Which means that by the time November arrives, I’ll actually have a little bit of a better idea of how to quilt!

Granted, I could have probably taught myself just fine without too many problems. But I really think that to do the best I possibly can, and spare myself a lot of frustration, it would be better to actually see the process in person, rather than just via the internet and books.

The thing is, there are SO many quilts and quilting challenges I want to do right now. For instance:

• The Modern Quilt Guild just announced the first challenge in their Project Modern series: Inspiration. The challenge looks like so much fun, and the prizes are amazing!
• Oh Fransson is posting the details on her gorgeous Tokyo Subway Map quilt. I absolutely love the pattern and colors, so beautiful.
• Fat Quarterly is starting their quilt-a-long on September 6th. I know I’ve mentioned this one before, and I’m really, really tempted to join along, even before my class.

Really, though, I can’t join any of these right now. I have my class to look forward to, and it will teach me how to quilt correctly, so that I don’t waste time or fabric. So, no. I am not joining in. I just don’t have the time.

Devil on my shoulder: But, Susan, the Fat Quarterly quilt top only takes one jelly roll! That’s not too much of a commitment! And it’s such a pretty quilt! You can find the time, can’t you? Maybe you should just look at the jell rolls – I bet there’s one out there that would be just perfect. Oh look, what’s that?

Apparently I have no willpower and am easily distracted by pretty fabric.

Here’s hoping I don’t learn too many bad quilting habits before my class.

On Wednesday I took my Paypal debit card for a ride to Among Friends Quilt Shop, where I browsed and debated and browsed and debated some more, before coming home with these lovelies:

A beautiful stack of various fat quarters.

Some fabulous backing fabric.

The ladies at Among Friends were super nice and totally helped this newbie quilter. In fact, I was chatting with Rusty while she rang up my purchases and she gave me a bit of advice that I sorely needed: It isn’t always necessary to buy lots of yardage. Most of the time, unless it’s backing, a quarter yard or a half yard is plenty. This is exactly the kind of information I needed, because I tend to overbuy. In fact, I wish I’d heard this a few days ago, before I went and bought a yard and a half of Insul-Bright to make some potholders. Live and learn. (Thankfully it was on sale.)

I also entered a giveaway a couple of weeks ago during Sew Mama Sew’s May giveaway day, and I was the winner! Kate from The Quilting Professor sent me some gorgeous fat quarters that I absolutely love:

Aren’t those cherries fantastic?

I also ordered a few more fabric items online that have yet to arrive, and then I’ll be done stashing for awhile. When I first started knitting, I went a little overboard buying yarn without really knowing what I was doing, and ended up with some not-so-great items that I didn’t really like. I’d really like to learn from that, and move forward a little bit more deliberately and selectively.

I say that now. Feel free to remind me of this when I’m knee deep in Moda jelly rolls and fat quarter stacks, wondering where it all came from.

I did get some pretty fabric in the mail, though.

These fat quarters will be used for an upcoming project I’m working on – details to follow in a couple of weeks. (I will say – it’s not a quilt.)

In case you’re wondering, I purchased these from The Dizzy Daizy Quilt Shoppe. From the top, the bundles are from Riley Blake’s Just Dreamy line, Michael Miller’s Christmas Spice line, and a line of 1930′s reproduction feedsack prints.

I love all of these colors! I can’t wait to use them.

But this yarn was different. I bought yarn that I normally wouldn’t have purchased. Yarn that was in a color scheme that normally doesn’t appeal to me.

Why? Because the yarn had the same name as my cat.

This is a hank of Mama LLama Perfect Sock, in the colorway “Zelda.” That’s right, Zelda, which is the name of one of our cats. Here she is:

And because I couldn’t buy yarn named after just one of our cats, I made a point the same day to purchase yarn for our other cat. Here it is:

This is Sundara Sock Yarn in the colorway: “Ruby Most Sought After.” Which I thought was appropriate, because of our two cats, Ruby is the one that hides more often, and we’re always trying to figure out where she’s hidden herself. This is Ruby (not hiding):

Yup, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve turned into a crazy knitting cat lady. It was just a matter of time, I suppose. But aren’t they (the cats and the yarns) just gorgeous? I think so, but then again, I’m probably biased.

Plus, I sat down to start Mr. Martini’s plain, boring grey scarf last night, and was immediately bored to pieces.

Which means, I ordered some high-end designer yarn today to make a striped scarf for Mr. M: Noro Silk Garden, which is know for it’s long color runs and gorgeous texture. I figure I’ve been very, very good this year, and so has he, so we both earned some nice yarn – for me to play with, and for him to wear.

I’m starting to second guess my color choices though. Here are some terrible internet pictures of the yarn I ordered:

and

The other photos I’ve seen of the first color show less pink and more muted browns. But really, once I see it in person it could look completely different.

I guess I have to wait for the mailman to deliver to find out for sure. Hopefully I’ll get it by the beginning of next week. We’ll see.