Tuesday, December 14, 2010

First Snow


A Christmas Quilt


I started this quilt back in September for a few reasons: 1. I hadn't started a new project in, say, oh, 3 or 4 days 2. I wanted to be part of something, and Pat Sloan's Quilt A Long came along 3. I had all the ingredients in my stash. (I'll do that with food, too. I'll make a recipe, not necessarily because I love it, but because I have everything I need to make it in the pantry. Black Bean and Sweet Potato Stew comes to mind) At first, I didn't looove it, but I liked it well enough. Despite my being applique challenged, it went together really quickly, with a minimum of cursing. The cursing came when I thought that quilting it with gold metallic thread (there's a bit of gold metallic in the fabrics) would be a brilliant idea. Don't ever quilt with metallic thread. Ever. You will hate it and be mean to your cat, (who happens to looove gold metallic thread - so much that I'm regifting it and putting it in her little kitty stocking.) Anyway, after changing needles, lowering tension, starting and stopping, it got quilted. And you know what? I love this quilt!

She Thrifts. She Scores!

I used to love thrifting. I used to live where there were a lot of good, independent thrift stores with great prices, all within 5 miles of me. Now, not so much. I have to rely on Good Will and Salvation Army for my thrifting. SA is a bit geographically undersireable, so I'm usually stuck with Good Will. I wouldn't even mind it so much, but it seems like their prices have really gone up lately. I mean, really $4.75 for a sweater? I can buy a new one at Ann Taylor with a good sale and a family and friends coupon. Today, though, I had a mission. I needed to find "costume" type clothing, specifically white button down shirts. No such luck. (All the waiters of the world must also shop at Good Will.) Anyway, since I'm there, I wander over to the sheets. In the past, I've picked up a couple of vintage sheets . Not great ones, but okay ones. Today, though, as I round the corner, I see this:

I literally heard angels singing. I dash over and find two huge- as in king, in really good shape Vera pillowcases.


Good Will, I take back all the bad things I said about you.