Can you guess what I’m doing this morning??
Here’s a hint… 
If you said PARTY then you are RIGHT!! A dozen ladies are getting together to have a WOOL PARTY!!
Have a peak into what’s inside each bag…
Enough wool to turn any quilter into a WOOL CRAZY!!
LET’S PARTY!
Stay tuned…
Have a Magical Monday and Happy Quilting/Stitching!~P
If you are a regular reader you know that I am lucky enough to Snowbird ‘down south’ each year…go on Shop Hops and Quilt Shows and visit Quilt Shops…lots of quilt shops. I have a fairly good idea of what fabric costs down in California…. :o) When I left in March fabric was $10.50 a yard…with the talk of it going up to $11.
We travelled up the I-5, with a two day stop in Portland, OR and I stopped in at Pioneer Quilts Quilt Shop…fabric was $10.50 a yd. Now Pioneer Quilts is about a five hour drive to the Canadian border. My guess is that fabric is about $10.50 in Bellingham, WA located 20 minutes from the Canadian Border.
I’d like to know what happens to fabric between there and HERE?? Why are we Canadian quilters/sewers paying SEW much for fabric?
Yesterday I bought this little stack of Homespuns…1/2 metre cuts (1 m.=39”) so about 19 inches of fabric in each piece. The bottom black piece was from Kathy Schmitz’s line called Full Circle..the shop didn’t have any black Homespuns so I am substituting this…I needed 2 1/2 metres.
Are you sitting down?? Total cost was over $80! And that is with a 20% off discount because it was the ‘last Saturday of the month special’! Today this little pile would cost over $100!
I jokingly said at the till ‘WOW'…are you sure that’s right?’ The sales girl thought it was high too and checked and sure enough…over $80!!.
Would you believe Homespuns are $19.99 a meter? The black Kathy Schmitz piece was $17.99! YIKES!!
Now before you say stop shopping at this Quilt Store…IT ISN’T THIS SHOP…they ALL have prices like THIS!
So what I would like to know is, WHY the big mark up on fabric?? When I compared the price of patterns and books they are roughly the same…notions are the same, GO! dies are the same…WHY the HUGE mark up on FABRIC?? I mean OK…a couple of bucks maybe BUT over $9 a metre is WAY TOO MUCH!!
So my reason for writing this?…I really want to know what happens at the border? What is the custom’s duty on fabric? If I drove over to Bellingham,WA and bought a yard of Homespun fabric, then paid the duty, would it come to $19.99 a metre?? Inquiring minds want to know!!
I think this also means that NEXT YEAR this Snowbirder needs to buy more fabric..WAY more fabric! What do you think?
Have a Sunny Sunday and Happy Quilting!~P
“…I bet you think this birthday’s about you…Don’t you? Don’t you? Yes, I’m soooo vain….”
Sew…I’m reading my favourite magazine… “Primitive Quilts and Projects”…enjoying ever quilt, project and wool penny…every morsel of quilting goodness…WHEN…
Imagine my surprise…no make that SHOCK…when I get to page 35…the Title at the top of the page reads HAPPY BIRTHDAY…I wonder who famous in the quilting world is having a birthday?…
I read on…WHAT the…?
“…I bet you think this birthday’s about YOU…Don’t you? Don’t you? Yes, I’m soooo vain….”
HEY wait a minute!! …Look above my name…Marie, who volunteers at Liberty Mercantile in Oregon?…is that MY Marie? Marie is a blogging buddy…although she doesn’t blog…just lurks. Do you think it’s her?.. and could SHE be behind all this? OR is this not about any of us…? The plot thickens…OR could our mutual friend, Synthia be behind all of this birthday hi-jinx?? Synthia, did you do this?? Or am I cracking up…too vain for even the song…
So I’m am left here scratching my head…with Carly Simon’s song stuck in my brain…sheeesh! Any thoughts out there in blogland…?
Have a Super Sleuthing Saturday and Happy Quilting!~P
Yesterday, just after lunch, the rain stopped and the SUN came out…EUREKA!! So did we rush outside to do yard work, like we SHOULD have…NO WAY! We put on our hiking shoes, loaded up the dogs and off we sailed!
We decided to hike one of our favourite trails…the one that leads down to Holt Creek…there’s lots to see and the trails give you a good workout.
While on that trail then we saw a side shoot trail that we hadn’t taken before and before we knew it, this is what our trail looked like…. Perfect day for a hike…warm, with the sun filtering through the trees and the smells were wonderful..cedar, fir, earthy, with the faint smell of skunk cabbage…NOTHING like it!
Do you see how the trail slants downhill…well it went like this for a long time…until we finally reached our destination…Riverside Park on the Cowichan River.
Magnificent…the river was swollen from all the rainwater and melting snows from the mountain tops…it is Spring!
There were three look outs built on the bank of the river…with steps leading down to each platform. In the summer this is a place for swimming…but definitely not today…just look at that current!
We did see a river otter swim by but he didn’t stick around for pictures!
Gorgeous…and what a workout…all those steps and then there was that gradual uphill trail…a PERFECT place for a hike!!
Yup…we will definitely be adding this trail to our list of favourites!
ON THE QUILTY SIDE~
Three more houses got ‘built’ when we got home…I love making these guys…the windows not so much! Now if only the window elves visited last night…
Wishful thinking…
Have a FUN Friday and Happy Quilting!~P
What to do on a wet and miserable day? Dye of course! Which is exactly what I did…I hauled out the wool that I had bought on my holiday and set to work!
I used a medley of dyes…no I didn’t mix them but I did want to try all of the different brands…I had Cushing, Gaywool and an Acid Dye that Claire lent me (G & K Craft). Gaywool was by far, the most expensive…for a medium pill bottle size (2.5” or 6.5cm) it was over $20! This wool hobby is not cheap…but then again, there is nothing cheap about anything sewing..is there?
