Summer Days, Winter Nights

The fabric store closest to where I live (other than Wal-Mart), the one that’s two towns away and a 35 minute drive, is closing at the end of this month. I went a week and a half ago and got a few pieces of various cotton prints for $3 a meter, and a few zippers and a pattern to use with a pink sheet I bought awhile ago and thought would make a sweet retro dress out of, and a whole lotta trim ribbon, because I love trim ribbon and tend to get a little carried away. I ended up getting over a hundred meters because it was so extremely ridiculously cheap, and cool. What's not to love about rabbits and mushrooms and fishies?

Then I decided I should probably go back yesterday after work and get a few more things because the fabrics are all at least 66% off regular price. But in the week and a half since I was last there, everything has been pretty picked over and all the really supercool stuff is gone. I did however manage to find some nice tan and baby blue twills (I think I’ll make purses out of them), some zippers, a few spools of thread (they had been really picked over as well), a sewing measuring tape (I’ve wanted one of these for awhile but never could find them, and this one also just happens to be a very cool olive green), three more ribbon trims I had missed the last time I was there (I couldn’t resist), and a bunch of assorted doodads for pursemaking. I only had 30minutes there before it closed, so I had to be quick and didn’t have any time to look at patterns. I am tempted to go back tonight to do that, and also there were two pieces of fabric I debated buying and they won’t be there for long if I don’t get them now.

When I was a kid my Mom would always buy fabric (and oh my goodness it is really thundering and pouring outside all of a sudden) and never use it. She bought it with good intentions but more often than not didn’t get what she planned on making done. She warned me about this on the weekend when I was talking to her.

But I remember a long cold winter. I’ve been trying to cherish this summer, the light, the jacket-less weather days, the opportunity to drive anywhere without scraping the ice off the windshield and warming the car up before driving, the ability to just go out and walk or bike… because all too soon it will once again be days when I drive home at 5pm in the pitch black darkness of night and the television attempts to suck me into an evening of nothing accomplished and nothing done because it’s too freakishly cold to go outside. My fabric stockpiles have intentions to make this winter a good one.