The new depression

Well, John, it seems the general consensus around our area is to use up as much of our stashes as possible. I did set aside a few dollars of my tax refund to purchase some new fat quarters earlier this month, but have not bought any significant yardage.

amy in CNY

Well, my economic issues are only partly the economic climate, and more a divorce a couple of years back.....but I'm working from a large stash from better times. The only quilting purchases I've made in the last two years are:

1 three yard piece of vintage cheater fabric, 36" wide, yellow background DWR pattern, $1.99, thrift shop

3 quilt batts, Wal-Mart

5 quilting stencils, The Stencil Company (mostly on sale)

I can see that somewhere in my future will be the need to buy another bolt of white muslin at Joanns, but that's still a ways off (probably a year or more).

Periodically I go thru my scraps and pre-cut them into the largest size squares I can get, ranging from 6 1/2" down to 1 1/2" which then fuels scrappy projects---which I actually have more fun with than I do the ones that create the scraps. :)

The top I'm currently piecing is 6 1/2 " white squares sashed with a double row of 1" (finished size) squares, totally scrappy, just random pull from my box of scraps cut to 1 1/2". 2 1/2" (cut size) squares at the corners, ditto on random pull. Looking to showcase quilting the white squares in an apple blossom design from The Stencil Company.

--pig

I'm using stash. Have lots of patterns and ideas, not enough time. At this point I will splurge to go to one Quilt show [Glendale, Ca Quilt Guild show in March].

Playing it close to the vest with my hard-earned $$

G> What with all the bad economic news these days, My wife and I were

I'm doing my part of spending to help the economy. I've never opened Hancock's or any other fabric catalog, and immediately fallen in love with a group of fabrics. I wasn't going to order them, but I've been waking up at night thinking about them, so today I wrote a check for $190. Never done that from one source before. I guess that'll be my only fabric purchase for a long time----at least till the NQA show in June. Oh well, DH's still working. I guess I'm a truly certified fabriholic! Gen

Even folks I know who have jobs, are kind of running scared. There is the fear that it may happen to them, through no fault of theirs. That is very troubling to someone, I would think. I was always somebody who worked from job to job as that is the nature of construction, but for people who work for one company it must be very unsettling to think about the consequences of loosing that job. My heart goes out to them. My next door neighbor is a Heavy Equipment operator who builds Golf Courses, and he has not worked for months. He went to get his passport, so he can take a job building golf courses overseas. He will make twice the rate of money he would here, but will have to be away from his family for an extended period of time, and he is not looking forward to that. I guess it is the only thing he can get at this time. It is strange, how this whole thing came about. Who would have thought.

John

Well, here in Oz, the gloomy economic news just gets worse by the day (or hour); plus the horror of the recent bushfires, so thrift is definitely in. I used to think that quilters (that I know, and in my guild) have bottomless purses - purchasing fabric, books etc willy-nilly (note to self: is that term purely an Oz one?) for yet unknown future projects. ... but I expect now, there is some restraint now appearing. DH and I have worked hard, budgeted over the years to pay our house off and for DH to retire in his early 50's. My quilt spending has always been thrifty and will continue to be. I've never understood buying stuff that in all likelihood will sit on the shelf for years. Budgeting for the important things - our next international tutor (Vikki Pignatelli) workshops are both fully subscribed in May - seems to be what folk are doing. Meanwhile, I am having a heap of fun making a scrappy/charm quilt from my stash just like Megan. Batting will be the only item required for a good while. Our LQS is closing down - not because of poor economic times, it has a been great earner - they have to re-located interstate for DH's work.

Cheers Bronnie

OH Bronnie! You will love Vikki! (Tell her I said Hi!) She gives a ton of information in just one class! She's a very sharing and wonderful person...have a blast! OH my.....I just noticed how many exclaimation marks I used. Can you tell I just LOVE her??

Thanks Kathyl - now don't get jealous ---- Vikki and DH are billeting with me for 5 nites! I am on the sub-committee working on Vikki's tour and I agree, she is a delight to deal with and she is very excited to have her first trip to Down Under. She and DH are planning lots of sightseeing activities. Our tour has her visiting 3 states with 6 workshops. She arrives in Sydney on Apr 24th with our guild workshops from May

4th.

