I've Been Thinking, Its A Conundrum

There has been a little shopping going on here over the last few weeks. Not particularly the Christmas shopping which should be done. Are you a buy your presents early or leave it to the last minute type of person? For myself, I don't like to buy too early, it seems too clinical, I like to have a little of the Christmas spirit before hitting the shops. On the other hand, if the tree goes up and I don't have "the back broken on it" I feel a little panicky. One year I dreamt that it was Christmas Eve and I hadn't bought a thing. Luckily it was a dream and I did a mad shopping spurt that very day.

A few weeks ago, Halloween to be precise, I was away for the weekend with my scrapbooking friends. We went into a little shop in Derry/Londonderry (don't ask) and I bought some fabric for my bubbles  and then a ball of aran wool. My friend bought a ball of wool too and we decided to have a knit in. Have I told you this before? It seems familiar. Apologies if I have. Maybe I just wrote it in my head. I'll save the wool for another blog, post. This very day I have finished the gloves and the hat I eventually knitted.



The other day I nipped into a not so local fabric shop. Now, I must admit I tend not to use this shop except in emergencies, you know these fabric emergencies. I always felt their stock was a little stale, but wow. They have updated the stock. This could be due to the influence of one of the tutors who is a local blogger and modern quilter. In any case, it set me thinking and this is what I bought. Again a usual variety for my bubble blocks.



I don't buy fabric for the big projects locally, they don't have the depth of modern fabric, or for that matter wool, that I want. I tend to buy this either in USA on holiday, namely in Purl Soho, or order online either from Fluffy Sheep Quilting in Galway or The Village Haberdashery in London.
But .... if I don't buy locally then these shops will not survive, will close and I wont have any localish shops to go to when I need a couple of fat quarters for stash.
But ...... if they don't have what I want ..........
It is a conundrum isn't it?

I went into downtown Belfast yesterday and tried to buy some Aran wool and a pattern for hat and gloves to send to my son's girlfriend in USA for Christmas. They had damn all if you excuse my French. Not even the basis of knitting, Aran has become fashionable again but seemingly these city centre shops preferred to sell cheap acrylic for hairy, itch scarves.
There is a great wee wool shop in the city suburbs, strangely near the quilt shop and I suppose I will be heading there tomorrow. I might even call into the quilt shop to see what's new. Or as we say here, to see what the craic is.

Helen x
linking up with Sunday Stash with Molli Sparkles

Comments

  1. Love the fabrics for your bubbles. Looking forward to hearing about your knit in. I don't knit or crochet very much and am not familiar with that yarn.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Are we talking Quilters Quest?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like to buy some Christmas presents ahead of time. This year I'm making a lot of them, and I'm planning to have a sew-a-thon over this coming Thanksgiving weekend. I inevitably need to pick up a few items in December but usually not too many. I went into Purl Soho's website a little while ago. I love their wool ornaments. Maybe I'll get a kit next year and make some for gifts.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes. I know about the conundrum. My local quilt shop has quite a bit of fabric I like....but they seem to be struggling a bit maybe with increased competition. There definitely isn't as much in there as there was when I started quilting.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It is a conundrum, isn't it? I've gotten a lot better about not buying fabric just because--I walked out of a quilt shop without buying anything a couple of weeks ago, believe it or not! But you should let them know what you would like to see. Sometimes the little shop owners aren't good about social media and such and so have no idea what fabrics everyone is excited about!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I try to support my local shops but find myself shopping online more and more.

    ReplyDelete
  7. We have a local fabric shop that I'd love to support, but the prices are quite high, and I'm on a budget. So I rarely purchase, but then I feel guilty for not supporting. What's a girl to do?????

    ReplyDelete
  8. I know what you mean about wanting to support local but not finding what is needed. I hope the next shop is better.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Supporting local shops is important to me. We actually have two great fabric stores about 20 minutes from me. I frequent the one very often, too often actually. I always think I need fabric!!! I also got the thought in my head that I needed to have this Janome Horizon Memorycraft 9400 machine, well it came home with me! It is a fantastic machine! I'm headed to it right now to complete some more Christmas gifts. I love your fabric you chose. I love black prints. So very pretty. Can't wait to hear about our knit in. That's one thing I can't do is knit.

    ReplyDelete
  10. If only there was a local fabric shop here! Though I sometimes think I'm buying more "just in case" whenever I am at a fabric shop anywhere exactly because there isn't one close by...

    ReplyDelete
  11. We have the same problem here. David and I try to support the local shop as much as we can. I usually don't start my Christmas shopping until early Nov then spend the rest of the month in a dead panic about finishing up. I'm hearing rumors that our tree is going up in the next few days so I need to get cracking. The kittens are more likely to climb when the tree is empty:)

    ReplyDelete
  12. I don't know the answer to the fabric conundrum either - just try to spread the love around maybe. As for last minute Christmas panics - there's always something interesting to be found in a petrol station. :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you so much for your comment, I try very hard to reply to them all.