How I Spent My Superbowl Sunday.

In which we wonder if the next installment of the ABC-along should be entitled "C is for compulsive". Or... how about the ever popular "C is for cuckoo"?! (actually I have big plans for my "C" entry but it won't be posted till next weekend, just under the gun!)

I've been knitting happily along on my crazy, stripey socks and everything was good until I got to the heel. Can I just say that self-striping sock yarn + short row heel pattern = a little bit funky.
I've decided to get another solid sock yarn to complete the heel, and avoid the funky stripe non-matching scenario I have going on there. Of course, I have NOTHING in my stash that matches. I have to go buy ONE ball of sock yarn to do a complementary solid color heel.

Sunday rolled around and I wondered what I was going to do to celebrate International Pajama Day with the rest of the blogging folks. I had no other knitting projects on the needles, and I wasn't about to drive 20+ miles for one ball of yarn to work on the socks.
I've really been itching to sew something, since I posted about my sewing machine the other day. I started fussing around with fabrics from my stash, to see what spoke to me.

About my fabric stash... I've always been amazed at the folks who can go into their yarn stash and pull out enough fiber for several sweaters at any given time. Well, my fabric stash is like that. I come by it honestly though. as you shall see in a bit.
At one point, after a long silence on my part, hubby walked into the bedroom to find me happily ensconced in a large pile of fabric on the floor. After being assured that I was "just puttering, all is well" he retreated back to the living room, certainly wondering about the sanity of his wife at this point.

I had a bit of an "aha" moment and decided that, fuck it... all this fabric is not doing me any good being hoarded and saved for "someday". I was going to start on some sort ofl quilt and get some of these fabrics out and into the world and being used.
I pulled out several fabrics that I really liked and went to town on cutting the squares.
My daughter decided to help me at this point, and we happily began cutting. Many hands make light work. Of course, when you have a 10 year old helping to cut your quilt fabric, you sometimes have a bit of... inexact measurement (?) that happens, and so some of our squares were the tiniest bit wonky. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to sewing, but I tried not to let this bother me. I just kept thinking of the gorgeous randomness and organic style of the famous Gees Bend quilts, which made me much more humble and willing to soldier on.

My ex husband came by to pick up the children shortly before noon and I was left to sew on my own. The above photo shows some of the squares before I started, along with my beloved Singer sewing machine. I know it's not healthy to love inanimate objects, but this old girl has a place in my heart.

A bit about the fabrics. All of them were stash fabrics. Several of them vintage. I used a vintage barkcloth (the dark green floral) that I just love. The salmon brocade and the light brown brocade were also vintage bits I've had hanging around. The solid pink squares are a gorgeous suiting weight wool that I got from my late grandmother's fabric stash. I estimate it to be from the 1950's.
See what I mean about coming by it honestly? My grandmother's fabric stash outlived her, and some of that stuff may well outlive ME! there was sooo much of it!

In a fit of true recycling, I threw in some of the ivory brocade fabric that I used for my first wedding gown. Gotta do something with the stuff, the marriage went kaput, but the fabric is still lovely!
I rounded out the selection with a couple Ralph Lauren home dec fabrics that I had random pieces of (where did they come from??) and I had myself a quilt.

I pieced and I sewed and I pieced some more and just as halftime was finished, I sewed the LAST of the pieces together. I decided to tie the quilt, insted of machine quilting. This is destined to be a sofa throw so it won't see too much wear. I was also running out of thread in the color I needed, so that decision was made for me! hee! The fabrics I used for the top are all fairly heavy so I used no batting, just another length of the pink wool for a backing. It has a lovely weight and drape to it.

I cast about for something to tie the quilt with and decided on some 3 ply cotton yarn that I had (much like crochet cotton in texture)
I've also seen quilt ties that featured buttons. I have a huge button stash as well, so I decided to use random sized white buttons on all the ties. Many are vintage, some are just "recycled"
It speaks volumes about my button stash that I was easily able to come up with 72 white buttons on a Sunday night at 8 pm. And NOT make a dent in the button stash, not even in the white button portion of the button stash. Scary! The buttons also served to even out the places in the quilt where my "organically shaped" squares did not have the most even of joins.

a close up of the button ties.

The finished quilt, just after 11 pm. Goes well with the funky sofa, don't you think?!
I know you'd rather have a quilt pic than a photo of me in my pajamas, as is the Pajama Day custom. Rest assured that I didn't get dressed in real clothes all day, and I did look like a bit of a yeti with unbrushed hair and tons of fabric trimmings and threads hanging off me. I love y'all so I'll spare you those pics!

Whew! Now, what should I do today??
02.06.06 @ 08:55 AM PST [link]