May we discuss Quilting?

:j Yay!!! Catznine!!! :j :T :T That's wicked!!! Fat quarters (FQ's) can be expensive full price!

Hmmm, back to your original question about stash building ... :think: ....

.. when I took part in an online quilt challenge, I simply bought some duvet covers from the local charity shop for £1 and cut them down into 4" squares to make a 9-patch design quilt. I didn't want to "invest" in fabrics if I wasn't going to enjoy the hobby (and when my mother taught me many years ago, it wasn't quite as "anal" as some of the now-a-days quilters make it out to be :rolleyes: )!

As the 9-patch design quilt took shape, I made my teapot wall hanging from other bits and bobs of material which I'd inherited when my mother died, or odds n sods I had left over from when I did craft fairs as a hobby.

Over the past few years I have either ... used dh's work shirts/ old sheets, duvets/ old clothing ... that is the traditional (OS) way Equally, when I visited a relation in NYC I blitzed a back street fabric shop of their cotton fabrics (1 yd of this, 1yd of that) and built my basic stash that way.

I don't often buy FQ's unless I stumble across a wicked bargain such as you had today :j But, I have taken part in a FQ swap, which gave me some adoreable FQ's from abroad (but ... :shhh: ... I'm too scared to use them because they are so precious ) :rotfl:

Cheap sources of smaller bits of fabrics ... if you have a clothing factory near you, ask if you can have their "wastage" .. I did this *once* and yeilded 2 black bag fulls! :eek: ... some pieces were big enough to quilt with, other scraps go into the "rag rug" bag. Failing that, if you have a market stall selling their own range of clothing, ask them.

Cheap sources of large pieces of fabrics: market stalls often sell fabric at great bargain prices - once I picked up yards of fabric @ £1 per metre as a job lot simply because it had "water damage" ... when I got it home, the damaged parts beyond repair were put into the rag rug bag and the bulk of the material went into making a co-ordinated bedroom set inclu. curtains!

Remnants: Keep your eyes open for remnants in shops which sell fabrics. I'm still in the process of making a "Coffee, Cream and Fudge" creation purely out of remnants!

Charity Shops/Boot Fairs: Keep your eyes peeled!!! I've come across a whole sewing workbox FULL of buttons/zips/cotton threads - all for £1! Also, old sheets, pillowcases, clothing, curtains, curtain linings even someone elses fabric stash - can be discovered and used to build up a 'stash'

WARNING: Stash building is an addiction in it's own right! Storage of aforementioned stash could prove an absolutely nightmare LOL

At the end of the day - my advice to anyone who wants to have a go is this: Use up old clothes/linens/charity shop finds - that way, any mistakes haven't cost the earth and you get a feel for whether it's something you *want* to invest in. Make all your beginners mistakes on low cost items and take it from there.
If it's something you enjoy, want to do more of, then ... like any other hobby, there is a plethora of tools, "must-haves", expensive fabrics, templates, blah blah blah that could merrily eat away at your hard earned

If you have a cat you can guarantee that as soon as you get your quilt spread out on the floor ready to tack together he'll come and sit in the middle of it!

And there was me thinking you had NINE

Can anyone tell me what kind of wadding I need (2oz or 4oz) for a wall hanging and a lap quilt? I have managed to price 2oz wadding at £1.20 a mt and 4oz at £2.15 a mt from Croft Mills in Lancs. They don't sell online so I have phoned for a brochure. They also do craft fabric packs for £3.00 and accessory packs for £1.00 so I am going to spend some of my PMS money soon I have also managed to buy second hand from Amazon Debbie Mumms Quick Country Quilts for Every Room, I can't wait for this to turn up and am hoping to find something special to make with my bargain fat quarters. A wall hanging for my new utility/breakfast room would be great.

Anyway until then I'm going to organise a "memory" lap quilt using up all the scraps from my daughters old dresses from when she was smaller. I think I will do the 9 patch design, my sister makes these up alternating 9 x 4" squares with 1 large 12" square and that takes care of all the little bits as well as the more generous scraps.

Sorry to waffle on but I'm quite keen to get going and to organise myself.
Spendy good luck with your animal quilt it is going to be interesting to hear how we all get on. Also Apprentice Tycoon I found an old book by Julia Foster (the actress Mum of Ben Fogle from Castaway 2000) and in the book is an idea for a patchwork of old lace hankies put together to make a tablecloth and it looked great!

I'm quite a new quilter, and I found this site useful:
http://www.quilterscache.com/

There are lots of block patterns and very clear instructions.