My online Fabric buying experience

Hoffman Spectrum print  Skyline

Because of peer pressure, I thought I had to have a particular fabric that I finally found online at E Quilter.

Click on any image to see it bigger, and read the selvedges to order any.

<==This seemed like the perfect fat binding around black for my thimble mosaic piece that's finished but I haven't shown.
Since I was paying for shipping based on value of order, I went ahead and ordered this sale priced fabric...

 again, click to see the specs along the selvedge.

It's a gorgeous striped organic colored piece. They only had 3 yards and I bought two at $6.48 /yd. And since I want to look into every artist studio, I got this sale magazine at half price too...

All of it arrived in three days, taped up by the US post office saying they received it damaged and open.
It was also soaking wet. Wet magazine, wet fabric. I called customer service right away. The nice person said she'd handle the report and save another magazine for me but the fabric I bought was gone.

I told her I could wash the fabric and it was probably not mildewed yet. She said they wanted my first order to be a happy one, and they would replace everything. That's the good news.
The other news was, she said they had to wait to see if the post office paid the insurance claim.

huh? that confused me.
 My replacement depended on whether or not the PO accepted the claim as valid?

Long story short, they did pay the claim, and EQuilter said I could choose more fabric to replace the original.
I chose this digital print at one yard for the same price as two yards of the sale stripe and a stonehenge...

It came packaged better this time, dry and no PO tape on it.
It also came with an invoice for the replacement cost. WHAT???

 I called the representative who said it was not charged to my card, it was just their way to get a replacement to me. We are trying to check paypal to make sure we weren't charged for this again.

Believe me, I will send it right back, and let you all know if that happens.

So the result was probably good, as I can now read the magazine, and have fabric.

The process was awkward in that I was led to believe my order would only be replaced if the PO paid for it. And I had to wait for a replacement til that claim was processed, about a week. And then wait for shipment of replacement which came in with an invoice.

I don't like dealing with these kinds of  issues that are annoying and take time and seem unnecessary.

I'll let you all know if they did charge me again. And let them know too.

This is why I shop in person.
linking to parties on my links page including
mollisparkles Sundays

Vintage TV, Sofa and Dress--a l'orange

Shall we put on our dress and pearls, sit on the sofa drinking some Tang, and see what's on TV??

Why, it's a baking show!

You know we baked a LOT in the sixties!!

I even made Eclairs as a young thing in the 70's

I especially like this TV with it's many knobs, space theme, and bright red legs! Wish I had one of these too!


I found this little scrap given by a friend, in my orange collection, so it had to be pieced in right??

One of the bakers had to be appliqued.

These are paper pieced, paper-doll dresses.

Remember paper dolls? We were not so fussy in the sixties... we were happy cutting out paper clothes to fit our flimsy cardboard ladies, with little tabs to fold over her shoulders.

The doll stood on a cross piece, and we would place them near each other, "walk" them around, talking for them. Dressed in fancy clothes we wanted to wear, saying fancy things we wanted to say.

"Darling! Do come in and enjoy the TV, it's COLOR don't you know?!"

We would change their clothes often...

Pattern for all three blocks is paper pieced home

 

Imagine having a sofa like this today! With those awesome shiny painted turquoise legs?? Awesome! 

Then having to choose between all of these...

I think this would be a fabulous design for today's family rooms, don't you?Which one would you choose?  To watch your favorite show on one of these TV's...

Linking to several parties including RSC  

and  can I get a whoop whoop

monday making 

Midweek makers   I was featured on this blog, how exciting! 

"If life is what you make it, I'll make mine colorful!!"

Poodle hair = pollen magnet

This is Poodle Hair. It has apparently the same chemical make up of Velcro.

Cole does not shed, he collects. When he was a baby he would come in from playing and I'd find long sticks and all kinds of debris hidden in his leg hair.Right now it's one of the worst pollen seasons ever.
This is oak pollen

This is what happens if you look at it....

It sticks on this hair and comes in this door...

and settles in the fibers of sofa and carpet.

We're over it.

And poor Cole has been waking us up every night shaking his ears. Flap, flap. We give him prescription antihistamines but have to give a benedryl when he wakes up. Even he's over it.

