book score!

The Hilo Borders bookstore is closing. I feel partly to blame, given my Amazon habit and the fact that I now download all fiction to my Kindle. But it's their fault, too, for not having what I was looking for the past few times I went in 'cause I was in the neighb., just every title ever published by the big names, and for giving over more and more of the store to non-book items.

So, when they announced 20-30% off everything, I decided to give them some guilt dollars if I could find anything of interest in their meager and already picked-over craft section. Which I did. This one:

... and this one:

(Yes, clicking on one of those links will take you over to Amazon. Sorry, Borders, that's just how it is.)

Even at discount I still paid more than Amazon's current price for each title, but I also got a couple nice bound journals at a very good price, two novels cheap, and was able to explore both sewing books instantly (in the car on the way home, as DH drove) instead of waiting for mail delivery.

I now have both "Alabama" books, which equals a lot of inspiration, and no excuse for not starting in on something right away. Except that there are some other items on the to-do list.

I have been sewing since my last post, but the current project is not anything I can show you yet. It's of the quilt ilk, and part of a collaborative thing I'm exploring with my sister. She reads this blog, and doesn't want what she's doing on the same theme to be influenced by my take on it. I can provide a sneak peek...:

... but that's it for now. That's a yard of a lovely, reddish, mahogany brown Kona cotton, and small squares from the littlest scraps pile, roughly 1.5-2.5". I'm challenging myself to make something wherein the brown looks chic and stylish, not just muddy.

In other news, I have decided to break my pattern embargo (but not the fabric one; I'm sticking with that), for very good reason. I am headed for Maine in October, to visit my parents and brother, and will be stopping over in Portland, Ore, for the weekend on my way back. This means I will need some FALL CLOTHES, and nothing will thrill me more than if I've sewn some of them myself. I have fabric, but the patterns I want to use are still on my wishlist over at PatternReview.

The embargo idea was a good one, and I did very well with it, but let's face it: I need all the sewing days I can get, and waiting another three weeks to order them feels like a wasted opportunity. So, a pat on the back to me for making it to day 96 of the pattern embargo. That's going to have to be long enough.

I might even extend the fabric embargo until October (which would make it 180 days!), because my quilting sister, Abby, is coming over to Portland the weekend I'm there, for a meet up, and we have major fabric shopping plans. It will be nice to feel I've earned a serious binge.