My little haul...
may seem kinda pathetic, but I am delighted with what I have and you might get a glimpse of how my mind works. Scary, huh? First, I tend to be single-minded. I wanted some new pantographs. I find I have a love/hate relationship with pantos. They do seem to be a quick fix for those quilts where no amount of quilting would ever show, but at the same time, they seem to go on and on, forever. I only have a few, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to pick out a few more. I had a mission and I bought 3 pantos. A Keryn Emmerson(my favorite- she's all loose and flowy- "Flourish",) a Nancy Johnston, "Dragons Breath" and a Judy Allen, "My Favorite Leaves." That was my main goal for the day and I was done within the first hour of the show. Now what? The problem with these things, for me, is sensory overload. I like so much of what they show, how could I ever decide what to get? I tend to just give up. I want to be sure that I'm not buying something that I will later not be so thrilled with. Impulse buying. Nothing worse than buyer's remorse and in my book, I'd rather wish later that I'd gotten this or that than wish I hadn't, you know? My other 2 "big" purchases was the nifty little 1/4" seam allowance pressure foot for my featherweight. I am already so excited about this $16 splurge... I have been sewing up a blue streak for the past couple days. Ahh... the security of knowing where the 1/4" seam falls!! I also found these little rubber feet for the FW. Mine are dryrotting. $2.50. My Dad would roll his eyes and say I was ripped off, but I thought it was neat that they had them available. Then, at the end of the day, I came across a box full of old orphan blocks, or "bones" as I call them. Felt like an expectant mother looking through a nursery window. "ahhh..." "ohh..." When I came across these 2 maple leaf blocks, I had get them as they were just like a quilt my grandmother made. $2. each. gulp. I plan on making a wallhanging out of them. There were a few other small purchases for Sarah- mostly giggle items. All in all, I came away feeling pretty good about it. There was some hand-dyeds that tempted me just a bit, but then, I figure that if I ever save up some money, I'm headed straight to Darcie's. So there was no rush there. I saw a nifty cup holder that clamps onto the side of your sewing table. It had a little place to hang a Wal-Mart bag for clippings. That way you don't have to worry that you'll knock your tea cup over onto your sewing. But my son pointed out that you might find strings in your tea and that wouldn't be so good. Good point, I thought. But I'm still thinking about the cup holder part, and wondering if my ingenious husband couldn't whip me up one. There was some lovely reverse-applique items and squares at very reasonable prices... that was a tough one to resist. But, again, I couldn't make up my mind, so I walked away with none. And really, working at a quilt shop kinda keeps the "over-eating" under control. The Quilters' Toy Box, in Muncie Indiana, has all of my favorite things. Lots of hand-dyeds and batiks. And I know that if I see something I like at a show, like a pattern or a gadget, I can just let Tanya know and we'll pour over catalogs until we find it. How cool is that? Most people don't realize that a lot of smaller shops will do this for them- at no extra charge. I'm such a spoiled brat. Now if I could only figure out how to pace myself with chocolate chip cookies...