#obsessed

So I might have become a *little* obsessed with #thegreatfabricdestash over on Instagram.  Not that I've bought a lot, but I'll get to that later.  I check the feed at least 25 times a day.  I'm fascinated by what people post and how they value it, how much people are willing to pay for certain fabrics, the competitive bidding, the kind people who give up the lot they won when someone else expresses disappointment, the fun banter.  It's like people-watching with fabric.  What's not to love?

Also, being relatively new to the hobby, it's opened a whole new fabric world to me.  For instance, Urban Chiks.  I knew nothing of them beyond Hullabaloo.  Turns out they produced a few highly sought after lines pre-2010, Sweet and Swell.  People were de-stashing some for a pretty penny and I fell in love!  I would have loved to pick a few up, but I won't pay what they were asking.  I started wondering if I could find some "In the wild" (I've picked up some new lingo on the de-stash, too!)  Turns out I could.  I bought ten yards of ten different prints of Swell, sold most of it on IG ( I still have a F8 bundle) and kept an FQ bundle for myself.  I didn't find any of the big florals, frowny face, but I LOVE that little tile print.

BTW Does anyone know why they dropped the "c" from Chiks?  It's spelled Chicks on all the old selvages.

Same thing with Henna Garden.  I've now traded and bought myself into all but 3 of the colors.   I also expanded my stash of Ruby and Vintage Modern.  Buy a yard online, de-stash 3 fat quarters and keep one, cover the cost of shipping and (for some prints) the cost of the fabric I kept for myself.  Some might feel bad about charging more than they paid, but if you had any idea how much trouble I went to sourcing, organizing, pricing, photographing, posting, cutting, sorting, invoicing and shipping 40+ packages you would not begrudge me the profit.  Besides, this is capitalism.  Go 'merica.

Now I sound like a big meanie.

In the process I discovered a new love: Hunting for fabric.  I don't even need to buy it, I just want to find it.  I get some kind of weird satisfaction when I find a piece of HTF OOP fabric.  When people post ISO's, I feel compelled to try to find it for them.  Some people really appreciate it, others probably think I'm a little obnoxious!  I keep wondering how I can parlay this into a career.  Matt (my better half) thinks I should blog about it.  He's still hoping I turn blogging into a business venture a la Gabby Blair so that he can retire and watch the Olympics all day.  Sorry, babe.  That's not really my aim here.

Moving on, I've only bought four lots from the destash and spent about $85.  I have also discovered I have a penchant for scrap packs.

This is my first purchase of HTF Heather Ross. Really, I bought it for the Owl & The Pussycat print, which has sentimental value.  The rest of it is a bonus.  And my goodness those little moons are adorable. 

Another Heather Ross lot with small scraps.  And I mean small.  In fact, the seller sort of apologized for how small they are!  I was warned before I bought them, but I still think I got a deal.   Most of them are useable, especially if I make a quilt like Jenni's here.  

This is 34 pieces of a layer cake.  My oldest daughter will be using this.  Too irresistible at $15.  Plus I love those cherries.

This pretty stack is the best fabric deal I've ever gotten.  She called it "large scraps" but most of it is at least a FQ.  One piece is a full yard. Some of these pretty rare older Tula Pink prints.  I'll be using them to flesh out my Let's Talk About Hex quilt.  even though I already had a few of these prints, I couldn't pass up some of the rare pieces.  

Speaking of Rare Tula, I found an old shop in Wyoming that has 9 prints from Tula's first line, Full Moon Forest.  Even though none of them are my favorite prints from that line, I'm still ordering some to keep/sell.  Finding the owl paisley and jumping fish are my new mission! 

Wish me luck...

Pinspot