Drivin' Away From The Wreck Of The Day!

Yep...it's that ugly. This is my garage sale challenge quilt...don't stare at it too long, I got a feeling it will do the same kind of damage as looking directly into a solar eclipse will do. Oh Mama, it ain't pretty!

My Guild, Twisted Stitchers, put out this challenge in May...the goal..make a quilt out of fabric and materials you buy from a garage sale or at a Goodwill or second-hand store. No shopping at fabric stores or any stores that carry fabric. Being a member of the Sexutive (that's our pet name for the executive, we gave it to ourselves...cuz...well...we can dream...right), I felt I must participate and set a good example for our members...so my intentions were honorable despite the horror I created...honest.

I didn't think it would be so hard...but in hindsight...hell, I shoulda known. I mean what kind of fabric can you hope to find at a garage sale...think about that! Oh sure, every once in a while, you might strike gold and find something wonderful. Chances are those are the treasures of a dead relative, and the seller has no idea of their worth or beauty, they just want em' gone and all the better if they can make a buck off a' ole Aunt Bessy (who is likely turnin' over in her grave!).

But here's how it goes with most quilter's who send fabric to a garage sale....or worse Goodwill. Firstly, you unearth this fabric, you bought...oh...15 years ago or more....and you look at it and the little voice in your head says..."will I ever use that?". And you're sure you better save it, cuz fer sure you will need just that piece the minute you get rid of it. Then 5 more years goes by....and your finally at that "what the hell was I thinkin' stage." You mourn your loss and ask your 20 closest quilting friends if they would like to have it. Each one of them turns you down....all muttering something about already having too much fabric, and you want to believe that...but inside....you know!

So you tuck it away til next spring, where it will have a spot of honor on your Garage sale table. You just know there's gotta be someone out there that will just love it...but there's not a sucker on earth who will part with the reduced by the end of the day price of a buck. So now and only now....it's off to Goodwill.

Enter Nad

I did the best I could honest! You try matching that sickly yellow and ick brown with any other fabric...dare ya! The black I thought was cotton...ain't...and seemed to shrink everytime I touched the iron to it, so it shrank, and be damned if this puppy would lay flat even before I quilted it. I weighed it down with ten pounds of thread by stippling it right to death (not that you will ever notice since the ugly even overpowers that!

And there you have it. Uglier than my Ugly Fabric Challenge quilt...crookeder (new word for the day people!) than the very first quilt I ever did....and perfectly suitable to hang in the very back of my garage so I can spend the rest of my life...... drivin' away from the wreck of the day!

Is This The Kinda Day It's Gonna Be?

I wish I could say it was dark when I got dressed this morning...but it wasn't. I was not especially hurried or frazzled, no distractions really. I wasn't wearing my glasses tho...now there is a good excuse...right?
And not bad enough that I put on two different shoes....I walked around for 2 hours before I even noticed.
But there are blessings too! I did not rush out to work this way, infact til this moment no one but me knew about my fashion faux pas....and come on...you know you've done it before...maybe not with shoes....but you've regressed back to age 5 when dressing was hit or miss. Remember those days...and no matter how unmatching or disheveled you were...Mom was so proud! Don't think she will be singin' my praises today...maybe laughing her head off...or calling the white coats.
I went to my friends house one afternoon, to find her wearing her tee shirt inside out. One can only assume it had been that way all day. When I brought it to her attention...she kinda did a double take...then sputtered that she already knew that. She so didn't...but I was not arguing with this potentially unstable person who KNEW her shirt was inside out....and LEFT it that way.Uh uh I so wasn't going there!
Now the only problem with starting your day ...on the wrong shoe...is sometimes it just snowballs from there. I have alot of those days where I drop or spill everything I pick up...so I know better than to hold anybody's baby or priceless china...but on a wrong shoe day...what's next....zipper down (excuse me just a minute......check!), jacket inside out...socks not matching...skirt tucked into the underwear (it happens!).
Please God...remind me to double check EVERYTHING before I leave the house, I always do try to put my best foot forward....and I will today too...even if it's in the wrong shoe.

I'm Not Crazy....Just Alittle Unwell...
I sorted my scraps....by colour. There I said it. I admit it, I will own it the rest of my life, which is probly how long it will take to live it down.
I have an excuse.
It was the drugs....yep you heard it...drugs.
Has to be...what other excuse could a sane person use, (sanity is such an subjective topic isn't it!), to justify sitting for hours, carefully classifying each little hunk of fabric, and assigning it a home with others of it's sort. And we ain't talking meter cuts or anything likthat...scraps...honest ta Gawd scraps.
Had to be the drugs.
It all started in June. I managed to develope this life-threatening allergy. If you're gonna have an allergy, you might as well be serious about it eh...no half-assed allergies in this house...or outside this house as the case is. I am allergic to the sun. Not hard to avoid that in the summer is it!
Tried desperatlyto cope with it, wearing long sleeves (just as much fun as it sounds when it is a thousand degrees outside!), sun block, and doubling the amount of anti-histimine I ingested each morning...but to no avail. Despite my best efforts to limit my exposure...running from shade tree to shade tree and hearing in my sleep...that old familuar phraze...."Get outta the sun".....I could not seem to get it under control. Is it not sick enough that we Canadians are housebound enough,what with our oh so long frostbite inducing winters...now I was going to be housebound for the summer too. It couldn't be.
Enter the big guns!

