Recently I decided to get some more “big bolts” directly from one of the manufacturers I’ve bought from before in Poland (Kary). I had run out of my folk fabrics (in bulk), so I decided to get some more - PLUS browns - as I had pretty much used up the browns in my own stash for the simple charity quilts for the Big Fabric Haul.

What I mean is I had run out of the browns I was willing to use up or pieces large enough. In order to make sashings and borders of all the same fabric I needed about 2.5 yards of fabric. I have a lot of fabric in my stash, but not all my browns have that much.

So, I bought two fabrics that will work as borders and sashing for simple quilts. I’ve not purchased these particular browns before, so I’m happy to get them.

Sometimes after using up over 70 yards of one fabric, I get kind of tired of looking at it - but these are both new to me. This “getting tired of something” is also the reason it’s been a while since I bought the Polish folk fabric. I had bought it before, but it’s been a while ago now.

The bolts come by courier, two of which are wrapped together in plastic. This one “bundle” weighs over 60 pounds— We weighed it! It’s 140 meters. That’s 153 yards of fabric in the two bolts (or one bundle as delivered by courier). It’s probably no surprise that I get tired of one fabric after using up 70+ yards of it, is it?

However, if I do 120 charity quilts a year, I can easily use up several of these a year only using them as backings. But most of us like a little variety. Using the same fabric all the time might result in my going a little wacky.

When I first started making charity quilts, I used up a lot of my “iffy” fabrics as backings- and much of the donated larger pieces. Then, I decided that I wanted to make “more charity quilts” and yet spend less time on them so I had plenty of time to make other things that were more, shall I say, challenging to me. I noticed that when I was able to just cut a whole piece of fabric for the backing, it saved me a lot of time - while making people very happy as they love a two-sided quilt! So, it was a win/win - faster for me to use a solid backing piece and the people were VERY happy about it!

The brown is a total of 151 meters or 165 yards. I think it will come very close to finishing off those 10” brown squares I have. If I do something different and don’t use it all up on the front, I can always use it as backing for any of these brown tops.

I started cutting up the brown as I have a friend who said she and her mom (my own personal elves - can’t believe I’ve finally got some here in Poland - already I had some wonderful ones in the states!!) would help me make those simple charity quilts with the 10” squares!!! Isn’t that great?

That was one of the biggest reasons I wanted to go ahead and invest in this fabric as next time my friend Ewa comes over I can give her some packs ready to go - I’d like to give her 4 for herself and 4 for her mom. That way when they want, they can work on them - the “pack” will be just like a kit with the main squares, the sashing and the border in it. The diagram, or pattern, so to speak, has already been given to them.

These are going to be popular because the panther fabric is cool! Really. I can see anyone liking it!

And there you go! Sometimes even I, with my big stash, needs to buy something specific to add to my collection! Except I fully expect all this brown to be gone by the end of 2020 - it’s not really mean to be a “collection”.

I’ll be very surprised if it isn’t. I’ve got 120 charity quilts to make this fall and each one takes over 2 meters of this fabric as backing - I figure about 2.5, close to 3 yards. I cut the backings about 95”.

While obviously I don’t want to do them “all” in browns, even that hearts one would work with the blacks I have.

So, these are both wonderful choices for the charity quilts I’ll be doing!

I’ll be using the floral as backings for charity quilts as well - but I’ll try to keep that for the ladies or at least more feminine looking quilts. I don’t regulate when people come to get a quilt which they take. Plus, I’m going to focus this fall on finishing up all the donated tops (by you all, the readers). That would be so cool!

Note: Just this past week we had a fire locally and I’m considering taking over 4 or 5 quilts this week to the place where they are taking collections for those affected. It was lightning - hit an apartment complex. I’l share a picture with you.

The same fabric company actually sells the same panther fabric design in black as well. In order to get the wholesale price, though, I have to buy 70 meters of it, so I’ll wait til I actually need it to invest that much into it. I’ve been being pretty good about using up this fabric I’ve bought wholesale. Maybe I just work at it - or maybe because I have to buy so much of it, I make sure it is universally appealing and I can use it on a variety of styles/types or groups of people. At least I try to.

The following are some pictures as I am beginning to cut up one of the bolts - the idea is to get ready some of the 10” brown squares so I can go into production mode! Here I’ve got 14 sets being cut out.

And there you are! I trust you have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!