RSC: April Purples

I had a happy day on Friday. I stopped off at our local quilt “thrift” store. It reminds me of the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel, you just can’t resist!

The Legacy, as it is called, is run by the city’s Senior Center. All the fabric, notions, yarns, lace, patterns, etc. are donated. They have both yardage and plastic bins of smaller pieces. I love the plastic bins because it’s a great place for scrap quilters. And the dreamy part of this is they charge $2.00 per pound for fabric!

On Friday, I went in looking for purples. I had gone through my stash and actually did very well in finding many purples. But, it was a good excuse to go there!

It was a good day for purple! It was also a good day for turquoise and orange, and pink and green and blue…you get the picture.

I looked through the orphan blocks and found some nice ones that I bought for pieced backs. I was dizzy with fabric fumes!

Take a look and see! Purple, purple, purple!

The batik on the left and the purple fourth from the right were from the Legacy. The rest were from my stash. I love the purple at the right!

The dotted fabric 2nd from left was from The Legacy.

I have some dusty pink but am not sure if I will use it.

It’s amazing the different shades of purple! Some look downright pink next to others. I only need 14 purples for my snowballs so I have leeway.

By far my favorite is this one:

This was someone’s donation that I ended up taking home from our guild. I don’t have much, but I’ve used little pieces of it in a couple of quilts.

The pinky/purple fabric the third from the right on the first picture you probably identified immediately as “old” fabric. Definitely. Where else do you see this kind of selvage?



Can you imagine making quilts or bags or… out of the selvages from yesteryear?

It’s not even halfway through April and I’ve got my fabric. Next step: cutting 6.5” squares! See you next week.

I’m linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Everyone there is making beautiful things. Click on the badge in the upper left side bar and see some great blocks!

A Good Start to the Day

I started out this morning like every other one. When I went outside with the dog I was busy thinking about the day ahead and what needed to be done.

I became aware of a little chirping. I stopped to listen and realized there were lots of birds chirping. I stood and there were hundreds of birds chirping. I was surrounded by this wonderful symphony of sound.

The sun had just come up and birds were chirping everywhere. I just took in all that beautiful music.

Maybe I should tune in to the moment more often…

Wherein We Encounter the 60s and Do The Math

Monday, Monday, so good to me;
Monday morning, it was all I hoped it would be.

Now there’s some enthusiastic people! Now if they’d written Friday, Friday, I would be more on board with it!
So, do you remember the Mamas and the Papas? And if you do, you’re from my generation! For the rest of you, the Mamas and the Papas were a singing group from the 60s.

I always wish I had more time in the week to quilt…which I think is a common theme on my blog and the same probably for many of you. I really don’t know how bloggers with children manage to quilt, much less write a blog. I didn’t start quilting until after my kiddos had left the nest! It seems impossible to quilt and blog and have kids! But forget my moaning and groaning. Really, isn’t some quilting better than none?

I did manage to work more on my Log Cabin quilt. It’s all looking good and I think I see the finish line ahead! I need to call the quilting lady and reserve time to get this behemoth done.

It’s gotten to the point that it’s difficult to sew on it because of its bulk. I think my king size quilt is actually working against me trying to maneuver it through my machine! I can just see it grabbing onto the edge of the table and saying, “No! No! Not through that tiny opening again!”

For those who haven’t been on this loooong journey with me, here is a post about the beauteous beast.

I sewed some more on the spool quilt. I also encountered a little hiccup.

The start line:

 















Advancing through my sewing machine:

Starting the next step, adding white strips:
















The progress as of late:



Doing the math:
56 1-sided spool blocks
+5  0-sided blocks
= 66 white strips needed
-22 white strips available
=44 white strips, that I don’t have, that are needed

And now Murphy’s Law raises his head. I have no more white fabric. I started this quilt a long time ago. Ergo, no matching fabric.

Enter the hero: My Aunt Marie, scrap quilter extraordinaire! In her scrap quilt she would often substitute  similar colored pieces when she ran out of the first color.

And there you have it (Thank you Aunt Marie). I must go down to the quilt store. Back to the quilt store and find a WOW fabric where the backside looks similar to the one it has.

You know what? I actually think it’s kinda cool…pulling a “Aunt Marie”!

Scrappy Turquoise

I know I'm not the only one who hasn't finished their turquoise/aqua blocks. At least I  hope so! When I finally got the fabric, I did have so much fun sewing them together and they look so purty, IMHO. I finally got time to sew their little snowball corners on Saturday. 

Part of my delay was I galavanted around Riverton, where Nancy Drew lives, on Spring Break. I got to visit 2 of a gazillion quilt shops there--and that's only within a 10 miles radius of her home. Okay, maybe I exaggerate a smidgen. Just a little.

It's amazing to go to Utah from a county that has 2 homegrown quilt stores, 1 Joann's and 1 California-based fabric/quilt/yarn/craft store. When I used to visit Nancy Drew in Massachusetts, her situation there was worse than mine! Now I'm eagerly waiting to go back to Utah so I can visit even more quilt stores my adorable grandchildren!

Here are my snowball blocks for March. I had fun finding some novelty fabric for this month. I guess only about half of these are scrappy. Then again, once I bought them they became part of my stash that I’ve been using to make my blocks! Nod if you agree!

If you number them right to left starting in upper left, here’s the skinny on the blocks.
1,3,5,7,8-10 were all from fat quarters from Utah
2 is a fun one from my stash
7 is a favorite that I keep cutting small pieces off to put in one quilt or another
9 is from a shirt I bought at Goodwill for fabric

I was much luckier this month than last. I had lots of purples to choose from! Next week I’ll show the ones I picked!