Surprise Art Quilt, Part 2

When I unpacked the third and final quilt from the $9.99 lot of three I thrifted, I knew immediately that someone had put a lot of love and work into it. I've seen art quilts like this at shows, but never at a thrift store. Talented makers like the one who designed and stitched at this level sell the work for big bucks. Since it didn't have a label, however, the name of the maker will remain a mystery.

There's a theme here, too, although I'm too dense to guess what it is. Maybe something Darwinian. Anyway, each element like big game hunter Sunbonnet Sue here is utterly charming.

The Picasssoesque cow and pig made me laugh out loud.

All the beads attached to the quilt are high quality glass, and the piecing is expert. The hand embroidery, while simple, adds so much to the piece, too.

The applique work is also expert level. I should feel guilty for what I paid for it, and I do (just a little. This quilt is worth twenty times what I paid for the lot) but that is part of the fun of thrifting. You never know what you're going to find.

I hung the quilt in my office where I can see it when I'm working, so it can inspire me. I'll treasure it forever, too.

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Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Store Closing Haul

The mega Books-A-Million store over in Sanford is closing, and offered an extra 20% off on their current stock -- all sales final -- so I went over to do some shopping. Safely but sadly there was no one in the store but me the entire time I was there. The Holly Jackson novel is for Katherine, the Halloween board book is for Oliver, and the copy of Garden Spells is to keep on hand because I give that book to everyone. The rest of the books are for me. I love Anne Cleeves, and the Galbraith novel sounded interesting (the first couple weren't, but I'm willing to take another chance.) The Escape Room is by a new-to-me author, plus it was cheap. The GreenCraft mag is just a guilty pleasure. Hopefully the smaller BAM nearer to me won't close. I don't buy many books from brick-and-mortar stores these days, but that's really the last one within reasonable driving distance.

Valerean

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