I gathered the loot from the AQS Show back up so I could share! Here’s the first batch:

Looking at it all now, I’m sure it’s not terribly exciting to anyone but me, but I’ll tell you what it all is anyway. From the top center, sort of counterclockwise, we have:

• Something called a Waterbrush, which you fill with water and then you can brush small amounts onto fabric or quilts. The folks selling it were using it with Caran D’ache colored pencils to make a watercolor effect (a bit of a strange technique that wasn’t quite ready for prime time, IMO), but I’m thinking it will be great for correcting mistakes with the blue washout marker, and it will probably come in handy for many other things at some point.
• I bought a strange and lethal-looking seam ripper thingy, after the vendor demonstrated how it could be used to cleanly slice through fabric layered between fusible web and freezer paper. Think fusible appliqué pieces.
• The Magic Bobbin Washers were something I’ve wanted to try, and the Lickity Grip is probably just an alternative to my favorite free motion machine quilting “get a grip” tool, the Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream. Worth a try to see if it’s better.
• A couching foot for my Bernina 440. This thing makes couching soooo much easier. You use it like a free motion quilting foot to stitch down cording and fibers to fabric.
• Some new embellishment glue and fabric markers that I haven’t tried before. It never hurts to try lots of different brands to see what’s best.
• I renewed my AQS membership, and they gave me free curved thread snips at the show. I love these thread snips and they’re at least $15, so that was a steal!
• I searched all over the show floor to find that little green thing there on the left. It’s the new flat needle threader from Clover, and I LOVE it. Works great for threading fibers through small needle eyes.
• I bought a couple of new types and brands of hand needles that I haven’t tried before. So far, I really like the Bohin Crewel Embroidery for embroidered embellishments on quilts. It’s nice and long and sharp, and pretty easy to thread with that new Clover threader.
• The clear box is a bead storage box from Embellishment Village. You can never have too many beads, until they outgrow your storage options, that is.

That’s it for the first round. My goal at the show was to catch up with (and buy) the new things that I’ve missed because I live here, and don’t see or hear about the new stuff until it’s old news most of the time. I’m off to try out some of the Loot! More to follow!

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It’s been a week (and a day) since I picked up my new glasses, and a week since I visited my favorite hairdresser, Jessica, in Stuttgart. I have to say that the glasses came off with more success than the hair, though the glasses are the cause of the current dissatisfaction with the hair.

Backstory: I haven’t had a pair of glasses that I liked for more than about a week (if even that long) ever. And I’ve never been able to continuously wear them anyway, since I’m nearsighted, so I need them to drive and watch TV across the room, but I can’t wear them to read or do anything where I have to focus close up. I get this instant headache if I use my glasses to read, and I do mean instant, like within seconds the back of my head between my ears and down my neck is absolutely pounding.

I don’t have this problem with contact lenses; I can read just fine, no headaches, although I do have to hold the book farther away than I do without contacts. I’ve told this to every eye doctor I’ve ever been to, and one of them suggested bifocals a few years ago, with no correction on the bottom part of the lens. Sounded good in theory, didn’t work in practice. I still got the pounding headaches. Those lenses went back and after that, I’ve just stuck with contacts when I go out and have to drive, glasses (with frames I hate) to watch movies or drive quick trips if I’m too rushed to put contacts in, and no eye correction the rest of the time. I know what the inside of my house looks like, and I’m not THAT blind, so I just deal with it and don’t wear anything when I’m at home.

But lately, since the big 4-0 came around, my near vision is starting to go as well. I’ll bet that some of you knew this was coming, right? Now, even without my contacts in, I have to hold things farther away to see them, and then there’s the computer monitors, which are either too far away or not far enough, depending on the day (or something). And those little tiny numbers on the tops of machine needles? I swear they don’t even exist anymore. Since my glasses were eight years old (my bad), I took a trip to the eye doctor finally.

So I now have progressive lenses. Yep, no-line trifocals. I’m feeling old, people. And dang, these lenses were expensive! This is what happens when you can’t see properly out of single vision lenses anymore I guess. I’m still trying to get used to them, and figure out which part of the lenses to look through at which time, though that headache threatens as soon as I do it wrong, so I’m hoping it’s just a matter of time before it’s automatic and all.

I did manage to find a pair of frames that I like pretty well, and they look okay on me, I think. I’m not sure what attracted me to this pair, but maybe it was the combination of the swirly, mother of pearl looking sides, the little bit of bling in the raised silver dots at the temple, and the iridescent metallic jade green lens frame in front. All of those elements must appeal to the color and embellishment junkie quilter that I’ve become lately.

And the hair? The style I had was in conflict with the glasses; I’ve been wearing a no-bangs look lately, and I had this chunk of hair on the side by my eye that got hung up on the side of the frames that just wasn’t working. I told Jessica about it and showed her what I didn’t like, and she suggested cutting in some wispy bangs. Sounded good in theory, big mistake in practice. Then it was worse, in a different way, than it was before. I looked young before, younger than I am anyway, and could probably have passed for say, 30-ish. After the cut, I looked totally my age, or maybe more. It was just wrong, and the glasses weren’t helping so I was really feeling the pain. And feeling old.

