Three places to stretch your quilty dollars

January 15, 2025

Thread

Love Aurifil 50 wt thread? The cost is about 1 cent per yard for a large spool.
Ways to save on thread:

  • Buy the cone and save about 20%. versus large spool price.
  • Buy online at discounted prices with free shipping and potentially no sales tax.
  • Stick to basic colors for piecing: natural white, light beige, light grey and medium grey.
  • Or try substituting another brand: Personally, I like the Hobby Lobby cotton thread on the 1200 yard cross-wound spool. It’s about $5 per spool. Nice thread at a great price.

Fabric

To me, there’s nothing more fun than visiting my LQS after new fabric lines arrive. So much inspiration! I’m also a firm believer in supporting local businesses whenever possible.
Ways to save on fabric:

  • Shop your stash first.
  • Sign-up for email lists for your local and online LQS to know about sales and receive discount coupons
  • Ask for gift certificates to your favorite local and online LQS for birthdays and other holiday gift-gifting.
  • Buy 1/3 yard cuts instead of fat quarters. More fabric for the same price.
  • Buy Kona solids, white-on-white background prints and backing fabrics at Joann and Hobby Lobby when they are on sale.
  • Trade fabric with your sewing friends.
  • If you like the fabric, it goes in the quilt. Doesn’t matter where you bought it. ‘Nuff said!

Tools

I’m a gadget girl. I love attending consumer quilt and sewing events so I can see and try all the shiny new things. This category is one where you can easily spend some serious money – especially on rotary cutters, blades, mats and rulers.
Ways to save on tools:

  • Basic sewing notions are available in many places, including Wal-Mart. Shop around to see which retailer offers the products you prefer at the best price.
  • Buy titanium blades for your rotary cutter when on sale at Joann and Hobby Lobby.
  • Rotary cutters are sold everywhere. Find the model fits most comfortably in your hand and buy from the retailer with the lowest price.
  • As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found light color cutting mats provide greater contrast when cutting fabric. Fiskars cutting mats can regularly be found on sale.
  • Rulers are a matter of personal preference and you don’t need every ruler in every size available. Figure out which brand you like best and buy the majority of your rulers from that brand. Most of my rulers are Creative Grids with a handful of specialty rulers from other companies.
  • Cheap scissors are good for cutting paper – not fabric. Buy quality scissors.
  • If doing foundation paper piecing, you CAN use regular copy paper instead of specialty FPP paper or buying pre-printed FPP design pads.
  • A handmade pin cushion, needle minder or seam ripper is totally worth the splurge.

We all have a certain amount of money to put toward our quilting and sewing endeavors. The more we can save in some areas, means the more we have to spend on favorite fabric collections or specialty notions not available at the big box craft store.

Happy Quilting!

Making the best of it

January 12, 2025

Due to the winter weather, we’ve been stuck at home since Thursday afternoon. Sadie & I went for a short walk yesterday along where the roads and sidewalks were cleared. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get out this afternoon. The snow on our driveway is gone, but we have a swath of ice across the driveway this morning. Rainwater/melting snow from the roof collects in a system that exits from a pop-up near our garage door. Said water flows across the driveway toward the street. The water froze overnight. Once the sun and warmer temps kick in, we’ll try to get to Publix and Home Depot.

While I’ve been at home, I’ve discovered we have a couple of leaky, double hung windows that need professional repair (one is 14′ up in our 2 story family room). Fortunately, I have the name of a reputable company I can call to complete the repairs. The garbage disposal decided to call it quits after 11 years, so that’s also on this week’s to-do list. The final discovery was that our HVAC filters had not been changed since late July. The cooling components of our HVAC units were replaced around Labor Day. No need to change the filter at that time. Thought hubs had done that in the fall, but weird noises coming from the attic unit had me investigating things. The main level and basement units were easy to do as replacement filters were nearby. No spare filter was found for the attic unit, so I checked to make sure it needed to be changed. Yep, it definitely did! A quick trip to Home Depot netted a new filter and industrial Velcro for another project. Let’s just say I’m proud of myself for pulling down the attic stairs all by myself (not once, but twice) and replacing the filter.

The sense of accomplishment that comes from doing something I don’t normally do is very empowering. A couple of weeks ago, I replaced the brush rollers and belts on my Bissell carpet cleaner machine. It was a learning experience as I didn’t realize there’s a specific order in which the drive belts have to be reinstalled. I had to undo everything and start over. Oh well, the machine now runs and my family room and office carpets are clean!

I really thought about installing the garbage disposal by myself, but after watching a couple of YouTube videos, I’m going to “delegate” that task to our appliance repair folks. Hubs replaced the one in our last house and said call the professionals for this one.

Sunday afternoon turned out to be quite pleasant. Sadie and I went to the grocery store and stopped by the park. Saw several robins at the park. Hopefully this means spring will come early this year. I’ve had my taste of winter. Time for warmer weather!