Thoroughly Modern Lily

There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature. ―Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

The photos aren't perfect. I think I had a smudge on my lens. But here is the my Thoroughly Modern Lily quilt finished and hung in the customary quilt photographing spot. Pattern available here.

I worked on a name for this quilt, but nothing seemed to fit. So, I called it what P. called it, Thoroughly Modern Lily, after her Grandma Lillian whose quilt top inspired her. I kept P. in the loop via e-mail while I worked on this quilt. Only after I sent her this photo did I realize that I left a very important bit of information off the quilt label. I didn't mention my inspiration. But I'll mention it here. Thank you, P., for sharing your creative genius. You do beautiful things with fabric!

It was already past dark on the day I took this quilt to my friend, Eloise. We kept missing each other's phone calls and I finally caught her at home. It's been more than a month since I gave it to her, but I called yer yesterday to see if I could stop by and snap a few quick photos. Thanks to LadyBug for the assist. {BTW, she's 13 now and might have finally hit a growth spurt. She's getting pretty tall. I can't believe how grown up she is getting.}

Here's an artsy smartsy shot. I have to say, though, photos just don't quite do quilts justice at all. When Eloise pulled the quilt out yesterday, I was slightly surprised by how awesome it is {if I do say so myself}. If you look at it just right, you can see a sub-pattern of large circles formed by two of the lily petals in each of four adjoining blocks.

And, a snap of the quilt back. I used the same blue on the back as I did for the background on the front; a piece of Kona that I bought for another quilt, but ended up not liking it for that. That quilt was my first quilt made entirely from stash because I had a rather large piece of Kona in another color that I liked better for the back of it. The lily quilt is my second quilt made entirely from stash. I think I used 12 or 13 different colors of thread, and I really like how it looks from the back.

One final, gratuitous quilt shot.

This quilt took me six months, start to finish. I started it right after I finished the triangle quilt in October and it is the only project I worked on during that time. As soon as the Lily quilt was done, which was at the beginning of April, I started my next quilt. But Grace took two weeks off for a spa retreat. Her tension issues were making me tense, so I told her not to come back until she was all sorted out. She took her sweet time but when she did get back, she was ready to get down to business. She makes a beautiful stitch now and my next quilt top is finished. I used stash for everything but the background and back. I even pieced the batting to use up some of the smaller pieces I have on hand. I'm anxious to start the quilting now. If only quilts would baste themselves . . .

The End of the Line

“I've come so far short in so many things. I haven't done what I meant to do when I began ... I haven't lived up to my ideals.”

“None of us ever do,” said Mrs. Allan with a sigh. “But then, Anne, you know what Lowell says, ‘Not failure but low aim is crime.’ We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it's grand and great. Hold fast to your ideals, Anne.” –Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

My dad keeps telling me I should put up one final post that says, “It's dead, Jim.” He's a funny guy, my dad.

Both blogging and sewing have had to take a back seat, but I'm not done with either of those things yet. It might be a bit of a snooze-fest around here — I started this post almost 2 months ago and am just now getting back it to it. The pictures were all edited and everything, so the hard part was done. All I had to do was add the witty commentary. Wait. Maybe the hard part wasn't done. Anyway I'm still sewing, even if it is just 15 minutes before bed, and still want to show what I'm working on.

While it is not the end of the line for my little blog, I did finish off this spool of 1300 meters {that's 1420 yards for those of us still using Imperial measurements} of AURIfil 50wt thread. Of course, I didn't use up that whole 1420 yards in just this one project. I've used it in a number of projects, but it is pretty cool to think that sometime I've sewn at least 710 yards {because, you know, half of that goes in the bobbin}. I'm sure more yards than that are run in the average football game. And it doesn't sound so impressive when you convert it to miles and find out that you can't even get to the gas station in 710 yards. But still, 710 yards. One stitch at a time.

A while back, the lovely and talented P. over at The Way I Sew It found a quilt top that her grandmother had made. She puttered around with it and collaborated with Sandi at Piecemeal Quilts to put together a pattern for it. Once that was complete, she took apart her grandmother's quilt top and remade it as a wonderful keepsake.

I loved the fun design, and ordered the pattern right away. Sidebar: it is currently available for free here. I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do, but as ideas sometimes do, it went on the back burner. I have this sweet friend in my neighborhood that I've gotten to know pretty well in the last five years or so, and wanted to do something nice for her birthday. So, I started playing around with colors.

