Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve

In mid January, the weekend before leaving for Road2CA, my husband and I went to see a local production of the musical 1776 about the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Early on in the first act John Adams sings the song Piddle Twiddle and Resolve whose chorus goes

             

Although I am not in Philadelphia and all the adjectives in the last line of the chorus do not apply to me, the "piddle, twiddle, and resolve" portion perfectly describes me in my sewing room right now.
My thoughts are as jumbled as my sewing room. After a visit to Road2CA earlier this month, I returned with a suitcase holding a fair number of patterns and tools – eleven patterns and six tools to be exact – and a backpack full of fabrics. I blogged about my purchases (in my previous post) and began to put them away.

Finding a place to fit the fabric was not a problem, well not a major one anyway, since I had recently bought some closet shoe organizers that were just the right width to hold my one-yard length fabrics folded by wrapping around a 6” wide ruler.

Each of the ten compartments holds ten 1-yd pieces comfortably with enough room to grab and remove one fabric length without yanking. The shelves on the right, marked simply with blue masking tape labels, hold longer fabric lengths. About one shelf's worth of one yard pieces remain to be relocated to an additional shoe caddy. I think this will go quite a ways toward freeing up space for other odd-shaped items such as kits, mail order item yet to be sorted, tote bags for guild meetings, etc.

 
This display of fabric and ease of access increases enjoyment, the first half of my goal for 2018, posted 4/4/18, to maximize enjoyment and minimize guilt.

But as I cram my newly purchased patterns into their woefully inadequate storage places among other previously purchased patterns in their unopened plastic ziplock sleeves, I realize they too could use an organizational uplift. Notice I said places, plural, meaning there is more than one semi-random location for my patterns. I have plastic shoe boxes without lids perched on shelves holding those patterns the size of an 8½" x 11" sheet folded in half. Quilt, home decor, and garment patterns are jumbled together.

And for the larger patterns, set on the countertop, I have vertical document file holders where the larger size patterns are tucked in upright, intermixed with patterns printed from the internet, other quilting related ads and flyers, and random miscellanea not necessarily relevant at all to quilting. Also doesn't every organizational system require a pink pig monitor perched on top? (I do not know why he is there.)

Being able to peruse my patterns and be re-inspired would certainly increase my enjoyment. So I ask myself, "Why do I not consolidate and sort them into one adequately sized container? But then I answer myself, "Because I have no counter space to do the sorting." I really should clean off those counter tops. Note to self: the word "should" is a guilt enhancer and should will be stricken from my vocabulary. Clutter free counter tops would minimize guilt, the second half of my 2018 goal. Where do I put the other "stuff"? This is where the "piddle and twiddle" comes in as I page slowly and thoughtfully through these patterns... and then shove them right back where I found them.

My guild is having a silent action, so I distract myself by pulling out fabric that has already been put away neatly in my fat quarter and half-yard drawers so I can convince myself to give some of it away. This of course does nothing to reduce the counter top clutter. It is merely more piddling and twiddling. But I do like looking at my fabric. My upper drawers are fat quarter drawers and my lower ones half-yard drawers. I have a drawer dedicated to flannel half-yards for my burp cloths.

I have a drawer dedicated to panels that I find too hard to resist. These are all my Stacy Iest Hsu dolls and stuffed toys, cloth books, and other juvenile panels. There are also enough novelty inspirations to make enough placemats to deck out the tables at a military mess hall. Perhaps I can pull from these panels for the silent auction and extract enjoyment knowing they will go to a good home.

So far here is my collection to move out. I did not take detailed pictures. I do not want to be held accountable should I chicken out and retrieve some items from these boxes. I should note that none of this came from the countertop.

So I continue to pile and re-pile, piddle and twiddle, the items on the countertops. The obvious solution would be to donate these items to the guild silent auction. But most of this is scraps too small to donate, leftovers from complete projects, or recent purchases I still want to keep. Midway down is a pile of kits, too big to fit in any drawer, but needing a home none the less. A place for everything and everything in its place is my mantra. I need to add some "resolve" to find some places and resolve this mess.

