I have a problem buying fabric. And by problem, I mean I can't stop buying fabric. Sad for my credit card, happy for me...it's a genetic thing, ask my mom and grandma! Anyway, last year for my birthday, my mother got me a ton of Sampler Packs from Connecting Threads and I've been devouring them like crazy this last week. What's a Sampler Pack? Well, Connecting Threads is a gorgeous fabric (and sewing accessories) website, which design and manufacture their own fabrics. They have coordinating fabric sets, which of course you can buy the normal yardage amounts in, but then they also have, which I have deemed the coolest thing ever: packs of their fabrics you can buy in different sizes for an amazing price. Sampler Packs contain swatches of all the fabrics in one coordinating set; so, let's say you want to try out some fabrics together, you can buy a Sampler Pack, see how they work together, and then go ahead and buy the yardage amounts for all the fabrics you liked from the Sampler Pack. For example, you see that quilt I made up there? All of those 5 inch patches came in a Sampler Pack from Connecting Threads. Each fabric included in the pack is a sample of the larger yardage of fabric you can buy from them, but, the cool thing is, in each Sampler Pack, you get 12-24 different patches to play with! And...each Sampler Pack (of 5 inch squares) is under $3. Yes, you heard me right...you can get all of those wonderful patches to make a quilt with for under the usual price of one yard of fabric.
Now, as my loving husband pointed out, when you get Sampler Packs, you don't have two (or more) of any fabric to do a repeating pattern with...but I sort of love that! It forces you to be creative. Also, when I showed him a Sampler Pack of colors he liked, I decided to make him a quilt, and so I simply ordered 4 of the Sampler Pack (which ended up being around $9) to make him a giant quilt.
I think this is an amazing deal for a lot of reasons. Number one, I hate cutting fabric. Number two, some nights I just feel like whipping up a small quilt, and with these packs, I have the fabric all ready for me. And number three, if you're a new quilter, you may not want to have to buy larger pieces of all the fabric you're working with, and you may just want to have some patches to play with. Furthermore, Connecting Threads is a family owned business (which you know we love), and their fabric is wonderful quality, with vibrant colors (as you can see above), and also...I have to mention that their normal fabrics are awesome prices too. Because they do everything in-house, they keep prices super low, but quality very high! If you're looking for some fun summer projects, I highly recommend trying out some of these Sampler Packs!
Check out some of their gorgeous 5 inch sampler packs below (there are more here!)
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| Top left: Try It Quilter's Candy Samplers, 5" squares, 16 fabrics, $1.59; Middle: Handmade from the Heart Sampler, 5" squares, 15 fabrics, $1.55; Right: Little Stars Sampler, 5' squares, 24 fabrics, $2.48; Bottom left: Spring/Summer 2013 Batik Samplers, 5" squares, 18 fabrics, $2.49; Middle: Botanical Beauty Samplers, 5" squares, 24 fabrics, $2.48; Right: Mirage Garden Samplers, 5' squares, 24 fabrics, $2.48 |