Got scraps? Make Orangeade!

For this week's Rainbow Scrap challenge to use orange at soscrappy  I made another big block.
It's different from the other strata block in look and construction. The recipe is:
Gather strips of any width but at least 15" long,  and arrange them in one block of dark

one of light

 I don't worry if the strips are even or perfect, I just sew them together and press well.
Using the 15" square template, I cut out a perfect square from each strata.

Place them RST, one strip set going vertically, one going horizontally.

Sew all around the outsides with a quarter inch seam.

Cut on the diagonal both ways, being careful to keep the square, square. When you open up the sections you get this

Press toward the horizontal part, CAREFULLY so as not to distort the bias edges.

Be careful in the arrangement before sewing the segments back together. You can get lines going through the block, making the whole block really dynamic, or you can mess it up here.

I like the size and impact of the different colors as the months go by.

linking to parties of others working with scraps, including  http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/

If only my real sewing machine looked like this!!!

I have included this pattern ( aquiltingsheep )  into my scrappy color challenge this year. The difference is I am doing it in specific colors. What do you think of this background?? It's spools of thread.

I sorted out enough scraps to fit over the pattern and stitched them together.




Then I put some thin fusible interfacing, right sides together with the scraps, placed the paper pattern over it and sewed around.

I pinned it in two places first, and left a big opening to turn it right sides out.

The pattern calls for using raw edge fusible but I wanted turned edges.
The good news and the bad news. The fusible interfacing I use for this technique is cheap.
It is also tissue thin and tears easily like paper, so be careful when turning appliques.

What about this background??   I decided to use several fabrics for backgrounds, and to cut into the one yard pieces. If not with abandon, at least with intention. I bought them to use. I've been keeping the whole yards for a long time now. So what if I reach for one and a square is cut out?

I am too reluctant to cut into yardage.
This time I decided to just use them. They are each so cute, and I like cute, and my plan is to sew all these big blocks end to end to make a banner to go in my studio. Why ever not cut into my collection so I can enjoy the prints instead of storing them??? If I need a larger amount for some future project, well I will cross that fabric bridge when I come to it!

After all, More is Better right? 

Now we can talk about the actual machines... I am in love with them. If only my real machine looked like any of these!! The purple one has Ballerina pigs. (did you know I studied ballet for 10 years?)

and the black and white one with cows, and doggie foot prints...

and the blue one has a dancing Alligator.

When I lived in Tampa I belonged to a cajun dance group. Oh we had fun, Cher!
laissez le bon temps rouler!  We still love to do cajun jitterbug and zydeco dance. Alligators, flowers, butterflies and sail boats along the very bottom.
I mean, if you you can't have fun quilting then why not?

linking to some parties including:
superscrappy 
quiltingreadersgarden
Whomp there it is

look what Ivani showed me!! An orange sewing machine by Vigorelli from the 1970's

Definition of a walk... Cole's commandments

It's as if humans speak an entirely different language!

I mean, when Momma says lets go for a walk, I think, Alrighty then!

 I know walk means---
1. stop as often as necessary to REALLY smell the smells. I mean, be thorough. Do NOT miss even one smell that might be interesting.
This takes concentration.
It's serious business.
This is probably the biggest problem I have with Momma lately. She just will not learn. It's as if she doesn't know the meaning of the word "walk"

2. Walk also means... pee on almost everything that smells like it's calling out for pee
There are times you run out of pee, and have to give it your all to squeeze out a few drops but you try, people, you TRY.
Again this is a bone of contention with Momma and I. She does not seem to get the importance of peeing. I mean she next to NEVER pees on a walk, and that's what it's for.

3. Next meaning of the word walk is HUNT.
Keep your peepers open for critters who have the nerve to dash in front of your very eyes! Squirrels are probably the worst for that nonsense, but I've seen many a fox, chipmunk, and the occasional bird. Well if you can call them birds. There was that vulture eating a slow squirrel in the road one day, but that's a story for another time. Oh, and the goose who guarded the cul de sac. Again another day I'll make you laugh with those encounters.

