A new quilt store opened up 10 miles away from my town and I went out to investigate hoping they had the yellow fabric I needed for the "My Tweets" quilt.  Turns out the guy there is a rep for the Accuquilt Company.  He asked how I liked mine and I was perfectly honest.  I hate it. The shocked look on his face was priceless.  When he asked why, I told him I broke one, I can cut faster and more efficiently with my rulers and there are no dies I like and/or need.  His jaw dropped even lower.

I told him what I enjoy is that my Cricut and Black Cat cutters will draw out my templates accurately on fusible webbing and while I haven't tried it completely, the Black Cat should cut fabric.  I don't have the software figured out decently, but it does work with applique pieces.  I showed him the "Hearts Desire" quilt I had planned on starting and said that you can't give me dies like that. (And you probably couldn't afford them either, but didn't say it)

The store didn't have it, but said the Lincoln shop would and I headed up to Lincoln.  Of course, she's out of only the yellow bolt.  She's ordered another bolt and will send down some of it when it comes in.  The owner and several people there loved my "My Tweets" blocks, told me NOT to stop and that my satin stitching was flawless.  I SO needed that boost since I've been so overwhelmed with the satin stitching.

Between the two stores I picked up these fabrics for the "Hearts Desire" quilt:

Sigh.  I can't get the picture to flip right so forgive me.  I need to pick up some more orange/yellows and just work from there.

I also picked up the quilts my daughters had made:

I didn't realize it would cost me 85 dollars each to do this and I had planned on doing the binding myself (I told her this) because I bet that's where most of this cost came from.  I wish she had given me an estimate and I was dumb enough not to ask.  Only reason I had it done was I couldn't baste the quilts myself or quilt it with my back.  Not complaining about the quality by any means, just in sticker shock.

At least they are done and my daughters love them.  They did the tops with little help from me.  It did make me mad that none of the squares were square and none of the strips were the same length.  I won't buy precut fabric anymore.