Cheap Paper Towels

Felines agree: cheap paper towels are the best for shredding! You know the ones that tear even as you try to pull one off the roll?  Delphi had great fun today snatching and shredding all the towels she could reach. She had quite the gleam in her eye and even got in some raking with her back feet.  She was fully into it!

This is especially funny because she usually pays no mind at all to paper towels.  I don't usually buy the super cheap ones as I find they tear and I end up using twice as many.  I'll have to add "fun to shred" to my mental list of Best Choice paper towel features, I guess.  No one shreds the Brawny!

Speaking of the Little Bit, I am still planning her quilt.  I have had the idea for quite awhile now that I wanted to do something geometric - probably solid colors on black.  I have a big stack of Kona cotton now that I've put together over about three years.  A few nights ago I pulled it all together and arranged it in color families and made a stack of graduated color.  The plan in the back of my head is to use these solid fabrics for Delphi's quilt, but I worry that I have too many fabric to use them all for such  a small quilt! There are two or three shades of each color: reds, blues, greens, yellows, orange, pinks, both bright and more muted shades.



Here is a picture of my fabric:

Kona Cotton

 And here is a pic of my Little Bit:

If you like Kona cotton, or would like to try some, check Hobby Lobby stores or JoAnn's stores in your area.  The advantage of going into a store in person is that you can SEE the colors; this is useful for fabric that offers so many colors (currently 271!), and you can get into shades and values. I normally don't buy fabric for my quilts at these stores because the fabric available there is not of is not the same quality that is available in quilt shops; however, I do make an occasional visit to look at the Kona cotton when I need a particular color or I am working on my fabric stash.

If those stores aren't available in your area, or if you wish access to the full range of Kona colors, Hancocks of Paducah <http://www.hancocks-paducah.com> is an online quilt store that sells the full Kona line. I also recommend them for high quality cotton fabrics, batting, tools and notions.  You may visit them online or request a free paper catalog. The print catalog is great for reference and fabric selection; I get these and keep them for awhile.

Note: Hancocks of Paducah is not the same as the Hancock's fabric chain available in some areas.  

The rendering of Kona colors on screen or in H of P's print catalog is good, but not perfect.  As stated, that makes it nice to find your Kona cotton in a store, but not many stores will carry the full range of colors available. Another option to ensure accurate color selection is to purchase a Kona swatch card, which is also available at Hancocks of Paducah.
<http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/Item--i-KC-CARD>

Regarding quality, I believe in buying the best that you can afford; it does make a difference in the finished product, how it feels, and how it ages. I am certainly not rich, and I am sensitive to the fact that everyone's finances vary.  Personally, I would always rather buy better quality fabric less often than get a lot of medium or poor quality fabric. But that's me, and I never judge anyone if their mileage varies on this.