Remember that tidy fabric stack on the right side of my closet a few photos back? The left side of the closet is not nearly so admirable. That sack of polyester stuffing falls out every time I nudge open the  door. I know one big tub holds batting pieces and two hold T-shirts that I resolve some day to make into quilts for my daughter and my younger son.  That resolve is wavering since the T-shirt quilt I did make for the older son has been left home indefinitely, no nostalgia for it in his adult life, now married with wife and children. I suspect that my daughter and younger son have also moved beyond those memories. Sometimes I think it is the mom, not the T-shirt wearer, who hangs on the longest. I am leaning toward abandoning the concept of making two other T-shirt quilts, thus reducing guilt. The other bins? I do not have the foggiest idea what is in them. I am guessing scraps or fabric I no longer love. I resolve to investigate them for silent auction fodder so I can repurpose them as potential space for counter top items I do want to keep.

I once worked with a man who had this sign on his office door. "Everyone brings happiness to this room – some by entering it and some by leaving it." Everybody has there own messes so no one needs to see mine. I hope this post will make others who read it feel less guilty, somewhat empathetic, or perhaps even a bit superior. Notice that although not necessarily constructive, some piddling and twiddling can be fun. Piddling and twiddling will maximize enjoyment. Writing this post is piddling and twiddling. Linking up to Let's Bee Social #214 is also piddling and twiddling of a sort. Resolve will help minimize guilt! I resolve to repurpose my spaces. I resolve to support the auction. I am continuing to focus on my 2018 goal to maximize enjoyment and minimize guilt. 

"Piddle, twiddle, and resolve, not one damn thing do we solve," goes the song. But at the end of the musical, problems were solved. Even Abigail Adams got her pins! If the Continental Congress could do it by piddling and twiddling, so can I.

Turning Remiss into Reminisce

It has been hard to get back into my quilting groove since the holidays. My sewing room needed to be unearthed and I have been crocheting or knitting instead of quilting. Yesterday, I thinned out the surfaces in my sewing room by putting away yarn, instructions, crochet hooks, and knitting needles from the following needlecraft projects. I have had yarn as far back as a project from 2012 languishing in mounds on the counter or in bags on the floor. Yes, I have been remiss in final cleanup after project completion. But rather than beat myself up over it, I chose to reminisce instead. Here are some of those projects. Completed? Yes. But remainders and associated paraphernalia put away? Not so much.

Here are those projects followed by dated links to more detail about them.

• Stockings for Autumn (12/10/2014), Vivian (12/17/2014), Isaiah (12/28/2015)
  (maybe it is a good thing I did not put the yarn away between stockings)
• Circular Blankie (12/26/2013)
• Tree Sweater (10/02/2014)  
• Reindeer Olympic Hat (02/03/2012)
• Baby Surprise Jacket (12/8/2014) (actually only directions and no scraps on this; sent remaining yarn with the sweater to the baby's mom, a knitter herself)
• Crocheted Sweater/Hat Set (10/21/2015)
• Crocheted Cardigan (01/15/2016),

The leftover yarn from a knitting or crocheting project is the equivalent of scraps from a quilt. The amount of remaining yarn from the preceding projects, shown in the next photo, sure seems like a lot. Often I need another skein and then just use a small portion of it. On the left in the upper row is the yarn from the vintage Christmas Stockings, Cascade 220. I think I will need more red for the next one. On the left in the bottom row is the leftover from the circular Christmas Blankie. I bought three 10.5 ounces skeins and only needed a small part of the third one. Bottom row middle is the Bernat Satin from the crocheted sweater set. I have more of this yarn in other colors from an afghan I knitted so there is hope for its use. On the right bottom is the leftover from the crocheted cardigan. Above it is more of the same Jojoland Tonic yarn. I originally intended it for a blanket of patchwork squares in different knit patterns. After a few squares I realized the yarn had enough of a heather quality to it that the effort of the fancy stitches did not show up so it is being dispersed and repurposed. The cardigan was one item as least in the Tonic lilac and pink. I have more of those colors plus a lovely coral to use up. In the middle of the top row is the yarn I first used for that cardigan that worked up too stiff so I ripped it out.

