red hots... or nots

If you're anything like me, you have difficulty finishing what you start. Or finding the things you need to finish a project. Locating things I'd say is 90% of my battle. I found a pile of precut purple squares left over from the cross-country purple charm quilt, and the February 2010 issue 102 of American Patchwork & Quilting happened to be sitting out on my bedside table. I don't have a subscription, I buy them as a reward or treat for accomplishing something... which usually happens to coincide with liking what I see on the front cover. Actually a subscription to a quilting magazine would be nice... I digress.

Here's the first on many blocks with the inspiration project. I'm not going to add the Flying Geese. Do I need to be making another top? Eh, no, but it will go by fast. The top bit, I mean, the quilting takes a little longer. Maybe I'll use it for a first time long arm quilting project. Who knows.

Purple is charming

I've said nothing about the purple charm quilt. Good heavens.


Now, I realize this isn't the best picture because it doesn't completely fill the frame, but it's the best I've got at the moment, and there's no where for me to lay it out and get a better picture at the moment...


So the story behind this is as follows. One fine day in May [I'm guessing, though it could have been April] 2007 I got a letter in the mail with fabric. What could be better than that? Free fabric in the mail. It just showed up, and I didn't ask for it or buy it, fabulous! Accompanying it was a letter indicating that it was a chain letter, send so may letters out with fabric squares thus and such a size, blah, you know the rest. So I obligingly went and bought the most unusual material I could find [try finding unusual fabric in purple. I dare you.] But I succeeded, and you can see several of the fabrics I bought in these close ups... The purple with the cranes was imported from Australia. I also supplied the purple leopard print, and the '30's reproduction purple-and-yellow flowers. In the third picture, is the Celtic knot fabric and very obvious quilt square and scissors motif. I bought enough to send the 7 people, and to put some in my own quilt.
Strafford, Missouri... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Roy, Utah

Part of the charm of this kind of project is that you don't know what you are going to get. Life is like that sometimes. No, all the time. You don't know what will show up, and sometimes what comes isn't the nicest, the prettest, the finest. The decision to make then is what to do with the time, materials and resources given to us. Someone I sent fabric to returned my squares, along with two fat quarters, apologizing that she was doing so, and hoping that her offering would be enough. I personally never would have picked purple for this project but tha'ts what was specified, so that there would be some color harmony. And I never would have thought of picking out some of the fabric I got, especially that flaming yellow from Missouri.

Austintown, Ohio.

Represented in this quilt are about 20 fabrics from Western Pennsylvania, and material from lovely people in Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado and Utah... and probably someplace else, which I am forgetting. At some point, I would like to take a road trip with the quilt, and visit all the places fabric came from. And who knows, maybe someone who participated in this chain letter will see me holding this thing as my picture is being taken and stop and say, "Oh! I recognise that!" And we'll have a lovely chat about quilting and sewing. That would be lovely.