Saturday, June 14, 2008

Whew...Fabric hunting is exhausting

Today I went to Mary Jo's Fabrics in Gastonia, NC to hunt for fabrics for a French Braid Quilt the club is going to work on starting next month. We met this morning to discuss fabric selections, and then headed on the big hunt. For those of you who have never had the fun of going to Mary Jo's, it is a quilter's paradise of fabrics with hundreds and hundreds of bolts to ooooooohh and ahhhhhhh over. And then they also have every other kind of fabric possible for sale as well. Prices are great. Today there was a bus load of women there from Virginia and I have met folks from all over the country that know of this place, including one lady that travels from Hawaii every year to purchase her fabrics.

Anyway, back to our hunt. We each had selected the quilt layout we would do and had to find our fabrics. Now a French Braid can take anywhere from 11 to 14 different fabrics just for the braid and accent colors and then you have the braid separator fabrics and the borders. Here are the fabrics I chose. The picture does not do them justice. Everyone selections were different and we are going to have some really nice quilts - but man were we tired.
I also found a Kaleidoscope ruler to use in cutting out my fabrics for the KScope quilt I am making. Interesting ruler - but looks kind of complicated. Any of you every use this ruler?
Check out Lynette's blog for a neat redwork pattern give-away!

3 comments:

*karendianne. said...

Fun Fabric shopping!!!

I haven't used that ruler but I have other Marti Michell rulers and love them all. There's usually a book that goes with a lot of the rulers and they're great. I've been really happy with her stuff. http://www.frommarti.com/home.html

I've never done a braid but this is intriguing. Can't wait to watch this come to life.

Thimbleanna said...

Gosh, I'm not sure I know what a french braid quilt is. I think I have an idea, but just not sure. I'll be anxious to see yours develop.

Anonymous said...

I have run myself ragged trying to find fabric, going from store to store to store. I usually do most of my fabric shopping now online at a store called iluvfabrix.com

Dont know if any of you have goine there but they have incredibly hih end fabric and most of the time there is a sale going on.

if you want to have a peek click on the following link......sorry if it doesnt work...not my area of expertise.......http://www.iluvfabrix.com

Enjoy!!

Lanny