The bargain

This post is all about me.  Me! Me!  Me!  Sorry, I got a bit carried away there...

Let me tell you a story about The Bargain Backing.  Are you sitting comfortably?  Then we'll begin.  Once upon a time, actually not that long ago, Judy A and I went on a shopping trip to Patchwork with Gail B (Open for online orders!) and on the way we stopped at Spotlight.  On the way out of the store eagle eyed Judy spotted these bargain bed sheets priced at only $10 each!  What a steal!  So, happily, we both purchased two each to use as backings.

What a bargain!

At Patchwork with Gail B's I wandered merrily around the store and suddenly it dawned on me...I had beautiful backing...but not one single piece of fabric to make a quilt to use it on!  The horror!  So I found a layer cake with the blue on it and decided to buy that. At that point I was so keen to use my bargain backing that I would have chosen any design as long as it had the same blue on it!  But, luckily, the fabric range was Moda's Le Beau Papillon and I liked it. Then I decided the easiest thing to make would be a half square triangle quilt and I'd need extra fabric to go around the star so I bought 60cm of that. 

A few weeks later I decided that I wanted the quilt to be bigger so off I went with my husband to Patch N Quilt (open for telephone/facebook/email orders!) where I ran into quite a few of you quilting ladies who were very naughty and tried to enlighten my husband about me.  What happens at retreat stays at retreat!!!  Mary helped me choose some fabric from Moda's Chafarcani range which blended well with my layer cake.  I bought 5 x 30cm strips.

I cut my fabric pieces into 10 inch squares, sewed them all together into half square triangles and made a quilt top.  Judy will tell you that I actually made the half square triangles and then swore and stamped my feet in temper as I arranged them on the design wall but don't listen to a single thing she says!

Then came the quilting.  I already had a reel of Gutermann thread that I thought would work so I started quilting but I had unknowingly chosen a very heavy quilting pattern so it used up my thread in no time. So off I went to Lincraft and purchased another couple of reels and while I was there I picked up thread for my next project.  All in all I almost used three $12 reels of thread.

If you're keeping up you'll have noticed that my $10 backing has now cost me 1 layer cake,  over 2 metres of extra fabric, 3 reels of thread and over 2 metres of batting.  What a bargain!!!

Artfully arranged just for Janice.

So, without further ado...The quilt! Was it worth it? :-)

I dusted my bed before I took this picture.  I should probably reposition it correctly underneath the picture.

Minnie is giving it the seal of approval.

When I finished quilting The Bargain I noticed that I had 16 inches of backing and batting left at the bottom so I quickly cut out some plain cream squares and quilted five of these memory quilts for Sunshine Hospital.

But my story isn't finished!  During the quilting of the bargain quilt Judy challenged me to quilt with my frame at the same time.  Yes, quilt two quilts at once!  And like a fool I accepted the challenge.  Here is definitely a bargain quilt.  The panel and backing was $10 from Big W and I added a homespun strip from Joy's stash to the backing to make it bigger and used the same fabric for binding.  The batting was leftovers sewn together from other projects.

Baby panel

Backing

The quilt was proudly displayed in my grandson's cot.  I suspect that he and his brother will be in big boy beds before they get to stay with me again!  Here we are socially distancing ourselves visiting our grandbabies. 

Aww!  Jim and I are so cute!

THE END