Bargain hunting for dummies

Sure, I've always held "You get what you pay for" as one of my personal mantras. I totally get it that if I only pay $10 at Target for a pair of cowboy boots so that my daughter can take a riding lesson, said daughter will likely come home after one lesson wearing shreds of pleather on her feet. I totally get that "Two Buck Chuck" is not called "Charles the Scrumptious" for a reason. I also totally hate that my grocery bill is appallingly huge every week, but that that is the price to pay for being a foodie who is raising three foodies with a husband/father who can't eat a meatless meal for fear the world might end.

 

On the other hand, I'm a big fan of a bargain. Nothing gives me more pleasure than scoring a Groupon for our favorite French restaurant Petit Robert (aka "Small Bob"), driving 4 miles out of my way on fumes and a prayer to save 8 cents a gallon on gas, and don't get me started on my tremendous joy of living on the NH border so that I can take advantage of their lack of a state sales tax every day of my life.

 

But free? Free trumps all. And until last week, blogger was free. Free for me to use to update you all on my fascinating life and quilting coolness. Now I am attempting to navigate the new format and am unsure if I am even allowed to post photos for free anymore after several in my last post disappeared. I so needed this RIGHT when I was ready to get back into blogging.

 

So consider this a test post to see if my photos show up, and if I have to cry over needing to figure out a new plan, as well as an update on what's new here in EPQDland this week.

 

I'm sorry, but how cute was Greta at age almost 3? Seems as good a picture as any to test first.

 

This past weekend I was at Bennington Quiltfest in Vermont with Terri Sontra of Purple Moose fame. Terri, as well as being a good friend and excellent member of NEQDC, is a godsend to all bargain hunting quilters everywhere. If you have not visited her online store, Purple Moose Designs, please do. Right now. I can wait.

Insert Musak here.

Isn't it just a great store for real quilty bargains? I buy all of my needles and much of my piecing thread from her because there is no way I can find them cheaper, and every time we do a show together she has some cool new notion at an unbeatable price that I must try out. A year or so ago it was the life-changing binding tool. This year it was some Karen Kay Buckley scissors. As much as I love going to my LQS and feeling fabric and seeing it in person and loving on it, etc, I also love finding an online shop to check out in my jammies, and if it is full of great products at great prices, all the better.

A snippet or two of our booth in VT. It's like building a clown car from the outside in every time with all the stuff we've got between 6 designers, but it works.

 

 

In further bargain hunting news, I am having a heck of a time this season finding decent school shoes that are not boots and not sneakers for Paige and Eva. Since I truly don't enjoy traditional shopping as it means I must go out in public and waste precious sewing time, plus having exhausted Marshalls, Bobs, and Kohls in my quest for decent preteen footwear, I've been trying to find shoes online for them. May I introduce you all to one of my new favorite online stores, 6pm.com? Free shipping! Cute things! SHOES THAT WORKED FOR PAIGE! One down, one to go. By the time we hit boot season I'll have something Eva can wear for fall, guaranteed.

 

 

Here's to saving money so we can buy more fabric. 

 



E-commerce and me, a love story

I hate shopping. I truly do. Shopping in actual stores, that is. The hassle of driving 12 miles to even find civilization in the form of row upon row of box store, the fact that I hate box stores, and the fact that it is taking up valuable quilting time to do it all combine to make me avoid most real live shopping at all costs.

Now, internet shopping is another thing entirely. You don't have to drive anywhere. You don't have to risk life and limb in a mall parking lot, and you don't have to stand in a line waiting 6 hours at the cutting table of JoAnn's or waiting on a price check at Target. You don't even have to be wearing clothes if you don't want to, although in general I don't take it quite that far.

I love that not only can I do almost all of my Christmas shopping on line now (http://www.americangirl.com/ has 25% off Marie Grace and Cecile stuff until Sunday, just letting you know!) but now I can even do a lot of my quilting supply shopping online too. Allow me to tell you of two of my favorite sites, both of which feature some of my patterns. I'd enjoy them regardless, but that does make them all that much sweeter.

http://www.patternspot.com/ is now featuring five of my designs, the latest upload being "Diamond Dazzle". The 16 page booklet-style pattern costs $12.50, and can be downloaded instantly to allow you to start quilting immediately. No waiting for the mail. No driving to the quilt shop. Just click, print, and sew. Lots of designers on there even have free patterns to download. It's for sure a "make a cup of tea before you open the homepage" kind of site - you are going to be there a while.

http://www.purplemoosedesigns.com/ is my friend Terri's online shop, which is awesome in that it always has cool gadgets and great prices, but is now featuring several of my patterns, including "Funky Tree Farm" and "Blizzard Buddies" just in time for the Christmas season. Check her site out and I know you will find some fabulous item you can't live without.

