"Oh Rats!" - I did it again

All of my quilt books are on a spreadsheet.  Currently all 778 of them.  I created the spreadsheet to prevent me from buying a book twice.  I've done that at least a half dozen times in my quilting career.  Once I did it three times!  The book was "Butternut and Blue" by Barbara Brackman and Karla Menaugh.  I kept thinking I wanted to buy it, but kept thinking I hadn't yet LOL!  Luckily, the shop I frequented the most had the book - I'd bought one of the copies from her - and she let me return the two duplicates for credit.

Once I made the spreadsheet I didn't buy duplicate books again.  Until now that is.  When filling out the spreadsheet it helps to use the correct name of the book.  (It also helps to take out one's phone and check the spreadsheet - but I'll never admit I didn't do that!)  The spreadsheet had this book listed as "Schnibbles" by Carrie Nelson.  It is obvious that isn't the name of the book.  That's my excuse for buying it twice - and I'm sticking to my story!

My mistake is a gain for one of my readers.  Leave me a comment on this post telling me whether or not you've done this before, and the name of the book if you remember.  I want to be sure I'm not the only silly quilter who does this!  Post before midnight Pacific Daylight Time on Sunday.  On Monday I'll use a random number generator to see who wins this book. 

I bought it because I thought cutting up my older fabric for quick piecing projects was a good idea.  I still think it is.  But I need only one book to do that LOL!

This WASN'T part of my no-buy pledge

You probably didn't notice, but there was one thing I didn't pledge not to buy - quilt history books.  I don't consider them pattern books - they are purely for inspiration.  And for reading of quilt history.  I know some of you are as addicted to these books as I am.  I hadn't bought any for about 3 years, so I had a bit of catching up to do.

Here is what the mail carrier brought to my door today:

Five beautiful books with quilt history information.  These will be great bedtime reading for the next two to three weeks.

Fabric and more fabric

A few weeks ago I ordered a swatch card of Kona Cottons by Robert Kaufman fabrics. (I think these are the best quality solid fabrics available for quilters.) I took the card to my last "Turn of the Century Random Sampler" class with Eileen Trestain last month, and asked her to label various swatches as to which ones were suitable for reproduction quilts. I was surprised to find her labeling almost 25 of the different colors - I never thought there would be that many. My friend Franny - also in the class - and I decided to order bolts of many of these over the course of the next couple years, as we both want to replicate some of the antique quilts we saw in class - particularly applique quilts done with solid fabrics.

Yesterday the order arrived, and I spent much of today separating each bolt into two even halves. Gazing on such riches just makes me smile! That's about 10 yards apiece of each of the colors - enough for the very large four-block quilts we saw in class. We can hardly wait to get started!

From left to right, these are the fabrics we chose - overdyed greens 1850-1900 (Kona Grass Green), turkey red 1840-1860 (Kona Chinese red), 1870's-1880's green (Kona Spruce), chrome orange, which we call cheddar these days (Kona Papaya, which looks much too yellow in the picture), 1850-1870's oil boiled green (Kona Kelly).

I also ordered a couple of new-to-me books. I'd seen Flora Botanica by Barbara Brackman at Momma Made It and knew I had to have it. It's the catalog of a display of floral quilts at the Spencer Museum of Art in Kansas. It's a marvelous books - as are all Kansas City Star quilt books IMHO.

The second book, Small Blocks, Stunning Quilts, was recommended by my friend Kathie Holland. It's full of pictures of full size antique quilts made with small blocks - 4" to 5" or less - with instructions for reproducing them. Some have blocks as small as 1 1/2"! There are several quilts in this book that I'd love to make. If you love little blocks and antique quilts then you definitely need this book!

I've put my sewing room back in order after all the cutting - now to get back to the medallion quilt.