I Know you are Curious!

I did make it to our local findings place and picked up batting. I had completely used up my last roll earlier in the day. I needed to have the new bolt ready for Wednesday sandwiching!

I went ahead and got two bolts - 50 meters each - poly batting, 100 grams. This is a medium weight batting. Polyester is a warm batting, and it is also very inexpensive for me.

I spent 160 zl for 50 meters. Now it has gone up a bit, but that is $42 for a roll of 50 meters. This means that each meter (39”) is only $0.84 and it is the width I need for the smaller quilts - this is one of the reasons I chose the size I did for the singles - so it fits on one pass of the 160 cm (63”) batting. I can get a 60”x80” top on this batting without any issues at all since I am not long arming it. Long armers need more on the edge as extra than I do. Even if I used 3 meters for each small quilt - which is probably MORE than i use - as I use more like 2.5 meters - it would be only $2.52 for the batting for each quilt!! Sounds very reasonable to me!

I also bought some thread. I picked up another 30,000 meters of white - works great on the Juki or as bobbin thread or whatever. I spent about $13 for that huge spool shown below - and no, it is not serger thread- it is regular sewing machine thread - about a 50 wt. as you would think of it.

I also realized I wanted some FUN colors for quilting these charity quilts. I hate to use just plain old boring WHITE when I have colorful quilts. I like to have fun with the colors!.

I also already have lots of tans, browns and kind of darkish colors - so I went for the brights!!!

I pay about $1 or $1.25 for these 1000 meter spools. They are mostly from Germany - Gutterman or Saba but some are Polish - they are a bit cheaper than the German ones. I buy from a wholesale place - that is why the price is good. The same Gutterman thread in the USA is probably close to $3 or 4. (Oops!! I should try again! just did a quick search!) Even here at the normal “findings” store it will probably be about $3. This place is sort of like Quilted Twins - at least when it comes to this type of thread - they get what they can at a good deal so they can pass it on. This means that they won’t have every color in every style/kind of thread. But I can usually find what will work for me.

I quilted the owl quilt with the Strippy style - and the edges can get a bit “iffy”. So, after I quilt these strippy ones, I mark the straight edges (I use the edges of the table and a ruler to help with that) with a washable marker, then stitch on the marked line and later I will trim next to where I sewed.

The reason I marked it this far in is because there are parts that you can’t see that are really ragged edges and I needed to cut off this much to make it even.

I sew on the marked line and then later trim next to it.

One of you generously made and donated this fantastic top! Love it!!!! It will go quickly I am sure!

Then, last I wanted to show you our cat, Tuq, enjoying one of the charity quilts I quilted today.

Don’t worry - I wash them after I finish them. This one still has to be trimmed and bound. Once I wash them, I don’t allow the cats on them. To date, I’ve not had anyone complain about cat allergies. I’m going to assume that our recipients take them home and rewash anyway if they do have a worry about cat allergies or feel something just from being in a home with cats. In the meantime our two cats have a great time as they constantly have “new quilts” to lie on!

And now you know! This is at least part of what I did today! Have a great day wherever you are reading!

---

---

---