Buying fabric on a budget

Wondering why I am showing you my laundry? They are towels but not my laundry! They are my fabric choice for backing burpies and baby changing pads.

If you have purchased terry cloth by the yard you may feel (as I do) that they are charging a lot of money for poorly made terry cloth. It is generally thin without many loops for absorbency. Currently there are many sales focused on kids heading off to college. It is a perfect time to pick up terry cloth in the form of towels. I purchased these "jumbo" bath towels (made in the USA!) for $3.99 each at a large discount/surplus store. They have been washed and dried and they are still fluffy and full. Each towel will yield roughly 30" x 44" of usable fabric. I think that is a pretty good fabric purchase!

Savonnerie placemats

I finally finished the placemats using Moda's Savonnerie.

The colors are so beautiful and vibrant.

I used flannel instead of batting and only quilted this minimal amount. I may go back and "over" quilt but I think I will toss one in the washer and dryer just to see if there is any shifting.  If not, will probably leave well enough alone.

They are backed in the most beautiful blue and white paisley that is also from the collection. I have charm squares and yardage left over. I think I will make a table runner and maybe napkins (if I ever figure out how to fix the tension on my serger!)

Next up is my very first fitted baby crib sheet. How hard can it be? :)

Blogging business cards

Do you ever have the opportunity to tell someone about your blog and then need to find a piece of paper and a pen so you can jot everything down for them? It has happened to me and I thought how silly that I didn't have cards that I could just hand out.

I made up this one in PicMonkey using the very simple tutorial found on Bliss at Home.

I have no idea why the resolution looks so bad on this pic since the business cards really do print out beautifully!

I chose not to use a background as I thought it would be very cluttered because of my header being pretty busy. I also didn't add a FB link because I don't have one specifically for Reluctant Quilter. I could have uploaded the file to one of the many business card printing services on the internet but decided to just print out 20 on card stock. I cut them with my Fiskar rotary cutter and called them "done"!

Fast, easy and an economical way to promote your blog!

And we have a winner!


Suze - it you!! I will be emailing you directly for an address.  Congratulations!!

New (to me) on line fabric shop

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I needed a piece of coordinating fabric for the placemats that I am making using "Savonnerie". Long time reader, Shay, from Australia mentioned to me that "Fabric Buffet" had the fabric and it was on sale AND the shipping was very reasonable.

I contacted Fabric Buffet and ordered a beautiful blue and white paisley coordinate.  Betty emailed me prior to shipping to see if it was ok to send the fabric in two cuts.  Since I am just using it for backing it was not an issue and the fabric arrived 3 days later via priority mail. Great customer service and fast delivery!

Fabric Buffet is having an anniversary sale with lots of special offers. I encourage you to check them out!

Wow!

So many really nice comments on my last post! I am going to close comments Sunday at 6pm (EDT) and then let random number generator do its thing. If you haven't seen the post or still want to comment, please do it!