I designed around a piece of blue Kona {I can't remember the name of it for sure, I think it might be Rain} that I bought to go on the back of the triangle quilt, Friendship Garden. It just didn't work on that quilt, but I wanted to try and make it work on this one.

I also had a piece of Kona in Snow, left from Christine's Flower Garden. My first thought was to use the blue as the centers of the flowers and the sashings and the white as the background, but it worked better the other way around.

I started with the easiest bit of quilting first. I did the stitching in the ditch and the meander in the background. Then I decided I wanted some straight lines, but I wanted it to be as easy as possible. Marking with tape is such a hassle and if you use a washable marker, you have to wash the quilt before you give it away. While I do love a soft, crinkly, washed quilt, I also love how a quilt looks after it is freshly quilted. So, I used a Hera Marker to score lines into the fabric. Actually, I started out using the back side of a 99₵ seam ripper to make the markings, and eventually bought a Hera marker. I did everything free-motion and backtracked in the seam allowances, completing each flower without stopping. It's not perfect, not by a long shot, but it was good practice.

To balance out all of the geometric quilting, I put some swirls in the lily petals.

I kind of like how it is coming along.

Here's a close-up of the quilting on the lilies.

The quilt is finished, and I've already taken it to my friend. It was supposed to be for her birthday, which was December 24^th, but I was a little late getting it to her. Like, four-ish months late. I've got photos, but they need editing, so we'll end on a cliff hanger. I'm hoping to finish this story off a little faster than I got it started. In the meantime, you can see what I'm up to on Instagram.

Oh My {Wonky} Stars!

God's promises are like the stars; the darker the night the brighter they shine. –David Nicholas

Over the past eight months or so, I've been working on a little stash enhancement project tending towards more modern prints. Most of it has come from on-line shops and quite a lot of it has been on clearance. 50% off is my favorite price. I also joined the Stash Stack Club at Pink Castle Fabrics. Each month they feature a certain color and you can get six or twelve different fabrics in either fat quarter or half-yard cuts. The fabrics they send are considered blenders, that is, tone-on-tone or a single color and white. They have their shop organized so that you can search their blenders or Stash Builders, as they call them, by color. I've also ordered from their sale fabrics and beefed up my stash that way. She who dies with the most fabric still dies, but at least she'll have lots of pretty fabrics to make lots of pretty quilts before then.

Now, I'm not getting paid or compensated by telling you this {but if the folks at Pink Castle get a ton of traffic from here and want to send a little something my way, I wouldn't turn them down}. I've just had a really good experience with them and wanted to show off a little something I've been working on, using things I pulled from my stash.

Generally, I'm not a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of girl. I like to have a plan. But when I saw this Wonky Stars Tutorial, there was just enough organization there that I felt safe being a little wonky.

I had so much fun playing in my stash that I couldn't stop at one.

Or two.

The blocks are 12" and they go together pretty quickly. You could have yourself a nice throw quilt in a 5" x 5" layout in no time at all. I'd say that close to half of the fabrics in these blocks came from Pink Castle. And there's some good stuff in there; Metro Living, Bonnie and Camille, Pearl Bracelets and True Colors. I'm not sure what I'll do with these blocks. Maybe if someone puts out a call, I'll contribute them to a collaboration or something. Or maybe I'll quilt them into table toppers, or sew them into a row and make a table runner. Or maybe I'll make a few more blocks and throw together a quilt. I'm feeling rather adventurous without a plan here.

Today's post brought to you by:

Blog Anniversary/1000th Post/Birthday Giveaway: Winners' Roll Call

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. –Oprah Winfrey

It's about time we gave away some fabric around here! I wish I had prizes for you all. Thank you to everyone who took time to enter. I really enjoyed reading all of your comments.

To choose the winners, rather than mess with drawing numbers and then counting through the comments to find the one that corresponds with the number, I printed them all out, cut them apart and threw them in a big roasting pan so there would be plenty of room for them to get nice and mixed up and not get stuck together and then I had the Not-So-Little Bugs draw for me. Grasshopper was really getting into it and drew one of the winners by picking up the slip of paper with the comment on it with his mouth. Here are the results:

• 4-Year Blog Anniversary Giveaway:
A jelly roll of Printemps by 3 Sisters, sponsored by The Fat Quarter Shop.

