Hello, It's Me

 Isn't it fun to name your posts with song titles and then you can listen to the song while you read the post? (Yes, if you've got speakers or headphones, my blog does have musical accompaniment).

Today's been one of those melancholy days. A little feeling sorry for myself, a little tired, a little pissed off, a little unmotivated all rolled into one kind of day. I'm sure it will pass in a day or two. Too bad it's not a weekend or I could go work it off in the garden. Sigh.

The highlight of the weekend was the trip to Jinny Beyer with my sister. Jinny Beyer's shop is not the type of shop I'd visit more than a couple times a year. Don't get me wrong, it's a fabulous shop and she has lovely fabrics, but the shop only carries Jinny's line of fabrics, probably no more than a hundred bolts to choose from. I love her border prints, and her color palette, and the quilts she designs, but I can't imagine having a stash without a healthy dose of Kaffe Fassett, or anything Moda, or batiks, 1930s reproductions, strips, POLKA DOTS!!!

I went on a mission to  find a sophisticated inspiration/border print for a second Baltimore Album quilt. And I did...6 yards of this came home with me...borders, sashing and setting HSTs for an on-point 13-block quilt. I thought I'd need 3, but the woman cutting suggested that I might be a little 'off' in my calculations, and since this particular print isn't being reprinted, I might want to take that into consideration. (I did)

please excuse the colors...I have apparently transferred my current crankiness to my camera so it is not applying itself to it's best ability this evening. All of these colors are much, much more vibrant than you see.

I also found some hand dyed wool in lovely sherbet colors as well as  the perfect match border print  to use for an upcoming wool applique wall hanging which I'll be starting soon from Gretchen Gibbons Pennies from Heaven book (love it!)
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And this is another print I had to have, but I only picked up a fat quarter for now. There's a third fabric, but it will not photograph in this light. Both that and this FQ will be used for papercut blocks in the quilts, where a big print is an advantageous print.

I did get a tiny bit of sewing in over the weekend....for my sister. I quilted a quick and cute little table runner she had pieced as a gift for someone. Got to use my new stitch in the ditch sole on the walking foot for the piano key border and I pulled out the BSR and quilted starfish all over the center panel and the corners. It's perfect practice, and I'm finally over the horror of 'practicing' on someone else's work, as they seem to wind up liking what I've done (though it is FAR from perfect).

Today I spent a good amount of time perusing all of my applique books looking for patterns to use for the Album quilts. I had out my trusty proportion wheel, my ruler, my calculator, and I painstakingly copied patterns I wanted from each book and calculated their enlargement/reduction values to work on my 14" finished blocks (I'm looking to have the actual design span 10.5" so I'll have room to quilt them on a diagonal grid and you'll be able to see the grid stitching all around.) I've pretty much decided that baskets are out, though I could change my mind. I'm just afraid if I commit to 4 basket blocks per quilt I'll be making little bias strips to weave into baskets for the rest of the summer and won't get anything else done.

I also picked up another fun item at JoAnn on the return from Jinny Beyer......iron on glossy vinyl to laminate fabric. I just bought this Fossil purse that seems to be made from a laminated canvas print, and I was thinking what fun it might be to laminate some of my Indigo or the Australian prints and turn them into functional accessories. I'll keep you posted on how that turns out. I'm leery.....somehow the words 'iron on' and 'vinyl' don't exactly spell success to me.

Have a lovely day tomorrow. I'm sure you'll all be in better moods than I. Maybe I'll shake it off and get some stitching done after work. That might help..