I say “was” because I tackled the hair this morning with a pair of sewing scissors and got those “wispy bangs” straightened out to my satisfaction, and I’m feeling a bit better about it all. I might be able to actually live with it, instead of going back to her to have a re-do. *sigh* I’ve had this love/hate relationship with my hair for the past few years anyway, since when I have bangs, I can’t get them to cooperate all the time, and when I don’t have bangs I feel like my face looks too long and maybe too severe. Now I guess with the glasses, it’s back to the bangs for a while. I look younger again, for now. And sometimes, I can even see past my nose.

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While I’d rather be able to get everything I need locally at a decent price, it’s just not possible, so I shop online a lot. I used to shop a lot at Hancock’s of Paducah, but their shipping is kind of high depending on the size of your order, their “new and improved” website is dog slow and painful to use and calling to place an order isn’t always the most pleasant or easy experience either. Backorders have always been a problem with Hancocks as well, since they can never tell you when (or if) the backordered item might show up. I’ve shopped at Jinny Beyer’s site a few times over the years, but the last experience was soooo painful and required two phone calls and at least that many emails that I won’t do it again unless I’m desperate.

Lately I’ve discovered some new sites, some great, some not so good. I’ll list below some of my recent online shopping destinations (and some old faves) and my experiences with them, in no particular order:

Quilting Warehouse—I really like this place. The online shop is easy to use, well laid out, and has great prices from what I’ve seen so far. I discovered it while searching for the cheapest prices on fusible Velcro by the box. Not only are their prices good, they don’t kill you on shipping, and add nothing for handling at all. A small-to-medium box with two boxes of 15 feet of Velcro each, and two small packages of needles only cost $41.60 for product and $3.85 for shipping. They shipped my order within two days of receiving it, and it was in my hands in a week. Definitely a keeper.

eQuilter—Not that this is a recent find, and I’m sure you all have shopped here before. Great for fabric shopping, shipping costs are average, but it took them six days to ship my last order which was too long IMO. I do like their virtual design wall where I can see fabrics together before choosing which ones to buy. However, I wish that they would list the manufacturers names and style numbers with the fabrics in the shop, but that’s one of my giant pet peeves with many online fabric retailers. It would make it so much easier to shop for a certain fabric when you have that information in hand, if the shops would note it in the item name or description.

Amethyst Quilts—Not much to say about this place since my order never was completed. I was searching for a certain fabric and found it here through the Quilt Shops Search Engine, only to have the shop email me the day after I placed my order to say they didn’t have the fabric after all. Sad, very sad. That’s another of my huge pet peeves right there. Online shops that show fabrics and products that they don’t have in the store and don’t keep their stock levels current are really frustrating and definitely don’t inspire me to go back. The only thing is, it seems like all 210 online quilt shops that are designed and programmed by the folks that run the Search Engine look about the same; I might not even realize it if I ran across this same shop again a year down the road during another fabric hunt until after I’d placed my order for something else they might not have.

Thread and More—This one’s a mixed bag. The first time I ordered, my order was shipped the next day, and the shipping fee seemed average. The second time, it took them two weeks to ship my order out, and they charged me $7.99 shipping and $1.50 handling for a teeny tiny little Priority Mail box that cost them $4.80 to mail. The product total was only $19.92, so $7.99 was a bit steep to begin with but to add insult to injury, there was no “packaging” to speak of that would have cost them a huge amount of money or extra time. The four packages of finger cots and four packs of John James needles I ordered were inside a plastic zip top bag with the receipt, and the box was free from the Postal Service! I’m not too impressed with this place after the second go round.

Sewing Supply Warehouse—I can’t say enough good things about the service here. I buy Sulky thread from them, because they have the cheapest price that I’ve found on the ‘Net at $2.09 per spool. They ship orders out the next day for an average shipping cost without extra handling fees, and their online shop is powered by Yahoo!; nothing stellar, but very usable and gets the job done without glitches. The only complaint that I have is that they don’t carry more of the items that are on my “need to order” list. How simple life could be if they did.

Soft Expressions—I’ve been ordering from this site for years, so it’s not a recent find, but worthy of inclusion here. They have great prices, mostly much lower than retail and other sites. Timely shipping, usually just two days from order placement to shipment, with slightly lower than average shipping fees and no extra handling charges. The site is not laid out the best, but it is functional and gets the job done.

There you have it, almost all the online sites I’ve shopped at recently. I’m sure I’ve left out a couple of favorites that I’ve not visited recently. I can think of Red Rock Threads off the top of my head; always great service with extra reasonable shipping rates, probably some of the lowest in the business actually. I’m sure more sites will come to me as soon as I hit “Publish.”

Your Voice: Where do you turn when your LQS doesn’t have what you need for your latest quilting project? What are your favorite online shopping haunts, and how do they stack up when it comes to the real nitty gritty of it all with shipping times, costs and handling fees?

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