Bitten By the GS Bug

As soon as I get up each morning, I try to jump on the computer and check the recent posts from people on my blog list.  I'm so inspired by their posts and enjoy seeing the pictures of their projects.  Last weekend, Paulette, of Sweet Pea Quilting, chatted about her Garage Sale experiences.  I never think of looking for fabric and books at Garage Sales, so her post prompted me into action.  This weekend, there was one listed in our area.  I arrived right at 9:00, and soon 2 other quilters joined me at the table filled with boxes of fabric and magazines.  The seller is still quilting, so the items were all things that were extras to her.  I found one small box filled with ziplock bags of sorted fabrics. 

Once I arrived home, I went through each bag to find out how much was included in each fabric.  Most are about the size of a FQ but some are half meter cuts.  Some pieces had small portions cut out of them, probably for applique projects.  That's what I think I'll use the material for as well.  Each bag contained about 1 and 1/2 meters and each was $1.00.  The white material is cheesecloth.  That should be fun to use with puff paint and gesso.

Did I need more magazines?  Not really, but I couldn't pass up the price.  These were 5 for 1$.  When I'm finished with them, I won't feel bad about passing them on to other quilters at our guild donation table.  I had hoped to find books, but as I arrived, a fellow was just counting up his 2 foot high stack of miscellaneous books that he had gleaned.  Some of them were quilt books and I really don't think he's a quilter.  I wonder what his markup will be?  All in all, I was quite pleased with what I found and I'm sure I'll be perusing the ads for future sales.  I think I'm hooked.

Seeing Double at Crawford's Farm

When I first looked at all the quilts hanging at Crawford's farm, I thought I was seeing the same quilt done a second time in a different colour way.  Then I spotted another, and another, and another.  They just kept appearing.  It turns out there are 9 of these Grandmother Block quilts on display.  Each one looks a little different depending on the placement of the blocks.  Of course, the borders really affect the overall look.  It's amazing how much influence the border choice has.  Let's see if I got pictures of all 9.

Version 1 (Look at the binding.  Nice).

Version 2

Version 3

Version 4

Version 5

Version 6

Version 7

Version 8

Ahhh!  Version 7

Version 6 again!

Version 5!

I think this is version 4!

Close up of some of the fabrics.

Here's the story behind the quilts called Grandmother's Dream.

Each of the quilters in the group shared fabric.  If you examine each quilt carefully, you can see that each shares the same blocks with the same fabrics, but they're all placed differently.  I'm so curious about version 9.  Version 9, where are you?

Paulette, from Sweet P Quilting, also blogged about these quilts.  She heard from one of the makers, and got the "cutting edge" details.  This was a group project presented by Bettye Sheppard.  I think I'll head over there and hunt for version 9.  We both couldn't have missed it.