Bronnie

Nope.

Somewhere in my lexigraphical wanderings I read that the ancestor (back in Old Blighty) of willy-nilly is "will he nil he" (i.e., whether he chooses yes or no, or "under any/all circumstances"; "no matter what").

Some folks do tend to extend the usage to imply a meaning of "wildly/randomly", but I don't think that's technically part of the meaning....

--pig

Gen, which fabric??? I must see photos. If it's worth that much and you were dreaming of it, maybe I desperately need a fat quarter.

Sunny

I'm being mostly careful. I have a decent stash and my last few have come completely from that, except for a couple spools of monofilament thread and some new bobbins to replace the ones that are scratched and dented. I have continued to buy, when the sales are irresistible, for the giveaway quilts to Children's Hospital, Red Cross and the foster home agency. I pay up to $3 a yard and get cute stuff that I hope will make a little one smile. I confess to having bought a book yesterday. It's Anna Faustino's book on weaving fabric.

A lot of my stash is second hand. I hit garage sales and estate sales. And I buy clothing to cut up if the fabric is something I like and is in good condition. You can hit some really good deals.

Sunny

Well thank you Megan for that insight! I thought it might have had aboriginal roots. A willy-willy is a small dust spout that blows across a field or paddock on a dry, hot day and I'm pretty sure that is an aboriginal term. What an intellectual bunch we have here in rctq.

Bronnie

I've stopped buying unless I'm gathering fabric for a specific quilt. I have been quite a fabric-snob up until now and would buy only Moda, etc.; the higher quality stuff. Fabric at LQS (which was $6.29-7.29 when I first started buying a few years ago is now $9.29. As much as I love buying from that store, I might try some different avenues. I also pretty much rely on free internet block patterns + imagination now and don't buy books. They can get very expensive. Part of the charm of quilting to me, is the frugality and making something beautiful out of scraps. Sherry

It's Classic Garden by Cynthia Coulter. Pink., green and beige. I never buy pink, but this just said "I'm your new bedspread" I've had a pattern in mind for a few years, just waiting for the right fabric to pop up, and it did. Plus 2 fusions to go with them. Then since I had to pay postage, I added a few things so I got my money's worth for the shipping amount. I really must go on a fabric diet , along with a regular one! Gen

On Sun, 1 Mar 2009 16:09:41 -0600, John wrote (in article ):

It's unlikely they lay any one off at our Agency given all the layoffs the last Governor did, But I suspect when the budget proposals are made this month, we'll be looking at a significant number of unpaid, "furlough" days. So I've been trying to cut back on the spending. More trips to the library and more working out of stash. (That's what it is there for, right?) Fortunately, I've been saving for the annual trip to Paducah since last year.

Maureen

OH goodness. You'll have the best time having them stay with you. They are such a gracious couple. What a small world. You and I have met in Paducah and I was the coordinator for Vikki's visit to our guild....though she didn't stay with me. We would love to have her back. The amount of information she gave us in a one day workshop was amazing. Some teachers might say, "I teach that technique in my suchandsuch class. I'd love to come teach that." Vikki will take a time out and give a mini lesson in whatever has been asked about. We snagged her for a workshop as she was doing a cross country drive. She had posted online that she was looking for teaching opportunities within a certain time frame. The timing was perfect for our guild meeting schedule....however, our program committee had decided to have an auction on that date. (We had plenty of time to reschedule.) So....instead of having a published author WITH her quilts (since she was traveling by car) we had a garage sale of old patterns, etc. because we had already scheduled a local auctioneer. GRRRRR. I was embarassed, but Vikki was very understanding and even came to our meeting to see show and tell. She's a peach! I wish I could come too.

I don't use my charge card except for online purchases that don't take PayPal, but I pay the card off in full every month (it only has a $500 limit, so I can't get in too much trouble). My disposable income is pretty solid and I feel like it's my duty to spend it. The economy won't get better if people hoard money if they don't really need to.

My 2 cents.

Cindy