City Sampler 70-72 and Fabric Monday

More City Sampler blocks to share today.  I woke up to the good news that I won the October giveaway at Sew Sweetness.  Here are blocks 70-72:

 70

 71

72

I won a different giveaway at Le Challenge blog recently for having made and entered the super hero cape.  I received another yard of Super Kids fabric and a gift certificate at the Fat Quarter Shop.  I used a coupon code in addition to a Pearl Bracelet sale- so I really got a lot of fabric by combining all of those deals.  

I have never won any giveaways by simply leaving a comment among the hundreds (sometimes thousands!) of other commenters on various blogs, hoping to be chosen at random.  The secret to winning now and then seems to be entering those blog "events" where you have to actually make something and link what you've made.  

Finally, I made the difficult decision of what kind of sashing to use for my City Sampler.  Pictured below, the first fabric on top is 4.5 yards of a random Benartex fabric that has a linen look but is still 100% cotton.  I picked this up and the other fabrics at Fabric Place Basement with a Living Social deal recently.  The Benartex amounted to about $3 per yard and it really suits my project.  I am not excited about all of that sashing but it's got to be done.

While at Fabric Place Basement, I met a beginner quilter who was gathering supplies to make her first quilt.  She had a newspaper printout description of the adult education class she was enrolled in.  Luckily I stopped her from buying 8 yards of 108" wide fabric for backing.  She was going to be making a queen sized quilt, but she could've backed nearly three quilts with so much backing material!  I ended up helping her choose a decent ruler and batting ("Sorry but I really recommend you don't get that cheap crinkly polyester stuff that will rip out of your hand if you tug it too much" and "that ruler with the big ridges would drive me nuts!").  Anyway - it was fun to help her out and reminded me of Mary Fons' talk at QuiltCon about the importance of helping the beginner quilter.  I still feel like a beginner sometimes - I know nearly nothing about applique, I tend to use inordinate amounts of fabric for paper piecing, and I have yet to truly master the 1/4" seam!   True confessions here - I know, it's gritty stuff.  Just trying to keep it real.  

Thanks for reading!