Shop Hop Loot

So I guess I will share what I bought on the shop hop.

I actually managed to stay within my budget. I even came home with $4 (So did my sister, we thought it was hilarious when we both said we came home with the same amount).

Let me start with the non-quilting stuff. We stopped at the Provo Craft Clearance Center. Man I wish that place was a little closer to home They had some really great deals. The big pink handled stamp on the far right has one complete alphabet on each little wheel, so you can spell whatever you want up to 12 letters. I got it for $1.99! I also got a chipboard K for .25 cents. I got a P for each of the twins, but could never find a K, I am so glad they had one. I also got some black clip rings to go on a curtain rod. I am going to screw the rod to the wall in my living room so I can change out my mini quilts according to season now that I have a Christmas and Halloween one. And then of course, despite the fact that I no longer scrapbook, I can't seem to leave the scrapbook paper alone *Sigh*


We went to Joann's because my mom wanted to get a binding tool that her friend had told her about. So Shanae and I picked out some Christmas fabrics to make table runners out of. I am going to make a simple stripped one like my cherry one. It's amazing how much I love that simple look and heck, it's a LOT faster LOL


Here is a look at my fabric purchases. Tan fat eighths on the bottom left to do the Noah's Ark stitcheries with. Some reds and greens for my Christmas Window's quilt. And the fabrics in the basket are to make the Happy Hour Snapshots quilt. I fell in love with Amanda's (She has actually made several) and have wanted to make one for my living room ever since. It's a good thing she made one first because when I finally saw the one in the pattern book I thought it was really ugly and never would have bought it, or even picked it up to look at it, without her inspiration. The basket is a thrifted find, I want to fill it full of little stuffed gingerbread men and candy canes for Christmas). Some of the rest of these fabrics were won, or free gifts, and a few others I bought just because I liked them.


A closer shot of my happy hour fabrics...


I bought some cute brown rick rack, and this needle threader. If you do applique with straw needles, I HIGHLY recommend this needle threader. You stick your needle in the hole, drape your thread across the crevice and push the button and voila, your needle is threaded! I bought a different one but the threader is too big for the eye of the straw needle, this is the only one with the threader small enough for the tiny eyes of the straw needle. TOTALLY worth the $15 purchase price (If you can find one that is! It's made by Clover)



And here is a picture of the patterns I bought, or won. I won several games at the various stores, and my mom's friend gave me a couple of her prizes because they were more my style than hers. My goal for shop hop was to find some applique patterns that I could "practice" on and I bought a couple of really great ones.


I bought the pattern for this....


And this....



And this... I think these should keep me busy for a while, don't you?

Shop Hop recap 2

Thought you might also want to see some of the cool non-quilt items I took pictures of on the shop hop.

And if you want to see closer, better pictures, these are all on my Flickr page.

Enjoy...

Shop Hop Recap

OH MY HECK! It just occured to me that I never did my shop hop recap. What was I thinking?

Shop hop was amazing again this year. I look forward to this shop hop all year long, it's a couple days I get to spend with my mom and my sister, doing what I love best...fabric shopping!

This year my mom's best friend Peggy flew from Alabama to join us. Last year was her first year to come out for the shop hop and she is hooked. She comes out and shops with us, and her DH who happens to be my dad's best friend comes out and they spend the weekend playing golf on every course they can get a tee time on. B usually tags along on a couple of the gold trips as well.

This year Peggy's daughter Amy came from Colorado to join us for a day or two as well. She is not a quilter, and she isn't in to fabric, but she came along just for the chance to hang out and have fun with us. I am glad she came, I haven't seen her in years, it was nice to reconnect. With our parents being best friends we grew up together but we only see each other about once every ten years now.

For the shop hop, there is a central theme, this year it was "Once upon a time" and each shop then chooses a sub-theme and makes a quilt to fit their theme. The store then gives a free pattern for their shop quilt which fits the shop's theme for that year. Clear as mud? It's fun to collect all the patterns, I like the way they did it this year, each shop made an individual quilt. Usually each shop makes an individual block and you combine them all together to make a quilt.

This year I focused on two main things, my Snapshots quilt and the fabrics I would need to make it. And finding some applique patterns. I was successful with both searches and the most important thing was, it gave me a focus so that I was concentrating on certain things rather than just buying everything I liked. I stuck to my budget (even came home with $4 to spare) and didn't end up with a bunch of fabric that I really like, but can't use in anything.

Now I just need to go MAKE something. I will post soon with pictures of everything I bought.

No update this morning

Sorry, no more thrilling vacation pictures this morning, I am off on the shop hop YAY!

We went to one store last night and I have already won something so I am feeling lucky, we also saw a brand new ruler by a lady from here in Utah, to make picco's or prairie points, it is so easy and so fast and you make them in a strip, I was totally astounded at how easy it was, but wow the rulers are expensive! $89 for a set of three (Three different sizes of prairie points) so I didn't buy any. And yesterdays shop quilt was absolutely adorable, I will share a picture when I get a chance to download it.

Hope you all have a fabulous day!

Guess what, guess what?????

The shop hop starts.....TOMORROW! I am so excited!

Remember last year?


This year I am focusing less on fabric (Yeah right) and more on patterns. I want to find some easy/beginning and hopefully vintage looking applique patterns so I can practice my new skills. And I want to buy the Happy Hour pattern so I can make a cute quilt for the back of my couch.

Wish you could all come with me, I am so excited, it's going to be a blast.

This year it will be
Me
My sister
My mom
Mom's friend Peggy who is coming all the way (To Utah) from Alabama just for this for the second year in a row.
Peggy's daughter Amy who is coming from Colorado
My Aunt Karen
and Heidi (Karen's cousin I think)