Extreme shopping

Here is my outrageous stash from Festival. Actually this is cleverly combined to make it look small. When Lesley came to my room for show and tell and found the king sized bed mostly covered she could hardly walk into the room for laughing. Just because some stalls had less stock...

But its not that bad really! Purchases fall into 6 categories:

1. For the house and therefore not really quilt stuff at all
I.e. Work box to keep the lounge tidy when hand sewing - practically furniture. And half price at £15.
Kaffe Fasset fabric to make something for our bed in the unforeseeable future - just £6 per meter.

2. So small as to not really require justification because if I hadn't been honest and showed you you wouldn't even have noticed I'd got them.
Trapunto wool
Magazines - one was free anyway

3. Gifts. No one can criticise you for generosity
Two small FQs for a swap.
Circle cutter (because in some months time one of my birthday swap blocks is a circle theme)
But you never know - some of the other stuff might get given away in due course too.

4. Stuff for education - City and Guilds and general self development
Education is priceless, paints are not really expensive ( and for everything else there is Mastercard.) Besides I had decided before I went that my spending was to be focused not on randoms stash development (Oooh oooh pretty!) but on a sensible combination of products I actually needed to learn the things I chose to focus on this coming academic year. Well, kids get new pencil cases in September - why are we different?

So...
Fabric paints. I want to learn the stuff in a couple of books I bought (The Painted Quilt by Linda and Laura Kemshall and Print Your own cloth by Rayna Gillman) and I also want to focus on machine quilting. In fact the Kemshall's technique nicely focuses on both. I also have limited time so I decided to focus on wholecloth quilts.

First stop three pieces of hand dyed from the Chicago school of dying - this is one example. I thought one meter would give three panels for a triptych and as you can see from the main photo I got three meters - lots of practice scope there.
But I didn't really know what to get for paints - I kind of freeze with indecision at the choice

So I started with one pot of Jaquard metallic paint and a handful of Markal paintstiks ( in the sale) and a small pot of discharge paint and then bought some of the paintbrushes Linda Kemshall recommended from a wonderful woman at For Myself. I paid for the brushes,admired her work and expressed my frozen state at the shelves and shelves of Stuart Gill paint behind her. She said she would not sell me either lots of colours or just my favourite one anyway. Huh? At first I assumed that it was a language problem - she was Dutch. Then she explained.

If I bought my favourite colour I'd get bored and not do anything spectacular with it. If I bought lots they'd sit on the shelf, expire and then I'd be cross with myself and with them for wasting money. She picked up a red, a yellow, a blue , black and white and told me to mix my own and play. Well, Duh, yeah. Of course!! But then she put them back on the shelf. I was confused. Did she think I wasn't smart enough to use them? No turns out she was genuinely just trying to advise and didn't think I wanted to buy. Nice, nice lady. I bought. Plus a couple of glitters to add in. When I asked for her card so I could order more in the future she told me not to buy from her, buy direct from Stuart Gill because they are in Scotland and the postage is cheaper. Nice, nice lady.

For the quilting I want to play with using and blending lots of thread colours in one piece and with using different brands and weights and including hand stitches. Of course little bits of thread in each quilt requires a blow out on threads overall :)

Dennis wants to know can anyone spot the little rogue addition he made to my stash before the photo was taken?

4. Bits based on the Michelangelo principle

You know how all the great Renaissance painters had patrons who supported them financially. Do you ever think how large a part the people who spent their cash to support artists made to art History? Probably they could not paint a straight line with a ruler but without them many churches would have plain brick walls.
So - copies of the Kemshall's latest journal project Threefold
Copies of the EQA catalogues ( bargain too - five and two CDS for £20!)
Handdyed fabric from Ricky Tims ( he touched it!)

5. You can't give if you are empty inside.
You know the theory - you have to fill yourself up with good things if you are going to be selfless and support others like that.
Bundle of FQs from the African Fabric Shop ( besides, a horrible migraine comes on if I walk past Magie's shop)

6. Boring but necessary.
Needles.
Bobbin box.

I also managed to win a free Microtack gun in a prize draw and Ricky gave me a free subscription to The Quilt Show because it was my birthday this month. then there was the challenge purchases - but they don't count because the came from a kitty not my spend and they are over at Quilt land anyway...


I know this all looks outrageously extravagant but in my defence
(a) I had saved up
(b) I know I am very very lucky
(c) I didn't buy everything I saw and wanted because I have three more shows in the next three months!