Sample Spree

The flight to Utah was quite easy. The worse part was changing planes in Denver where it was sleeting, but even that wasn't bad because the airport was toasty.

I had kind of expected Salt Lake City to be a gray and dreary city from different people's tellings of it, but it turns out that it feels a lot like Tulsa, just a bit cleaner.

Anyway, after throwing our stuff into the hotel we headed straight for Sample Spree.  Even though our flight had been delayed were arrived early enough to get good spots in the line, and we were only about 20 people in!

This year I went with about half the amount of money as last and a general idea of my "shopping list". The truth is that I still have a lot of the fabric I bought at last year's sample spree in my stash, so there really isn't a need to add a lot more. Mostly I was looking for Japanese fabrics and maybe one more small fabric bundle.

This is what I bought. A 1/2 yard bundle of solids from Art Gallery (10 different pieces). A bundle of 8 fat quarters from Lecien. I love these because of the cotton/linen blend!  I normally don't buy patterns, but this one is of a French penguin in a snow globe. Who can resist that? The pattern company, Metropolitan Quilt, is new, so new that they don't have a website yet. However, I'm hoping I'll be able to work with them more as they get established because the patterns are so cute!

The last thing I bought was the Aurifil thread box. I actually went over budget with this by $2, but Chris was able to loan it to me. *laughs* Just to give you an idea of how much I love Aurifil thread - I usually order it from Pine Needles in Minnesota, and it cost something around $12 a spool after shipping. That is a bit much for thread in most cases, but this thread is the best I've found. I especially love it for hand sewing becuase it doesn't knot up like every other thread I've tried. Even better I've never had to "condition" it first with beeswax.  It probably would have been smarter to get more nuetral colors, but I couldn't resist these bright colors especially now that I see how well they go with the Art Gallery fabric!

Last, but not least, the wallet is from Art Gallery as well. It is so adorable. Chris bought this for me because she gets gifts for everyone each year -Super Sweet! The awesome thing about it is that I was looking for a wallet before Market, but couldn't find one I thought was worth the money. Now this one is perfect for me!

Tomorrow is the last day of Market, and I have lots of pictures to share. For now though, I need to get my bags packed because we leave Market early to catch our flight. Unfortunately, even though our flight leaves at 4:20pm tomorrow, we won't be home until almost mid-night thanks to the delays.

Good Night!