Work luncheon, road trip, t-shirt quilt progress, preparing fabric

Friday was the annual holiday lunch at work. It was Hungarian food which is not to my liking, but I did get a couple perogies, some mashed potatoes, and green beans.

This year's charity was the Boy and Girls Club. I bought tickets, but didn't win anything which is ok. Here is the over-the-top table of beautifully wrapped boxes to choose from.

I did get one of the centerpieces.

Saturday I took a road trip to Shiloh, Ohio, to Country Fabrics. I had never heard of this quilt shop until I had spent some time last week looking for quilt shops.  It is a 1 1/2 hour drive, which is not any longer than when I would drive to Miller's in Charm, Ohio.

Here is the stats for the trip. The roads were in good shape except for some of the side roads.  It was cold, and out in the middle of nowhere!  The land is fairly flat, farm after farm dotted with barns, homes and outbuilding.  I never even saw a cow or horse; I guess they were in the barn trying to keep warm!  LOL!!

The store is BIG! Aisles and aisles of quilting cottons.

They also carry lots of Amish dress fabric, flannel, sewing machines, notions, rulers, elastics, and findings for sewing. There was a big section for wool. This was half of it.

They had piles of flat folds of quilting cotton and flannel. There was a housewares section, toys and games, and upstairs they had Amish hats and bonnets, dishes, hunting stuff, and handmade rugs. Here is the fabric I bought. I didn't know that they were having a sale on fabric so I saved 11% on the fabric. I am now signed up for their email newsletters so I will know when they have sales. I spent two hours in the shop.  They prices were good too.  Kona was $6.98.  I found the fabric priced from $8.98 to $10.98.    There were hundreds of bolts of batiks.  

I loaded up on thread. These spools were only $2.29 each.

They carry Kai scissors. I was able to get the package open and tried out a pair.  Oh, they were nice so I bought them. They had two pair and they were priced differently. I bought the pair that was $5.00 less; same scissors just priced differently; maybe there were an older pair and the newer ones are more expensive.  

I had bought these Havel scissors to keep for clipping thread at the sewing machine, but they have a micro serrated edge and I never get a clean cut. They were driving me crazy. The Kai cut so nice!  I will keep the Havel scissors next to the iron.

When I got home I got something to eat then took a short nap; I was tired from that three hour drive!. I then had to unpack my goodies and spread them out by color on the utility room floor along with all the other fabric that I had been buying.  The reds were already in the washing machine.

The mailman showed up with the replacement fabric from Handcock's so that went in the washing piles.

I needed to get the t-shirt quilt pin basted so I could get it off the big table. This is where I keep my pressing pad so that quilt needed to get pinned. I got most of it pinned on Saturday afternoon/evening and finished it Sunday morning after I got back from the grocery store.

I put stuff away, made two different soups, and did dishes. By 10 a.m. I was downstairs starting to wash fabric. I had a good rhythm going - wash a load, toss it in the dryer, get another load going, press as loads washed and dried.  Here is what fabric is all prepped and ready to use.

What still needs pressed.

What still needs washed. I think I put a pretty good dent in it!  

I am rearranging some stuff and getting boxes labeled with the projects and quilts I want to make. I will put in the boxes the fabric, pictures, etc. for each project.  I got a start on it yesterday and will show you my progress tomorrow.