Here comes Harper! She's cute!

Sometimes walks include seeing friends. Here comes  Harper the golden, and River's new sister along the sidewalk. Awrighttttt! If you go for a "walk" you see peeps.
 I mean when they come by my fence I feel compelled to bark and I think I might possibly look like a fool, but  I really do like them.

It's the fence thing, because my job of protecting is more impawtant than visiting.
Visiting is for walks.

 So there you have it. My problem is that Momma doesn't know the meaning of the word walk. She is hard to train, and it's been nearly 14 years I've been trying to explain this to her. Sheesh! You'd think poodle people would be smarter.

Gotta love her though! She's my momma!

Stop and smell the tulips, or the pee on tulips

 ps.
LeeAnna here (the momma) to show you a pic of some pretty flowers.
I got a chance to really, really, look at these flowers while his majesty, Old King Cole power-sniffed.

Look how painted they look. Just  keeping it artistic around here.
They are not mine, the squirrels eat mine, but they are inspirational. 



check out these other bloggers  http://rascalandrocco.com/pet-parade

The choice was to go to a craft show

the shop  link is www.pinkcloud.com/

We had to decide what to do with a lovely Spring day here. A RARE day with low humidity, sunshine, cool temps all on a Saturday. Work around the house? Go to an outdoor craft show? Guess what we did!

The picture is Cole in a booth of dog related clocks. There's a poodle clock to his right in the picture. Almost bought it but I had already gotten the grand prize of a sweet delicate necklace bought by my husband for an early birthday pressie.
Cole loves going to this show. Slow walking, lots of petting and attention, being with his people.

A woman kind of bothered me by asking not only how old he was but then she asked how long poodles live... then she skeptically asked if he was able to walk around the show. I felt judged.  It's one of his joys, and he was excited about all the looking and people. He may be pushing 14 but he is still in there.

After the lovely afternoon show, we stopped by Capital Quilts because I don't have enough supplies (!!!)

I only bought a yard of this sale Hoffman batik, that is intense colors in person.
The good news is they stack bolt after bolt against a wall, of sale fabrics. The bad news is they are all bolt-end up and you can't see the actual fabric unless you bend over double and let them fall against your legs as you try to tilt them enough to see.

Before the 45 minute car ride around the beltway, I got my sewing bag of hexies ready including the all important organizer for the project. Every thing one needs for basting hexies and sewing them together. 

That quilt grows and grows. The magical traveling bag of tricks...

holding two big sections pinned together for placement. The pill holder you see is holding bobbins of different colored threads.

Drew drives, Cole sleeps, I sew and we are currently listening to Diana Gabaldon's latest Outlander book on cd.

It was a good day.

visit other scrappy goodness at these parties

oh Scrap Sundays   

 slow stitching Sundays
http://tweloquilting.blogspot.com/
sewcando

The rare orange diamond

So, what do you do with tiny scraps? Throw them away? 
Not me. I sit at my beloved machine and mindlfully sew them together while listening to a book on disc.

I almost love this kind of piecing best... no big decisions yet I enjoy seeing how prints and shades look next to each other. Seeing the lines develop and look when trimmed into diamonds is very satisfying.

Finally the orange scrap bin is getting down to the ones hard to use. They might need to become squares for watercolor quilts.Look at the scale/size next to my hand....

Look at the prints....

cats staring right at you...

The four colors so far from the RSC 2016
If it weren't for this year-long challenge to use scraps, one color at a time, I might not be making these fun quilts.

I have friends who think I am cuckoo to work with such small pieces.

My answer is look at what comes from them!
I feel free to mix pattern and color with them.

Since they are so small there is no worry of waste.
When you cut into a yard of beautiful fabric you might feel anxiety that you should use it in the "right" way.

One of my favorite artists is Klimt.
These remind me of his use of pattern, line and color.



These are not sewn together yet. All the possibilities are still open.
   What if...
They became a star?? 

That's a 6" ruler for scale

Linking to some pretty fun parties... check out my links page for parties of the day
Happy Scrappy LeeAnna, signing off to go sew strips together!

linking to several parties including:  Whoomp there it is!