Here are the leftovers from the tree sweater. Ah, fabric scraps are so much easier to manage. They do not have the weight and the gauge to contend with, just the color. I say that now, but I have yet to attack my 2016 goal of fabric scrap management and organization.

I organized and put away the tools from those projects as well, gathering up the circular and the doubled pointed knitting needles and the crochet hooks, sorting them by size, and combining the like items in Ziploc™ bags. I now have all those implements stored in one location. I gathered the yarn remnant bags together, stripped out the instructions which I filed in a three ring binder on a shelf, and combined the individual Ziploc™ bags into one large tote bag. Another reminiscence here... I got the black and white swirly and polka dotted tote bag in Atascadero, CA as a gift from the shop owner of a Quilter's Cupboard where I bought my Simple Gifts kit in November 2011. (See post for January 14, 2015.) This generously-sized tote bag used for storage is tidy and compact. My leftovers are all in one place now instead of being scattered.

I dug out and reminded myself about knit items I want to do in the near future and I separated those into an organza covered, circular hat box. I'd like to do a Baby Surprise jacket out of the variegated yarn, a scarf out of the ribbon yarn to the left, and two hats from the Top This kits with the elephant head and the lion head. I picked the animal caps up on clearance in North Carolina. These items are all pretty small and so I hope each will give me a morale boost after its speedy completion.

I have fond memories of this round box. My daughter bought me a plush red velour robe many Christmases ago. Presentation is everything. The robe came prettily packaged in that round elegant sheer container. So I am putting my want-to-do-soon projects in it and leaving it visible in my sewing room.

I am reminded of that special mother-daughter bond when I touch that simple cylinder and use it - and when I wear that robe - which I still do today, at least a decade later. My daughter was spot-on with her selection of that gift. Red is my favorite color, the texture is awesome, and the skirt is a very full A-line so it covers my ample hips quite generously without tugging. Here am I wearing that robe Christmas morning of 2005 so it dates back to that year or maybe even earlier. Hmm. I think I may have been prepped for church underneath that robe. Why else would I be wearing a ruby crystal necklace? Aha, here comes another reminiscence. The necklace was my mother's.

Cleaning up may be a distraction but it also is a relief - and can be a pleasure. I have a yarn stash that needs to be whittled down and that, too, is a 2016 goal; but I was not going to get into that. It may be too much yarn but it is organized and accessible, so why tempt fate right now? I have enough cleared away to tackle my sewing. I've resurrected enough memories to keep me content. I have enough found and defined to do a bit of knitting in the evenings. Perhaps I may even have a work in progress to show by Wednesday.

An Edible Color Palette

I just got back from traveling to visit my daughter's family and have been AWOL from quilting of late. I cannot give quilting my full attention just yet because I have other commitments, but there is no reason I cannot enjoy fulfilling those previous engagements. How does the song go again? "Girls just wanna have fun". I choose to have fun. Color is not always about fabric and playing with color is FUN. So I am having a blast preparing the tablescape for a small dinner party I will be hosting tomorrow, two days before Halloween.

I wanted a classy Halloween feel but not a gross zombie atmosphere nor the garish primary orange of a kid's crayon box. I found a tablecloth on clearance at HomeGoods in a burnt orange tone that I think is yummy - like the top of the créme brulee which I will be serving for dessert. But I needed to be careful to steer away from the olive greens and mustard golds that harbinger Thanksgiving rather than Halloween.

I decided go the route of  a black and white stripe in some way to add sophistication. I'd seen some striped placemats at the gift shop of Alden Lane Nursery during the quilt show there this year. I bought them "on spec". Black napkins with brassy-gold napkin rings looked elegantly spooky - reminding me of a black cat with glowing amber eyes. I plan to insert yellow roses into the mini-pumpkins I bought for each place setting.

The burnt orange and black combination was a bit somber so I spiked it up with some more bright yellow accents - the candy corn I used a vase filler and the bright yellow Meyer Lemon scented pillar candles I added above. At HomeGoods I also found a cute, small, black and white striped, glossy pitcher and will use it for gravy or some sauce.

