Piecemeal

I've been known to collect fabric. I could probably open my own quilt shop now. I'm not sure if that's a confession or an attempt at humor. Or maybe both. Whatever the case, I sometimes go off on wild goose chases to find fabric I missed out on.

Sometimes I go on to make wonderful quilts from these gorgeous collections.

Other fabric collections are slumbering in sealed airtight bins where they receive no daylight so the vibrance and freshness might not ever fade. One is still stacked waiting its turn on my to-do pile. It was supposed to be a Mother's Day or Christmas quilt back in 2022...

I jumped into the Me and My Sister collections late in the game several years ago. I learned from their website there were earlier collections I had to have. But they were LONG out of print!

A persistent search perhaps six or seven years ago yielded four or five of the earlier charm square packs (I never did get my hands on "Giggles"). I still add to my Me and My Sister collection to this day. I've made a few baby quilts from a few of the "extra" yardage and precuts I found on sale over the years, but the main stash of two charm square packs each remains mostly intact. (I had to rob a few squares to finish one neice baby quilt.)

No matter how large my stash, there's always a new fabric line to capture my attention, my wallet and my motivation. When you don't have time to quilt, it's fun to find new fabric that makes you want to quilt, right??? So beautiful, you can't wait to sit down to the sewing machine. The instant your receive it. That's always my plan... The Limelight Baliscapes fat quarter bundle I bought last year was going to find its way under my needle within minutes the day it arrived. It was going to make the most beautiful quilted jacket on the planet. It (and some gorgeous floral green batik yardage I picked up on sale about the same time) is still waiting and hasn't even been removed from the package, except for the photo for this blog post.

The Guicy Giuce Art Deco collections are my latest addiction. I never saw the first edition, and the second edition was sold out in one of my favorite shops when the bright, fruity colors first grabbed my eyes. I searched high and low for the second edition and bought it online on the spot to make sure I would never have to buy it piece by piece. The first edition was a bit harder.

I found a fat quarter bundle of the first edition that wasn't missing any of the collection and ordered immediately. I looked up reviews on the new-to-me shop to make sure it was reputable, but I never thought to look from whence I was buying. I got a text from my bank alerting me to my foreign purchase. I received a confirmation email from the shop, and another when the bundle was shipped the next day, so I didn't worry. That was back in January. Here it was, late April, and still no first edition in my mail.

Turns out I purchased my original Art Deco bundle from Australia, and I paid for standard shipping. Had I had my head together back in January, I wouldn't have hesitated for a minute to opt into a more expensive but more reliable shipping method. Unfortunately, I had my hands, heart and head full of all kinds of trauma and stress for about eight weeks straight back then, and logic just wasn't to be found anywhere in my equation then.

I've since looked up a few times how long it takes to ship a package from down under to up over (Colorado). I get estimates everwhere from three weeks to eight months. I imagine my fat quarters bundled up and sitting in the dark depths of a huge ship somewhere in the Pacific Ocean still trying to make its way to America. It is possible that little bundle will still show up in my mailbox or on my doorstep one day. Maybe. Just maybe. I haven't totally lost hope. Yet. If it does, it now will be a superb bonus. Because I grumbled internally for four months. I wasn't satisfied. I had to have that first edition. I had to order again. I just had to. I had no choice. :)

I recently searched again and found even fewer results, now that the (estimated) 2022 collection is nearly six months older. I ended up buying 10 of the 16 initial colorway fat quarters from one shop, 3 from another shop, the most difficult to find color from a third shop, and two larger remnants from a fourth shop. This time, I did try to make sure I was purchasing either from inside my own country or paying for reliable shipping from Canada (and Alaska!).

Last week, I received an email from one of the shops stating the most difficult to find fabric was sold out, and my money for that fat quarter was being refunded. Off I went on another hunt to find one more fat quarter... that is, AFTER making sure all the other orders, which had already shippied, included all the fabrics I ordered. I didn't want to come up short again. I feel like time is running out on the first edition!

Only two shops I could find had my missing fabric. One was the original shop in Australia. I'm sure it would have been a safe purchase this time if I paid the higher quality postage. The other shop offered only half yards or yardage. Dragonfruit is not a color I would buy a lot of in most circumstances. Red, orange and yellow just aren't really my thing. But I want the full Deco Glo I collection. I added in half a yard of another couple of colors from the second collection I do like, thinking they might be good for binding or as part of a creative quilt backing when I do finally sit back down to my sewing machine. (And holy moly, I'll have to order from Whimsodoodle again!!! Then sent me a free dark blue batik fat quarter, which is going to go great in my Moda Blockheads quilt!)

Now I'm fully Giuced. At least until Deco Frost is released... (Ha!!! I preordered a fat quarter bundle!!! I won't have to piecemeal!!!)

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Quiltbrary

While we were in the hospital, I spent one afternoon perusing Amazon. I was looking for a pattern for a wrap dress but noticed some of the quilting books I've had on my wishlist for what seems like forever were dirt cheap if I were to buy them used.

I've never been anti-used books!

When we got home from the hospital a few days later, I had a partial library waiting for me in our mailbox. How exciting!

One book even came with an unexpected reader...

In the next few days, I received enough books I could probably open my own library! I will not run out of reading or inspiration for years!

One of the books I ordered wasn't expected to arrive for a month. On October 1, I inquired what may have happened to the shipment because I still hadn't received it. I was issued a refund within about half an hour, and the merchant was extremely considerate and professional. I felt bad for costing the non-profit the $3.15 I had spent. I thought I could try to find out if I could make a charitable donation either online or via a check in the mail. I quickly forgot about my intention.

