Fabric Therapy

There's nothing like a trip to the fabric store to drown your sorrows. Thank you for all your suggestions about how to continue with my quilt. They were all good suggestions, and they all required delaying this finish. I'm really wanting to move on, and so a fabric famine can't stand in my way. Besides...it's election day. Time to be decisive. Decisive, not divisive. Lets sew with decision, not division. (Hm...I wonder how many more of these I can come up with.) Jump in the boat, and vote! Put on your coat. Bring your goat! Okay, sorry. Sometimes the wordsmith in me gets carried away.

This quilt block hangs on the wall just outside my favorite local quilt shop, Boersma's. I wrote about this shop almost ten years ago. I might need to review them again because they've made some changes since then. Anyway...this quilt block put me in a good mood right away.

While I was there I whined about how I'd missed my birthday week discount (25%!) because they were closed for the pandemic during that time. She kindly gave me the discount anyway, and so I was pretty happy about that.

When I got home, Smitty was very excited to see my purchases.

He helped unload everything.

First of all, I found this fabric to use in place of the branding irons. It was just what I was looking for. It came in a few shades, but I liked this one with the rust colors.

Smitty was especially fond of this batik.

I don't know about you, but when I go into a fabric store with a specific fabric in mind, anything that doesn't fit the bill fades into the background, and I don't even see it. So, after I'd found the fabric I was looking for, I walked through the whole store a second time. As I was waiting to make my purchase, I noticed this one on the pile to be reshelved and grabbed it off. Nothing gets past me in a fabric store.

I loved this next one. No plans for it, but I bought all that was left on the bolt, 1-2/3 yards.

This one brought to mind the Dogwood Mosaic I'm planning to start in the spring. It's a pattern by Jane Kakaley. It'll be a good back for the finished quilt top.

When I saw this one, I got kind of excited.

You might remember I want to try to make an art quilt from this original photograph of the Tin Cup store taken during our ATV adventure in Colorado last fall. (It seems forever ago, at this point.)

I've traced out a pattern for this, but that's as far as I got with it. I've been mulling over how to do the log cabin structure. So, when I saw that fabric, it seemed a good place to start. I can either work with it as whole cloth, or fussy cut those boards and use them as applique. I haven't decided anything, but it moves me a step closer to starting something.

So that was all I purchased at Boersma's. Coincidentally, this fabric arrived yesterday too. I ordered it online. 

When I was sandwiching quilts last weekend, I realized I didn't have a good back for the Tiny Tuesday quilt. This quilt doesn't really have any rhyme or reason to it, so I just picked something colorful that I liked.

So let's just talk about Plan B, shall we? Smitty laid out the fabrics in the way he thought suitable for a borders.

And I agree. I think that will work out splendidly.

After that, we got to work sewing together the rest of the blocks.

Smitty likes this quilt. His ancestors were barn cats, and so it brings back fond memories of his family.

 

I'll be using these four cornerstones for the quilt as a whole.

As for the rest of the cornerstones, I have a couple of ideas for them. As I mentioned, I'll be starting this Heartland Barns hand embroidery quilt  just as soon as a slot opens up on my embroidery dance card. 

Also, I remembered this pattern I've had for a while. I think I saw it online, and then went in search of the pattern. This one is wool applique, but I'll be using my regular cotton scraps. It'll be another perfect quilt for those quilt block cornerstones. Here's a link to the pattern, although I have an idea it might not be available any longer.

So there are lots of options for those cornerstones, and I intend to use them. Don't you worry.

The only other thing I have to tell you about yesterday is about this recipe from our diet for Sherried Pineapple Pork Tenderloin. I didn't take a picture of mine, but here's the picture from the website.

It was so simple to make, and really delicious. It's easy enough to make in the RV...always a good feature. The tenderloin is browned in a skillet, then the heat is reduced, and it's cooked in a covered skillet for about 20 minutes. After it's done, you add a few simple ingredients to the skillet and boil them down into a sauce. The sauce takes about five minutes. I served mine with some roasted cauliflower, and that was a tasty dinner. Sherry is often called for in recipes, and so I always have a bottle on hand. If you don't, you can substitute any white wine. If you're looking for a non-alcoholic substitute, you could use apple cider vinegar.

Okay, so today I should have plenty of time to add two borders to my quilt, and that will make a finished flimsy. If there's time, I'll make a back for it too. And if there's still time, I'll make the back for the Tiny Tuesday quilt. I'm hoping I can sandwich the rest of my flimsies this coming weekend. And by then...let's just hope sanity prevails in America.