another one bites the dust

Another quilty day---what else is new?

Marilyn ran up to the long arm quilters with me this morning to pick up the quilt I had dropped off a couple weeks ago. We both did a little bit of shopping. I was good and just got 1- yellow background 30's repro fat quarter and 2-1/2 yard cuts of two nice neutrals. One of the neutrals was perfect for the background of the Dresden Plates that Marilyn is making for her bed. She did a little more damage though finding some lovely lilac/lavenders for a butterfly quilt for her granddaughter. We would have stopped for lunch and maybe hit Hobby Lobby on the way home but Marilyn had an obligation with her mom around noon.

Later this afternoon I pulled out one of the four tops that we pinned for Linda S at the sew-in--little frogs in a log cabin-ish set. It didn't take too long to quilt since it was just nine blocks. I listened to the Cardinal-Padres game on Gameday Audio while I worked. Our paper said that the game was supposed to be on Fox this afternoon but they were wrong--dang it all. DJ was listening in from the living room and when it sounded exciting, he came back to see the play by play on the computer or would listen in with me (Cards won but it could have gone either way in the bottom of the 9th.) Then it was on to NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" and Michael Feldman's "Whadya Know" online radio shows while I continued to work. I put the binding on the quilt I retrieved and on Linda's frog quilt after supper (OR was it "breakfast" since we had waffles with cherry topping and bacon?). Those will get passed on for someone else to finish up, bless them.

Jane came by to pick up Finn's two tops and three other quilts that just needed labels sewn on. Here are two that Joy dropped off the other day. Joy made the Jewel box on the left--she used a spilled paint in primary colors for the large HSTs which was a challenge fabric I gave the group late last fall. Her granddaughter Helen used hers to make the paint cans in the quilt on the right. Helen is now 18 but has been sewing/piecing since she was about 7. Grandmommy taught her. She does a great job! Joy tells me that the two of them along her daughter and another granddaughter will be going to the Alabama Quilt Symposium together next month . With her permission, they've already been shopping in her stash for their fabrics for the event. I told Joy it was probably better that they DID raid her stash---that way she could see them enjoy it and what they made with it. AND the stashbuster motto: they'll make more fabric if you find you need some in the same color. They got into a couple of Billie Lauder's workshops, she said. Should be a good time for all.



Finn, I loved working on your scrap quilts! It did make we wonder if you pull the fabrics that are in a color group when you start with something like the basket or is completely happenstance that the fabric wind up where they do? The basket, for example, have an overall pastel tone but there are some darks at the bases. I like the scrappy backgrounds on the bowties especially since I usually just use leftover muslin. Why not use a print--it works! It was so fun to see little bits that I have also used in the past--the pinks that are in Beth's Snail's trail on the baskets, those happy Christmas trees in the bowtie that I have a strip of in the braid top, for example. If I'm having fun picking out little motifs, then I know that the kids will as well. Linda has little fun bits in hers too---I spotted some Mary Engelbreit fabric, a piece of that same challenge fabric and so on. Fun, fun, fun!

I suppose that this being a holiday weekend everyone is apt to be busy with friends and family so it will be a bit quiet for a few days. It will be quiet here since we already took our big trip earlier this month. Do our Canadian or Australian ring members having a comparable holiday to the States' Memorial Day but celebrated at a different time of year, I wonder. Hanne and Barbara, something similar in Scandinavia or Cathi, in Ireland?