SHOP HOP AND FABRIC SHOPPING THOUGHTS

I just finished quilting this UFO, which has been hanging in my closet for several years.  Today I sewed on the binding and moved it into the living room so I can hand sew it to the back while watching TV.

I'm so glad to have this almost finished.  A friend of mine bought me the pattern after she saw me admiring the made up sample in a quilt shop.

I stitched in the ditch first, then quilted feathers in the brown setting triangles.  Once it is totally done I'll take a better picture of the quilting so you can see how I quilted each section.

A friend and I went to 8 shops on the "Snowflakes and Stitches Shop Hop" - 6 of them on Monday.  Below you can see my purchases.  I bought more than I had been planning on buying - surprise, surprise!  I have some projects in mind.

When shopping, I always look for the "scrap bin" that some quilt shops have to see if I can get some scraps that I can use.  I didn't take a picture of them, but Grandma's Attic in Dallas, OR had one and you can fill a plastic bag with as much fabric as you can squeeze in for $4.99.   I debated doing it, but decided to see if there was enough fabric I liked to make it worth while.   I starting wondering how much fabric you actually got for that amount of money.  One of the other shops in the shop hop is our local quilt shop, Boersma's Sewing Center and they have a little chest of drawers with scraps in them - those scraps cost 50⍧ per ounce.  I wondered if that was a better deal than a baggie for $4.99.

So when I got home, I decided to weigh some fabric to see how much one yard weighs.  I weighed 4 fat quarters and they weighed 4 1/4 oz.  One yard of a different fabric weighed 6 oz.  So, I kind of averaged it out and figured that 5 oz. is about what one yard of cotton fabric weighs.  So, I weighed the baggie from Grandma's Attic and it weighed 11 oz.  That means that I got approximately 2 yards of fabric for $4.99.  If I bought $5 worth of scraps from Boersmas, which would be 10 oz, I would get approximately 2 yards.   So, I think that price is pretty good.

Am I the only nutty quilter who loves to dig through the scrap bins?  Please don't tell me that I am!

And, oh, BTW, my friend and I both agreed that the best shops we went to were Boersma's Sewing Center, Greenbaum's Quilted Forest, Grandma's Attic, and The Quilted Hill.

OREGON'S 157th BIRTHDAY

I have been busy quilting my E Pluribus Unum wall hanging.  I'll try to get it bound soon.

Close up of the quilting - Cross hatching inside the panel and feathers all over the bow tie blocks.

I also finished a top that I started 2 years ago when Barrister's Block had a Quilt-A-Long.  I made 43 blocks then, but didn't finish it.  Now, she is having another Bullseye Quilt-A-Long and I got my top done.

There's a "Snowflakes and Stitches Shop Hop" going on although I haven't seen any snowflakes lately.  A friend and I went to one shop yesterday - The Quilted Hill in Yamhill, OR.  This shop had gone out of business a few years ago, but recently has reopened and it is out in the beautiful countryside of Western Oregon - picture of countryside below is taken looking at the view from the front of the shop, which is on a farm.  The picture is taken with my cell phone, so it doesn't do the view justice.

After shopping at The Quilted Hill, we went to the Yamhill County Historical Society to help celebrate Oregon's 157th birthday.    Here are a few pictures taken in the museum.

Quilt brought in a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail.

Treadle and hand crank sewing machines.

A quilt top at the museum (no information available)

If you live in Western Oregon, are you going to the shop hop?  We plan to go to some more shops on Monday, but I doubt we will make it to all 15 of them.