Stop the temptation, and get organized before attending quilt shows....

Wow, I have to drive a long distance to find supplies now.  The AQS quilt show is this week and I get so distracted and tempted by all of the delicious fabrics, machines, tools... I want to buy everything, then amnesia sets in and I purchase what I already own.  This year, I have vowed to only go with a list.  Coincidentally, it dove tails into my continuing move to my now completed house.  Part of that is not just moving boxes, but organizing, and putting like things together.

I blame my mother. Once all of the scissors were put in one place, it’s clear now, that I should resist all future scissor purchases.  To be clear, most of these were my mother’s. In the past 10 years, I have added 5, including an appliqué scissor that was really needed. I still have the first pair of fabric scissors I purchased.  I understand though, you need to finish a project, or your current pair are dull, you are driven to purchase again.  I should show you my rotary cutters, the minute one is lost, Joann's sends me a 50% coupon and I'm off only to return home and find the missing cutter.


The easiest of my stash to organize, is the quilt section.  It's early days for me, so not a lot has accumulated in terms of stash, or so I thought.  I've been so busy with the house, I hadn't noticed how much subliminal shopping had been going on.  There were 5 large bins, so the kits were organized first into project boxes.  Everything in one place for each quilt.  I'm thinking this is the direction my garment fabrics will go, so I need to finish these projects and start on my new wardrobe.  I really need clothes.

Next up, checking the project boxes to see what is missing. This took a bit longer, since none of the fabrics were identified by sticker, and they are mostly no longer available and the color names are not intuitive, I don't own a Kaffe Fasset color card and you can't rely on screen colors. I never knew there was purple pink granite.  I'm going to need white out for the project card.

Looks like, the projects are missing backing fabrics, and a quarter yard of chartreuse shot fabric. I have permission to buy backing... Yay!

This is hard work....'

And it doesn't get easier... note to self, tag the fabric after purchase.

Now, not really sure if I should wait until the top is finished to look for the backing, but now I have the option of buying the backing if a good match to the swatches is found . 

What else do I need?  Well I'm exploring different batting weights, so hoping that they are still selling the pack of samples from Hobbs.  

I have two quilts here that still need backing, batting and thread.  The most frustrating part of attending these shows, is leaving and remembering that you needed something you saw.  

Here's to hoping this works.