Wanna feel my fabric?

If you're reading this blog, I know you love fabric (or you're my dad).  And if you're not my dad and are addicted to textiles, we have a lot in common. 

Today the Fed Ex guy stopped by my door. Pearl growled and then barked at his knocks and I was a little annoyed...I'm supposed to be working, after all. But then I opened the package he'd left on the top step and out came two large zip-loc bags filled to the brim with fabric folded in the tidiest squares. The colors were rich and the prints better than I'd hoped. And best of all, they'd been marked down 50 percent...totally my kind of shopping.

That said, I'm a big proponent of shopping locally. I get a little annoyed by sewers who want to buy everything online and then are surprised when the local quilt shop has to shut its doors. While there are many amazing online businesses, there is nothing like taking a project into a store and saying "I don't get it" and having them help you. Or taking a class so that you get it in the first place. 

Fortunately for my local shops (Home Ec, Common Threads, and Pine Needles),  I'm a promiscuous fabric buyer. I purchase from all three local and semi-local shops AND from online vendors. 

Yes, yes, of course I have far too much fabric. But I have so few other vices that I don't even feel too awful about it. And every time I take a class or learn a skill I'll see a new fabric (or maybe an old one I've loved but couldn't figure out how to use) and decide it would be just the thing for a Birdie Sling or a wonky house. 

In the case of today's delivery, I was harkening to Mary Lou's advice to include cheddar fabrics in one's quilt. And these purple and blue veggies will be incredible potholders, a la Peg's pattern at Common Threads. And then there is enough of a couple to make a Birdie Sling and to use as a border for a quilt I've got started...


So let's hear what makes you buy fabric—do you buy for a specific project, or do you buy because you see a particular piece you can't resist? 


P.S. Anyone have a clue as to why the font looks different, despite the fact that it's the same font and size as in the previous post?