The Waiting...

I hope you have all been enjoying a long and grateful weekend. I've been back at my parents for the weekend. I had it in my mind that I would pick up some project from the top of my pile and sew on it for the four days I was here. It would have been nice. Instead I grabbed a project from the top of the pile and have spent a few odd moments trying to pick fabrics for the borders (haven't actually picked them yet). So. Oh well, probably wasn't a realistic goal. I just miss actually working on stuff...ya know?? On that note, no apartment yet, but I think I theoretically might have one soon! In theory!

I did go thrift shopping on Black Friday in search of an 80s prom dress for a party I'm going to next weekend. One of the shops was having an amazing sale where everything was at least 50% off, and given that enticement I couldn't be prevented from buying some nice scarves and sheets if I saw them. I suppose this technically counts as buying fabric. However. It was worth it. To pay $1.50 for a NEW double size flat sheet in an awesome print...well, surely no one would pass that up.


New! Never used!


Not new, but in good shape and cheap!

Oh yeah, here's another picture from my trip to the Fine Art of Fiber show way back when. In exploring the botanic garden we discovered these shrubs in the shape of a nine patch block in the English garden. Kind of a fitting setting for a quilt show.

Historical Design

While it's pretty blurry in this picture, under the framed mirror next to the window is Mary Todd Lincoln's sewing table at the Lincoln Home in Springfield Illinois where the Lincolns lived for about 17 years before they moved to the White House. On the tour they told us it was where she did all the family's sewing. I was the only visitor snapping pictures of the carpeting, but the designs were so great that I just had to share. Wish I'd gotten more of the wallpaper.

Art Video

I realize that it would be smart to tackle the scraps a little bit at a time. That was, in fact, my plan. But now that I am so immersed in it, I find I have a single minded determination, and an unwillingness to do anything else. At all. (Except blog, apparently.) I have a cramp in my left hand, a blister on my right hand, and a pain in my back, but I feel I cannot rest until every last scrap is cut to size and sorted into its appropriate pile. And since I didn't get called to sub Thursday, Friday, or today, I have been a scrap cutting machine (possibly at the expense of some other things I probably *should* be doing, but why get into that???) I think I may have a problem.

Anyway, I'm taking a short break to share with you this video that I saw on this blog.



I've been thinking a lot lately about art and what it means to be an artist. And I really like this video. So yeah.

Very Purple Rail Fence

This is the worksheet the kindergartners in "my" class were doing on my first day of substitute teaching.



I finished this top today. It was previously a finished top, but first of all it was too big, and secondly I didn't like it. I had the blocks in a non-traditional rail fence layout and it just didn't work for me. And a nearly queen size quilt is really too big for a quilt in this color scheme, especially for an adult, and especially since I didn't like it. If I might finish a smaller quilt that I don't entirely like, I'll never finish a big one that I don't like. Got it? So, I un-sewed an entire large quilt top and re-sewed part of it into this. And now I like it reasonably well. I don't think rail fence will ever be one of my favorite patterns. I chose it to highlight the blocks from another printed fat quarter from Block Party Studios, which happened to be the right size/shape for this. It's 56"x63", and will brighten up the couch of one of my best friends who loves purple (and I hope isn't reading). I actually hope to finish it soon. (For Christmas?)

Odds 'N Ends

This is what I was wearing one day. Not surprisingly I love color in my wardrobe, and I think clothes are a great way to try out color combinations that you only have to live with for one day. If you like them, however, you never know what they could be the start of...

This quilt was made for me by my grandmother. She is really more of a seamstress than a quilter, and that I know of has only made a few quilts, so I'm lucky to have one. This quilt used to have a doll that went with it. There are pockets in each block that allow you to put the doll into her cradle, bath, pram, or high chair. I was WAY into dolls as a kid, so I really loved this. Sadly I'm afraid that the doll has been lost to the ages... Then again, I have enough boxes in the attic here to make it possible that she has not.



Stay tuned for more quilts from my childhood! Hi mom!

Wrapped In Tradition

Last week or two weeks ago or something I saw a really cool exhibit at the local art museum. The exhibit was American Indian Trade Blankets from the collection of Dale Chihuly and glass works of his inspired by the blankets. The glass was not that exciting to me, but the blankets were gorgeous. The color combinations and patterns were really unusual and fascinating and gave me more than a few ideas for potential quilts. Sadly photography was not permitted, but I found an online slide show of selected blankets from the collection that you can check out here.