Free Quilting Supplies and How I Get Them
How I save money, maintain a quilt budget or get free quilting supplies isn’t my normal type blog post, but I’m tellin’ ya, maybe it should be. I’m by no means a tightwad, but I am a savvy consumer.
We’re big Dave Ramsey fans in this household and like Dave, we assign every dollar to a given spot: charity, savings, bills and, most importantly, my quilt stuff. I gotta have me some quilt stuff. Like an addict, I need a regular fix. Recently I went shopping and quilting clips were on my list.
Talk about sticker shock, not to mention they were LOCKED with a SEE TEAM MEMBER sign. Seriously?
The store was full, and I’d already spent ages waiting my turn to get 15 yards of 90″ wide batting cut. I only tell you the size and amount so you will understand why I didn’t want to lug that humongous roll of batting around the store looking for someone to unlock the clips. Did I mention they were having a sale (the only reason I was there) and it was really crowded? I left without the clips.
Next stop? Amazon
The Easesec brand has been every bit as good as the name brand. Here I show the Clover Clips (red) that I already had at home side by side with the new quilt clips. I love the variety of colors included, as well. Size and strength has appeared equal between the two brands.
So where is the $50+ free quilting supplies?
In the savings. Instead of spending all your money on one or two items, being consumer savvy allows you to buy a lot of additional items for the same amount. That’s just like free stuff in my book. In this instance, buying no name clips instead of the name brand clips saved:
- $45 on the product (technically $135 if I had purchased an equal amount)
- $1.50 additional savings (there is a 10% coupon currently available)
- $4.70 tax (this particular purchase wasn’t taxed)
- $3 gas (not making another trip to town)
So, I would consider the following items examples of my “free quilting supplies” when figuring the savings.
Above are the contents of one of Fat Quarter Shop’s Sew Sampler Boxes (which I’m crazy nuts about and used one of them several times throughout my Patchwork Quilt Along Big Blocks). With shipping and tax, they run about $30. The money I didn’t spend purchasing name brand clips allows me easily to stay within budget and still buy the Easesec clips, a Sew Sampler Box and probably a couple of these lattes, as well, lol!
Hopefully you’ll discover something new and wonderfully quilty if you take an online shopping excursion. If so, I hope you’ll share it back here in the comments.
I also shop on Amazon for quilting supplies and I am very frugal with my quilting budget. I highly recommend 10 packs of Olfa blades on Amazon–the ten pack is harder to locate because they are listed under tools not craft supplies, but they are much cheaper that way. I also save on tax that way as I live in the county and it cuts my tax in half. I am wary of the Sew Sampler Boxes because there are always things I would not use in them which would be a waste of money. I also sew samples for my local quilt shop and receive a shop discount of 25%–which helps me purchase more fabric. I have also started to sew samples for Fat Quarter Shop which means free fabric and publicity– a win win deal! Thanks for your tips!
Thanks for commenting and for the 10-pack tip! I haven’t bought the Olfa blades from Amazon (yet), but I have been curious about the “no name” brands offered. I was looking at the Rovtop 10-Pack 45mm Rotary Cutter Blades. They have really good reviews and are half the price of Olfa. Have you tried any of the off brands? I understand your concern on the Sew Sampler boxes, because every so often I get a duplicate of something I already own, but I normally gift those items out to my fellow quilters. What I do like is I get products I normally wouldn’t buy and then fall in love with them!
I’m totally with you on this! I shop Amazon Prime as well for my quilting items, I get the Fat Quarter Sew Sampler & love the items that come in their boxes…it’s like getting a gift every month! Quilting is my passion!
Deb, thanks for your comment! I feel the same way about the “gift” — I say it’s Christmas in a box every time it shows up!
Explain the Fat Quarter Sew Sampler, please.
Hi Kathleen – the Sew Sampler Box is a monthly subscription and this link provides all the information here at the Fat Quarter Shop in much better detail than I could provide. Thanks for asking!
In your shopping on saving money, I live in the country, to go shopping means all day, plus gas, plus lunch, then when you head home your tired from shopping and there’s always the traffic, hate traffic. Shopping Amazon, fat quarter shop, or any of the reputable shops beats traffic any day.
Nancy, love your comment, and I agree totally!