in all!  

The Coordinating Purples

I have plenty of fabric for quilt backings and borders, now.

The Blues

And lots of coordinating fabric for a planned quilt (as opposed to a scrappy quilt).

Some Yellows

An older lady who was purchasing some lace trim sort of shook her head at the quantity of fabric I was buying and said there had better be lots of quilts being made and she hoped the fabrics were on sale.  My daughter assured her that they were selling at a good price.  The lady told me that I should wash the fabric before using it and I told her that I usually do.  The store assistant who cut the fabric said that she was originally from Pennsylvania and mentioned the Amish and their handmade quilts. She had greeted my daughter with a "Namaste", assuming that we were Indian, and my daughter said she didn't have the heart to tell her that we weren't Indian.  LOL.  But, it was a nice to spend the time in small talk while the fabric was being measured and cut.

Pink with Stars and Apple Print for Daughter

The fabric came to $107.60; with city, county, and state sales taxes added, it came to a grand total of $118.33.  I was quite happy with that total.  Crafts supplies are a line item in my monthly budget and I had enough in the budget to splurge a bit.  In any case, I wanted to stock up on my craft supplies before any new tariffs go into effect and prices go up.

Today, Friday the 13th, I washed some of the fabric I bought, dried, and ironed them, ready to turn into at least two holiday gifts.

I am grateful to have a replenished fabric stash!