Buried Treasure

I was certain I would be working like a dog until Monday night to get this closet cleaned out and organized by Tackle It Tuesday. WooHoo...it is done. It looks so nice. No clutter, everything has a place and is in it's place! I already took pics, because I have some sewing to do and I know by Tuesday it will need another tidy. Here is a little tease...the "after" pics will be posted Tuesday morning!

I was amazed at the amount of fabric I own. No...the other way. I have a very small stash in relation to what I have seen out there. I sorted it all and put scraps to be cut into squares and strips into boxes (3 small ones) and then organized my larger pieces that I wanted to keep in color groups. These are mostly fat quarters, 1/2 yard cuts, and a few 1 yard cuts.

I also found some buried treasures. I found some old orphan blocks from a folk art Biblical quilt I had planned to do. These are the first two (and only) blocks. The wording was to be embroidered. I was not at all happy with the applique method, which was fusable so I ditched the whole thing! I also found this wallhanging. Same fusable applique method, but because I hand quilted the whole thing I can not bring myself to throw it away. You can see the raw edges, as I have no idea how to button hole stitch or zig zag. I also came across a jar of my grandma's buttons. You can see on many of them, the fabric where she cut them off her old clothing. She was a very frugal lady. Ooooh. And have you ever put something somewhere safe because you knew you were going to need it, and then you could never find it?? I knew a lady who hid her son's Christmas presents and then could not find them. At the last minute she did, but her poor son almost had no gifts! TeeHee. Anyway, I put a specific fabric up to be used in a sailboat quilt for a baby boy (should the need arise). Well it is a 50/50 chance I will need this. I found it. It is the perfect "water" fabric and I can not find it in a quilt shop...I bought it 13 years ago for the backing on Kyle's quilt. I had a good amount left over.

I also organized my batting. As a hand quilter batting is SO important. My favorite is Quilter's Dream. Christine and I were "chatting" about batting and I wanted to show her the thickness of this. It is the softest batting ever made. I have been know to carry a little piece in my pocket. I sent Linda a swatch and she can vouch as to how soft it is. Christine splits her batting. I can't quite understand how. I am very visual (nice way of saying slow) so maybe next time you split batting you can show it on your blog, Christine. You can't see in that picture, but my fingers are so sore! I am finally getting a callous and hope to keep it up with my work on the pink and brown. Why I let my fingers heal is beyond me. It is so painful to get your callous built back up.

Amy received her apron from my 200th post giveaway, so I will show it now. It was made with Thimbleberries fabric. I framed the pocket so it would show better. Amy was born 100 years too late, as many of us are born out of our time. (I should have been born in the early 20's, in Iowa or Kansas) Anyway, Amy loves when she loses her electricity from an ice storm and does things in a primitive way even when she doesn't have to. I admire her greatly. One of the things she does is she hangs her laundry out in the freezing cold. I cracked up at her and she swears even though it freezes, it does dry. I told her as I was ironing her just finished apron I had a mental conversation with it, telling it to enjoy that hot iron because soon it would be hanging in the freezing cold to dry! She took a picture of it hanging from a clothes line dripping in icicles!! If the apron could talk it would be screaming "You weren't kidding!"

Thank you all for entering my giveaway. There is a very sweet and generous quilter who has been accused of doing giveaways to gain friends. This is ludacris, especially in light of who this quilter is. A couple of bloggers are doing giveaways in support of their friend. You can go here and here to enter.
Please forgive any overlooked, misspelled words...spell check is not working on blogger.