Thursday, March 29, 2007

Quilt Shop Spending Spree.






Yesterday afternoon was dull and showery so the opportunity arose for me to drive over to Ngongotaha to "Cottage Flair," to use my voucher my son in London sent me last Christmas. I needed some notions so now was a good time. I got quite a variety of things as it was a generous voucher. I told the ladies at the shop that my son found them on the net as they had a good website when he googled 'Quilt Shops Bay of Plenty- NZ .' He paid on line and they posted me the voucher. ( Great Gift, James thanks! )

At our P & Q Group in April we are going to be making button bags ( a bag with buttons on it ) and I want to do 2. One to keep and one as a gift, so I got needle punch( stiff batting ); some clear plastic handles; cotton; a new blade for my rotary cutter as I have just put a new one in and like to keep a spare; some little refills for my chalk marker; 6 buttons; and six fat quarters. As well so I have something to keep from the gift I found a book I thought had useful ideas in it.

Its called "The Quilter's Edge,"( Borders, Bindings and Finishing Touches ) by Darlene Zimmerman. I started reading it last night and I think it will be a great reference and inspiration. There are chapters on: Quilt sizes; Setting Options; Formulas; Borders; Bindings; Edge Finishes; Prairie Points; Knife Edge; Ice Cream Cone Borders; Hanging Sleeves; and Finishing a Pillow. 125 lovely pages!
Today the weather has deteriorated to heavy rain so I'm off now to wash the new FQs, cut my 3.5" squares, cut the batting and get ready for 2 interesting projects I have ahead of me in April.
Yay - wet days do have a silver lining.

7 comments:

molly said...

Fun to go quilt shop browsing and have cash/or a gift voucher with which to pay! Love that blue fabric on the bottom. Hope you'll show us pics when the bags are done...

meggie said...

Bags sound very interesting, Ali.
What a nice thoughtful gift from your son, & such fun to 'spend'.
Love those blue fabrics.

Diana said...

What a thoughtful son you have. The book looks really interesting--I think Darlene Zimmerman is teaching a class near here soon, but I was too late to sign up. :( Have fun with all your "loot"!

Unknown said...

That book looks inspirational - so many times we get to the borders and binding of a quilt and run out of steam and ideas - always wanted to do a scalloped edge round a quilt - maybe I'll have a go after looking at that

Helen said...

Cottage Flair is one of my favourite quilt shops. I always go the back way from Rotorua to Tauranga. The road is much better now and my mother and step father live in Greerton. So if I am going up that way I usually do a 'round trip' to Rotorua, Tauranga and Hamilton.

Tracey @ozcountryquiltingmum said...

Good fun, good son and a good gift! tracey

Joyce said...

Your blue fabrics are totally gorgeous! Lucky you with that gift voucher.