I dug around a bit and extracted my vintage Courac ware from the late 19790's - early 1980's out of the deep environs and back corners of my cabinets. The black and gold colors fit well into my theme. I was really into owls back then and happily they work well with a Halloween holiday. Serendipity! By the way, in the photo, that is not a flame under his tail feathers, just a reflection from the light above. He looks like he is a phoenix perched above the fire of his spontaneously combusting predecessor.

I plan to use my black and white Barnyard Toile place settings. The images themselves are not eerie or scary or in theme since they are really more country, but the colors go well and they are kind of classy and I lie that they are high gloss. As luck would have it, the chair seats go well with the burnt orange tablecloth.

I picked up some small ceramic ware in black and white stripes and polka dots. I will use them as accent bowls, probably for nuts to sprinkle on the salads as desired.

At The Dollar Tree store I could not resist picking up this mini-coffin for treats. Reese's mini peanut butter cups in gold wrapping or Werther's original caramel candies in their gold foil will look good in there.

Seeing the coffin lid inspired me to  add a lime green grosgrain ribbon bow to the pumpkin-rose place decorations to add a bit of zip. I like the look of the green apples and how they play off the "Booooo". I plan to keep a romaine leaf salad in the same color theme by adding raisins for black, carrots and mandarin segments for orange, sunshine-colored bell peppers and cheddar cheese for yellow, granny smith apples for lime green, hard boiled egg slices for a bulls-eye white and yellow dot motif.

I am not quilting this week, but this is still playing with color and a work in progress. I am having fun. When the dinner company is gone, and the dishes are done, I can re-direct my efforts back to the sewing room and a more traditional form of color play. First I need to clear my cutting table from half a suitcase's worth of the yarn, patterns, fabrics, books, instructions, and notions I dragged along with me on my recent travels. This assortment does not even reflect what I took out and left with my daughter. Can you understand better why I'd rather procrastinate-and-play instead of putting-away?

Now I will connect up with others who are having fun with their WIPs at this week's Freshly Pieced. link-up.

Decisions and Distractions

Decisions and distractions! I have definitely lost my quilting momentum. I traveled to Oklahoma in mid-July for the birth of my new grandson. Within a couple weeks after that, in early to mid-August, I vacationed with college friends in Colorado. At the very end of August, last Friday and Saturday I took three half-day classes on the use of my Handiquilter Sweet Sixteen. I have not put a stitch in a piece of fabric since early July. Shame on me. So now I am faced with the dilemma of how to regain my momentum and what to work on.

The classes I just took were Basics, Rulers, and Feathers taught my Megan Best, a Handiquilter educator. Be sure to check her out at http://www.bestquilter.com/. I had taken these classes from her a year ago when I was considering the purchase of my sit-down mid-arm but retaking was a good idea, giving me another perspective now that I am an HQ-16 owner and have played around a bit with my machine I affectionately named Heidi. Plus Megan is such a fun, upbeat, creative instructor. I got re-inspired to start back on my barnyard strip quilt. It is in the left foreground of the following photo. All those crowds of pigs and horses and cows will get a clamshell treatment with the assistance of the clamshell ruler to the right. I think that quilting pattern will echo the shapes of the bobbing heads of the horses, cows, pigs, etc. in the different fabrics without being too restrictive by striving to outline each one. I plan to use the wave ruler on the far right for undulating hillsides since I am not proficient at long smooth curves. That class on rulers really got my ideas flowing from my brain. Rulers are expensive; that class also got  money flowing from my wallet.

But what is all the other "stuff" on my cutting table? In the far right background is the fabric to make barstool covers for my daughter-in-law. What she picked out had been discontinued, of course, so my husband and I drove around to five different JoAnn fabric stores one day last week trying to gather enough of that cream/black/grey/gold starburst fabric from the end of bolts to cover five chair seats and backs. At least I got a good price. On top of that fabric is a sample beige cover that I will disassemble and hopefully use as a pattern.

