San Mateo Festival Purchases

Saturday I went with my husband to Bay Area Quilt, Craft, and Sewing Festival held at the San Mateo County Event Center. This is an annual outing for my husband and me and traditionally I report to my daughter via my blog about what I bought. My goals this time were to be practical and not too frivolous in any purchases, to avoid buying kits, and mainly to enjoy the drive and the day with my husband. I met all my goals.

These plaids and stripes are intended for use as bindings. I bought one yard of each. The plaids have so many colors I think they will be versatile enough to serve as bindings on a selection of quilts. The stripes however surprised me when I got home and opened them to fold in my habitual way. The stripes run at right angles to the selvage not parallel to it! Normally I cut my bindings across the width of the fabric and this makes stripes radiate outward from the quilt top. I am guessing I can cut these along the length of the fabric and get the same effect. I know fabric is less stretchy along the grain than across the grain but I hope this does not affect binding.

Since apparently I am into stripes for binding, I bought these navy/white and black/white options. (I do pause momentarily to wonder where all these quilts are coming from that I am going to bind.) Not to worry. Stripes are flexible enough I can use them elsewhere as blender pieces. They will also go well with florals or other novelty prints. The navy one on the right is diagonally striped so I do think I will try to reserve it for binding without having to fussy cut bias binding to get the same effect. I got ½ yard of that and a full yard of the black/white pinstripe.

This knitting sheep fabric was my one concession to moderate frivolity. The coral and lime and aqua color scheme caught my eye first. Then when I saw they were sheep knitting, I caved and bought one yard. I might just whip up a drawstring bag to store the yarn of whatever my current knitting project is.

I collect fabric license plates from stores I frequent, whether I go there personally or see them at a show. I do not sew them into a quilt. I line them up marching along the wall at the ceiling line of my sewing room. One per store though, and that is it. I do not buy a plate yearly per store though I recently earned that the plates for a shop can change each year. This one tickled me since it is so true for me with needles and thread of late. I do buy from the Rabbit Hole Quilt Shop when they are present at a show I attend.

I got this silicone iron rest plate to see if my Rowenta iron will leak less when resuming pressing after a brief pause. Out of habit through the years I orient my iron upright when it is not in my hands in use. It shuts itself off as the safety feature now require it to do, so when I rotate it to resume ironing, the condensed steam leaks out. Perhaps if I rest it in the flat rather than upright position it will leak less when it is set for steam. This modified habit will be hard to establish for me. I hope the leakage is a position issue of my Rowenta and not a problem with the iron. It does not leak while I am using it – only after it resumes after a safety imposed shut-off.

Although I could easily make these pillows without a pattern, I liked the idea of them each being made with 2½" charm pack squares.  I do not buy those itty bitty charm packs but I do have quite a bit of partial strips from  2½" wide jelly rolls that I would like to dice into squares and use up. I also have some 5" charm packs that I could quarter and use. Each pillow is 16" square so four or six (or more) of them could work up quickly into a cute scrap quilt. Maybe perhaps I could make each 16" block in a different colorway ?

The final purchase was at my husband's urging. Our son has a bunny rabbit and tends to poke unwanted objects and his fingers between the wires of its cage. This blue vinyl mesh may discourage this behavior while still giving the bunny adequate ventilation. The roll of mesh came with a free tote bag pattern so why not give it a try?

The show did not have as many vendors as usual and was more sparsely attended than the norm. But its low key tone and my goals were in sync. The weather cooperated by being a beautiful sunny day. My husband and I had  pleasant afternoon.

Sharing a Granny Square Legacy

My kids were fortunate to have two very talented and prolific grandmothers. Their paternal grandma crocheted and their maternal grandma knitted. This week I worked on seeing that the granny square baby blankets crocheted by my husband's mother would find a good home rather than withering away in a bin in our attic.  My husband said, and rightfully so, that we were doing the afghans and his mom a disservice by letting them linger, unused due to sentimentality. He especially pushed that I part with them so that another mother and baby somewhere could make good use of them. It was difficult for me but I was willing to see them go if I knew they were going to a good home, where they would be appreciated, even if they got beaten up in the process. This photo with my daughter and her grandma the crocheter was taken in about 1982.

I suggested that we use the upcoming quilt show of my guild as a vehicle for disbursing the baby afghans. After checking with the guild member in charge of the market place at our upcoming guild show, my husband and I agreed on the following plan. I was told baby items tend to sell quickly. What could be sold at the show would be sold. After all, if people are willing to pay money for something they must want it. All the proceeds from the sales would go toward the fabrication of community outreach quilts for the ill, aged, and underprivileged. Those that did not sell would be donated to a local charity or hospital program that helps out moms and babes in need.

I unfolded each crocheted item and smoothed it out for one last look. Even though they had been meticulously cared for, I checked for holes or stains, then measured each and photographed it. Only one had a small stain and two had some tears that I will see if I can repair. I held those three back from among the ones being given away. Here are the ones that were in pristine condition and very serviceable. They are folded in fourths and the center of the blanket is in the lower right corner. I let my own children select from them what they wanted as a legacy keepsake for their kids from their great grandmother. They were very much on board with giving away the generous supply.

These went to my daughter's family – one per child and one favorite. The mint green and white one is being deployed in the baby carriage beneath the orange clown in the photo of my ~2 month old daughter taken in 1980.

These went to my son's family – one per child and potential future children.

My son and his older sister would often snuggle side by side beneath one of the larger afghans. This was one of the ones I set aside because it was in need of repair - not surprising after a such a lot of lovin'. It had been set on point and diagonal granny square triangles along the edges are not as sturdy when tugged and stretched. This photo is from ~1984. It is a bit faded; the yarn was a variegated pastel.

These will be sold or given away.

By placing these lovingly handcrafted afghans in my blog, I can still see them – even better and oftener than when they were in the attic. This larger family afghan is still in use in our household about 35 years later. By the way, the brown stuffed dog was a favorite named Huck. Huck is short for Hugs and Kisses. My daughter also had a smaller version she named Tiny Baby Hucklet.

Sometimes we just need to stop the frenzied creation of our own projects and appreciate the works of those who came years before us. There will be time for me to get back to my quilting but for now, I feel good about devoting the time and effort deploying our plan to redistribute these treasures. Thank you for walking down memory lane with me. I will also share these reminisces with my online quilting community at this week's Let's Bee Social #168.