BIG City Shopping Trip...Again!

Sam and I just came back from the BIG city and I know you're all going to think that all I do is shop, but I have an explanation...REALLY!

When I signed up for Jane's Rainbow Swap, one of the colors that was available for me to select from was dark blue. Briefly, the fabric guidelines are such that we could use as many different types of fabrics to complete the block of our choosing, but the foreground had to read monochromatic with the background white or tone-on-tone white. The fabric in my stash that I thought I could use just didn't fit the bill, nor did the yardage that I bought in Vermont earlier this week. My interpretation of monochromatic is what I know from my painting which evidently does not have exactly the same meaning in quilting.

That being said, we just HAD to make a trip to the quilt shop in the BIG city today because 'time's a wastin' and I MUST get started on my blocks!

This time, I selected two different prints from Bonnie Blue Basics by Paula Barnes of Bonnie Blue Quilts. They are different prints but are definitely monochromatic in that the value of the blue is the same in each fabric. The background fabric is a soft, 100% cotton white muslin.



Sam offered me an hour in the quilt shop while he went to the book store. It took about 15 minutes for me to select the fabric and have them cut it, which left me with 45 minutes to kill til he came back to collect me. Darn! However was I going to kill 45 minutes in a quilt shop? (Insert sly grin here).

My next purchase is all Nanette's fault! If you've never visited Freda's Hive before, give yourself a treat. Nanette has the most wonderful, colorful, extraordinary, eclectic and off-the-wall collection of fabrics you'll ever see. And what she makes with them will knock your socks off. I thought my tastes tended to lean toward the antique-y, Civil War type of fabric but somehow...just somehow...with each visit to Nanette's blog, I've started to take bigger steps outta my proverbial box. Have a look at these fabrics...and of course I had to have 3 more of the Mettler embroidery threads to make that collection almost complete.


Aren't they so kewl?

And last...but not least, I had to purchase this book simply because there are some really neat pincushion patterns in it. After all, one can never have too many pincushions. Right?

Isn't retirement grand?

Happy stitching!

It's Pouring Out!

This is mid February, right? And this is Canada, right? Then what the heck is this rain all about? We were supposed to have freezing rain on Tuesday and even the school buses were cancelled in anticipation of the bad weather but we dodged that bullet because somehow the wind came up and blew the storm off course. Yesterday the daytime temperature reached almost 40F and we opened the windows to let the fresh air in. It started raining late last evening and it's still raining but it's supposed to return to normal temperatures by tonight. The snow looks like it's sunk about 8" but there's still lots of it.

I finished sewing the half square triangle outer border on the Primitive Garden BOM this morning.

That was alot of work and I'm happy it's done. In all honesty, I need a break from this quilt. Please don't get me wrong because I love the design, but it's really been a labor and not always of love. Some of the background fabrics are homespun and I've never sewn with homespun before. I love the look of homespun but found out as I was putting the blocks together and adding the sashing and outer border that this fabric stretches a WHOLE lot! I had to do a bunch of ripping out in the process. As a matter of fact, it seemed like I was ripping out as much as I was sewing to put it together but I was determined not to let it get the better of me. I'm sharing this because I just want to give a head's up to other newbie quilters out there about my frustrating experience with homespun. I'll never not use it again but I now know what to expect and probably will be a little apprehensive the next time. When the last four border blocks arrive, I think I'll just set them aside for a while to save my sanity. (VBG)

The other day I spoke about getting a new lease on my creative life when I was inspired to rearrange, organize and clean my studio. Mel left me a comment about how she loves a clean studio and then doesn't like to mess it up after she's cleaned it. I was like that for a day or so and then I dove head first into those half square triangle thingees and you should have seen the mess. But, it's back to normal again as I cleaned up right after I had finished ironing the outside border strips and I think that's the solution...clean and tidy up right after you're finished and then it's done!

Now I need something portable and easy to work on. There's always my Grandmother's Flower Garden work-in-progress but decided instead to do the Tisket-A-Tasket BOM in wool...for me. The one I'm appliqueing using the needle turn method is going to be my friend Lucie's Christmas present. The first block is ready and hopefully I'll start to stitch it this afternoon.

Lucie and I are making the 65 mile trek to the BIG city tomorrow with stops planned for Home Depot for peg board and molding (see previous post), quilt shop for more embroidery thread and other "must haves", Michael's for embroidery floss for a redwork project that's in the offing and of course...lunch.

Happy stitching!