We're Baaaaack!

We got back yesterday evening. It was a long drive but well worth it. We had a wonderful time as usual. One of the highlights was a pickerel dinner and a moosemeat stew. This is one of the many, many gorgeous views.




We went on to Flin Flon the day we arrived. I had heard that their fabric store is closing down and of course smelled a sale! Sad news for the many quilters of Flin Flon but good news for me. Everything in the store was half price. I bought the books shown above. The middle one is Quilter's Playtime by Dianne Hire. It is my favorite because it shows several techniques for making improv quilts.


These are the fat quarters I got. It was hard to chose only these but there is a limit!


These are one yard cuts except for the dark brown and the stripe. I got two yards of them because I think they will be wonderful for borders. The green in the middle has butterflies and dragon flies on it. The top green shades from the dark shown to a very light green on the width of the fabric.


This ruler has tiny spikes on the handle that go through holes in the ruler and hold the cloth in place. In theory, no more ruler slipping out of line while cutting. The store owner really liked it so I thought I'd take a chance on it.
Now, to get our big Thanksgiving Dinner over on Sunday and then back to the studio.

Boxing Day Shopping

We went shopping in Fargo on December 26 with friends from North Dakota. They took is to places we'd never find on our own, but, of course, my favorite store was Joanne Fabrics. The sales there were amazing because everything I really wanted was deeply discounted. Not shown in the photo is a 10 yard bag of white polar fleece for $20, regular $69.99 but in Canada more like $80 or more. I also found bargains on batting which I am always running low on since I got the quilting frame. In the photo are the fat quarters and blacks and white that I got. I love Karla Alexander's quilting methods so I got her latest book. I also found a flying geese ruler that I have been wanting to try. Within the family, we drew names and my SIL picked my name. Luckily, he knows just what I like best and got me the new sewing scissors which are just perfect. In spite of rotary cutters, I still use scissors a lot and a sharp comfortable pair is wonderful to have.

Flin Flon Fat Quarters

The best gift in the world for a quilter is fabric and it happens that there is a quilting store in Flin Flon. Guess what I got for a gift? Right first try. Here are the fat quarters Marcel brought me from Flin Flon. I really love them all but the one with the autumn leaves is incredible. I also like the one with the dragon flies a lot. And the other green ones.


If you had an hour to spare before you had to be at the airport and there was a fabric store very near the airport, where would you spend that extra hour (and any extra dollars you might have on hand)? Right again. Here are the fabrics I got at Fabricland. I loved the way the dotted fabric looked on my jungle quilt so I bought lots this time. It is not quite the same. The dots on the jungle quilt are much bigger but this will be fine too. I'm thinking of doing one with very bright colors again and I hope it will come in handy then. The orange and green fabric looks like flowers, maybe dandelions, and I think it will make great background fabric for more chickens or other animals.

I got some wonderful barbed wire fabric from Nellie at Nellie's Needles . I want to use it for a border on Maggie's Farm so that will come next before I get to cut into any of my new fabrics.