As I make progress on those charity quilts, my mind is turning to the bindings. I can always use solids for some of them, but stripes to me look simply amazing as binding.

I’ve been mulling around the idea of buying a whole bolt of a stripe - figuring it would then last me years! However, the other part of my mind - the logical one - thinks, “Becky you have to find a place to keep that much fabric that has only a very specific use.” And I really don’t want to buy multiple bolts so I can have various colors!” Ugh. Too much money invested at once. Too heavy. Too much space for that.

So I decided instead, to go on line on our local auction site and find some of these striped fabrics and buy a few meters of them. True, it is more expensive than buying wholesale, but I can 1. check them out 2. buy only some and thus not get sick of a whole bolt (50+meters/yards of a single stripe).

So, last week I ordered from a fabric dealer on line that I’ve bought from before.

Here’s what I got. The stripes - well, there are for bindings. I got 3 meters (yards) of each color. I’m tickled and almost can’t wait to start cutting them into strips so I can get preparing them.

The only thing keeping me from doing just that is that they look so nice in the box they came in! I wanted to get some photos before I start digging around too much!

The box was quite heavy as I got quite a bit of fabric - but overall, I’m quite pleased with these purchases.

The dealer even gave me a gratis piece! I had wondered because as soon as I opened it, I saw a piece I hadn’t ordered. I actually groaned at what I thought was an error until I saw she had put the word “gratis” on the plastic packaging! Then I just thought it was sweet!

I was glad to be able to encourage a local business person with a kind of large order. I know that for some of our Polish self-employed people, things have been a bit tight due to the pandemic. Not sure it applies to people selling fabric, however. But I really want to do what I can to encourage self-employed people, especially, right now.

Here’s what I ended up getting from this box.

First of all, stripes!

Plus, I picked up this stripe: I was curious what it looked like in person. I had seen it on the computer screen. I will probably use it for binding.

I picked these up to coordinate with some of the small tops that Fran has given me and to which I need to add a bunch of borders. I wanted to see what these fabrics looked like “up close” and I can use them with the pastely type tops I have to make them a 60x80.

Then, I bought these large print pieces simply because I was curious what they looked like. I bought enough of each to make a backing for a smaller quilt - any smaller quilt up to 160 cm wide (63”)x about 120”.

Out of curiosity, I got this gnome fabric as well. It’s cute - I just wish there was more detail to it.

I actually cut this up and am using it on parts of three tops with the reds/blues/bright yellow tops.

Then I picked up some stars and one polka dots fabric -

I’m using these as if they were blenders or solids.

I also got two solids - which I didn’t photograph, but they were an aqua blue and a pale teal blue/green. I’ve already cut up all the aqua blue - which actually showed me I really need to get some more, or possibly a whole bolt of it from the manufacturer. I didn’t realize I would go through three meters quite that much that fast. I know I need solid red and royal blue and more of the tannish/cappuccino as I’ve used up all I had of those colors.

I did go ahead and cut up one of the colors of the binding stripes. All of it. All three meters.

I’ll probably sew them together today and try to get them ironed in half to make the binding in the near future.

One 3 meter piece should bind 8 of those charity quilts of the smaller size. Possibly more. I’ll probably just go ahead and do the first 8 all the same - and drive myself batty with boredom as I prefer changing colors - just to check out the theory. I actually may be able to get 9 quilts out of the one 3 meter piece as it is over 60” wide. I’ll let you know. Since I got what, 5 colors, if I can get 8 or 9 from each of these pieces, that will take care of about one third of the quilts I need to bind!

There you are. I’ve been downstairs cutting for several hours, kind of waiting on the local wholesale place to call me and tell me the batting is in. Sadly, they haven’t called - but hopefully they will. If I do end up getting caught up with the quilting of the ones I have sandwiched - I will then begin the binding process. I really should anyway, as washing them is going to take a bit of time. (Boy is that an understatement!) I am currently at 80 quilts plus about another 10 or so that are sandwiched, and ready to quilt.

As I finished this part of the original post I got “the” phone call, so I ran out and got two more bolts of batting. Then I stayed downstairs and sandwiched three more quilts. I should go in there and quilt two today, but it’s hard to get motivated to START after 7 pm. Really hard.

And that’s what has been going on in my part of the world! Have a great day wherever you are!

If you need some fabric, be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!

Here’s a beauty that we have - and only $5.99/yard by Di Ford!

You can get this beautiful fabric by clicking here!

I "needed" these!