I found a great deal at Hancock's of Paducah. Honestly, I find many superlative deals there. I recently purchased 2 Fat Quarter Bundles
Here is the Andover Fabrics Laundry Basket Quilts Secret Stash Warm Fat Quarters. There are 20 fat quarters for $39.99.
I also bought the 20 Cool Fat Quarters for $29.99..I'd give you a pic, but at that price, they are long gone. Both are fabulous deals. I find that I get the best deals on fabric from Hancocks. I also got a 10% off coupon which I was able to apply.
To get free shipping (they have a reasonable $5 flat rate) I had to spend $70, so I bought a Mari Michel 60 degree corner trimmer. It is small, and I can use this to mark hexagon stitch points as well as make a small triangle quilt.
I've not done much with triangles until I tackled my OBW. I'm so happy with how my sizing up (from 3.75 to 3.875 (7/8) has improved my ability to have each of my blocks the perfect size. I lamented in a previous post that some of blocks were wonky despite my taking the greatest care in cutting, sewing and pressing. Slightly upsizing (and I have no problem working/measuring with eighths) and then trimming slivers to have perfect blocks for perfect points will be welcome.
Perplexed or One Block Wonder Blunder: Even though my OBW fabric choice was halved lengthwise (meaning I would have exactly enough for a sister quilt), for some reason I was not able to 6 repeats from the remaining half. I'm thinking that I cut my side hexagons halves from it, which would explain the shortage. Now, that was REALLY poor planning or more poetically stated as a One Block Wonder Blunder). Therefore, (UGH!), I'm only able to get 1/2 the blocks (I got 49 blocks out of the first). I'll work it out to put some contrasting blocks into the layout or simply use full v. pieced hexagons in the quilt. OR...I can make Posie blocks (made from 4 squares) that I cut into a hexagon. In fact, I think that I'll do that.
I am now entering my 3rd year as a quilter. I'm a long way from embarrassment and longer way still from mastery. However, I can make pretty quilts. My interest is not so much in free motion quilting largely due to my domestic machine not having but 7.5" of harp space. My newer Bernina (B530)has the BSR which is lovely, but with a narrow harp, it really is a hassle to move your fabric about.
Nevertheless, I have no remorse in doing straight line quilting. Have walking foot, will travel! Over this next year, I would like to develop my free motion quilting skills. If I were to simply spend 20 minutes daily practicing, I'm sure my skills would improve dramatically. It is all about building muscle memory.
But the truth of the matter, there are few people in my life that would appreciate the quilting more than the quilt itself.
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