Heathen Quilter's Unite!

Sometimes you read a post on someone's blog and it just strikes such a chord with you. That happened to me the other week when I read Alison's post, "The Heathen Quilter, Part 1". I stood up to be counted as a heathen quilter and one day, I will show you why, but not today.

Part of the subsequent discussions I had with Alison, which were very funny, by the way, led to discussions regarding fabric/quilting/sewing/crafty type shops and the genre of people who frequent them. For the sake of political correctness, I will call them "traditionalist's".

We have a local shop and the lady in there has come to know me and my strange requests and she is now very helpful. She even lets my girls play with the buttons. Which I have come to be extremely appreciative of.
I had a visit there this morning and came home with the following little treasures.


I love these little buttons. The green one's remind me of depression glass, or uranium glass. Horrid name for something so pretty. My Mum has a footed cake plate that all our birthday cakes went on that looks exactly like the larger green buttons. Perhaps that's why I like them so much? More about what I am going to do with them later.



My next find was this pretty ric-rac. It's quite textured and I thought it would make a great trim for the remaining skirts I have to make.





This is the fabric for those skirts. Beth has a "free dress" day at school this week. The conversation went something like this. "Beth, you have free dress day on Thursday". "I'm wearing a skirt". Beth is very pro dresses and skirts. Which as much as I love, there are days where skirts are just not appropriate and trying to get her into a pair of jeans is a major battle. So guess what I am doing this week ?

Anyway, buttons and ric-rac. I was very happy with my purchase from my little shop that is more widely known for its ribbon embroidery and decorative folk art painting classes undertaken by the "traditionalists". I search high and low in there for fabric that I like, but never the twain shall meet.

However, I have had a fantastic find this week. Sew Mama Sew is an on-line store that opened for business last November. Kristin has been very helpful in giving me hints on how to sew oilcloth. I have never sewn with it before and am thinking of expanding on the make-up purses and lining them with oilcloth, for all those nasty make-up spillages. My only dilemma now is what to choose. And I'm sure Sew Mama Sew would welcome any Heathen Quilter's.