The room is clean

I just couldn't take looking at the sewing room, and there certainly wasn't any room to work! So I spent this evening getting it straightened up. The table is now bare, the scraps are corralled in a small bin ready for me to cut them into sizes for "filing". The leftover triangles from Sophie's Stars are sitting on the machine ready for when I have a few moments to stitch them together. I'll make flying geese and half square triangles of the leftovers. The triangle squares will get filed in the appropriate plastic box and the flying geese will be added to the crumb bin. I have my papers stacked and hole punched, and all ready to be added to the following notebooks: pre-1830's medallion, Jo's Little Women's Club, and Civil War Heroes.

I mentioned earlier in the week that I got a couple nice surprises in the mail. Since the surprises were part of what I needed to straighten up I figured this is the perfect time to blog about them.

The first surprise was a large Priority Mail box from Amy at The Calico Cat. Amy mentioned a couple weeks ago on her blog that one of the things she wanted to "stash bust" was the rest of the scraps from the masculine plaid quilt she'd made as a gift. Plaid just isn't Amy - after all, have you ever seen a plaid cat? Anyway, I jokingly commented on her blog that I'd be happy to take them off her hands. In no time at all she was asking for my address, and Thursday they arrived in the mail. Here I was picturing a manila envelope full of scraps - not a box full of yardage! Many of these are full fat quarters, plus she set a big piece of a navy homespun she decided not to use in a project. It was like Christmas all over again opening this package! Amy has given me a list of things she'd like, so I will happily deplete a small part of my stash by mailing it on to Amy!

The second surprise was another large priority box from my friend Kathie. Kathie and I are both working hard sticking to the "no buy" plan of action. We both have goals that are very important to us, and we can reach them faster if we stop buying fabric. We still seem to fall off the wagon at times, as we are both so in love with 19th century reproduction fabrics, especially those from the Civil War era. We've decided that in addition to encouraging and supporting each other, we are also going to share when we fall off the wagon. Kathie sent me this beautiful collection - a 6 1/2" x 21" cut of every piece in the new Civil War IV collection by Baum fabrics. In return I'm going to be sending her the same size cut from all the new Jo Morton fabrics I bought in December, as well as some of the pre-1830's reproduction fabric I bought then. I just need to get it washed and ironed and then it'll be on the way to her.

Quilty friends are just the very best!