I’m finding it more difficult to write my second blog, and part of it is that I have followers now which is both exciting and scary.  I’m learning more about blogging through participating in a new quilt bloggers group, and one of the best pieces of advice I’ve gotten so far is that my blog will be a work-in-progress, and I can implement improvements bit by bit. A future goal is to put a Follow Me on Bloglovin button on my blog. Enough about my blogging journey and onto my quilting addiction! One of my guilty pleasures is shopping online for fabric. Certainly, I’ve bought fabric from current collections, but I’ve found it especially helpful to find fabric that is out-of-print. I recently bought some Andover Low Tide Seagull fabric from an Australian Etsy shop because I could not find it anywhere in the U.S. And amazingly the price wasn’t much more than domestic prices including shipping. As much as I enjoy online shopping, there is nothing like shopping for fabric in quilt stores. I frequently go to my local quilt store, Threadbear, but like other quilters, when I travel, I really enjoy going to new quilt stores. I’ve been to two fabulous quilt stores in the past two weeks. When I visited my sister in Michigan, I went to Pink Castle Fabrics in Ann Arbor, and a couple days I went to Hip Stitch in Albuquerque.

It is so fun to see the fabrics in person that I’m familiar with from the internet. I especially enjoy seeing the colors, feeling the fabric, and to be able to tell how one fabric will work with another. I have to tell you that Lisa at Hip Stitch was wonderful to talk to, and with her enthusiastic but low-key sales approach, I ended up buying more yardage than I’d planned. My stash is starting to get out of control. Now that’s a problem I like having! Some of the fabric I bought yesterday is for some log cabin block swaps I’m doing on Instagram. You can follow me on Instagram at mringer58. People can request certain fabric colors, and one of my swap-mates requested yellow and light blue which are two colors that I have very little of in my stash. But Hip Stitch had the Zen Chic Numbers collection in stock, and I am very familiar with this collection from doing the super simple sample blocks tutorials posted by Sharon of colorgirlquilts.com. Color Girl Quilts Simple Sampler Block Tutorials I was given some beautiful fabric for my birthday in March by four different people, so I decided to improve my quilt piecing skills by following Colorgirlquilt’s wonderful tutorials. Here’s a pic of some of the blocks I completed.

I still have a couple more to do before I put them together as a wall-hanging. Alright, it’s time for me to start sewing. I will check in soon.