The Glorious Haul from NYC: Part III

Fabric.
Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo. Grab some tissues, my friend, because these fabrics are gonna make you cry. (Other possibilities: They might make your teeth hurt, make you want to sock someone, or make you want to rock and flap in the corner. Totally up to you.)

After reading Parts I and II, I hope you didn't think that I thought a ball of yarn and some beads constitute a "haul". Hardly. If that's all I'd gotten in New York, I might've called it "some great items" or "a few things I picked up". A ball of yarn and a few beads do not a glorious haul make. This much I know.

So, it's gonna get ugly up in here. The Haul is ON.

First stop, Purl fabrics. As you know, I can't say enough about how great the Purls are. The fabric folks were just as friendly and helpful as the ones over at the yarn store. So much so that when I asked for a recommendation for marking tools for quilts, the woman recommended a tool, and then even did a demonstration for me to answer my questions.


This is the Clover Hera marking tool. It makes a crease in your fabric that tells you where to sew. The crease stays there until you wash it.

On the plus side, there's no need for white pencils, pencil-pencils, or disappearing ink pens. Just use the sharper edge (it's not sharp really) to mark your line, and you're set.

On the not-so-plus side, it does require adequate lighting to be able to see the crease once you've made it. I think this is the beef some people have with it, though there may be others. I also am not sure what to do if you make a crease in the wrong place other than remember which crease is wrong and which one is right.

(By the way, I figure I've really outsmarted Quiltie this time. While I wouldn't put it past him to spitefully dim my lighting to make it harder to see the creases, at least he can't eat the creases.)

Anyway, at Purl I got the little fat quarter fabric bundles that are up at the top there, and these:

My P-I-C and I have been looking for small prints for our reverse applique projects, and these fit the bill nicely. Huge props to my brother for finding the tiny bundles in the back of the store. He's the most!

Then, my sister-in-law (SIL) suggested I go to B&J Fabrics in Manhattan. You should know that my SIL is half adorable, half trying to kill me. It was the latter half that sent me to B&J. I'm sure of it.

There's a huge and fantastic selection at B&J. At one point, my brother and I tried to find the most expensive fabric in the store just for kicks. We stopped looking after seeing a cashmere herringbone fabric from Italy that was $135 US/yard. That was plenty expensive, so we moved on.

So here, my dear friend, is the rest of the Glorious Haul. Please forgive the dim lighting. (Aaaargh! Quiltie! Got me already.)

Ouch! Cherries and daisies hurt Mommy! Too cute. Too hurty! Little kids playing with kittens? Meh. They'll do. They're pink and cream.


Three colorways of those apples and pears? Yummers. At $10.95/yard, I took a bit of them all. Also, how great do those dots look with that blue one? Sooo great!


Another print for the Small Print department.


Now this. This! This is the crowning achievement in fabric acquisition. My SIL and I really wanted to make ourselves pajamas out of this fabric, but we didn't have time to find a pattern. That would be adorable, right? Check out that duckie wearing a space helmet perched on that flying saucer thing. Ha! PJs, mister. That's what these are. Jealous?

So that, my friend, concludes the Glorious Haul of '06. It will be a good day when these turn into actual items. I think as long as I keep Quiltie away from them, they'll have a fighting chance.