And the Ugly Award Goes to . . .

I subscribe to a quilting website newsletter that is always sending me pics of award-winning quilts. First place this, Judge's Choice that. I'm not terribly impressed with these award winners; most look like they were factory made. Yes, they're intricate and flawless, but they're all starting to blend together now. They all look alike. I preferr to see something that is flawed, weird or just bizarre enough to stand out.

Why? I don't know. Maybe for me, perfection is overrated. :)

I have come across a lot of strange quilts since I started collecting them. This double wedding ring here, which I've yet to finish quilting, is probably the weirdest -- who would choose these colors for this pattern? But I like it because it is so strange. If I was giving out awards, this one would definitely win first place in Bizarrely Beautiful.

Thrifting a bundle of small quilts that I intended to cut up brought me a strange little art quilt. It's beautifully made, and I love the oddities the maker chose to incorporate, so this one went right into the collection. I'd give it first place in Strangely Adorable.

As for my own work, this art quilt I made back in 2021 has created a lot of debate between me and a quilter friend. She says it's hideously gorgeous, mainly because of my color choices and abstract compositions. No one, she assured me, would ever use peach moire satin like this. I agree, so I want first place in the So Ugly It's Pretty category.

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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.

Goodwill Gamble #2 Arrives

My second Goodwill gamble arrived; this is one I paid ten bucks for last month. Just inside the lid was a big roll of plastic mesh that I think is for latchhook work. In the auction listing it looked like fabric to me, so that was unexpected. Someone at the seller's end was nice enough to put a note on this pinned fabric. I'll put on my gloves before I take it out to inspect it. The embroidered green fabric turned out to be 1-1/2 yards of sequinned and three-dimensional designer fabric. I'll guess this cost somewhere between $20.00 to $30.00 a yard, and it's in pristine condition. But here's a shot of everything in the lot, which is mostly crafty odds and ends with a small amount of cotton fabrics, a large amount of synethetic fabrics, and some other surprises. The original owner of these was probably a Catholic school teacher; these beads, crosses and medallions are the kind of rosary kits for kids to make at Sunday school or Bible camp (and s...

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...

Valerean

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