Waiting In/On Line

So right after Christmas 2 of the 4 JoAnn's in our valley announced they were closing. Shortly thereafter in a large building vacated by one of the big box electronic stores that went bankrupt signs went up that a super sized JoAnn's would be opening in March. Finally the grand opening came and armed with coupons

and the sale flyer I headed out Saturday morning with mixed emotions. I get up early so I intended to be there when it opened but I was concerned that it would be too crowded to shop. Especially to get fabric cut as it is always a challenge to get in and out of JoAnn's when it is not busy.

I thought the ad said the first 50 people would get a free tote bag. So when I got there and saw the line since I wasn't very interested in the tote bag and HATE lines I thought I would wait in the car. It was kind of cold and rainy so that seemed like the best plan. There is something about lines though -- I guess some visceral feeling that you are going to miss out on something that compels you to go get in/on them. So I did. A rare husband was telling his wife that she was number 67 in line. So that made me about number 71. No tote bag for me!

But when they opened, I discovered the first 100 got the tote bag. And a $5 gift card. Worth the five minutes I waited in line, now wasn't it. And they had an organized system at the cutting table and at the check out line with about 8 cash registers! I usually buy backing fabric at JoAnn's so I was able to get it at 30% off, use my 50% off coupons for a couple of other things and get in and out in a reasonable amount of time! My only remaining complaint (and you knew there would be one, now didn't you?) is that is located on the main shopping street in Boise which is totally gridlocked from Thanksgiving until mid January.

On another subject, here is the Easter lid for my thrifted blue box. The bunny has a cotton tail made of little ripped strips of muslin. It really is cute. Since I had the St Pat's top on when I shared my other Easter decorations it was omitted from that post. I still can't believe someone donated this! I keep saying the "crafts gone wrong" aisle is the best one in all the thrifts!

So here is the finished top (only) with the purple sashing.I think it turned out really nicely. The purple was just right. I used a new technique for the sashing that I recently saw on the Fons & Porter show. Instead of making the sashing strips you sew a post to a strip and add them to the blocks. I put these on the bottom and then added the strip up one side. It is easier to sew the enlarged blocks together than to mess with the skinny strips I think. Less handling of the big top at the machine and I think the strips are straighter. I uploaded the pictures backwards but here are the steps.

I thought this was a brilliant idea if I do say so myself. Usually I lay out all the blocks on my design floor and then pin them together by pairs for sewing. By the time I get them all sewed I always seem to end up with the blocks out of the original order. This time I left the threads between them until I had pressed them and laid them back down on the floor. Yippee, they stayed the way I wanted them.

And this one is just chaining the gold blocks onto the strips. Which gold did I pick you ask? Why the darker one with the script print on it. I thought it was more in the mood of the purple fabric. I am finding I love this purple fabric which is a good thing since I have yards of it.

Now it's time to go back and do some quilting. Enough diversion from the scrap bin.