Self-restraint on a Herculean scale – that is the best way to characterize my shopping at the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival.  Of course, it helped that most booths were so crowded that I couldn’t have gotten near anything if my life had depended on it.  But the things I did get were either phenomenal deals or just too awesome to pass up.

First?  A piece of fabric printed with vintage floursack advertising on it.  I’m going to make it into a bag, but I’m not sure what for.  And knowing how long it takes me to finish projects, it will be 2012 before we all see it again…ahem.  I also picked up metric ruler trim – I’m sure you have seen the ones with inches, but metric?  That was a first for me.  And a meter of it was only about $1.  Score!  I also got three meters of lace for just a couple of dollars.  Woo-hoo!  To feed my sashiko obsession, I got two bundles of sashiko thread for $5 each.  I don’t know how many yards of thread there is in each bundle, but I know it’s a lot.  They also had sashiko thread for sale in varying shades of indigo, and I almost got a variety pack – 8 bundles of thread varying from off-white to nearly-black-navy, but I was a good girl.

As I was trudging away from the sashiko thread, bound and determined to not turn around, I saw a basket on the floor filled with old wooden thingies (yeah, there has to be a better name for that – lemme know if you come up with one).  They look like they were used to wind thread for weaving or spinning or something.  I plan on using them to store my sashiko thread.  Vintage Japanese crafting goodies?  Oh, yes!  I’m a happy girl.  And the people running the booth gave me the fabric scraps you see in the picture.  Two of each color.  I have to find the perfect project for these, cuz they’re totally fabulous.  Again, we probably won’t see them until 2012.

The final find of the show?  Thread nippers.  I have been watching the Cutting Tools 101 videos over on Threadbanger, and on one of the videos couture designer Kenneth D. King stressed the importance of not using your shears to trim threads.  Why?  Because you will most likely wear a dull spot into your scissors.  When I heard that, a lightbulb clicked in the old noggin – so that’s why my scissors don’t cut as well as they used to!  So I had been looking for a good pair of thread trimmers, and I stumbled across a super-sharp $4 pair at the show.  Done and done!

All in all, I was very pleased with the goodies I got.  But next time I think I’m going to go shopping for more hours in the day so I can actually do something with all this stuff.

Until next time, may life continue to inspire you,

Miss Kaizer