Winner drawn by Grasshopper


Congratulations to
Sandra
at Sandra's Craft Corner



whose response to my question about favorite things about blogging or reading blogs was: Bloglovin follower here. I most enjoy the ideas, tips and pictures on the blogs.


• 1000^th Post Giveaway:
A fat quarter bundle in a rainbow of beautiful colors and prints.

Winner drawn by LadyBug


Congratulations to
The4Rs
at Recycle, Repurpose, Redo and Renew


whose response to my question about favorite things to do in your free time was: Wow, I am the first! I love to read blogs and pin ideas to Pinterest. This year my goal is to actually try some of the ideas I covet! And of course, I love to craft and sew; always looking for inspiration. Love your giveaway, I think a rainbow doll quilt for a niece would be fun to make with it!


• Birthday Giveaway:
A fat quarter bundle of Carnaby Street in the Cool Peace colorway, from Pat Bravo to me to you.

Winner drawn by Grasshopper


Congratulations to
Alida P
at Quilting, Paper Piecing and Crafts


who said: Happy birthday fellow AYW designer I am so happy that I found your blog!! Bookmarked Happy birthday again.

Thank you again to everyone who commented! Winners, check your e-mail to see how to claim your prize.

Birthday Giveaway

If you always give, you will always have. –Chinese Proverb

Tomorrow is my birthday. I will be 21 with 20 years' experience. And I'm celebrating with a giveaway! 'Cause that's how I like to roll. The story goes like this:

Once upon a time, I won a a half-yard bundle of Carnaby Street in the Cool Peace colorway, from Pat Bravo herself. It was pretty groovy.

The cool thing about half-yard cuts is that there is plenty to share. It is a mathematical law that if you divide something by half, you always have half left. So today I'm giving away a fat quarter bundle of Carnaby Street in the Cool Peace colorway, from Pat Bravo to me to you. The fabrics have been washed, pressed and squared up so "fat quarter" is used loosely here.

The Fine Print:
• To enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling me your favorite color combination. Or just leave a comment. Whichever.
• You can enter today's giveaway only once.
• Non-blogging/non-Google users and international entrants are welcome.
• If you do not have a Google account, use the name/url {url optional} commenting option and make sure you leave your e-mail in your comment in the following format: address (at) domain name (dot) com.
• Comments with no contact information will be deleted.
• Google account users: not sure if your contact information will be attached to your comment? Click here:


• Duplicate comments will be deleted.
• Comment moderation is on, so don't panic when your comment doesn't show up. I'm notified of new comments and will approve them periodically each day, after which they'll show up on the post.
• The giveaway will close at 10:00 pm {MST} on Wednesday, January 15^th. Winner will be chosen by random drawing and notified by e-mail and announced here by 8:00 pm on January 16^th.

Good luck!

1000th Post Giveaway

It may take little time to get where you want to be, but if you pause and think for a moment, you will notice that you are no longer where you were. Do not stop—keep going. –Rodolfo Costa, Advice My Parents Gave Me: and Other Lessons I Learned from My Mistakes

This is my 1000^th post. Yep. You read that right. One thousand posts. Some more interesting than others; some containing a little bit more of me than others, but 1000 posts. That's a lot. Want to know a secret? I kind of finagled it to coincide with my four-year blog anniversary, so we could all celebrate with giveaways!

Today's giveaway is a fat quarter bundle in a rainbow of beautiful colors and prints. The fabrics are from my stash and have been washed, pressed and squared up, which means that I use the term "fat quarter" loosely, depending on how much shrinkage there was and how far off grain the fabric was pulled. In the spirit of full disclosure, they are all between 15½" and 18" long and 22"ish inches wide. There are a couple of Robert Kaufmann Modern Living prints, a Joel Dewberry and everything is Quilt Shop quality.

The Fine Print:
• To enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling me your favorite thing to do in your free time. Or just leave a comment. Whichever.
• You can enter today's giveaway only once.
• Non-blogging/non-Google users and international entrants are welcome.
• If you do not have a Google account, use the name/url {url optional} commenting option and make sure you leave your e-mail in your comment in the following format: address (at) domain name (dot) com.
• Comments with no contact information will be deleted.
• Google account users: not sure if your contact information will be attached to your comment? Click here:


• Duplicate comments will be deleted.
• Comment moderation is on, so don't panic when your comment doesn't show up. I'm notified of new comments and will approve them periodically each day, after which they'll show up on the post.
• The giveaway will close at 10:00 pm {MST} on Wednesday, January 15^th. Winner will be chosen by random drawing and notified by e-mail and announced here by 8:00 pm on January 16^th.