The red/grey/black fabric in the center I bought at Sooner Quilts in Oklahoma on my visit there end of July, intending to make placemats out of it to practice my FMQ. I guess I will put off doing those placemats. And, especially before I do those, it really would not take me long to finish that striped bolster pillow I started for the chair in our master bedroom. It is the open cylindrical pillow form in the center back of the photo. Here is where is it meant to go, on the Funstripes Parsons Chair by   Jeffan next to the Land of Nod rope lamp.

Speaking of our master bedroom, I have had a bin of fabric selections tucked under the bed for months trying to decide on a style and color scheme for curtains in our newly updated room. My husband has put down hardwood floors, and painted, and added lights, gently querying me when I was going to get to those curtains. I decided on fabric, the beachy stripe with coral and periwinkle, but was waiting for inspiration to strike on a style. That striped fabric was also gathered on several trips with my husband to various JoAnn stores to accumulate enough yardage.

But let me get back to my sewing room. If I do an about face from my cutting table, here is the surface of my sewing machine table. I really do need to sort out and put away the stacks pushed up agains the back wall. I'll get to it, eventually. The four stacks of fabric in the foreground are more current and  are all 1 yard pieces of fabric I bought on sale or at shows. I am folding each in my standard storage configuration and getting ready to stack them in place on my 1-yd shelves. On the far right foreground is a pair of black pants my husband asked me fix. The hem on one leg came undone. All I have to do is run a stitch around it, by hand or machine. They have been there since early July...sigh. My machine is threaded with yellow. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it! On the far left foreground stack are several fabric samples I pulled  from my stash when my daughter was making her dinosaur quilt for her new baby. On top of the stack is a paper printout of fabric from the same line that I am going to use to make a coordinating crib sheet. She shows the beginning of her dinosaur quilt in her Robin Loves Quilting "quiltus-interruptus" post for July 29th. It is farther along now. The stacks of stripes and dots in the middle foreground are Riley Blake staples collections I bought during an online sale. I think even combined, they would make a cute quilt backing.

My new baby grandson is in daycare now since my daughter just went back to work this week so he could use some crib sheets for the slightly smaller mattresses in their cribs. These take higher priority that the full size mattress crib sheets. Off I go, from my sewing room to my laundry room, to pre-wash the crib sheet fabric. The yellow bear fabric on the far right is still wet. I am just about to transfer it to the dryer. The bug fabric I will use for a coordinated sheet with Bugs R Us, the completed quilt I show in my post for July 15th. The large dinosaur fabric is to be made into a sheet to coordinate with the quilt my daughter made.

I  head back to my sewing room to put away more fabric and clear a space to work. But I just found the greatest stuff in my stash to go with those three Hawaiian prints I blogged about in my previous post. Those colors and graphics just really want to play together! Gee, I distract easily!

I have not even touched on the hand knit sweaters I want to make for my grandbabies, the knit sweater I want to finish for myself, the vintage knit Christmas stocking for my new grandson. I still have not stitched a stitch even yet today. I took the time to write this post instead. In the next several days I still need to put sleeves on two quilts I am entering in a show and print name tag badges for my quilt guild members. Aah, decisions and distractions... I hope I have made other quilters out there feel productive at least by comparison to me. I will now check out vicarious progress via this week's Freshly Pieced's Works in Progress.

Learned a Lot from a Little

This week I finished my December Day Table Topper that I'd started in my previous post. Although it was small, only 26½" square, I learned a lot from it. An old kit, my main reason for its construction was to gain quilting skill on my new HandiQuilter Sweet Sixteen. I have named her Heidi for short and she is nestled right next to my Pfaff in my sewing room. I got her just before the holidays and have just now found the time and mustered up the courage to get to know her better. Up to now, all I had done with her had been some free form meandering and loops. These were on my Mitten Graphic Novel in November.

This tree table topper was a fairly traditional pattern and I used a ¼" thick specialty ruler to help with straight line stitching and stitch in the ditch work. My husband, watching me with the ruler, asked if using it slowed me down. I think the ruler is actually helpful. I could move faster with it because the placement of the ruler helps control my ability to stay in the ditch, so squiggling and jumping out occur less frequently. Even on the straight-aways, the markings on the the ruler help me keep the lines equally spaced and parallel. And I suspect I will get speedier as my comfort level increases.



