Well, I did it!

On Fridays, as most of you have probably noticed, I like to participate in "Frugal Fridays," hosted by Crystal at Biblical Womanhood. I have read a lot of neat tips posted by others on there, and I only hope that my ideas will be as inspiring!

This past week, I took advantage of that JoAnn's sale I mentioned earlier.

At first, I couldn't find enough matching fabrics. The pattern I wish to used needed 20 different prints - and I was hard pressed to find five that matched! I was facing a wall covered with myriads of different colors and prints, but I couldn't find matching ones.

...Of course, the prices of those bolts of fabric ranged from $2.99 to $9.99, and I was only in the market for the ones $3.99 and under. That might have been the reason selection was a bit limited. [grin]

Anyway the bolts were on sale for $1 off each yard, which is the only reason I was shopping for $3.99 fabric - I try to always buy my fabric for $3/yd. or less.

After 30 minutes of searching, I gave up. I had a buggy full of five blue prints, and five green prints. That was only half of what I needed, and I wasn't satisfied with the way the blue and green went together.

... Enter Mother Dear!

Upon my Mom's suggestion, I scrapped the original quilt pattern and selected 5 blue prints and 5 match-anything white prints, and bought double of each fabric, to give me the required 20 yds. I was confident I would be able to come up with a new pattern to suit the different fabrics.

I had a coupon for 10% off my entire purchase, which I used. (I love JoAnn's coupons. Just wish there were more of them! Once they had a 50% off your entire purchase. That was a steal. Wish they would do it again! )

"Sew," in all, I got 20 yds. of fabric for about $55. I've never spent that much on fabric before, but I had set some money aside for quilts a long time ago, and so I didn't feel guilty about spending it. The joys of a budget!

This amount of fabric will make 4 quilt tops. That's about $13.75 for each quilt top. I think it will make a double-size quilt. Last time I bought fabric for a quilt, it was a twin size, and I think I spent almost $16. (This is not the cost of the finished quilt - the backing and batting are still to be bought.)

It's not a huge savings, but every little bit counts. I would have saved more if I had spent only $2 a yard instead of $3, but I have to go with what is available.

Now...the only problem: designing that new pattern.



P.S. I would show you a photo of my lovely new fabric, but there's one problem: being a frugal family, we use re-chargeable batteries in our digital camera, and...well....they aren't charged at the moment. [grin]