Good luck!

Ripples

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. –Buddha

I am excited to share the finished Drunkard's Path quilt, which I finally decided to simply call Ripples. I love how it turned out.

This quilt has always been for my friend, Kim. From the moment I cut it out, I knew it was for her. In it's raw form, I knew it was for her. Sitting in a drawer for three years, it was always for her. When the timing was finally right, and especially in this layout, it is for her. When she opened it out, she said that these were the colors in her bedroom and that it was going on her bed.

But to be honest, if this quilt hadn't had someone else's name stitched into the back, I would have kept it for myself. While we're being honest, I'm still not sold on the name, Ripples. I almost called it Reaping {Galatians 6:7 — for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap}, but the layout and the colors and the theme all pointed me towards ripples on the water. And because I wasn't sure if the layout and name of the quilt quite conveyed the sentiment behind the quilt {because I know this wonderful woman sacrifices a lot to serve her family and so that her husband can serve others both in his work and his volunteer church assignment and I wanted to show my love and appreciation} I embroidered the Edward Markham poem around the edge of the label.

There is a destiny which makes us brothers;
None goes his way alone.
All that we send into the lives of others
Comes back into our own.

I knew it would be a big job, so I debated about leaving the poem off. I filled in the details first, and then showed Mr. Bug my template, with the poem around the outer edge. He said it looked cool and that I should do it. I used my tiniest embroidery needle, a size 12, and a single strand of floss. When I was finished, Mr. Bug was able to read it {although the lighting here makes it kind of hard; I did tweak the contrast a bit to hopefully make it easier to see} and I'm really glad I put it on.

I hadn't originally planned to put a border on this quilt. It should have finished at 56" x 56", but due to a little bit of shifting when I ran the fabrics through the Go! Cutter, I needed to square up all of my blocks. I only lost 2" total, but the quilt seemed a bit small so I improvised {not really my strong suit}. I didn't have enough left of either the tan or the off-white to make a complete stop border {and didn't really have the time to make a fabric store run}, so I used them both and threw in some of the chocolate brown at the corners for good measure. Mr. Bug, who I often use as a sounding board, wasn't sure about them. He said I should just do the dark brown border. I was almost convinced, but decided to leave the stop border in and am glad I did. I love to get Mr. Bug's opinion. I don't always go with his suggestions, but he helps me to figure out what I really want to do.

Sometimes, it takes a village to make a quilt. I want to thank everyone who left comments with opinions and encouragement as I worked through the assembly process {I'm so happy with the formerly-diagonal-vertically-striped-bias-binding!}. I appreciated the help and it meant a lot that you would take the time to leave a note for me! I'd also like to thank Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting for her quick needle. The quilting is amazing! And thanks to her, I was able to deliver the quilt to the birthday girl on her actual birthday.

Today's post brought to you by:

More about this quilt:
First layout and a call out for name suggestions
Backing selected
Allusion to working on the assembly
Ready to assemble and request for name suggestions
The complexities of stripey binding
Binding decided, lessons in quilting and a sneak peek of the finished quilting

The Galloping Horse Method

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. –Abraham Lincoln

I am slightly OCD. Obsessive Creative. Obsessive Compulsive. Potato, potahto, right? I tend to get wrapped up in the details and rather than seeing the big picture, I focus on all the tiny imperfections. I guess you could say I'm an imperfectionist. And I let myself be limited by all the things I can't to. I've been thinking about this on and off for a while now. Yesterday, as I was pondering the complexities of stripey binding, my sister reminded me that shifting your perspective opens up a lot of previously unexplored possibilities. She said, I don't know much about binding, but I think I'd take the longer lasting way even if it doesn't lay perfectly straight. Use the galloping horse method to determine how picky you're going to be.

And what is the galloping horse method, you ask? The story goes like this. I took a beginning machine quilting class in February of 2010. The teacher talked about how to determine if you're going to unpick. She said that if you were to pass by the quilt on a galloping horse and you could see the mistake, then unpick.

Several thoughts sprouted from this reminder.

1. Just do your best and let the stitches fall where they may.
2. Not every quilt has to be a show quilt.
3. Focus on what you can do and not on what you can't.

