SHOPPING TRIP

Some of my friends and I went to the Sewing and Quilt Expo.  I don't take classes, so this was just a shopping opportunity. I was given a ticket by a friend that won 2.  She didn't want to pick which one of her friends (the group that was going with her) would get the extra ticket.  So, I was lucky enough to be sitting by her and she handed it to me.   Since there is something basically wrong with spending money on an admission to spend money, I gladly took it.

I didn't buy a lot.  Only got a few things that are just not normally available in local shops.

I found this perfect copper shawl pin.  I was so happy when I found it.  The booth sold buttons and notions.  They had a long copper wire shawl pin, and they had silver squared spirals and round spirals.  I luckily found this.  It was the only one.  The only thing that would have been more perfect would to find a copper squared spiral. 

In another booth I found the elusive RADIANCE .  I have only heard about this fabric, but wasn't sure of the brand name, so I couldn't find it.  I doubt shops around here carry it.  I bought 3 yards of the white to dye myself, and after finishing the shopping and having money left over, I want back and bought this pack of hand dyed which is three one yard pieces.  It says it's Charcoal, and it is hard to photograph, but it is more of  a dusty lavender gradation.  I went back to the booth to purchase a 5 pack gradation of 1/2 yards of a taupe which was more like the fabrics that I used to make the miniature, but, This fabric wouldn't go well with the cotton prints, and I'm not sure that I want to use it all over again. 
Also, I needed to have more than 1/2 yard pieces for a miniature.  I don't want to run into the problems that I did when I only had fat quarters and half yard cuts of fabric. 

The only other thing I bought was a magnetic bowl

I have a large one that I bought at a auto place, but I keep my T pins in it for blocking.  I am going to use this on my sewing table for my general nothing special pins.

I was waiting for my friends, thought it was the end of the shopping day, and they pulled me back into the vendors where I saw this being demonstrated

This is actually very cool.  It is a metal stip with some of those 3M removable strips to hang it on the wall.  ( you know the 3M hooks that you can buy?  You can also buy packages of just the strips) It also comes with 2 ultra strong magnets. You can hang up to a twin size quilt using just this one metal plate, and a metal rod you can buy anywhere.  He also was using some sort of flat, galvanized metal stripping that he got at Lowes.  I really dislike messing with hanging larger quilts, but this, I can handle.  I guess that the guy that thought this up hangs a California King size using two of these.  I don't think I have wall space that big, and I wouldn't in a bizilion years make anything that big, so it doesn't matter. 

That's the extent of it.  Mother nature is pulling a cruel joke and sent snow Thursday evening.  It is nearly gone, but bitter cold.  I get to go to the dentist this morning, oh boy, then grocery shopping, and home to shut myself in and knit and cut out more spool blocks.  Typical perfect weekend.  Hope yours is good.