Stash Report Sunday....

      - As Promised…. The Stash Enhancement Report!

It's so good to be home and back to blogging again!!!  Did you miss me?  I tried to keep up with reading your blogs while traveling, but I'm sure I missed a few.  Hopefully, the eye candy in this post will make up for my prolonged absence =^..^=

While I was gone, I had a blast adding some yummy new fabrics to my stash – TWO great shopping trips in the past week! - and I am really excited to share some pictures with you!  Many of you have been quick to remind me that it is my stash and I can add to it if I want to :*)  So from here on out, my Sunday report shall be known as the Stash Enhancement Report.  (If I ever figure out how to make a button, I’ll design a cute button for my sidebar =^..^=)

I do, however, want to keep in line with the spirit of the Sunday Stash Report over at Judy’s Patchwork Times.  It is important to me that I keep an eye on what is coming in and going out; that’s just good management of my resources.  And I want to have a good handle on how those fabrics coming in are being used (or not used!)  This will help me know how to buy fabrics that grow my stash in functional ways, as well as what might need to be thinned out because I’m just not using those fabrics for some reason.

So where did I go shopping to get these yummy fabrics?  

First, I planned a visit to Mary Jo’s in Gastonia during my trip to Carolina last week.  

When I walked into the store, they had rearranged everything!  I had to ask where to find the fat quarters :*)  But they still had the most wonderful inventory of all types of fabrics imaginable!  It is like being in a fabric wonderland!  If you go to this link, they have a video tour on their website:   http://maryjos.com/about/tour.aspx

I was a little disappointed, however, that their prices had risen so much!  Mary Jo's is known for two things - huge inventory and great prices.  Just last year, their price on the highest priced fabrics like batiks was about $7 a yard.  The norm for most of their fabrics was $6 to $6.50.  They still have a few fabrics at that price, but you really have to look for them, and I think they are the fabrics they would like to move out quickly.  Now most of their fabrics have been marked up to $9 and $9.50 a yard.  Some were even $10.  That’s high for Mary Jo’s, so I didn’t go quite as crazy there as I would have normally.   All in all, I think I did a great job of picking and choosing some favorites to bring home without breaking the bank, mostly fq's and half yard cuts :*)

Some of the Eye Candy from Mary Jo's!!!

These are from a collection called Marblehead by Ro Gregg
This pictures does not do these stunning fabrics justice!

Poor Don, he sat on the bench at the door where they have a TV for guys like him who are lucky enough to be married to avid quilters, and waited for me to touch and drool over every fabric in the place.  LOL!!!  There was another lady whose husband kept him company.  She was also from out of town and it seemed like every time I took something to have it cut, she was at the cutting table too!  We couldn’t help but laugh about it!  It stopped just short of becoming a competition =^..^=

Then, yesterday, our Guild put together a bus trip to the 2012 TVQA Assemby Day.  TVQA stands for Tennessee Valley Quilters Association.  Their purpose is to "promote interest in and an appreciation for quilts and quiltmaking" in the Tennessee area.  Our Music City Guild is one of about 20+ guilds under its umbrella.  Each year, one or more of the guilds hosts an Assembly Day for all the guilds to gather together.  This year it was hosted by the two guilds in Scottsboro, Alabama.  When I first joined Music City and they mentioned Assembly Day during one of our meetings, I just thought they were talking about getting together to "assemble quilts" - you know, like sandwiching and quilting them.  Hahaha!  Not so!  These guilds work very hard to put on a fun program, bring in a Guest Speaker, put on an amazing Show-n-Tell, in addition to providing vendors and lunch.  This year's speaker was Daphne Greig.

I’m still not sure how long the bus trip took, because I snoozed a little on the way there and a little more on the way back :*)   Those of us from Lebanon had to be at Walmart and ready to be picked up at 5:00 AM!!!  So quite a few of us snoozed.  But Phyllis Gall, Bus Trip Planner Extraordinaire, had bananas and bagels with cream cheese to help wake us up.  On the trip back, we watched the movie, We Bought a Zoo starring Matt Damon – good movie if you’re looking for one!

There were about 10 vendors at the event, and shopping was done.  Quite a lot of shopping as a matter of fact!  I found some gorgeous batiks (which I am an absolute sucker for – every time!), and some cool Christmas fabrics too!  

And Jim from Decherd Needeworks was there with his famous bins of fat quarters for $1 each …. 

Yes you saw that right - $1 each and quilt-store quality fabric too… needless to say quite a few of those came home with me to Enhance my Stash! :*)

But the main item I planned to buy was this really cool light!  

It is called a Jo-Lite.  As you can see from the photo below, it folds up very compact so you can easily pack it for retreats where the lighting is often a little iffy :*) 

It is also very flexible and can be made to stand high or low, close or further away, tilted or straight out, whatever your lighting need, it can be positioned to work for you.  

It’s just an amazing lamp and I’m tickled to finally have one of my own! =^..^=

I also won a prize at Assembly Day, which was a wonderful surprise!  Can you see the sweet little pair of scissors tied to the ribbon?  I almost missed them until a friend pointed them out :*)

Inside was a Bali Pop - YAY!!! - the cutest ever little table-topper kit, which I loved of course because I am enjoying making them for my frame, and a really pretty pattern - so pretty in fact that I had already bought it =^..^=  So be on the lookout, this Harvest strip club pattern just might be part of a cool giveaway here on A Quilt and A Prayer one of these days!

Don’t you just LOVE this gorgeous Bali Pop????  My eyes about “popped” when I saw it LOL!!!  These strips have some very dramatic designs and a luscious range of color from blacks to browns with a few tans thrown in for contrast.  My delighted THANKS! to the Girl’s Night Out Guild in Tullahoma for this wonderful prize!!!

Actually, the girls from Music City did very well in the prize getting category, with one girl winning the grand prize of a Brother sewing machine! 

So to finish up with my stash report numbers for this week .....  I did have a small finish in my Red, White & Blue table-topper for the Blog Hop.  I figured about 1/2 yard total used for this little quilt.

And by the way, don't forget there's still one more day to get in on the giveaway, so go HERE to check it out!

Used this week: .50 yards

Used YTD 2012: 83.25 yards

Added this week: 18.50 yards

Added YTD 2012: 159.50 yards

Net Used for 2012: -76.25 yards

So how is your stash coming along?  Are you enhancing or busting?  See how others are doing HERE at Patchwork Times!  Until next week….

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^..^=