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!
