Sunny Days, Sweeping the Clouds Away...

I was very lucky yesterday and today to steal some time away from cleaning and laundry to do some fun stuff! Yesterday I ironed the fabrics I bought from Dressew. I'm glad I am one of those people that believes in pre-washing because I discovered two of my fabrics are completely inappropriate for quilting. One is see-through and the other is one of those fabrics that wrinkles horribly. I'm not sure what I will do with that one! The see through one might make a lovely blouse though. I'm really not keen on sewing clothing though so we'll see if it comes to pass.
Today I kicked the man and dog out and did some cutting for another quilt using some of the new fabrics I bought. I cut one of them into a basic square and starting cutting the other one and realized I wasn't sure what I was planning on doing with them. So I ironed a bit more and then came upstairs to do some research. While I was doing that (and snacking on some yummy black pepper crackers) I started researching something I had heard about a long time ago.. quilting one square at a time. The appeal of this to me is I could actually quilt on the train during my commute. I may have to try this!
The other thing I was reading up on is a quilt called "Dear Jane"... created by Jane A. Stickle in 1863, and recreated by Brenda M Papadakis. It's hard to describe how cool this quilt is, and it's not for the faint of heart. It comprises 225 pieced squares, triangles, and corner, well, kites for lack of a better description. There are over 5000 pieces in the quilt! One day I would love to make a Dear Jane quilt!

Dressew Part Duex

Yes, I went there again. Man, who could resist?? Plus I had to pick up some hats for a friend of mine.
But never mind that, here is the rest of what I picked up on the first trip!

 snagged some fabric from a roll in the moment of quiet at the cutting station.. magically it goes with the random 'end of the roll' cut I picked up!

 some more fake fur for tails!

 some fun toys!

lotsa lotsa thread... at .99 and .49 cents, with 50% off, it was a steal!

Trip two got me:

So enough buying right now, onto some sewing! This weekend I plan on finishing up squares on the Japanese Quilt and hopefully squaring some them off with the rotary cutter. As well I'm going to wash these fabrics to prepare them for quilting.

Dressew 50th Anniversary Sale!

Wow! What a crazy place!

Today I decided to brave Dressew's 50th Anniversary sale, 50% off everything. What a mix of people, many elderly people all grinning and having a good time (and cleaning up as well haha) Many gay men buying fake fur.. off I know. Couples buying Halloween stuff. There were lineups for the cutting tables, line ups for the cash, line ups for the line ups. In truth it only took me 30 minutes to get through the line that snaked around the whole top floor. I also had some fabric cut with no wait. I'm guessing timing is everything!
I mostly bought fake fur squares, and thread. I plan on going back though for fabric. I'm hoping it get's easier after day one.

the quality of the photos isn't the best but I was using my iphone at work....