I think my calendar should come with a warning similar to the ones seen on rear view mirrors; “Caution events on the calendar are closer than they appear.” I do not for the life of me know how I have come to find myself only a couple of weeks out from Canberra Quilters Exhibition submissions with no clue what I’m going to submit. Normally I have a fairly clear and definite plan for my submission but this year there’s been a culmination of events that’s left me uncertain and without a main show quilt top finished. Whoops.

Oh well, there’s worse problems to have and I’m a resourceful woman so you know, I’ll pull it out of the bag at the last minute.

There’s two quilts that I’m working on at the moment that I would love to submit, but the kicker is the tops need to at least have all the blocks done so I can make my submission. Neither quilt is a simple or repetitive block so I’m not going to be able to just sit down and bust them out. Each block takes about an hour to make (from deciding on fabrics, to cutting and sewing). Now that wouldn’t be an issue if making quilt blocks was the only thing on my to-do list, but at the moment my to-do list runneth over.

So what’s a gnome to do at a time like this…. 

Simple. It’s time to add to my stash! Did you know how amazing fabric shopping is for soothing the soul and helping you to procrastinate on making important decisions? It’s simply restorative! The other good thing is that if you get all the way to the end of this very long post there’s a chance to win your money back with Cotton Factory!

The 2 quilts I’m trying to work out whether I should finish or not are my X Plus or my Smitten. Both quilts rely heavily on a good variety of fabrics and me having a bit of time to think about fabric placement and fussy cutting opportunities. Not something you want to be rushing. But, also not an excuse for procrastinating.

My original plan for the X Plus was to do 100 blocks, a nice 10 x 10 square. (I do love a square quilt!) I’d made around 30 blocks before this week, but I knew some of those blocks weren’t as good as they could be. (The vertical line of the cross was out or the fabric combination wasn’t quite right.) So I needed to work out whether I was happy to live with them like that or whether I’d invest the time in unpicking them and getting them right.

In a complete shock, I went with unpicking. (Seriously, the old me wouldn’t have bothered. I was clearly in the “near enough is good enough” camp. But the newer version of me is starting to be less pleased with that attitude and more pleased with seeing something done right. I’ve clear had a run in with the body snatchers!)

I unpicked and realigned the blocks where the piecing was just slightly out and then I unpicked and rearranged (and in some cases ditched fabrics altogether) the blocks that just weren’t “right”. It didn’t take me nearly as long as I thought it was (especially cause I unpicked some of the blocks on my lunch break at work) and it’s so much nicer to be able to look at those blocks on my design wall and not be assaulted by the glaring mistakes. (Glaring to me anyways!)

I’ve even managed to squeeze in time to make a couple more blocks and now I’m just shy of 40. I’m starting to think that maybe a quilt of 8 x 8 might be better than 10 x 10 but I’ll see how that goes as I get closer to each target.

I’ve also managed to make 2 more blocks for my version of Smitten. The blocks are great fun to make, but between cutting them out to the template and stitching them together they’re not the fast blocks to make. But they’re so addictive. I’m also finding myself still curating (see what I did there!) a collection of fabrics that will play nicely together and give enough variety to really make this tri-colour scheme work.

When we made our mad dash to Ballarat, home of Cotton Factory, in March I picked up some more black and whites to add to my collection from Alison von Bibra, the lady behind Cotton Factory. And I’ve been sneaking them in as much as I can. I am particularly enamoured with the Small Black Ampersand and Small White Ampersand that I got while there. They perfectly fit the template.

I have been talking to Alison about how you can never have too much black and white (or is it white and black) fabric and how I always love the black and white’s that she finds. One thing lead to another and before I knew it Alison was suggesting the unheard of…

Win your money back with Cotton Factory!

That’s right, you could win the cost of your entire order back! All you have to do to go in the running to win is make a purchase from Cotton Factory at any time in the month of June. (Oh the hardship!)

Once June is over Alison will send me a de-identified list of sales (by order number only) and I’ll use the trusty randomiser to pick a number. If its your number that’s picked Alison will refund your entire order via Paypal.

How fantastic is that?!?!?!

Current in stock items and classes only (no pre-orders, or monthly clubs, that just gets way too confusing), but other than that there are no limits, so you can really have some fun. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, why not check out Cotton Factory Destash on Instagram and drop Alison a line to see if she can hook you up.

As someone who shops with Cotton Factory (to the point where I went cross country to visit the store!) I can’t recommend it highly enough. Not only are you supporting a lovely Australian owned business you’re also getting to do it all while never changing out of your pyjamas!

So what are you waiting for? Get clicking!

PS. Did I mention Alison has quite the little stash of out-of-print fabrics by Tula, Anna Maria Horner and more… oh and there’s even some great quilt books. So there’s no excuse to not have some fun! Go on, you know you want to.

Disclosure: Cotton Factory are sponsors of this blog, however no compensation was provided for this post. All opinions expressed are my own and have not been influenced by the businesses involved. For further information about my disclosure policy please click here.