Thursday, May 08, 2008

Look what found me!

Some of my friends say they would like to follow me around, because I am so lucky at finding special quilts and quilt tops. Well, this one came to me! One of my dear friends, Patti, who now lives in Atlanta, brought this perfectly delicious 1930's Colonial Girl quilt top to me. It was discovered among her husband's grandmother's things, and they don't have any idea who may have made it. It isn't in a style that any of the family members was interested in, so she put it in her luggage, and brought it to me when she arrived for our Paducah pilgrimage. The colors are just stunning, the seam allowances are generous, and the applique and embroidery is perfect on all 12 blocks. I will finish for my grand-daughter.

Have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the mail each day, watching for delivery of the AQS booth hop blocks from the various Paducah vendors. The fabric line for the booth hop is Aspen by Benartex, and it is really beautiful. Acid greens, and rich burgundies are the main flavor, support by light golds and mauves. As I made my rounds of the booths in Paducah, I looked at each booth's finished quilt. The one that took my breath away was The Stash Store.
Theirs had a central applique medallion, and I love the combination of applique and patchwork. I didn't rush into it, however. I waited until arriving home and thinking about it a few days before I called to order the finishing kit. It didn't hurt that DH gave me some money from the garage sale that he held while I was gone, so I didn't have to "go into debt" to order it. Kerri gave me the option of choosing the acid green or large burgundy floral for the outside borders, and I chose the floral. They were awaiting additional fabrics from Benartex, but she anticipates the kit will ship in about another week.

Yesterday was a dry spell for quilt related mail. Just credit card offers and catalogs. All the credit card offers were for platinum cards . . . how ordinary. I'm holding out for Plutonium . . . I want a card that is radioactive! The suggested limits on these cards are outrageous . . . more than my gross annual pay. I love to buy fabrics, and books, and yarns, but I don't think that even I could spend that much!

I have my Orange Crush components up to date, and I'm anxious for the next clue to be posted. In the interim, I have been bouncing from project to project, stitching on my sunglasses for my current Florida quilt, setting fabrics aside for my Civil War Love Letters quilt, cutting the setting pieces for my 2006 Florida shop hop, and launching the current Guild challenge. In April, we each brought a quart bag with up to 20 pieces of fabrics within, with a minimum size of 4" square. These were all placed in a large container, and we stuck in our hands and pulled out our prize. My palette was quite a challenge, with both vintage calicos and bright fabrics. Fortunately, we only need to use half the fabrics, and can add as many of our own as we wish. I started working with the vintage calicos (more than half of the collection), and I'm fairly pleased with how it is coming together. Of course, the reveal won't happen till December, so you will have to take my word for it!

I wonder what the postman will deliver today?

3 comments:

Jan said...

Do we at least get a peak of the guild challenge you are doing?

Quilts And Pieces said...

ooo - I can't wait to see what their setting was like! I wish we had pics of all of them!

Lynn Dykstra said...

My mother made this colonial girl quilt pattern in 1955 when she was pregnant with my oldest sister. She could not afford the pattern and traced and enlarged it from the photograph in the newspaper advertisement.
I hope this helps you in dating this wonderful quilt.