12 Minutes

I annoyed some people yesterday. And to make it worse I am not one bit repentant. Usually I have a level of guilt, whether deserved or not, but not this time. Let me tell you what happened.

My local quilt shop is The Bramble Patch. It's a lovely shop and they also do classes which is where I took my first steps into the quilting world. Yesterday was their annual sale. Yup, once a year one big sale. For those of you in North America who don't know what quilting cotton costs here - the average price at this shop is £11.95 per metre (approximately US$18.75). Now you now why we in the UK complain about the cost of fabric a lot!

Therefore the annual sale is a big thing for quilters in the surrounding area, and some even come from further afield. Getting fabric half price can't be ignored, especially for those who have not discovered the joys of online shopping. Anyone who wants to hold on to the image of us quilters being gentle souls should never attend this sale. It is not a pretty sight!

The shop doors open at 10am but there is a long queue by that point, so it pays to arrive early and get into said queue. This year the sale landed right in the middle of the half term holidays so I had to take the girls with me. I planned accordingly. They had books, and snacks, and had been primed for what to expect. There were explicit instructions to go straight upstairs to the balcony where the books are and to watch the carnage from above.

When we arrived at the shop there were already a number of quilters sat in their cars but they had conveniently left the parking space right by the front doors free. Thank you! I told the girls to make themselves comfortable and I would get out and line up. I was the first in line. Woohoo! Another lady joined me soon after and she was lovely, and we were soon chatting happily.

A few minutes later more ladies got out of cars and then one came and stood by us and said, 'Excuse me ladies but we were here first so if you don't mind we will go in front.' Excuse me?! I (politely - honestly) suggested that that was not how a queue worked, as did the lady who I had been chatting to. 'But we were here earlier than you! We've been sat in our car!'

'So have quite a few others,' I replied. (Shall we ask them to all go in front after they decide who arrived in what order? - I thought to myself.)

Well, that was it. We then endured half an hour of muttered (loudly at times) 'That's so not fair!', 'They are so rude!', etc, etc. Oh for goodness sake people, grow up! When my children got out the car close to opening time one of the aggrieved quilters suggested that the two of them should go to the end of the line because they had been in the car. I ignored that, and wasn't going to even get into it with them which showed an incredible amount of restraint on my part.

And when one of the shop staff came out to take a photo of the line up they commented to this group of quilters, 'I might have known you lot would be near the front.' obviously knowing them. To which they replied, 'Well we were at the front but that's a long story. We'll tell you all about it later.'

Sometimes I just do not understand people. Was I wrong?

Why the importance of being at (or near) the front? Well I was in the door when it opened, straight to the tables of uncut fabric, quickly picked one I liked and handed it to the person doing the cutting. I then made a quick circuit of the table and picked up bolts and handed them to her as I went. By the time I had made my circuit the table was surrounded. Shortly thereafter it was two deep and you couldn't get at anything. The wait for a staff member to cut for you was (I presume) long.

I could have chosen a lot more than I did. Budget and short arms prevented that happening. Once I had my fabric cut the girls ventured down from above, risked life and limb and picked a couple of FQs each. I was at the till paying when Emily threw a charm pack into the basket as well. That took me by surprise!

It's Lily & Will from Moda. I don't have a photo because I told Emily that we would have to share the charm pack. So she came home and gave two (yes, two) squares to Helen, none to me and took the other 40 for herself. She is busy making something with them already.

The following is what I bought yesterday -

Before you think I have taken leave of my senses -
these are the girls choices.
Though as Emily took most of the charm pack I think I am going to nick that black FQ from her.

As you can imagine there is a lot of end of line fabric that is on sale. But this is okay with me because it meant that I could stock up on some that I loved and wasn't likely to see for sale in many places any more.



Bliss - woohoo!
There was a lot more of the line available but I couldn't have it all at
the minimum cut of a metre each.
Sarah, you would probably have had the lot!

Flurry by Kate Spain.
I know this is a Christmas line but I think this FQ and metre of fabric
are good all rounders and was especially thrilled to get the red because I love it.

It's a Hoot by Moda.
More of my favourites from the past year.

Sunkissed on the left and Just Wing It on the right.

I paid for all of the above and we left. On leaving the shop I looked at my watch. 10:12am. I would call that a very efficiently spent 12 minutes. I am sure that someone arriving was pleased to get my parking spot too.

Susan