The drugs.....steroids!
I was hesitant. My doctor summed it all up as only she could......"throat closes...kill ya quick...steroids...kill ya slowly"....and some how...that made me feel so much better taking them. So I sucked them back according to schedule, and waited for the mood swings to knock the first hapless victum outta the park.
But there were no mood swings..okay one little one, brought on by the stupid question, "What do you need a screwdriver for? ( I successfully fought the urge to say "What better to kill you with" and took deep breathes...many deep breathes). Instead....I got busy. I found myself awake at 4:00am, planning all the search and destroy missions I could do the next day...mind racing from one room to the other....and then I got up and did it.
I sorted my scraps by colour. There I said it again. That makes it more real.
Why in God's name would anyone sort their scraps. My intention for them, was to someday complete a quilt...totally made from scraps, chosen randomly...come what may style...no rules, no matching....no thought at all ...reach in the bucket...pull out whatever...and use it...then and there. Hard to be random when everything now sits so neat and orderly, a red bucket, a blue bucket, you name it...I got it.
Do you think if I took Anti-Steroids (is there such a thing?), I could undo the order in my world? I am missing the chaos.
Perhaps til then, a bottle of wine or three might suffice?

Beige Man Meets Red Couch.
As a quilter, perhaps we have the opportunity to explore colour more than the average Joe. There are many books and teachings on colour theory, very strong opinions on what goes with what, and equally strong opinions on what does not. While I have read and understand many principles of colour theory, I don't often follow the rules. Not to be arrogant, in thinking I know more than they do, but because I seem to trust something inside myself, more than I do my knowledge of how to do it correctly. I am guessing, with further study, the reverse will happen, but for the here and now, I go with the gut.
I LOVE colour! I love bright, happy colours...and I like them right in yer face! My favorite quilts are those done in bright colours, particularly on black backgrounds...right in yer face! I can't get my ass out of the bright section in a fabric store, and Gawd forbid I leave behind a shade I don't have yet...it haunts me! I covet other peoples brights, I want them all ...desperately.
So how does a girl with neon vision cope in the everyday world? The world she must share with others void of her colour passions. The world were your house should be just like your neighbours and a lime green kitchen would set tongues waggin' faster than a dogs tail. She gets her fun where she can!
Imagine said girl, finding herself in a furniture store...alone...no colour monitors....no restrictors...no little voices warning of a pending decorating faux pas...notta! What does she do....she buys the red couch...of course. Oh sure, there was the moment of hesitation.....a nice pear green number did give me a run for my money, a toss up to be sure...but I went with my gut, I chose the "in yer face" red.
Enter the Beige Man. Like I said, not everyone enjoys my passion for colour, and the Beige Man is about as far away on the colour spectrum as you can get. His world would be ....well beige....all beige. Light beige, dark beige, medium beige and on a daring day....very daring...alittle brown. He thinks Builder Beige has personality. I have spent much time erradicating it.
I neglected to tell Beige Man about red couch.
So, Beige Man comes home, from his beige office, in his beige car, wearing...what else...his beige pants and shirt....and meets red couch.
I thought there would be fireworks...and who doesn't love the colour of those! With baited breath, I waited to defend my choices, not that I felt I should have to, but all prepared just the same.....and then I heard it....I swear ta Gawd I heard it with mine own ears....
" I like it"
No obvious head trauma....no outward signs that perhaps there were drugs or spirits on board....could it be? Beige Man likes red couch? I feel suddenly that I have been handed the keys to the Colour Kingdom...that my everyday world could be just as my quilt world! Can you just imagine!
I am going to test that theory...slowly....I'll let ya know!

K...here I am, eyes wide open, running head-long into the world of Blogging! So not true people, I am more the stumble and face-plant kinda girl when it comes to many aspects of computing, I still think there's a button that could possibly blow up Moscow, and frankly, I am still in awe of the telephone and how that works. It takes so little to amuse me some days!
I do know my way around a sewing machine tho. Sometimes it's the long way, and on days like that I keep remembering that old saying, you know the one...about the journey being half the fun. I have to agree, I do have alot of fun with quilting, the people I meet while quilting, the places I go, the new things I am able to try...what's not to love! It's been a trip so far...and I ain't quite ready to get off the boat!