Marden's March Madness

Okay.... there was only 5 of us... However, we should have warned them we were coming. REALLY. Cricket and I knew what to expect, so as much as I had mentally put a $35 budget in my head, and Cricket's budget was slightly higher than mine, WE would know how hard it is to STICK to a budget going in the store. The ladies had chipped in $5 each (for buying backings) for the tops we had made, but I knew one of the ladies that couldn't go had said she'd donate some money and my mom was gonna add a little; so when we got done, I only went $15 over budget (for my personal stuff) and once we have the additional $$ come in, we'll have only gone $10-15 over-budget on the PbPQ donations (and that's already in the church budget-special funds).

Please take note that all the bolts on this table (second photo) are ONE person's purchases....(no names to protect to guilty, LOL).

 These ladies that waited on us were AMAZING!! "The boss" on the right of Jane, was gracious to give us 10% of anything we all bought, because we were making charity quilts, Project Linus, and Con-Kerr Cancer pillowcases. (they are collectors of Project Linus quilts....)

 We spent the day there.... felt like the night, too! We arrived at 11:15am (3 hr car ride), then shopped until some of us were ready to drop!! By the time all the fabrics were cut (some of us REALLY behaved- others, NOT!), it was 3:30pm and we WERE STARVED!!!!!! As Cricket's fabric was undergoing the 'knife', I (who was in the van with the rest of the ladies) went back into Marden's and got m & m's, granola, ...you know... the special stuff you want to survive on if the van goes into a gully (I call it "gully food").

Okay... now at home...Well, this is the stuff for me, plus the backings for church group.... the pile in the front are the quilts that we were trying to match fabrics for.

Boy, was it nice to spread it all on the table. MY pile is on the far right., church quilt tops on the far left and the two piles in the middle are the fabrics for church use.

 Here is a few photos of the QOV backings...

 Some wonderful fabrics... nothing was over $2.99 yd. Some of the designers were Michael Miller, Henry Glass & Co, Timeless Treasures, etc. good stuff.!

 Here is some Easter egg type of fabrics, we have a quilt or two in mind.

 The top fabric in the photo below, could be borders on the Yellow/blue heartstrings block-party blocks. The ocean waves will go on the Blueberry quilt, and not sure about the top fabric, but ain't it pretty?

The black fabric in the middle will go for borders, pretty swirls of color in it. 

Great kids fabrics. 

 Landscape fabric panels with a nice terracotta marble-y fabric to use somewhere....

Wouldn't this look great cut into strips for heartstring quilts? Just funky enough for me!! Yeah! 

 Loved these prints.... Never thought I'd find the bottom 'map' fabric. I used it 5 yrs ago to make my grandson's quilt. Do I dare tell you it was $1.99 and it feels like silky cottons..... heaven.

 More of MY personal stash....

This is also, mine....

 

Okay, here is some of the tops with their counter-parts.  This one just had all the brights in it that were in the top.

Four panels long will make this backing (we're planning to add a border on this quilt for a returning wounded veteran).

This one I'm sharing the 'map' fabric with the PbPQ to use for the backing on this quilt.

... the left is the border?, and the right is the backing. Will make a cute kid's quilt.

Waves for the blueberry...

And this light print for the border and maybe even for the backing.

The one thing I discovered with I got home with all my goodies, is that when they laid out the bolt on the cutting table, they folded over the raw edge, put the fold on the edge of the yardstick (on the table) and then began the measuring. The thing I loved was that they amount of fabric that they folded over, was at least 6-10 inches of fabric, so most of our 1.5 yds really measure at almost 2 yds!!! I love MARDEN"S!!