Until yesterday, when the book finally arrived in the mail, in perfect condition (just a minor bit of wear on the cover), and with the August 21 postmark. Now I really felt guilty because a non-profit that supports a great cause had not only lost a book to me, but also had refunded my money.

I immediately wrote a positive review for the merchant on Amazon, and then emailed the merchant (because the parcel included a valid email address!) and asked where I might send a charitable contribution. I am not going to forget this time.

I've not heard back from the merchant yet (it's been less than six hours as I write this post), and I may have to do some research to find a snail mail address for the Akron Goodwill. Oh, never mind! I just looked them up on Amazon so I could link them above, and there's the address I needed! The check is in the mail! I hope it doesn't take two months for them to receive it!!!

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No! More! T-shirts!

Because my dear, sweet Lizard husband has been working weekends for about three months now, I have tons of Saturday time to work on quilts, work on snowflakes, work on the garden (weather accommodating, of course), or do that most beloved task of all... clean!

On this particular Saturday, I had decided it was time to clean up the snowflake work station, also known as The Office. It's where the computers are set up. Too small for a bedroom, too small for bookcases, and too small for bikes.

The Office was home to three stacks of pizza boxes converted into snowflake stiffening stations, plus eight stacking sealable plastic containers of snowflakes and probably enough for a whole bookshelf full of rust-proof pins, paintbrushes, beads, jewelry parts, googly eyes, glitter, fingernail polish and various stiffening agents. I started working on this project when one of the relocation trips took me to a stack of T-shirts in the main bedroom that had not been able to fit into the guest bathroom closet, which is where I've been keeping an unbelievably large stack of T-shirts, as well as towels, dish towels and hot pads.

Beneath the stack of T-shirts in the bedroom was the stack of joined but unfinished snowflake motif projects. I had found three in the snowflake work station that needed to join the stack. The stack bothered me, but so did the stack of T-shirts. This was going to be another of those days when I moved from cleaning project to cleaning project because so many cleaning projects lurk in every single space in the house.

I decided I should go ahead and find a real place for both the unfinished motif projects as well as the T-shirts. I went to the guest bathroom closet to begin sorting T-shirts. The Office wasn't done yet, and the bedroom stacks were not done yet, but the closet was more important, in my mind.

I've long had a collection of T-shirts and jerseys from bike rides I've wanted to one day convert into a quilt. Well, in reality, it's now going to be something like ten quilts, but you get the idea. It has been way too many years (at least five) since I weeded through the T-shirts in the closet, so it was time.

For the record, I'm keeping 16 T-shirts in the closet for wearing when T-shirt weather returns. I'm also keeping five long-sleeved T-shirts because you can almost always wear long-sleeved T-shirts in Colorado. Too bad more rides don't give long-sleeved T-shirts instead of short-sleeved T-shirts. I'm also keeping five tank tops for workouts and riding the trainer.

Before I get to the point of this entire blog post, I have to share a favorite of each, because, well, you know, memories. Some T-shirts never die, no matter what, because of the memories they hold.

First, the very best tank top in the whole world. It's from my very first Ride the Rockies. I guess you could say it's my first official purchased Ride the Rockies souvenir. I wore it to run when I could still run. I've worn it on my trainer more times than I can count. I don't wear tank tops too much anymore, except on the trainer. And it's likely this one won't be making an appearance there anymore because I want it to stay the crisp white it's managed to stay even though I sweat like crazy. This top is 14 years old this year. It's still one of my favorite shirts of all time because of the logo on the front. And because of the most memorable Ride the Rockies logo of the ride's 37-year history. I love this shirt.


My favorite long-sleeved T-shirt also is Ride the Rockies, same year, same emotions. I still proudly wear this to work on casual Fridays when the weather is cool. It's a great shirt to wear the day before the new year's route is announced, too. (Which means I'll be wearing it this Friday!)


Now come the T-shirts. Quite a bit more difficult to pick a favorite. Too many!!! (And that's pretty much why I'm writing this blog post anyway...)

You'll notice there is a bit of a theme. I probably don't have to explain three of these are Ride the Rockies T-shirts.

In addition to my Sleepless in Seattle T-shirt and my Eagles concert T-shirt are my first Ride the Rockies T-shirt with that incredible logo, my last Ride the Rockies T-shirt, which celebrated my fifth tour with my husband as well as the tour's 30th anniversary, and my favorite T-shirt of all time, the Ride the Rockies T-shirt I won on the top of Independence Pass (not for singing the national anthem as I'd hoped, but for having the right digit on the end of my credit card).


Good times! I can hardly wait for the next Ride the Rockies route announcement!

But this brings me back to the reason I'm writing this. I finally got done cleaning out that closet, and I couldn't believe the number of T-shirts from rides, donating blood, volunteering for charities, Race for the Cure, Snowshoe for the Cure, The Lion King, Super Bowls and Stanley Cups! My heavens, I could clothe a village.

Down in the basement lurks a big plastic bin of Race for the Cure T-shirts I've collected from friends and co-workers for the last decade. They will be made into quilts at some point.

This day of organizing and trying to make the house more presentable while my beloved is working away resulted in the donation of 58 more T-shirts to the pre-quilt collection!!! Along with six long-sleeved T-shirts and seven tank tops. Heavens to Betsy! I can't even get them all to fit!!!

We are signed up for one more ride this year, and we hope to be participants in Ride the Rockies, if the stars align. But I'm putting these rides on notice right here and right now.

We don't need any more T-shirts!!!

Please, do not give us any more T-shirts!

And now, I can get back to organizing The Office, which was the original day's goal...

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