I know, it’s been more than two months since I have updated my blog. I have been a bad girl. But as soon as the doctor released me for my finger on July 14, I was headed for Iowa the following Sunday to see my folks. It had been almost two years since I had seen them and a lot had happened, both to them and me. That’s why I hightailed it fast. I stayed right at two weeks and enjoyed every minute. I did not do a lick of stitchin’. But I did not mean too. I did not even read the two books I took with me. I helped my Mom clean out some stuff of my Dad’s, who she put in a nursing home in January. I think my parents are both pack rats and I think I have inherited the gene-at least so I have been told by my husband. And I did some genealogy research and I did a little fabric shopping. More on that a little later.
First of all, I will show you my progress on my border robin. I showed you my center block in my last post around July 4th, because it is red, white and blue. Well, we are drawing for what each round has to contain in at retreats three times a year. We will draw for the fifth round in about two weeks. You will notice I only have two rounds on mine. I am that far behind. But between last retreat and this coming retreat, I finished the block and got two of my four rounds on it, with two surgeries in there somewhere. I am proud of myself, needless to say. Here it is:
My next round is appliqué and it will be on the on-point border to tone it down. And you notice I framed the triangles with my half square border, not my center. I think that is a little unusual. But I liked the way it looked better. I will be using a red that has some yellow and blue in it and am debating on whether to make my circles yellow. But that is something that can be decided after the main appliqué is done. After that I have dimensional. I think I am going to do dimensional flying geese units. I want this piece to look very traditional and that’s all I can come up with that would be in vogue for the time period.
Also while I was home, I did a little quilt shop hopping. I made it to two shops. One is called Adel Quilting & Dry Goods Co. It is in a Craftsman style home. They don’t have a lot, but what they have, I like. I always manage to come away with something when I go there. And for you Dear Jane® people I also managed to come away with a little pottery bowl from there with the dreaded block L-6, Maze of Madness. That’s the only reason I bought it because I am a DJ fanatic.
I also managed to make it to Elk Horn and stopped at Prairie Star Quilts. But not before I stopped in Atlantic at a dime store and picked up a few flat folds. I picked up the backing for my border robin there and a few other pieces. This was the first place I had ever noticed Paintbrush Studio Fabrics. (Remember this, this is crucial to what is coming.) I bought four pieces of it at the dime store. Prairie Star Quilts is a Top 10 Shop by Quilt Sampler from a few years back and they have one room of reproductions, homespuns and flannels and then the other room is more contemporary and batiks. Just as I thought I was finished, in the armoire by the cutting table, were several bolts of fabrics and then fat quarter packs of a line of fabric that the owner, Julie Larsen, had designed for Paintbrush Studio Fabrics. The line is called Prairie Homefront and I ended up buying the fat quarter pack, I liked it so well. She is working on her second line, I was told. I thought you might like to see it too.
And then when I got home and started working on my border robin I noticed that the light fabric I used in the sawtooth border and to put on point is a Paintbrush Studio fabric. Never notice it before I go home and then I go and run across it twice and come home and find I already own some. I really pay a lot of attention, don’t I? I really thought I did when it comes to fabric.
I will save the rest for later, this has gotten sew long. My next post I will show you the stack of fabric I washed and my new passion.
Sew Having Fun,
Sarah
