I was scrappy, when scrappy wasn't cool.....

              This has been an interesting month. For several years my husband and I have taken part in the Route 127 yard sale across America or the Lincoln BuyWay sale. Both of these sales run through Ohio at some point. Some years they are the same weekend, some years they are not. This is our forth year going. We happened across the Lincoln BuyWay sale by accident when we lived in Ohio and from that we found out about the route 127 sale. In any event that is the kind of people we are, we would rather take vacation and hit the open road in an effort to shop in other peoples garages than go to some resort. Let me be clear that we in no way need anything. We have too much....way way too much. If anything we should take a car load to sell or just randomly leave at yard sales....like a junk fairy....maybe an idea for next year.
            Anyway back  to my point. For the last 4 years we have gone and yard saled our hearts out but never made it out of the state of Ohio. We always have big plans of going the whole length of the sale but since my husband is unable to pass up a yard sale we usually go at a rate of 30 miles a day. This year we were determined to make it out of Ohio. We started out of Columbus where I worked all summer and headed south making it into Kentucky before the sale started, Victory! Surprizingly there were alot of vinatge quilts that I came across during the sale this year. Traditionally the vintage quilts are not my thing. I am scared to hurt them and they are usually very fragile, often damaged, and are someones family heirloom. As a result the ones in good condition are crazy expensive and I don't blame them. If my great great grammy made a quilt and it held up all these years I would want alot of money too. This year we ran across alot of quilts. Some were only tops, some were completed quilts, most were in rough shape, some better than others, but as a general rule more than I was willing to spend. I'm out here buying dollar jeans I'm not a Rockefeller!
       

     
     Somewhere late in the first day in God knows where Kentucky I came across this beauty. It's only a top that was never finished. I have no idea what the pattern is, some hybrid of a nine patch and a cathedral window (Nine cathedral windows?) The woman wasn't sure what year it was made, only that her grandmother had made it and she died in the 70's. I would guess from the fabric that it was the 20's or 30's. Other than needing a cleaning it is in amazing condition. I'm not sure what it is about it that I love, the pattern, the story, the fabrics. Not sure but I would never think of putting the colors or fabrics together if I was making a quilt. But I happily paid the 40 dollars for the quilt top and think it was a steal. And its crazy big (82"x92") and all hand pieced.

     I guess what I love about it most is that it illustrated what quilting used to be about. Making something out of nothing. Piecing together old bits of dresses and shirts and making it into something useable and beautiful. I'd like to make an effort to embrace that mentality and do more with what I have. Maybe that's what I should call this quilt....My old Kentucky inspiration. So that was a very long winded way to get to this quilt I have been working on with the idea of making more out of less.

Love making these stars and love the scrappiness of it. Linking it up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Don't forget about the give away here until 8/25!

You Can't Always Get What You Want...

       The weekends are never long enough, or more likely I try to cram twice as many projects into the weekend as it can hold. I got a lot accomplished this weekend but I still headed to the airport feeling like I had so much left to do. Papa Peach was working 6am-6pm and as usual I planned on getting up when he went to work. This didn't happen and I ended up playing snooze tag until the crack of noon.
       I was able to finish up the flannel rag quilt for baby Cameron. I snipped it last week while I was in Columbus and ran it through the washer when I got home. I love how they end up looking and its a great way to flush out your lint trap. I found two other flannel quilts in progress in the mess I call my office/studio. Here is a picture of the quilt going to baby Cameron this week. I also packed up 40 baby outfits for him and a stuffed camel that we had flea marketed on our trip.

Raggy Front

And the back

        I am also working on a rag quilt for Elizabeth's new foster baby. I got all the squares sewn and now just need to sew them together and snip the seams. I put together a bag of 30 outfits for her as well. I hope to have her quilt finished by next week since it is my last week in Columbus. I will post pictures as it comes along.
       I was able to make some headway on the blogger block of the month front. I have two of the three colors of fabric cut. I need to get the last color finished and the fabric in the mail to the participants. We will be starting up next month come hell or high water. I made a button which you can grab on the side bar and also made a flickr group for the project. More details to follow on this project.

      I finally got the package together for my mom. I have been gathering things for her since I saw her in Virginia for Ian's wedding. We went to a quilt shop in Richmond called Quilting Adventures. This place was awesome and still stands even after my mom and I blew through there. They had so many amazing display quilts I wanted to make them all. I showed great amounts of self restraint and only bought one fat quarter and not the 10 rulers and 20 patterns I wanted. My mom did not show as much restraint and got sucked into buying a pattern by Melly & Me called I come in peace. Here is a picture of the softie she will be making. She promised to send me a copy of the pattern if I would send her some "cosmic" fabrics from my stash. She held up her end of the deal and I have been slacking. So I put together the package of a lot of fabric I have been buying up that made me think of aliens. It just took along time to cut 9x13 pieces of all of them. Thankfully no one piece of the pattern is larger than that and I was able to add the rest to my stash. I also sent her a candle from Warm Glow in Indiana, a pair of Wedgwood Queen's Ware Teacups and a crazy parrot Hawaiian shirt I bought in West Palm Beach and some vintage lace napkins I found during our yard saleing.

I Come In Peace - Melly & Me

Wedgwood Queen's Ware

   



        I had buyers remorse after not buying the patterns in Virginia and bought a book by Melly & Me called Sewn Toy Tales. I got one for my mom too and a copy of the Farmer's Wife so I can join the quilt along. I am just chomping at the bit waiting for them to come in the mail.
        I ended the weekend on a bus to Chicago surrounded by a planes worth of angry travelers as my flight to Chicago was cancelled. I run into airline drama so often that it no longer phases me. I am truly blessed to have a job that pays me well to skip around the country and supports my very out of control quilting habit. I have a man who loves me in spite of being a quilting widow. He is coming with me next weekend on the ferry across lake Michigan so we can help out with the end of the summer work party with Margaret's Hope Chest and Crazy Mom Quilts (more details here). He was upset I was going for the weekend and didn't invite him (he must have been sleep deprived at the time). I have been so blessed in so many way and want to give back any way I can.

In conclusion, take it from Mick, you can't always get what you want. 

But if you try sometime, you just might find.....you get what you need.....