Plans for a New Applique Project

 

While aimlessly wandering through various quilt blogs and sites, I was stopped in my tracks by a quilt based on a project in Yoko Saito's Floral Bouquet Quilts  book. After ordering the book, I went with a friend to the Fabritique quilt shop in Hull, MA where the owner offers a rich array of fabrics from around the world. I already had some Japanese fabrics in my stash but wanted to add some background fabrics and some colors. Just look at this background fabric. This photo doesn't do it justice; it's perfectly gorgeous.

 

Another piece  to use as a background . . .

 

 

Here's a close up of a fat quarter with so many shades of purple. The owner was very obliging and cut fat quarters from a number of bolts. I intended to prepare the first block today during the blizzard, but I didn't get to it. Hopefully, I will do it tomorrow. My plan is to reduce the size of the blocks to create a large wall hanging rather than a full size quilt.

Speaking of the blizzard, my favorite clip from the wall to wall storm coverage on TV yesterday and today showed empty shelves in a number of supermarkets. The rallying cry is, "Get the milk! Get the bread! We're having a blizzard!!!" It happens every time a big storm approaches. One gentleman who was interviewed said that he always remembered his mom racing to the supermarket to make these pre-storm purchases, and he sheepishly remarked that he does the same thing today.  In fairness, it may harken back to the "Blizzard of 78" when New Englanders were snowed in for a week.

Finally,  here's Mr. Bear who belongs to the son of one of my friends. Having a child of his own, he wanted to pass on his childhood pal. Unfortunately, Mr. Bear had a large gash on the back of his head which had allowed much of his stuffing to escape. I was happy to take on the quick job of fixing this little guy and am happy to say that the gash is now 'barely' visible. :-)