The VersaTool Ruler, which is indeed a very well-designed handy gadget, is just the right size for the palm of my hand. Although I am right handed, I experimenting holding it with my right hand or with my left hand and found I could do either equally well regardless of not being ambidextrous. The ruler stays put relative to the fabric and moves along with it and, since both hands are guiding the fabric, which one holds the ruler is inconsequential. What mattered more to me than which hand I used, was which way the seam allowance for the "ditch" had been pressed. I opted for the most comfortable ruler position to always stitch on the "low" side of the seam, through fewer layers of fabric.

The corner of the VersaTool was great for the inner most square and the tips of the trees – the etched guidelines helped in placement of the quilt lines. As luck would have it, I ran out of bobbin thread with less than 2" of stitching left on that last dark green tree. Rather than fuss with winding a large M-class bobbin for Heidi, I finished that last stretch on my Pfaff with feed dogs engaged, eyeballing it without using a ruler.

My son and daughter-in-law gave me a circular ruler set for Christmas and I was going to try it out as a scalloped border but I changed my mind. I have just the perfect quilt top awaiting sandwiching and quilting where I will try my skill with these circular templates. I decided to keep the straight line theme going throughout in this little quilt. It would better compliment the piano key border, and I wanted to practice my newly learned straight line skill to solidify it a bit more.

I used my Pfaff for the quilt label on grosgrain ribbon. Fortunately I'd remembered to switch out the pressure foot to one that has a slightly recessed central region, so the raised embroidered lettering can pass under freely as it is stitched. Even so, after a few broken threads and aborted attempts, I had to place a piece of paper between the ribbon and the feed dogs; then the initials and year came off without a hitch. The ribbon was wide enough. I just think maybe the ribbed surface of the grosgrain ribbon hindered the feed dogs in gripping consistently. I sewed the label on at the outer edges before attaching the binding so the diagonally cut raw edges were enclosed.

The pattern called for  ¼" binding and I usually use  ⅜". I was about to stick with my norm but then told myself that this was a learning quilt so I should break out of my rut. The  ¼" binding is less forgiving and, at a few points, I'd sewn it too far in from the edge to reach around and cover the stitching line at the back. So I trimmed just a smidgeon off the perimeter of the quilt. Well, a smidgeon out of a ¼" is much more noticeable than a smidgeon out of  ⅜" and that smidgeon was a bit too much in a couple places. The binding had to wrap a bit more than I wanted in a few spots and I will even confess to stuffing a long sliver of batting along part of one edge to fill in the volume of what I'd trimmed away.

Overall though, I like the slim appearance of the binding. Being thin it is not dominant and does not distract from the piano key border. I will do a ¼" binding again. I was glad I'd given it a chance. Here is the front of the finished quilt.

Here is the back of the quilt. I generally prefer a back of all one fabric but I made this one from remaining fabric in a scrap usage effort.

But I still have scraps. Just look at them all! That is a 24" x 36" cutting mat. Sigh...

"Decide and implement a method for scrap management, storage, and usage."

That is one of my 2015 goals. I was trying to take an initial step in that direction by not generating more scraps. So far, not so good, when a  26½" x 26½" little quilt generates almost  ⅔ yard of scraps. Sigh...

Oh, well. At least my first quilt project of 2015 is complete and I can check completion of one quilt kit off my list. It is a small start but a lesson filled one.

Crafty Weekend with My Daughter

My daughter was here this past weekend visiting from Oklahoma and we had a great, fun-filled, crafty weekend: a quilt/craft/sewing festival, a tree sweater installation, a quilt show with over 200 quilts displayed, and a quilt class. For today's post, first up is the festival on Friday with scores of vendors and the purchases I made. There will be more about the other activities in future posts.