Happy Jammie Shopping!

All of 2009's hot new quilting tools - now being used in my studio

If there is one thing you hotties all know, it is that I am borderline proud of my lack of technical skills on the computer, don't own a smart phone, have never texted, and (here's a new confession) two of the three phones in my home still have cords. Yep. I'm way cool. 1988 ruled.

But I always considered myself a little bit more hip and now when it came to quilting. I'd never call myself a gadget guru by any means, but I love new products that make my quilting life easier and I will happily watch demos and probably buy them. I cannot resist an embellishment, and own more Angelina fibers than I know what to do with (quite literally, too, as I have yet to use any of them). I'll try new things and if I love them, you will hear about them incessantly until you try them just to shut me up (Jewel-it, anyone?).

So imagine my surprise this week when in the midst of my pre-market sewing frenzy, from which I am currently taking a much needed 30 minute break, I discovered two fantastic new tools which are both far from new. How did I miss these gems? And how can I prevent the rest of you from missing out? Well, I can write a humorous and informative blog post about them, that is how.

The first tool is this little chalk marking doodad from Clover. I'm pretty sure it is circa 2002 or even earlier, and also that I am last person on earth to discover it, but after using it for one millisecond I was hooked. I've long been a user of those basic blue markers for marking (when I even mark, which is about one time in 25), and just last week was bragging to my friends Judy Damon and Terri Sontra that I was pretty sure my blue marker was 10 years old and was never going to dry out. Yeah, it heard me from 50 miles away, and two days later I went to use it and it was dead. Well, lucky for me I had some of Judy's notion stock in my garage from a show NEQDC had done that weekend, and I had only to walk 40 feet to replace my marker with this chalk liner. It has a tiny little wheel on the end reminiscent of those carbon paper wheelie markers from back in the day, and is just a basic tube filled with chalk dust and seriously marks like a dream. I bought mine in bright red so that I couldn't lose it and with pink chalk because hey, a girl needs things to be pretty, but they come in other colors too. Check out that mark. Smooth and perfect and GONE once you sew on it.

1. 
   
   The chalk can also be rubbed off easily so as to redraw your lines when you do them too quickly and they suck, as seen here.



2. No, my hand is not really pink.


The second tool making my life perfect right now is aptly named "The Binding Tool", which I bought immediately after Terri Sontra of Purple Moose Designs demoed it at our booth last weekend. It was copyrighted in 2009, but it's new to me. I've stolen Terri's photo off her website not only because it is better than what I could take, but also because I want you to check out her online shop because she has some fabulous wares at very reasonable prices. And she includes chocolate in every order.

www.purplemoosedesigns.com/rotary.htm

Holy revelation in continuous binding glory. No more will you make your binding just a bit too big or a bit too small at the meeting point! No more will you twist the tales and swear a blue streak! As Terri promised, I did have to look at the photo tutorial on her site the first time I used it on my own, but the bottom line is it worked and I could not be more thrilled with this purchase. I'll never be a fan of binding, but this tool may make me less inclined to dread the entire event.

Finally, I've discovered a cool new fabric this week as I have been furiously whipping up a sample of my "Winter Whites" pattern for a silk vendor. That fabric would be Teflon.

Just kidding. It's silk, of course, and it is a bear and a half to keep from raveling, especially when you decide to ignore all advice to cut it on a dry day and instead wait for the wettest day in a week to start your project, but a little interfacing helps with that. Isn't it nice of me to have left some of the raveling in this photo so you could see for yourself? You cannot beat the richness of color and the sheen and it is making this project look like 8 million bucks. Lucky for shoppers, it's only $9. Doesn't it seem like a bargain now? Here's a sneak preview of the awesomeness of the silk colors. I'll post a photo of the finished project later this weekend.

Okay, it's back to sewing now. Please pray for me that Greta naps this afternoon so I'll have more to show for my day!