Thursday, April 17, 2014

From Maine, With Fabric

I won’t bore you with photos of my vacation to Maine.  Like all the beautiful lighthouses we visited.

Or this cool one you have to walk out across the breakwater to get to.

Beachcombing on a rocky beach.  Can you spot my daughter in this photo?  My sister took this and I think it’s really cool Bea blends into the rocks.

Photo: Bea found a treasure trove here

Beachcombing on a sandy beach.

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Exploring old forts.  We visited an old graveyard too, but I left my phone in the car that time.

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Playing at the Children’s Museum in Portland.

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Learning to bake bread.

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Lots and lots of holding baby chickens that hatched the morning after we arrived.

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Attempting to go for a hike in the snow. (Not very successful, and we all fell at least once.)

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And feeding and collecting eggs from these ladies every afternoon.  My sister has chickens, turkeys, ducks, and goats.  The kids loved helping her with all the chores.

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Now for the fabric part of the post!!!!!!

My sister knows how much I love sewing, so she took us to a discount store (think Ollie’s or Big Lots) that has a huge fabric section in the back.

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All the bolts are arranged by color, then there are aisles of stripes, dots, and novelty fabric.  Most of it is older designer fabric, but some is from this past year.  I saw quite a bit Denyse Schmidt, Tula Pink, Erin McMorris, and Valori Wells.  I have to be honest, when we first went in and walked through the front of the store, I was doubtful.  But as we made our way to the back, the heavens parted and I saw paradise.

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Lucky for me, all my daughters love fabric and sewing, so they were more than happy to help me fill up my cart.  All the fabric is $5 a yard or less, so it was easy to say “YES!” 

Here’s what we left with (not including 3 other pillowcase kits that Bea already sewed into pillowcases).

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One thing my stash is  missing is prints without flowers.  It is a little tough to find fabrics for the “manly” quilts I’ve been making lately.  So these came home with us.  Not a flower or flourish in any of these!

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A set of 1/2 yard cuts from a Maywood collection of birds and blooms that Ronnie had  to have.

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Some fabrics I just liked.

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Remnants that are all 20% off at the register!

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Some additional low volume prints.

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And some random fabrics—Perfectly Perched, a bird print, stripes for binding for my Tone It Down quilt, and a humungous animal panel that I want to make a quilt from for myself even though it’s kid fabric.

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And some fabric my daughters had to have.  A pack of 10 fat quarters, some random cuts of fabric they liked, and two packs of 4 half yard cuts.

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Classing it up at the checkout.

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One day was quite rainy, so Bea sat down and sewed three pillowcases that day, so those kits were not pictured.

Photo: Bea makes her pillowcase

All in all, it was an amazing trip with the kids.  Sure, it was stressful at times in the airport (like when I misread the departure time for our return flight and we barely made it on the plane in time).  But I’d do it again, and not just for the chance to buy some discount fabric;)

I said I’d pick a winner from my giveaway today, so without further ado…

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Yay, #8, which happens to be my favorite number.  So the winner is Saira P.  I’ll email you shortly!

15 comments:

  1. I went to that store many years ago when I was in Maine. I thought it was fabulous and would love to go back! I have often wondered if they were still in business. The thing I found funny was that most of the store was junky and dirty with stuff for cars and home improvement -- worse than Ollie's or Big Lots -- but the fabric section was clean and wonderful and the stuff was high quality. I came home with an overstuffed suitcase on that trip!

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  2. Nice stack of fabric! Loved all the pictures. Looks like you had a great time. :-)

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  3. Madden's FTW! I grew up in Maine and occasionally fabric shop there when I'm visiting family! Glad you had a great trip!

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  4. Looks like a wonderful trip! Where was the second lighthouse located? I've seen a lot of Maine lighthouses, but not that one. I hope you all have fun with your fabric.

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  5. That is a crazy amount of fabric. I wish I was shopping for some! And oh, my god, those girls look so pleased to be holding the chicks! They are adorable. Looks like a lovely trip :)

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  6. Love all your holiday photos! The one where your daughter is hidden in the pebbls is really cool! You certainly found lots of great fabrics! And the best part of buying fabric on holiday is that it reminds you of the holiday when you use it.

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  7. Looks like with all that busyness you might need a vacation to recuperate from your vacation ;)
    The photo of Bea on the beach is just so cool! And discount fabric shopping too?! Sounds like the perfect memory making vacation.

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  8. Marden's...my favorite! I stocked up last week at the Waterville store...is that where you were? Like your choices!

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  9. What a fun vacation! Love all your pics, especially the fabric :) And I love that your girls like to sew! Sweet!

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  10. That Marden's is in my home town. I miss it every time I go fabric shopping. I do regularly make my mom go and look for things for me to ship to me in Texas.

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  11. Looks like you had a wonderful time away, and yay for cheap fabric. (oh and I am glad it is not only my kids who pick their noses!!)

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  12. Hi, Jamie!

    Thank you for posting all these wonderful pictures from your trip! Your daughters are so adorable :) There is really a big amount of fabrics..! I assume there will be a lot of creativity in your sewing room these days :) It impresses me a lot that your daughters loves fabric and sewing, it is so important that they discover the joy of creating something by using their hands!
    I have just ended my easter holidays, and now I really look forward to spend some time with my sewing machine :) wish you a wonderful week!

    Liv Iren

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  13. Hey friend!

    Enjoyed seeing all the pics from your trip. Looks like you got some hidden treasures from the fabric store too. I have the valorie Wells flower print in peachy/orange;) the first fabric under "some I just liked" I may have too!

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  14. Unless you're one of those quilters who only uses new material, I'll share how I find masculine looking material for guys. I go to the thrift stores and Goodwill and buy nice men's name brand dress shirts in pretty checks, plaids, stripes, etc and cut them up for quilt squares, then just match them with solid fabrics. I can get a LOT of fabric from the larger sized shirts and only pay from 25 cents up to a dollar. Just remember, our grandparents didn't have new material for quilts, they used clothing that was too worn out to wear and look how long those held up!

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Some days the only adult I talk to is my husband...help him keep his sanity by leaving a comment so I have another adult to talk sewing with:) I will make sure to reply!