Do your best and let the stitches fall where they may.
I can do bias binding. I know it. I love it. So that's what I did. And I'm pretty darn excited about those formerly diagonal vertical stripeys. It's not perfect. Some of my seams matched up better than others. It might turn out a tiny bit ripply, as my bindings always do. But then again, it might not. In order to get enough binding out of the piece of fabric I had, I made it 2⅛" wide instead of 2¼". Perhaps being a fraction of an inch narrower will give it more fill once it is turned and might, just might, solve the pucker problem.

Not every quilt has to be a show quilt.
As a matter of personal preference, I like quilts that are "custom." I always have. When I piece a quilt, I pick the design because I like it and I want all that work to be shown off to its best advantage by the quilting. I think edge-to-edge tends to mask the piecing. But with no small amount of internal debate, I took this quilt and the one before it to the quilt fairy to be done edge-to-edge. Having them done in time to give as birthday gifts outweighs spending weeks on quilting the perfect design in them. These quilts are meant to be snuggled under and dragged around and picnicked on at washed and used and loved. Masterpiece quilting doesn't quite fit the bill, here.

Focus on what you can do and not on what you can't.
I kind of like having a quilt fairy. It means there are a lot of things I can do instead of making myself crazy trying to cram 40 hours of quilting into an already packed week. While my quilt is being professionally quilted {with a stitch regulator!}, I can spend time helping the Not-So-Little Bugs with homework and projects. I can catch up on the laundry. And the dusting. And the bathrooms. I can cook actual dinners instead of sentencing the family to cold cereal and ramen for a week straight. I can go to bed at a decent time. And I can be completely wowed by an edge-to-edge quilting design. Here's a peek.

You'll be even more wowed when I show you the whole quilt. With stripey binding. And a completely awesome embroidered quilt label. It's one of my best, if I do say so myself.

Directional

Aye, the compass doesn't point north, but we're not trying to find north, are we? –Mr. Gibbs, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

I finished my Drunkard's Path quilt top. I didn't take pictures because I was in a rush to drop it off for quilting. It pretty much looks like this. Only all sewn together. With a couple of borders. Which may or may not work.

The top is made from Kona Solids {don't ask which colors} and coordinates from Marcus Brother's Metro Blue fabric line. It is an old print {2006, reprinted in 2009} but I really love the colors and I think it still looks pretty modern. Ish. I saved the best print for the binding.

Stripey fabrics are meant to be used as bindings. I always do bias-binding {bias is so fancy}, which means that the stripeys come out diagonally. Unless the stripeys are already printed on the diagonal. Which these are. The question is, then, do I do a regular old cut-on-the-grain binding so that the stripeys stay diagonal? Or do I do a bias binding, which would make the stripes come out vertically along on the edge of the quilt? I've seen a lot of cute vertically striped bindings lately.

The cons are these:
On-grain binding:
• Since the binding is cut along the grain, the fold creates more stress in the fabric and after only a few washings the binding starts to turn white along the folded edge. After years of use, the fabric can split open at the fold because the stress is put on a narrow, continuous area of the fabric's weave.
• Piecing seven separate diagonal seams to make a piece of binding long enough to go around the quilt.

Bias Binding:
• I can never get a bias binding to lay perfectly flat and smooth, no matter how carefully I watch my 45° degree angle or how much pressing and pinning I do. It always lies a little puckered.

The pros are these:
On-grain binding:
• Super cute diagonal stripes around the border.

Bias Binding:
• Fast and easy continuous piecing.
• The stress of the fold is distributed diagonally across the weave of the fabric, prolonging the wear of the binding.
• Super cute horizontal stripes around the border.

The quilt is finished and ready for pick-up. I'm excited to see how the quilting came out. I'll either go get it tonight, if Melissa has time, or tomorrow morning. This means it is time to decide how to cut my binding. Suggestions welcome and appreciated!

This Quilt Needs A Name

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is . . . the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. –Mark Twain

I've been puttering around off and on with an old Ph.D Quilt for the last several weeks whenever I wanted to avoid what I should really be doing. I cut the fabric almost exactly three years ago, not long after I won my Go! Fabric Cutter, using the large Drunkard's Path die. Recently, I sewed the curved pieces to their corners, squared them all up, laid them out and then stacked them row by row to be put away until I don't have so many other projects going on all at once. They've been sitting in my sewing area for over a week.

