Snow Day Fabric Shopping

Spring has come and gone, Winter has returned. After a 10 C degree, sunny weekend, we were pounded by 30 cm of snow yesterday. It never stops, apparently... at least not in Canada.


It was a short day at work, thanks to the storm, so I spent the extra time - what else... - fabric shopping. I've started a little design book and doodled around with ideas for quilts. Now I'm motivated to get going on some new patterns, as well as finishing the disaster quilt and the oriental quilt.

** NEED SOME ADVICE!! ***

In fact, I have a question about the oriental quilt. The only thing missing is some applique pieces on the quilt top sashing. Is the general way to applique before or after quilting? I will probably stipple the quilt, unless I go for a straight line design, and am wondering if it's easier to quilt first, then applique, because that way the quilting won't be interrupted by the applique (i.e. it will disappear below it instead of going around it). Any ideas?

Anyway, the fabrics I bought are mostly solids as I am planning a bento box quilt like this one, and also feel inspired to copy this quilt from a quilt-along on Elizabeth's blog Oh, Fransson!

The solids are coarse, because they're pure cotton sheeting, but I like them as backing or for a heavy-fabric quilt.

I think I'd like to use this ones as the solid colour in the quilt-along quilt - I like Elizabeth's colour scheme so much, that I will reproduce it instead of choosing new colours. From looking at her other variations of that quilt, I will probably make the quilt at least twice! I like to make quilts that don't have the same pattern throughout, though there are many gorgeous ones out there.

I also found one black and white fabric I liked. I could kick myself now, because I've often walked by nice b/w fabrics because I didn't think I'd ever use them, too much contrast for me, but now I wish I had bought just 1/4 m of each...


Along with the other solids I bought and already had, I'm getting quite a decent collection:


I have a quilt planned for the four colours below:
It's based on a block I've seen on The Quilter's Cache website, called Crossed Road to Oklahoma. When I just looked the site to cite it here, I realized that Marcia Hohn provides the pattern. Oh well, I had fun spending a couple of hours last night figuring out how big I want to have my finished blocks be and how I'd do the pattern. I will actually do it slightly differently from Marcia's instructions. As you can see, I'm pretty much following her colour scheme, except with solids and beige instead of white. I may still substitute a pattern for one or two of the fabrics, if I have enough.


Oh, I also found another fabric for my friend's character quilt: Wine


And then I bought a few fabrics that will be nice for binding or in a baby quilt (the dots), and borders on quilts like these ones.