Quilt #5 Winning the War on WIPs

Now in Year Two of my War on WIP, this da'hlin is quilted and had its own day in the sunshine under the lens! Saturday was a lovely day in the low country with the temperatures back up where they belong in the 70's for February in Forsyth Park. 

This post celebrates the fabric I could afford in 1996!  

Children, this is what quilts looked like before the Internet!

In 1996, I was pregnant. Two heart beats? Are you sure? Not sure, could be an echo... And an echo it was.  However, in the weeks between ultrasounds, two quilts started. Twins. After the echo was confirmed, the twin quilts joined seams and became one quilt. 

But back then I didn't have any idea how to quilt. I was getting pretty good at piecing tops but was not yet a quilter.

My only quilting reference was Mary Ellen Hopkin's Its OK if You Sit On My Quilt.

What an awesome book to have as one's only reference!  Every traditional half square triangle combination you could imagine, along with the greatest tutorial ever for making mass quantities of identical HST's! 

You owe it to yourself to see this method!

The internet was new and my dial up modem only made calls to a chat room for first time mom's due in early summer.  The top was bundled away in the storage box with my other hobbies that were to take a break while I was a mom at home for a year, then a working not at home mom for the next 17 years. 

Fast forward to 2010. The storage box unpacked as I rediscovered my love of quilting. This darling top needed to become a warm snuggly, not a UFO.  



















Fraying seams repaired, cheap fluffy batting inserted, bright red 14 year old binding tape found in the craft box and backing with a green sheet I actually took right off the guest room bed in a fit to finish this by tying with embroidery floss.

Fast forward once more to 2015.  I'm a quilter in training.  

Perhaps will always be in training!   <insert abashed grin here>  

<once upon a time, we had to use these <brackets> for emoji!> 

The broken floss removed, top washed, loose threads snipped, a proper cotton batting and scrap busting backing with scrap busting binding has my baby's quilt finished just in time - for graduation! 

BTW - those Summer Mom's '97  and I still are in touch with our Facebook page!

Midnight in the Garden of Dwellings

Quilt #35 - Fabric Envy or Victim of Advertising

So many wonderful quilters have wonderful blogs. I adore reading about and viewing the arts and crafts shared in blogs hosted by talented quilters.  Many bloggers quilt as a real life paying job. Envy!

Many of these wonderful quilters support their work with blog advertising.  I was lured, hook, line and sinker, in a quest to fit in with these talented, prolific and trending quilt bloggers...once.  Hooked by the lure set out there with advertising that I think implies: YOU MUST HAVE THIS Fabric by a BIG NAME Designer because only a quilt made with all the prints by A Designer Line is a lovely wonderful quilt. Ouch. 

Yes, I bought the whole line of something.  Once.  I've only done this once.  I didn't inhale... oh, that was someone else, that fine looking president?

On trips as Dutiful Daughter I make each six weeks, I pass far to closely to A Scarlett Thread in MacDonough, GA. I love this fabric store!  But this time...

The five hour drive I try to shorten into four turns into six.  My GPS seems to activate the turn signal and my car changes lanes at the exit without conscious effort!!!  The speeding ticket for the four hour trip would likely have been less than the shopping I did on the six hour trip.  

I walked in the door of A Scarlet Thread and there before my eyes was a fabric collection my heart loved. Not liked, LOVED.  None of the bloggers I follow told me to buy this line, this line told my heart to buy it! Dwellings by Contempo for Benartex or however they say it, it spoke to me.  It said BUY ME!  

It went so far I even tweaked a quilt pattern I found on the Benartex website in creating this quilt. I was all in on this lure!  

I binge watched Game of Thrones while making the quilt in January 2014 as my heart and brain turned over some big choices in my life. How do I feel about this quilt now? I like this quilt. I love the colors, I still love the fabric.  I had fun making it. It made itself quickly.  That no one else seems to like it does not matter.  

However, there is something slightly tawdry about falling for a fabric line simply because of a Brand Name in a lovely display. There is something slightly tawdry about the Jim Williams story and the Johnny Mercer House.  

Therefore, some pics of the tawdry quilt in front of the Mercer/Williams house seem appropriate! 

So now I've told my story of Midnight in the Garden of Blog Advertising. Perhaps I am now free in spirit to move back to my scrappy quilts where the designer lines appear in patchwork nestled adjacent to an old flannel shirt.