Oh. My. Word.

I had an early lunch with a girlfriend this morning in the same shopping area as the quilting store.  So, I thought I'd stop in and browse before heading home.  I knew it would empty my wallet, but I went anyway. ;)

Imagine my surprise when I suddenly found myself in another room full of fabric!  It only took me a second to realize that over the course of the last couple of months of absentee-ism the store had expanded and nearly doubled their space!  They had a bus tour when I arrived and with the crowd it wasn't obvious at first, but I'm thrilled with the expanded space!  I enjoyed shopping and picked up a few things.

First, I grabbed this little book.  I LOVE charm packs and I'm always looking for cute projects I can use them in.  I liked this book because not only were the patterns cute, but they were also easy to expand into bigger blankets. 

  

Then this project.  When my parents visited in May, my mom and I had gone to the store and noticed the purse/wallet clasps, but neither of us picked one up.  But this time, they had a physical example of this pouch and I loved that there were so many pockets and a zippered section for coins.  I initially picked out some green and orange fabric, but saw these and knew they were much more my style.

A closer look at the pattern picture.  It's cute, no?

And the various fat quarters I picked up.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but the green dots next to the hockey players is little frogs - very cute.  And the one on the other side of the player is more muted than it appears here.  I loved the chickens and the chicken wire prints!

Finally, a few holiday prints.  I'm more about cute Halloween than realistic or gorey - just not my style.  I'll post pictures of the new sewing room layout tomorrow.

Shopping!

I can't really discuss my current projects because they are gifts, but I CAN tell you about the shopping I did a couple weeks ago.  I had gone to the local quilt shop after my haircut. (No hubby meant I could actually spend some time looking!)  

I initially was looking for a pattern for my Christmas project - last year everyone got stockings or a wall quilt.  This year, I have something else in mind that I saw on another blog and thought it was a great idea!

Anyway, that's why I went there.  But, despite being listed on the designer's website as a vendor, I didn't find that pattern... I found plenty of others.

As you can see I bought a couple of zippered bag patterns and a purse pattern.  I must really like the purse pattern because when I got home I found I already had it in my box.  Oh well.  The other thing in this picture is the "let's twist" pattern book and tool.  They were having a demonstration of this tool and I loved it so much I couldn't resist purchasing it.  I have just the fabric collection that I'm going to use for it.  My plan is to use it for a summer wall quilt.  I can't wait to get through my current projects so I can work on this. (I find myself excited about what I'm working on, but always looking forward to the next project as well - it's a weird paradox.)

I promised a friend of mine that I would make her some pot holders as part of that Facebook challenge I mentioned at the beginning of the year.  She likes orange, so while I was looking at the fat quarters I came across some nice batiks.  There was a nice blue fabric which was part of a Christmas line, but I only found that one fabric.  Then I grabbed a St. Patrick's Day fabric to add to my growing collection.  Finally, some fabrics for the Christmas project I'm planning (I found the pattern online). 

The fabric that really grabbed my attention was, of course, the hockey fabrics.  Hockey is kind of a rare find.  I've been collecting what bits and pieces I can find whenever I come across it - and I hit paydirt here.  I now have a plan for it too!

I'm quite happy with my purchases and looking forward to working on these additional projects!