Need to Mow...Want to Sew

I'm in need of some fabric therapy...and sleep. I've been cooking for a crew this week and when the mornings start at 3 am, the days get pretty long. Getting out of bed at that time of the day is for the birds. Well, come to think of it, even the birds aren't up at that insane hour!

Quilters - keep scrolling. Pattern selection advice needed!

My week has consisted of cooking and cleaning and washing dishes and I'm beat. How is it then that I enjoy branding and shipping season so much then? I love having the crew gathered around the table. When they jingle into my kitchen and descend upon the food I've made, it makes me happy, although they remind me of a swarm of locusts. How is it that I can spend all morning cooking and they devour everything in sight in a matter of minutes?!

All went well this week although I missed out on snapping pictures. They worked the beef cows and they were miles away on the north side of the ranch. I can't get away from the kitchen long enough to make the trip there and back and still have dinner ready so any extra time I stumble upon was spent mowing. The weeds and grass are about to stage a mutiny and I'm beginning to think I'm fighting a losing battle. I've been swapping my soapy, bleach water for grass clippings all week and the dishes keep getting dirty and the grass keeps growing.

So today we should be done for the week...cooking for the crew anyway. I don't know what the plans are for the upcoming week (things change around here by the hour) so I'm taking advantage of a day away from the kitchen. I'm abandoning the mower. I'm draining the sink. I'm running away. To a quilt store and there is a very good chance that I may be coming back home with empty pockets.

I am rationalizing my trip by telling myself that this trip will help me finish some of those WIPs that quilters are notorious for having.

I found this for a backing for my scrap quilt. This is the second quilt I ever pieced and there are plenty of chopped off corners in it, but I adore it anyway. Scrappy quilts just beg to be cuddled with!



I've had these 3 Thimbleberry fabrics in my stash for quite some time. I was thinking of something Americana, but I can't decide on a pattern. This is becoming a regular thing with me. Any ideas?




I still haven't settled on anything, but I came home with a couple of coordinating pieces and I'll let them hang around together for a bit and see if they decide they want to play together.


The horse quilt is still unfinished as well, but I ran out of the fabric I was using so I either need to find a substitute, which means I'll have to take what I've made, apart, or keep searching for the fabric I started with initially.

I auditioned a few others with what I have already pieced and came home with them as well, but I'm still going to be scouring quilt stores for that brown/black crackle. This quilt is being made up along the way too. There are so many womderful patterns out there. I really should be using them!

For Shelly at www.prairiemoonquilts.wordpress.com/ who adores western fabric like I do:

This is the selection of western (and some southwestern) fabrics to choose from. Would you believe that I came home with only 1 piece?! This was the end of the bolt and I couldn't pass up the discounted price. I'll use it somewhere!

I'm also working on a Hexagon Quilt Along online over at http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/ , but I'm caught up there, although I can't decide what fabric to use for the contrasting triangles. I'm hoping this is one of those quilts that comes to life once it is completed, because right now it just looks... sad. Funny how just switching from a white to a cream made them wake up so I came home with this. Not very exciting to look at, but I'll be excited when it's finally together!

It was fun to try something new! Of course being a fairly new quilter, everything's new!

The dear ladies at the quilt store were so helpful all morning. It's like having your own personal shoppers at your fingertips and sometimes when faced with so many choices, it's nice to have someone else's point of view.

I probably shouldn't even mention that I have a strong desire to start piecing flowers for a Grandmother's Flower Garden should I? For the longest time I would simply bypass the 30's fabrics and tell myself I didn't need to start adding another genre to my stash. Well, that is no longer the case because I paused in front of them and before I knew it, I was the proud owner of these and I am excited!

Lately I have been noticing that everytime a quilt made with 30's fabric catches my eye, it makes me happy and I see a quilt forming in my mind bit by bit. It's kind of a case of "buy the fabric" and "the quilt will come".

I'm beginning to think that insanity has set in, but perhaps it's simply a case of what happens when I don't get to play with fabric for extended periods of time. Good thing I had access to a lengthy theraphy session today. It was touch and go there for a bit!