Monday, March 26, 2012

I'm suffering from fabric envy. Yesterday, Carol and I went to Fabric Place Basement. Ostensibly Carol was looking for jungle print fabric and I was just going along for the ride so I could get out of the house and avoid doing any more cleaning. Yeah. Right. As always, I didn't need anything, still don't need anything, will probably never need anything, but who can resist when the fabric is $2.99 and $3.99 a yard?

So, I'm navigating the aisles and looking at the fabric, but really trying hard not to look because I really don't need ANYTHING. There are two older ladies on the other side of the table looking through a pile of batiks...have I mentioned that I really like batik? So, they keep pulling out pieces and exclaiming loudly to each other, "well look at this one" and "ooh, now check out this one." So before long, I'm peaking over the table, and they've pulled out all my favorite colors of blue and turquoise and purple. Then one of the ladies pulls out this really pretty blue batik with dragonflies on it. Then one lady says to the other lady, "well I really like this one, but I don't want to buy the whole piece. Do you think you have to buy the whole piece?" And at this point, I lean over and helpfully say, "No, you don't have to buy the whole piece, but I think you need to leave at least a yard or 1/2 yard."

So, yes, then I blatantly observe them going through the batik table, while coveting the dragonfly fabric. And, finally I ask the lady if she's not going to buy the whole piece, can I buy some, and she says, "yes." I also spy a wonderful piece of turtle batik in her pile but she is planning to buy the whole piece. When she and her friend finally walk away from the batik table, I scour the rest in hopes of finding another piece of turtles, but alas there are no more, so I have to console myself with 4 yards of purple batik.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

I'm suffering from withdrawal. We are supposed to be having a productive weekend at home. Cleaning, running errands, getting the house back in order. All kinds of fun stuff. So far I have gone to the Post Office and mailed 5 packages (2 returns/exchanges and 3 gifts), gotten the car inspected and the tank filled ($50 yikes!!) and picked up a prescription. I even managed to sneak in a pedicure since everything got done in record time. Still more wedding gifts to put away, boxes to recycle and thank you notes to write!

Yet, I'd rather be starting new projects. There is a very old jewel box quilt kit sitting right next to me on my desk that is beckoning. Last weekend, the girls and I went to the Button Box and to Fabric Place. I think that I may have gone to Joann Fabrics earlier in the week or was it Sewphisticates? There are about half a dozen fleece blanket kits to make before it is summer again!! I'd even be willing to work on the Birthday Blocks for my Sunday Bee Group! I have one more round to go (four pieces, though) on five  blocks and I'll be all caught up through August. Hooray! Plus one is even for me!!

My life is a quilting buffet and I've put too much on my plate!! Next door to me, Mike is in his office playing his guitar. Where is my quilting time???

Friday, March 16, 2012

How it all started...
I've been wanting to start a quilting blog for the longest time. Sometimes I think that I eat, breathe, sleep and dream quilt projects. I have more ideas than I will ever have time to sew. And I'm a fabric addict...

Until I met my friend Sandie in 1993, I was an innocent young quilter. I had no idea that you could buy fabric without a specific project in mind. I met Sandie after my divorce from Barry Butthead, when I moved to Newton. I went to my first quilt weekend sponsored by the now defunct Quilter's Nook in West Roxbury, a place where I would spend many happy hours. The weekend was held at the Holiday Inn in Dedham, and I didn't know a soul. I had brought my pink and black Eleanor Burns' Radiant Star to work on. At lunch time, Sandie came over to my table and invited me out to go fabric shopping.

We went to Sewphisticates in Dedham, alas, also long gone, and Sandie introduced me to the idea of "the stash". Fabric that you could buy just because you liked it and might make something out of it one day. I bought a panel of seed prints and soon began to collect vegetable fabrics in hopes of making the perfect garden quilt. It is now 2012, and 11 years later, and I have still not made that garden quilt. My cousin Joel and his wife, both vegetarians, are having their first baby in June and I may make them a veggie baby quilt.

The fabric is threatening to overgrow my house. There is fabric in the attic, in the basement, overflowing in the sewing room as well as in my fabulous quilt studio above my garage. Not to mention hiding in the linen closet and perhaps a box or two in the dining room...

More later.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy