Blue green block and thrift shop switcheroos

Using a packet of satin purchased thrift and choosing the block Patchwork Crazy from a Better Homes and Gardens publication Grandma's Best Full-Size Quilt Blocks (pieces of the past for today's quilter). November's prompt for the 2018 Monthly Color Challenge is blue/green. Having been drawn to these shiny fabrics, this is now my newest, favoriteist project.  

Blue/Green block and
Mural at Porch Restaurant
Sacramento, California

Update to this post - with a 3 day weekend but the environment full of smoke from the California fires, it was stay in and quilt. 

Party in the front

Business in the back

This piece is destined for my cubicle wall at work. The backing is a piece I have kept for awhile, waiting for the perfect project. I also had the binding precut from the last quilt I did matchstick style. 

Got to mention a mistake I made, when ironing it I had the setting too high and burned one of the satin pieces. With much cursing and seam ripping, I replaced it. It was one of those moments when you ask yourself, "should I continue with this project or go on to something else?" Glad I persevered.

In my last post, I mentioned that I was finally sending my vintage fan quilt to a longarmer - not.  I found a longarmer in my area and sent her this image of the flimsy and she rejected the work. Her concern was that the quilt top would come apart when she loaded it onto her machine and that there would be puckers, etc. Rather than disagree with her, I thanked her for her time. Looks like I will be the one to quilt it. 

One of my favorite groups on Facebook is Weird Second Hand Finds That Need to be Shared.

A question was asked along the lines of, "Have you ever seen something in someone else's cart and had thrift shop envy? What did you do?"

One person replied, "Have I ever put something in someone's cart? Raises hand. A red garter at the Goodwill outlet. Shhhhh."

To that comment, another replied, "My husband and I have been playing 'shopping for others' for 20 years. lmao"

"I have a good friend who I love to go shopping with. Not sure the feeling is mutual especially after the time she turned her back and I dumped several boxes of Trojans in her cart. I should add that we are both in our 70s."

Numerous responders to the question say they will follow other shoppers around, hoping they will put back something they had placed in their cart.  

There are also those who "unshop," take an inventory of what they have placed in the cart and cull out what they really don't want. 

Sometimes shoppers will mention to the person in line that they fancy an item and the person will give it to them to be able to purchase it. 

One thrift shopper summed it up, "So, the common thread here I'm seeing is that we are all to different degrees stalkers, creepers, lurkers, distracters. We practice mind control and summon for help from the thrift gods, we hover and use the guilt tactic for the thrill of the thrift store treasure."

Segueing to the weather in Northern California. It will be another  weekend of indoors activities. There is smoke from fires in Butte (in the north state) and Ventura (in the south) counties. We are hoping and praying for rain. 

Caught me painting with fabric again

Composition in fabric

I was so glad Alida tweloquilting.blogspot.com decided to host the Art with Fabric blog hop again. She describes it as:
Every quilted project is a unique piece of art, full of love, creativity and inspiration.

Have you ever thought about how "traditional" art could be reinterpreted in a quilted piece?
(by "traditional" I mean anything that a non-quilter will label as art, like paintings, drawings, sculptures, architecture from all countries and all time periods).

To explore the endless possibilities of art-inspired quilted pieces I decided to organize another edition of this Blog Hop!

This edition has a special theme...

My favorite color is...
This theme will feature each artist's favorite color, or just the color they are favoring at the moment!

My technique is to choose a 1950s abstract artist to loosely base my piecework. This piece focused on the 1954 Composition oil on canvas by Greta Freist. 

First, I intended it to be a wall hanging but it became unwieldy, so I converted it to a bed-sized quilt. I have decided to send this and another vintage quilt to a longarmer. 


I want to bind it in Kona black and am thinking of a thin grey border. I will update the post when it is finished. 

Please visit the others highlighting their work on this day:

Monday, November 5th, 2018

• Heather: http://www.heatherquilts.blogspot.com/
• Moira: https://quiltedsnail.blogspot.com/
• Marian: http://www.seamstobesew.com 

Here are collages of images of the last two Art with Fabric blog hops I have participated in. The May hop prompted a submission to the California State Fair which earned an honorable mention. Mine is the first image, second row, far left. 
https://thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-encounter-abstract-in-fabric.html

October hops creation was the George quilt given to a friend. My image is top row, second to the right of the text.

https://thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com/2017/10/art-with-fabric-blog-hop-and-george.html

The remainder of this post focuses on my thrift ship finds. Since I am getting better at identifying whether to buy a second hand sewing machine, this Signature Ward's brand joined my family. It is a pale mint green. The top lever was frozen in place so I gave it some oil and grease. 

$18 thrift shop find

That same jaunt through thrift meant fabric,

Sally stand-in models the knitting dove sweater (which had just been rolled onto the thrift shop floor) and a Harry Potter t-shirt.

Don't forget to join me next month for my Countdown to Christmas. 

Magnificent Magnolias

Craft kit love

A fun morning thrifting produced some new to me clothes, a magnolias needlepoint kit (retail $34, thrift $5), and Tattoo Johnny designs. When I got the t-shirt, I thought, "that will be cute with the coral red jeans," but when I saw the graphic of guns and the phrase "cowgirl hardware," it went back to the Great Thrift Shop Beyond. The topic of guns is a touchy subject in America.  

My latest jewelry obsession on my "must have" list is a coral squash blossom necklace. 

I've got my post queued up for the Art with Fabric blog hop beginning November 5th. I've started setting up the shells to my Countdown to Christmas posts. Christmas merch is starting to appear in greater amounts at thrift. 

In the meantime, you can visit one of the blogs I highlight on my sidebar, textileranger.com that lists a group of improv quilters and their latest creations.

Violet blue block and unicorns on the way

October color prompt for the 2018 Monthly Color Challenge is violet blue. Linking up with patternsbyjen.blogspot.com. I took put together this 9 patch with remnant materials that came through thrift. Hard to believe there are only two months left in the year. 

For this month's block, I wanted to do a unicorn and found a few examples I could loosely follow. I wasn't able to complete it in time for this month, am hoping for next. 

 

Going along with my upcoming unicorn block, I found this framed unicorn cross stitch. A $2.50 find I couldn't pass up. 

The new belt for my Morse arrived in time for weekend sewing. I finally purchased a Supreme Slider, touted as a nifty quilting tool to aid in free motion quilting. 

The Art with Fabric blog hop is coming up next month. I have a quilt top patterned after a 1960s abstract art composition. Here is the scheduled lineup:

Monday, November 5th, 2018
Heather: http://www.heatherquilts.blogspot.com/
Tami: https://thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com/
Moira: https://quiltedsnail.blogspot.com/
Marian: http://www.seamstobesew.com

Tuesday, November 6th, 2018
Susan: https://desertskyquilts.wordpress.com/
Terry: http://www.terryaskeartquilts.com/
Janeen: http://quiltartdesigns.blogspot.com/
Lee Anna: http://lapaylor.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, November 7th, 2018
Bea: http://www.beaquilter.com/
Carol: http://www.quiltedfabricart.com
Andrée: http://quiltinglearningcombo.blogspot.com

Thursday, November 8th, 2018
Irene: http://Irene.grimes.wordpress.com
Wendy: http://www.piecefulthoughts.com/
Judith: http://www.frimart.ch/

Friday, November 9th, 2018
Melva: https://melvalovesscraps.blogspot.com/
Barb: http://www.bejeweledquilts.blogspot.com
Anita: http://quiltlovefordomesticfelicity.blogspot.com
Alida: http://tweloquilting.blogspot.com/

Ending with this unicorn mask spotted at SPCA Thrift in Sacramento.

 

Color prompt for November is Blue/Green. I am thinking of finally creating my blue/green wonky tree wall hanging for the holidays. I hate to admit it has been a PIG fabric pull for a couple of years now.

Zombie bride refashion

Spooky lead-off image

The first part of my zombie bride refashion came from a kit, a $2 thrift shop find. Much to my dismay, the costume had shrunk overnight (or I am not a medium-sized costume wearer). So I thinks to myself, "I've got this, I can just refashion a dress," and off to Thrift Town I went.

Lovely lace gown $11 TT 

I removed the sleeves from the kit costume and affixed them to the gown (pinned in this picture).  

Next, I sewed the overdress portion of the kit to the gown. 

The veil is draped over one shoulder,
the poison pin on the other.

When I first bought the poison pin, I thought, "What are you doing? WHY would you ever wear this pin?" I'm so glad I did and didn't listen to my frugal self. It is a perfect Halloween piece.

Zombie bride didn't win the state department costume contest as a talented seamstress co-worker has won for the third year in a row.  

In the meantime, my kitten didn't know what to make of my costume. The reason I call my kitten the snake charmer is she caught a baby rattlesnake just a couple of weeks after I had adopted her. Luckily, it hadn't bit her. 

Zombie bride with Susie the snake charmer

Golden Threads Quilt Show

MLQG's 7th Quilt Show Golden Threads took place the first weekend in October. 

The event was split between two small venues in Sutter Creek, California. Lighting was challenging for photographing quilts.

There were a couple of raffles, a few vendors and a silent auction.

Kathy Allen, a featured quilter, presented on her Modern Scot Patchwork. 

Thrift shop find of the day - this angel, Italian ceramic from 1971, marked $1 and in the half off holiday items. I also found some other Christmas items I will highlight in December. 

Painted Ladies and Thrift Shop Interior Redesign

Done in counted cross-stitch. My latest thrift shop find now hangs in my front room. Hard to photograph with it being under glass, it is even prettier in person. It has found its forever home. I could see this piece hanging anywhere in a house. 

Paid $5.50, signed in thread by Cindy 1991

I belong to a group on Facebook called Weird thrift store finds that need to be shared and one topic that came up was:

Is anyone besides me fond of rearranging things in a thrift store? For example, if I see two blue objects on a shelf together, I'll add another blue item or two next to them. I once located several heart-shaped items (figurines, dishes, etc.) and put them together in a little display on a shelf as I was wandering around shopping. X>D I wonder what the employees thought when they found it.

Seems there are quite a few thrift shoppers that like to rearrange things: 

Hey...thrift store interior redesign is a legit hobby...we have healthier minds when we attempt order from chaos. 

My daughter, adult, set up a nativity scene with Buddha.

One time several years ago in a local GW and got bored, I rearranged all the bins of stuffed animals according to species.

Hello my name is steph, I'm a thrift store rearranger. it started when I found misplaced pieces that OBVIOUSLY belonged together on the same shelf.

I sat of the floor at Goodwill and grouped the like yarn together.

30 odd years ago when I was 17, I volunteered at a local nonprofit thrift store. It was there that I met a woman who would become a lifelong friend. The first day we worked together we grouped the shoes by socio-economic status. It was then that I knew I had found a best friend. 

There’s a scam thrift store in my town called “Bibles For China.” All of their employees are volunteers who are under the assumption that the proceeds are used to smuggle bibles to the heathens.My parents worked there.I used to go in and create sacrilegious displays to hear my folks claim Satan was attacking the store.

I chimed in and revealed that I rearrange items in thrift shops. Mainly to get a picture to post, but sometimes things just belong together. 


If you are on Instagram, I am posting as tamaschen for month-long prompts posted by Mrs. Brimble.