Karma's a bitch and so am I.

(photo credit: I wish I knew.  Found online but please let me know if it's yours.  Your dogs are gorgeous!)

Earlier last year, we thought we were going to move.  I thought I'd get a leg up in the "getting our house ready" process and start cleaning and boxing up the basement.  I packed away all of my fabric and crafts.  Here's the problem... We didn't find a new house we wanted and now it's been months.  We may still move and we may not but let's address the seriousness of the real issue, my fabric's gone.  It lives in boxes in the garage. That leads to a big "out of sight, out of mind".

Enter the "I need new stash" project.  Here's your scenario:  My mom comes to town and she's a fabric enabler.  We like to go shopping.  We like fabric.  She doesn't ask me what I'm going to do with it.  I don't get it from strangers. 

Shocker, I know.  

So we go to our favorite store and there are two displays of Christmas fabric.  All of this fabric is on sale.  Deep discounted sale.  Seasoned shoppers know that this is not the time to plan a quilt.  Planning a quilt requires comparisons and auditioning fabrics.  This is the time to pick anything you like and say "2 yards, please".  It's clearly a stash building exercise. 

Fast forward to this one older lady and she has a cart and she is clearly planning a quilt but she's not sure which fabrics she wants yet.  She's taking every bolt of fabric she may consider.  We're going to call her "Grumpy Gus".  She taking a lot of room where there are a ton of people hovering about and being a little obnoxious about it.  Trust me, I know obnoxious.  I actually am finding GG to be quite rude.  

I, then, hear one of the employees come over and very nicely say the following to Gus:

"I'm so sorry but this [other] lady was going to buy some fabric from a bolt you have and I accidentally put it away.  Can I take it and she only needs a 1/4 of a yard?"

Now, there is easily 10 yards on this bolt which is MORE than enough for a super large quilt backing.  I may not know what Grumpy Gus is planning with that fabric but she has enough and can easily spare 9 freakin' inches.  It's common decency.  So what you may ask does GG do?  

She says "NO!"

 

I mean, really?  Really.  She won't give a wronged customer 9 inches of fabric from her mighty sale bolt?!?  

The employee actually walks away a little unsure what just happened and what to say.  Gus starts muttering to herself that she took all this fabric fair and square and she won't be bullied into giving it to someone else and if they wanted it so badly, they should have bought it when it first came out.  I took that to mean "at full price" which she wasn't doing either. Just sayin'.

My mom and I are equally horrified.   Here's the problem for GG:

I'm a bitch.  At least, I've been called that before. 

I know what you're thinking.  I didn't say a word.  I didn't curse at her.  I didn't go all "Dena".  I might have, only allegedly, waited until GG was looking for more fabric from the shelves and walked over to cart.  Maybe the bolt in question disappeared and the lady who wanted the long quarter found it.  Maybe two more bolts from the cart disappeared.  They might have landed in my pile.  There may not have been any leftover.

I can not confirm that any of the above events took place.  I bought too much fabric to tell anyway.

Don't drink the starch.

They say blogs are supposed to be about one topic, be it weight loss or parenting or organizing your life.  I don't do that.  I dump my brain's contents out and let you sort through the mess.  

I'm sorry about that.  Well, no, I'm not.

I got up this morning and my wrist is still bothering me.  I always hit the gym in the morning so I put an ACE bandage around my wrist for a little extra support.  I got a few "What happened?" and honestly, I wasn't ashamed to tell them. 

I over quilted last weekend. 

Hi, I'm Dena and a quilter.  Actually, I'm one step away from hoarder-level status fabric and pattern whore.  I've been quilting for about 10 years.  I went through this phase where if it sounded interesting, I'd take a class.  

Cake Decorating... fun... gained 8 pounds in a month... had to quit.

Bikram Yoga... too expensive... threw up behind a dumpster more than once... had to quit.

Skiing... too much traffic and let's get real, I was born on the beach.  This downhill nonsense is scary when you're old enough to realize that you can break bones.

 

Quilting.  Cue the heavens opening up and rays of sunshine casting their gloriousness upon my face!  

That took and I quickly began my love of a great hobby.  Fast forward years later and some friends and I are making a regular habit of going on Quilting Retreats.  Capital Q and Capital R.  Ha ha ha, you say but I think there's no better way to unwind than to get out of cell phone range, take my makeup off, change into some yoga pants, get my headphones on, feel the rhythmic drum of my machine running and quilt until I pass out.  It's better than sex... wait... um... strike that but it's definitely up there.  Really, it might just depend on the day.

Sadly, though, for reasons beyond the scope of this post, our retreats have been getting less frequent (life, babies, people not quilting anymore) and I needed some new blood.  Luckily, my friend, Katie, planned one at the right time.  I didn't know anyone going but I'm not exactly the shy type.  I loaded my iPod and quilted... and quilted... and quilted.

Not really.  Quilting is the act of sewing together (preferably with a fabulous pattern) three layers.  A top, a back and batting, which is the stuff that keeps you warm.  I like to quilt but I LOVE to make the design-y tops.  Not sure if it's the architect in me but I love bringing color and texture together and seeing what I can make.  And if it keep you warm... that's love. Real squishy love.  Fuck this rom-com, fairy tale ending love... a quilt is love.

I sewed for hours.  I broke for meals and sewed for more hours.  Here's some of my finished work from that weekend:

How about staring at this view all weekend.  See, now you get me.

This was a mystery quilt.  I just had the binding left to do.

This was my foray into Homespuns.  It was an experiment with a fabric I don't work with often.  I won't be repeating.

This is an original design.  I paper pieced it because that's a technique I love.  There could have been more contrast between the colors but you live and learn.

This is a One Block Wonder.  It's all constructed from a single fabric.  Crazy, right?

Another original work of mine.  I was testing the pattern.  There's still some more to finish.

A quick little quilt for Sarah.  She loves this book.

A table runner kit I bought.  I forgot I even had it.  Told you I was entering hoarder levels.

Our workspace.

Found this in the room.  Not sure, where your quat is.

But wait, then a few weeks later, there's a spot opening up at our usual place and though it's 100% last minute, 4 of us are able to go.  One ducks out quickly which leaves this huge area for 3 ladies... and we sew and we sew.  Here's some of my finished work from that weekend:

Adding the applique from the previous retreat.  I'm sure this is where I overdid the wrist.

Finished the top.

Another kit I forgot I'd had.  It looked much better than the original picture on the kit.

Extra fabric from the first pigeon quilt means that baby sister gets her own.  No sharing required.

A Christmas table runner.

 

So I sewed with abandon and didn't want to come home yet.  (Even though, I have a kick-ass husband who let's me ditch town for a few days twice in a month!)  See, the next best thing is making new friends.  From that first retreat, I walked away with some new lovely ladies in my life and who doesn't need new lovely ladies?  All interesting and all inspiring.  

At the second retreat, we had a guild next door and the ladies invited us to eat with them.  They were a rowdy bunch and I liked them immediately.  They talked about quilts and books and traveling and all sorts of stuff.  Of course, I was angling to invite myself to more retreats.  

They make their own starch and maybe were taking a shot of it too...  *devil grin*   Maybe I should start making my own starch too.  Seems like a great way to go through life.