Black Bag Saturday August 2014

This weekend was Black Bag Saturday! And by now I hope that you understand my love of this monthly event (if not read this post). The free notion of the month was a Dritz wrist pin cushion and the coupons which I'll talk about below were right on for what I ended up "needing". 

This month I did not go in with specific items in mind except for batting. I had no trouble finding batting (which was on an exclusive BOGO coupon), and I also found 2 great single patterns and a pattern book, which of course then lead to great fabric purchases. 

PATTERN PURCHASES

The first single pattern I picked up was from Trouble and Boo, it's a penguin table topper. It is the perfect size for me to use my bring the back to the front as binding/border trick, and it's a quick applique project. I think it will end up being a holiday present for some people in my life. This pattern was a great deal too because with the purchase of the $8.00 pattern you received a half yard of fabric free, can't beat that. 

The second single pattern I purchased was Trim the Tree III by Cindi Edgerton. This is a paper piecing pattern that includes what you need (minus fabric/thread) to create 2 small, 2 medium, and 2 large paper pieced Christmas trees. I have not paper pieced before, other than one 15 minute lesson at my very first sewing class about 2 years ago so I will be sure to document my adventure well and share it with everyone. If you have tips or links to tutorials you think I should check out please comment below!! 

Finally the pattern book, HAPPY HAUNTERS BOOK by Kelly Mueller of the Wooden Bear. This book contains a good grouping of Halloween projects. From wall hangings, to aprons, to desktop candy corn, and a quilted game table with bats and frogs as game pieces.

FABRIC PURCHASES

When I purchase a book or a pattern I try to make sure I pick up fabric for it in the same trip if at all possible and cost effective. I have a great stash at home to pull from when it comes to solid colors thanks to my Black Friday splurge at connectingthreads.com last year where I picked up about 100 fat quarters in a variety of colors. 

The penguin table topper was easy to purchase fabric for, I just needed the border/backing fabric and the background fabric. I had the black, red, and white on hand needed to make the applique penguins. For the border/backing fabric I chose the same shown in the pattern, and then a simple snowflake for the background. 

When I picked up the Happy Haunters Book the cover photo featuring the "What did you call me?" Witch Wall Hanging made me instantly need the book. The great thing about pattern books at 35th Ave Sew and Vac is they are always 20% off. In order to make the wall hanging I needed to get background fabric, border fabric, backing fabric, black fabric for the hat and boots, and a coordinating fabric for the witches accessories. 

I found some pretty amazing fabrics for the wall hanging I must say. The black cats on black fabric are hands down my favorite and were a lucky find. All of the color on color fabrics are kept in one spot near the cutting line, and had I not been waiting in line I would have missed this gem. 

I purchased just over 2 yards of my backing fabric because it was the end of the bolt and I knew I could use it for other Halloween items. I then also picked up coordinating green, orange, and purple cobweb fabric. 

This trip made me super excited to get started on these projects but we have some family commitments this weekend so my quilting time will be limited to the evenings after C has gone to bed. Hopefully I can still get started on at least a little something, Halloween is going to be here before we know it! 

Bill's Black Bag Saturday August 2013

I was recently introduced to 35th Ave. Sew and Vac. Which is an incredible quilting store and vacuum/sewing machine repair shop here in the Phoenix area.  They have three locations across to Maricopa County. Well on their Facebook page I discovered an event they hold monthly called Bill's Black Bag Saturday.

On Black Bag Saturday, customers purchase a reusable bag (one time and then use it for the year) which gives them access to a set of exclusive Coupons to be used that day and a free select notion chosen by the store.  The free notion this month was a Dritz magnetic pin wand! 

The coupons vary monthly but you can always expect a 40% off one notion, anda 40% off one cut of fabric. They also have additional dollar off coupon you can win by playing games.There are always demonstrations going on too! 

This month there was even a table where you could make your own mummy out of batting, muslin, and flexible wire! With the mummy they held a Facebook contest and had people submit pictures all month of what there mummy helped them with! You'll see my mummy featured in some of the photos in my next post about Scrabble Jack. 

I should note this was my first true trip to a quilting store. I had no idea what to expect and boy was I blown away!! The selection was awesome, the people were great, and there was so much to see.

It was really hard to decide what to buy because truly I would have bought everything I touched if I had the budget!

In the end I picked one pattern, called Scrabble Jack by Happy Hollow designs. Then I needed to pick the fabric that the pattern called for. It called for almost 20 fat quarters. I had never really picked more than one or two fabrics that matched each other, so picking 20 fat quarters of different colors that match each other was something that I was a little nervous about.

 I should preface here that when I shop for clothes I only go to stores that put their collections on maniquines, so I can buy the entire outfit and make sure it matches based on what the maniquine was wearing. 

The best part I found about this quilting store was the willingness of the staff to help me in matching and picking out fabrics. With this pattern you use a fusible grid fabric to  ensure that all your patchwork matches up perfectly (since you have over 200 two inch squares to sew), without the help of the staff I wouldn't have thought to get the grid paper or known how to use it. 

Below is a picture of my total haul from the event. I won't lie I was probably there for at least 4 hours! Cannot wait to share how Scrabble Jack turns out. 

Shopping for Materials

Today I spent the morning organizing my quilting area and researching what type of finishing items I'd need to buy to complete my table runner. While on my lunch break at work I headed to Joann Fabric to pick up a dark blue fabric to use as backing for my table runner and then some batting. While there I felt a bit overwhelmed in trying to find a matching backing, so I just chose a plain dark blue instead of trying to match any of the patterns already in the table runner. The nice thing about this was the fabric was $3.99 a yard, and I had a 50% off coupon via the Joann's Iphone App (a must have!). With the help of the cutting station service attendant I was able to find some insul-bright batting which is made for going in "hot-pads and oven mitts". This was on sale for $6.99 a yard from $7.99 (Wish it had been normal price because I would have been able to use my 50% coupon on it if it was regular price!).  I picked up a spool of thread there too as I have already gone through one spool with all my practicing!

1 Yard Backing, 1 Yard Batting, 1 Spool Thread ($11.69)

After I gathered all these goods I watched two very quick youtube videos about how to add batting/backing to a table runner but I didn't feel confident I could do it on my own on my first try. So I reached out to my great Quilting 101 instructor, she host classes at her house Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights where you can bring your projects and she'll assist you in completing them. What a great deal right?! I sent a photo of the runner thus far and she said she could help, so I'm excited to get this finished tomorrow :) Can't wait to show the results.