Thursday 14 August 2014

Fabric Shopping at the Festival of Quilts

On my two previous visits to the Festival of Quilts I'd just been for the day. This was lots of fun, but totally exhausting and each time I left realising that there was still a ton of stuff I'd not had a chance to see. So this year I decided to treat myself to a two day visit... which was lovely, and a lot more relaxing than the previous years, but not good news for my bank balance as I had lots more time to shop!

Here are the goodies I came home with...

 

... a roll of freezer paper, a stack of fat quarters, a mini roll of wool felt (because it's always nice to try a different range of felt), some buttons and bits, and a free copy of Love Patchwork & Quilting which made for a lovely read on my train journey home.

The roll of freezer paper is a new-to-me craft supply - it's often used by crafters when cutting out fabric and felt pieces, but I've never tried it myself. It's widely available in US grocery stores but here in the UK I've only ever seen it in online sewing shops and at quilting shows. I'm nerdishly excited about trying it out for the first time!

I also bought a few mini wooden spools, an adorable bear button and some teeny tiny acorn buttons which were part of a wonderful range of wooden buttons all the way from Hungary.


To give you an idea of scale, those mini spools are just half an inch (13 mm) high. I'm planning on using the spools to make a sewing-themed necklace and the mini acorns will probably end up as part of a woodland-themed brooch. I have no idea what I'm going to use the bear for but he was too lovely to resist (I also almost bought one of these bunny buttons - so cute!).

I don't have any specific projects in mind for any of the fabric I bought, but I've got lots of little sewing projects I want to try out so these will all be very useful additions to my currently-not-very-big fabric stash.

A pretty mini floral print by Tea & Sympathy, plus the super-cute "ABC Menagerie" from Moda.

 

A couple of stylish Cotton & Steel fabrics, plus a scrap of my favourite Liberty print.

 

Eggs and feathers from Makower's "Chicken & Egg" collection


Some kitties! Cute "Dashwood Novelties" cats and adorable little cats in jumpers, playing with balls of yarn ("Knitty Kitty" by Greta Lynn).


A couple of cotton/linen blends from Kokka - I especially love those insects!


A pair of cute Christmas designs (Makower "Christmas 2014 Mini Novelties").

 

And - last but by no means least - two yummy festive prints from Moda's Folk Holiday collection. Aren't those birds just so lovely?


I can't wait to start stitching with all these pretties... but maybe I ought to go to the Festival for just one day next year for the sake of my bank balance??

P.S. I'll be blogging about the stuff I saw at the Festival and the people I met later this week :)

5 comments:

http://thankfullga447 said...

You did have fun and love all the goodies. I know you will put it to good use. Can't wait to see who you met.

Jo said...

I have some freezer paper, a roll lasts ages, at least for me anyway! It's really good for stencilling and apparently good if you want to paint on fabric to, as it stabilises it.

Unknown said...

I am loving some of those fabrics, I know how you feel I was at the Quilt festival and even though I sell fabric - I brought some! but it to see what mixes and matches, plus I cant resist.
Never used freeze paper myself, you will have to do a tutorial as does it stick?

Anonymous said...

The bear button is fabulous. How about just sewing it onto a coat like a brooch. i think it would look lovely on a winter coat.

Bugs and Fishes said...

ga447 - just gotta find the time to get stitching, then I'll be sure tp share what I'm making :)

Jo - oooh, excellent tips, thank you x

Karen - yup, all that fabric is just too delicious to resist! There's a tutorial for using freezer paper to cut felt here: http://betzwhite.com/2013/09/felt-lore-part-6-freezer-paper.html#.U_dMx2Mn7zQ

Stash Avalanche - it is a really lovely button, isn't it? I am going to have to think up something special for it :)