We hit the ground running. Robin's flight got in at 12:05 pm on Friday, September 26th and we went directly from the airport to the Pleasanton festival. The show closed at 5:00 pm and I estimated we needed about four hours to take it all in. My husband usually accompanies me to these events. After all he is the CEO – Carries Everything Out. He came along this time too, with both of us, and said he thoroughly enjoyed watching my daughter and me interact and feed off each other's excitement.

So here is a pictorial summary of what I bought. First, there are the impulse buys because of the bright, clear, whimsical color palettes I love. The little Volkswagon bugs were just too cute to resist. I bought them at the Laurel Leaf, which has such an extremely appealing way of packaging their fat quarters. I get drawn into buying at least one of their fat quarter bundles of six or eight coordinates every time they are at a show I attend. The bundles are not always pulled from the same fabric line, but the owners just have an eye for bundling fabrics pleasantly. Here is a peek at this cutie combo. I bought extra yardage of the stripes just because I thought they were so crisp and had such a tickle-your-fancy color combination.

I bought this Kate Spain yardage at the Twisted Scissor Quilt Shoppe booth. The colors are luscious and seeing the bunny, bird, and humming bird silhouettes in scalloped stripes won me over.

Switching from a spring palette to a Christmas one, here is my jolt of the holiday spirit. Who could resist Whimsy Santa hugging the tree in one pose and using it as wings in the next? I bought three fat quarters of those primary colored Christmas balls because they, too, called to me and there is just something about that triangle fold presentation that tips the scales toward the purchase direction. I also bought a Christmas train panel for my husband and a panel to make quilted Christmas stockings as wall decor, but I did not take photos of those items.

There is another vendor, called Second Chance Fabrics, that is stocked from quilters who want to de-stash. I bought this 2¾ yard piece of flannel for baby burp cloths or the backing of a baby quilt. I just liked the offbeat print. It, too has a bit of a Christmas vibe to it.

Next up were my purchases from the Fabric Chicks. Each vendor seems to have its own personality. Last year I bought some funky monster-colored orange, neon green, and eerie yellow graphic distorted spot and squiggles mini-prints at the Fabric Chicks booth. This year this wacky chicken fabric on the left just called to me, especially paired with those black spots on orange background in the upper right. I just plopped those lightning bolts from the Twisted Scissor Quilt Shoppe in the lower right portion of the photo because they were orange and black; but, I think they are destined for another quilt. Fabric Chicks are funky; Twisted Scissor is more whimsical. Each vendor has it personality – you won't find Civil War fabrics at either of these places.

That fabric with the black spots on orange, because of the spots' irregular shape and spacing relative to each other, reminded me fondly of a book that was a childhood favorite of my kids, Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire. Can you see the spot similarity?

Here is section of a black/white/red quilt I made with a stack and whack technique for my nephew. See those graphic black squares with the dominant white squiggles? I have some of that stylized chicken fabric left over. I plan for it to go with the preceding chicken print and black spotted orange. You can see the whole black/white/red quilt in my post for November 26, 2011. Some of its fabric leftovers also went into my Grinch Quilt.

And by the way, here is the text of that Put Me in the Zoo book. Maybe it will spark some memories in you quilters out there with kids and grandkids. My daughter Robin loved it as a child. I think she can recite it almost by memory to her own daughter, who loves it too. As her Grandma, I have also read it to Autumn long distance over Skype. See what feelings a few splotches on a scrap of cloth can conjure up? Just one of the reasons I love quilting and fabric.

My daughter did not escape the buying bug either. She may post about her purchases too in her blog Robin Loves Quilting. She does have a toddler, though, so her time is pretty limited.

To rest up from my busy weekend, I plan to write more posts about it and visit other blog entries for this Wednesday's Work in Progress at Freshly Pieced. I will also begin to restore order in my sewing room that is now in shambles. I'd cleaned in preparation for my daughter's visit so we would have cleared surfaces available for displaying and considering our hodge-podge of ideas. While auditioning my stash and patterns for projects, she and I decimated the tidy fabric piles in my closet, scattering them throughout the room. Little girls play with dolls. Grown women with play with fabric. Both make for very merry messes. I loved the bedlam. I miss her already.