One Fine September Day

A crafty friend and I started out our day Friday, September 7th by going to an Open House held by Sandy Klop, Moda designer of American Jane Patterns and fabrics. She holds these in her home quarterly and I love to see her collection of quilts and her new fabric lines hot off the press. I told myself I was going mainly to visit, that I'd cut back on impulse purchases and avoid buying novelty fabrics. After all, realistically, every novelty fabric usually becomes the focus fabric for yet another quilt.  I would grade myself a "B-" on sticking to my resolutions. I did visit and I did refrain from any novelty fabric purchases. I bought only versatile multi-use fabrics to enrich weak areas of my stash, mainly pales. The mini-dots, pin-stripes, and bold-checks in the following photo total six yards, one half yard each. I rationalized that I had restricted my buying to my version of neutrals, i.e. light colored fabric that I tend to use instead of white as backgrounds when making blocks. I added one yard of the diagonally striped fabric because it will make a darling candy-cane style binding that I will not need to cut on the bias. Those blue jelly roll strips ... do I need to justify everything? (On second thought maybe my grade should be "C+".)

We then visited Wooden Gate Quilts in Danville. It was on the way home and my friend had a gift certificate that was burning a hole in her pocket. I had no such certificate so I was "safe". Hah!

Upon entering the shop I encountered a clearance bin of one-yard rolls of fabric for $8. I really enjoy using stripes for binding and that luscious green one the left, with flecks of gold, would certainly add interest to the quilt edges and would also make lovely sashings. I preach that each novelty print is another quilt and smugly had not bought any. But it just occurred to me that if keep buying stripes for "binding", and each quilt only has one binding, isn't that a perpetuation of quilt generation in another sense? Rationalization Alert: Maybe not; I rarely make a quilt just so I can bind it and that stripe can be used elsewhere also.

Then my resolve fell apart. These cute critters called to me. I have two billion and one panels in my panel drawer(s) and had sworn not to buy any more. But how could I resist these? They will make adorable pillows. There are eight squares to a panel, ⅝ yard.

Then I noticed that four of the eight of the images are a reversed so they could even be shaped pillows. How cute is that! I think I will keep them square though because I like the blue snowflakes.

I should have steered clear of the Christmas section but this three figure nutcracker panel was so whimsical. I was going to buy just one panel but then realized if I bought two panels I could make three double sided themed pillows or six single sided pillows and give away some. After the clerk had cut the second panel for me there was one ⅝ yard panel remaining on the bolt. I got the third panel at end-of-bolt prices. I now have nine figures that I could make into a quilt/wallhanging. Hmm. Maybe that lush green with gold flourishes would make a great sashing. See how each novelty becomes another quilt?

I will admit that I have a bit of buyer's remorse for the next two panels. I melted, much like one of those ice flows, when I saw the colors and whimsy of these polar characters.  Maybe if I make it up soon into a small quilt, it will never have to be crammed into my overstuffed panel drawer. I can visualize this with black and white pinstripes so maybe I can finagle something. (See how useful stripes are?) But sigh – my assertion is validated once again – one novelty fabric equals one quilt. Because of its orientation and being ⅝ yard, it does not lend itself easily to a pillowcase without some strategic fabric additions. A standard pillowcase typically needs to be cut 27" x 41".

For the next panel, each of the twenty-four of advent stockings could be backed and have a loop added. I already own a set of buttons I could deploy. This project needs some designing. Maybe I should have refrained from getting this one. 

I think that my self assigned "C+" grade may need to be lowered to a "C". But wait a minute, if a teacher can awards point for effort, I should be allowed to award points for fun, joy, and pleasure. Shopping, especially with a friend for companionship and sharing, was an "A" banner experience.

When I arrived home after a pleasurable and perhaps a bit too fruitful shopping experience, some online purchases I had previously made were waiting for me, having arrived in the mail. There were these two velvety soft rabbit pillow kits to whip up. I bought them from Renaissance Ribbons, a vendor whose wares come from France that I discovered at my Road to California trip last January 2018. My special needs adult son, Alex, is very fond of rabbits of all sorts. He has a live bunny of this own. A long stay in the rabbit building at the annual county fair is mandatory for him. 

There was a kit version where the rabbit is carrying a pocket watch and wearing a red coat and one where the rabbit is wearing a black coat. The red coat is more striking in my opinion. 

The black one reminded me more of the White Rabbit who is on rollerblades from the 90's TV Series Adventures in Wonderland (Wikipedia link) of which my son is very fond, so I bought both colors to have a pair.

So avid a fan of the show was he, that the introduction to the Adventures in Wonderland TV Series still rings in my ears. Here is the White Rabbit skating around the Red Queen. The image is low resolution because it is a frame capture from an episode of the show on YouTube titled The Missing Ring Mystery. I hope these rabbit "pillows" bring back the same recognition and fond memories for my son.

I also bought a trio of kitties of the same type of velour kit. The colors and little bow ties won me over. I just may keep these for myself once I make them up. The turquoise one goes with my decor. That is, of course, unless a grandchild winds up toting one or more of them around my house when he/she visits. Then of course I will send one or more of them off to a new home with that grandchild.

This is not my first experience with these velvety soft kits. They were so successful I will buy more of them when I find them to be available. I made a pair of them once before from this vendor and they came out precious. Two distinguished looking cats named Gaston and Paulette have a daytime persona on one side and a night time persona on the other. You can see more details and read about their construction in my post for April 28, 2018. 

I'd given Gaston and Paulette to my granddaughters for when their new baby brother arrived to help them report to their mom when he is sleeping and when he is awake. (As if she wouldn't know... ) William came last April; he is most definitely awake in this meet and greet photo taken at the hospital with big sisters Vivian and Lillian.

I am crushing on shopping trips with friends, fabric purchases, soft velour cuddly projects, and grandkids so I am linking up with Main Crush Monday #129.