Before I can put my little stacks away, I need some help with a name for the quilt. How about a little back-story to go with that request? Yes? Great. Early in 2010, I bought half-yard cuts of six of the prints from a line of fabric called Metro Blue to make a wedding gift for a neighbor using her wedding colors and left over fabric from her wedding dress.

The framed Double Wedding Ring only took a little bit of the fabric, and the rest just seemed perfect for a Drunkard's Path quilt. And the fabrics and colors seemed perfect for a particular friend and neighbor. Her birthday is coming up in mid-November and I want to try and finish this quilt in time for that. I'll be calling on Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting to help with the machine quilting again. If I get on the ball and finish Grasshopper's Halloween costume, I can get it to Melissa early enough to avoid a rush fee and still leave myself plenty of time to bind it. {And we're all rolling our eyes and shaking our head here, me most of all, because I'm imposing another crazy deadline on myself.}. Anway, I saved the stripey print for the binding {because stripey and binding go together like peanut butter and jelly} and cut the rest into enough pieces to make a nice throw-size quilt.

But, let's face it. That layout is a bit of a snooze-fest. It's not every very pretty. And it does not inspire a name. At all. I've been thinking about it every now and again for the past three years and I've got nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada. Not even the name of the fabric line, Metro Blue, works. So I tried something different.

The name of this Drunkard's Path design is Love Rings. But Love Rings isn't a name for a friendship quilt. I want the name to reflect the kind of person this friend is. She is kind to everyone, thoughtful, considerate and one of those people who quietly serves and never asks for thanks or recognition. Her husband's job takes him on frequent business trips. In addition, he has quite a busy volunteer job at church. While the work he does is of huge benefit to many, many people, I know it is hard for her to not have him there sometimes. I wanted to do a little something special for her to let her know that I appreciate everything she does and am grateful to have her as a friend. When I think of her, I think of this little poem by Edwin Markham:

There is a destiny which makes us brothers;
None goes his way alone.
All that we send into the lives of others
Comes back into our own.

But I'm having a hard time fitting all that into a single word or phrase that will fit nicely on a little embroidered label for the back of the quilt. I've thought of a few names, like Reciprocity, but the sentiment "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" really isn't right. Calling the quilt What Goes Around Comes Around isn't really much better, and I don't believe in Karma, per se, although I do believe that every action has an Equal and Opposite Reaction. I thought about Ripples, which seems to work a bit better than the others. The quilt kind of looks like water rippling out. But I'm not sure about that either. I'm just about ready to call it Quilt With No Name, but I've been humming that song by America and a quilt name that inspires incessant humming of a melancholy tune from the 1972 just doesn't cut it, in my book.

If you've got a suggestion for what to call this quilt, I'd love to hear it! And while you're at it, I'd love to hear opinions on what panto to have Melissa quilt in it. I've got my eye on Belly Bop, Loops and Swirls, Van Gogh, Swirls, Rose Leaves and Retro Leaves.

Decisions, decisions.

More Pretty Modern Fabrics. And Too Many Projects. I Need A Sewcation.

I tell you everything that is really nothing, and nothing of what is everything, do not be fooled by what I am saying. Please listen carefully and try to hear what I am not saying. –Charles C. Finn

While I was busy visiting Yellowstone and other outdoorsy places last week, a cute little package arrived on my doorstep and was promptly whisked away by the mail collectors. My first priority when I got home was to get said package. Seriously. We'd been home for less than an hour when I was calling my neighbors to find out when I could come and collect it.

Courtesy of Pat Bravo, a half-yard bundle of Carnaby Street in the Cool Peace colorway was waiting for me when I got home. It's even more groovy in person.

I immediately knew what I wanted to do with these fabrics. Jess at The Elven Garden showed her Retro Flowers Quilt during the Spring Blogger's Quilt Festival and I loved it. I knew these fabrics would be perfect in that quilt. So I tracked down the pattern. Then I rummaged through my stash and found that several of the Pure Elements Solids I'd got when I ordered Pat's Indie fabric line work with Carnaby Street too! {Well, I'm not sold on the dark purple [Cabernet], so we'll see on that one.} I also threw in the Squared Elements in Watermelon that I recently ordered and thought that worked pretty well too.

Now I need a sewcation so I can work on any or all of the sixty-eleven projects I have going on.