Since it's the holiday season and I've been purchasing a lot of items online, I have been keeping a running list on my Google Keep of items I've ordered but haven't received yet. Lately I've noticed that the items that take over the list are from Massdrop. Massdrop is a website that utilizes group purchasing to get a cheaper price on items by buying in bulk. They organize "drops" with vendors then offer them up to the people that are subscribed to the website for discounted prices. The more people that join a particular drop, the cheaper the price gets! Once the drop ends, Massdrop orders from the vendor. The items get shipped to Massdrop and then repackaged and sent out to the individuals who joined the drop. The normal delivery to customer is typically a month out, but the deals are worth it!
I first learned about Massdrop from an Instagram comment and I went to investigate. Since then I've purchased quite a few items from the site. I've gotten a large range of items from scissors to patterns to a lightbox to a sew steady for my machine! There was an article on the Craft Industry Alliance a few months ago about if Massdrop was hurting other quilt shops (local and online). I personally feel like I gain more value seeing all these different tools that I wouldn't normally have been introduced to on the website. There are a few things that have been drops that haven't been the best deal on the internet either so that's something to be aware of. There are other categories of items that get sold on Massdrop, but quilting is the only one I believe specifically targets women. I think it is pretty cool that they recognize quilting is a thing and there are definitely people out there enjoying this hobby!
Also I should mention that you need to become a member of Massdrop to see the prices; you can't do a direct comparison of prices without being signed in. I should also mention I am no way affiliated with Massdrop and received no compensation for writing this on my blog. I am just really excited that I'm started to get some of the items that I ordered! If you want to sign up, if you could use my referral link that'd be awesome! https://www.massdrop.com/r/WY5ZFX
Anyway, this past week I definitely suffered from anxiety working on Pattern #102. There is always this anxiety that what I create is not going to look good or the fabrics I've chosen are terrible and don't work. I dragged my feet all week to work on it. What I can say is that I'm very happy with how my sample turned out. That's right, when I started working on it I went all in and finished the sample quilt top! It's going to be a strip quilt, so it will take a honey bun (mini size) or two jelly rolls for the full quilt. The sample I made was from a honey bun just to test and make sure everything worked out well. I've ordered some fabric from sample spree so the full-size finished quilt will be from new fabric coming out in January. I decided to use my extra bits and pieces from my small sample to make some hexies. Here's a little sneak peak! Do you recognize the fabric? It's Sundrops by Corey Yoder!
I must have been in a mad dash finishing mood this week too. I finished 14 of the steampunk blocks, 4 more than my goal! Now I just have one more to finish all 41 blocks! (and then of course, I need to applique the centers on) This quilt is going to be so wicked...I can't wait till it's completely finished!
One thing I was very aggressive about this week was finishing the Treehouse quilt. I got the basting down, but haven't started machine quilting. Oops. As I was pin basting, I realized I am not a fan of basting whatsoever. I think I need to figure out how to glue baste, maybe I'll like that technique better. I wonder how much space I will need or if I need a hardwood floor (those are rare in my house). Hopefully I can get time to finish quilting it this next week. Maybe I'm not a machine quilting fan either, I feel like I fight my quilt so maybe a good goal will be to finish quilting this calendar year! (way to set achievable goals!)
I was super bummed I didn't get my Christmas fabric I ordered from Fat Quarter Shop this weekend. The post office messed up because it criss-crossed the Twin Cities before it finally got to me on Monday. I really wanted to make some Christmas Ornaments as gifts this year. So this is going to heavily influence my goals this week…
12/6-12/13 Weekly Goal:
Available time for quilting:
Thursday and Friday Night, and Sunday afternoon
Projects I want to work on:
Christmas Ornaments
Treehouse Quilt
Cozy Christmas (Since I'll be getting it back this week from Rhonda!!!)
Goals for the Projects:
Christmas Ornaments: Make at least 5 (I think I only have enough straight pins for 5 right now)
Treehouse Quilt: Quilt and bind (who am I kidding, I most likely will be making ornaments!)
Cozy Christmas: Bind