Wild Buying Spree

(Image credit:  Richard Kolker / Getty Images)

The after Christmas sales have totally corrupted me.  I suppose I should say that I'm embarrassed or ashamed, or something like that . . . but I'm not really, so why lie?  (Does that make me at least a little less corrupt?)  To my recollection, I believe I said something in one of my recent Stash Reports, to-wit:

I have spent literally the entire year on the wrong side of the dividing line. My New Year's Resolution is to be on the right side throughout next year. I'd better go on a wild buying spree now. Who's with me? (emphasis added)

So I only mention this to say that several of you agreed to go along with me.  And I would say that makes my lack of restraint your fault!  Besides, it's my blog and therefore my rules.  My rules say that any purchases I make before January 1st do not have to be included in my first Stash Report of the year.  Do you see how I work things around to my advantage?  I'm very good at this.  I would hope you have your own self-serving rules on your blogs as well.  If you don't, you certainly should.  Take it from me.  I used to be a therapist.  And if you find this difficult, then just follow my lead.  I promise not to steer you wrong.  (Are we best friends now?)

So what am I going on about anyway?  Well.  Today I received the first box of fabric that I ordered.  Most of this was $3.99 a yard, and so you can see why I had to buy it.  It would be absolutely crazy to resist.  (Please see my comment above about formerly being a therapist.  Crazy is as crazy does . . . or doesn't, depending on how you want that to work.)

There's plenty more to come . . . but not today. 

This next fabric belongs to Gracie.  She won it in The Quilt Pattern Magazine Kitty Contest thanks to many of you who voted for her, I might add.  Gracie is so excited to get started on her first quilt.  We have been selecting just the right pawtern because we want her quilt to be purrfect.  Of course, I'll have to help her because Gracie has no thumbs.  And her legs are too short to reach the foot pedal on the sewing machine.

Speaking of cats, I received three cat swap blocks from my partner on the Quilting Board.  Aren't these precious?

Can you see in the top one that the border fabric says "Meow"?  While I love them all, I think the middle one is my favorite.

With all the fabric I had to put away, quite a bit of my designated sewing time was spent just straightening up my sewing room.  I honestly hate sewing in a messy workspace.  While my sewing room isn't immaculate by any means, it is fairly organized and tidy.  After that, I made the fourth block for the Blogger's BOM.

This is really a fun BOM.  I love that the blocks are so colorful and small.  It makes doing a block per month easy.  This month's block was designed by Pat Sloan, and she did a really nice job with it.  Here's my block:

And here are the four I have so far.

That was all the sewing I did today, but I took some time to look at my first planned NewFO, which is the Amish Sampler quilt.

The quilt in the pattern has some consistency to the colors used.  I'm making it using the huge Kona Fat Quarter pack that I purchased earlier this past summer.  The box was so beautiful I couldn't resist it, and besides, I had always planned to use the fabrics in this quilt.

Mine will probably be more colorful than theirs, but I'm going to try to stick with the colors suggested in the pattern as much as possible.  The first block(s) I'm going to make is called Amish Bars.

The colors in this image are terrible, but I wanted you to get the lay of the land.  What appears to be black is actually a brick red.  And these are the colors I've pulled from my fat quarter pack to make it.

One block is large and three are small, all in the same colors.  I kind of like this combo.  We'll see how it turns out.

So that's how I spent my final Friday of 2011.  What's going on in your sewing room?