So boil, boil, toil and trouble…TROUBLE? Nah…no trouble here!
Out came the rubber gloves, newspaper and dyeing supplies…
This colour is called Turkey Red and I loved it!! This was my last batch…you can see that I have used up a lot of the water…
Next came the green…pea soup anyone?? Yum!
I over dyed this green piece…I know it LOOKS like I spilled ink on it but in REAL LIFE it looks like it’s a subtle mottled black with bits of green plaid showing through. Yup, another happy dance here…
More over dyeing…. 
Ahhhhhh red…Turkey Red…Strawberry Red…Lovely mottled RED!!
Now if you don’t work with wool, you are probably wondering WHY I want splotches?! It’s called mottled wool and gives a whole different dimension to your wool work. The petals on flowers look more real when they are mottled…or leaves look more like leaves when there is a variation of green.
My favourite red piece…I will have to save this one for something special!
And the greens… ahhhhhhh!!!! 
As far as the different brands of dye go…they ALL worked great! They were easy to use and I got great colours!
Have a Thrilling Thursday and Happy Quilting!~P
…Marjorie’s Busy Corner!! Hope you have a corner somewhere to put this Berry Tweet Penny because, Marjorie, you are the winner of my Give Away!!
Marjorie was lucky NUMBER 60…which is what I turned last week! Apparently 60 is the new 40…in my dreams!!
Thanks so much for all the wonderful comments and good wishes!!
Hoping that you have a wild and Woolie Wednesday and Happy Quilting!~P
Busy, busy…I tell ya’, these quilters NEVER just sit!! I thought you might like to see a snippet of what the Heritage Quilters have been up to…
Sharon finished her Fall quilt and Vickie quilted it for her!! Such a good friend! I LOVE, LOVE this quilt…and it’s made of batiks!!
Just LOOK at that quilting…when I grow up I want to quilt just like this!!
This beauty is the product of those group raffles…in exchange for a completed square, you receive a raffle ticket (the more squares you complete, the more tickets you receive). At the end of the month they draw and the winner takes ALL the blocks. This lucky winner made this wonderful quilt!!
I LOVE this scrappy quilt!! Look at the borders! Perfect! 
Let’s zoom in for a close-up!! Gorgeous!!
How sweet is this lovely table topper!! Very Spring-y!
And it’s never too soon…or too late…to complete a Christmas project!
Another Scrappy quilt…very NICE…and what a great way to use up all those bits and pieces!
This Spring quilt is made out of soft, soft flannel…perfect for a spring night…and oh so pretty!
Barb took a class and came away with this gorgeous quilt!!…And all hand stitched!
The quilter who made this Crazy Patch Pillow kicked it up a notch and stitched on all her keepsake jewelry. She said that now she can enjoy all her treasures everyday when she puts this pillow on her bed! Great idea! 
Terri found a panel of little animals in a sales bin…so she cut them out and appliquéd them on to terry cloth and made this wonderful hooded towel/blanket and wash cloths!! Very clever! 
TONS of charity quilts this week…
A photographer has to be quick taking pictures around here…
More sweet charity quilts…
AND last but certainly NOT least…here’s Grandma Anne..just finished putting the last stitch on this stuffed OWL!! This is a gift for her baby granddaughter and it couldn’t be sweeter!! Soft and cuddly!! You can find the FREE pattern for this owl HERE!
SPEAKING OF FREE…My Blogging Buddy, Anna just sent me this link to ‘a few’ FREE patterns…YIKES must be several HUNDRED patterns here!! If you have time..go to this site…and have a look..INCREDIBLE!! Click on FREE PATTERNS…Thanks Anna, WE appreciate it!! :o)
Last chance to enter my GIVE AWAY!! GO HERE if you haven’t already done so! I will be Randomly Selecting a winner tomorrow morning!!
Good luck!!
Have a terrific Tuesday and Happy Quilting~P
..is what I carted off…or make that ONE Large basket stuffed with glorious wool!! Over 8 metres of wool fabric for only $9!! I found these pieces at a Church Garage Sale on Saturday!! “SCORE!!”
I have been dyeing to dye so I think I will cut this wool up and do some experimenting….
Stay tuned…while I start to boil the water…and don the rubber gloves…(snap!:)…
Have a Magnificent Monday and Happy Quilting!~P
Thanks to Sew Cal Gal and the Golden Quilter Awards Giveaway, I WON a free class from Craftsy…an online Crafting Class!
Now I have often wondered about these classes…How do they work??
SEW.. off I went to their ‘school’…Talk about class choices!! They offer over 50 different craft classes…YIKES!! Thank goodness you can see a snippet of each class, which helps to narrow down the one for you! I finally went with the free motion class, ‘Beyond Basic Machine Quilting’…even though I haven’t mastered the basics..:o)
These classes are great…there are about 10 –15 different sessions…you can pick-up or re-watch any episode, at any time and this particular class will be available to me FOREVER!! I can watch it a million times…if I chose to do sew!! Ann Petersen is a great teacher…she goes slow and makes it look VERY easy! Also if I ever have a question or a concern, I just raise my hand and Ann will be there to answer it! (actually I have to email her…just seeing if you are paying attention….) Looks like Ann Petersen will NEVER retire!
Check out their Crafty Site…you may see a class that you are interested in!! As for me, I have some sandwiches to make…some fabric sandwiches! I’m thinking that if I keep a stack of sandwiches beside my sewing machine, Ann and I can spend a little quilty time together…whenever the urge hits!!
Thanks SEW CAL GAL!! I’m loving this win!!
Have a SUNNY Sunday and Happy Quilting!~P
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