Fiber Babble: There Seems To Be a Theme Here

There Seems To Be a Theme Here

September 04, 2009

"What a very good idea," Susan said. "Now & Then" by Robert B. Parker ♦♦♦◊◊

As I sit at my computer I often glance over by my coffee cup and smile when I see this:

A tiny soft sculpture of a pot of African violets. I raise violets, you see, and though many of 'my' varieties are miniatures, this little sculpture is tiny in comparison.

(Pardon the blurry - getting BOTH hands to not shake at the same time is nigh onto impossible for me. Oh, and excuse me while I go put on another pot of coffee...)

Made for me by The Girl, this little darling is just that - little and darling. The white blob you're seeing there is a chicken egg. (I was trying to come up with an international frame of reference!)

It might have originally been meant to be a pincushion, but I don't want to risk losing it in the disaster area that is my sewing closet. I'm perfectly happy to have it sit right here so I can enjoy it whenever I want to. Thank you, my dear firstborn.

Yesterday I stopped off at The Paisley Duck to pick up some binding fabric for a small quilt I'm making (yep, something else I haven't taken a picture of for the blog). While I was there, I snapped. I knew that Susie had the McKenna Ryan Coffee Classics patterns there for a reasonable price.

Well, Susie no longer has those patterns in her inventory.

It's okay. Ann said I should do it.

This year I have purchased more patterns (these bring me to 5) than I have in probably the previous five years. Being part of the pattern authoring process and needing to always come up with shop samples pretty much squashes the desire to spend $$ on someone else's patterns when I have problems keeping up with our own.

But it all started with Regina Grewe's Piling Up! pattern. You may recognize Regina's name and style from her Little Birds BOM earlier this year. Last year she also provided a woodland flowers BOM.

I am a fan of Regina's work and I'm grateful that she is so generous in sharing her free designs. When I saw "Piling Up!" I immediately loved it and knew I had to purchase it. Yes, I know I could probably draft the pattern myself, but that wasn't the point for me. The amount I paid for the e-pattern (which was more than reasonable) is nothing compared to the value of what she shares with the world for free.

Um. No, I haven't actually started sewing a "Piling Up!" quilt yet. I have A Plan that involves putting handles on the bowls, thereby making them into :gasp!: coffee cups. I'm working on coffee-themed quilt that will eventually hang on the wall in my kitchen and The Plan is to incorporate "Piling Up!" into that project.

Labels: babble, craft

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4 Comments:

At 9/05/2009 4:15 AM,

Brenda Babbled Back:

I love the little pot, amazing...so tiny and cute. What a treasure. I would have to velcro it on to my monitor or the papers would edge it off the desk, hahaha!
Oh, and I am a McKenna Ryan fan. Her patterns are sooo over my skill level, LOL!

At 9/05/2009 4:29 AM,

Crispy Babbled Back:

Your little Violet is wonderful. I would just have it to admire too, who would want to continually stick pins into it?

Patterns, yes I have a few....well more than a few and no I haven't started most of them....but I have the patterns!!

Crispy

At 9/07/2009 5:39 AM,

Carrie P. Babbled Back:

The little flower pot is so cute.
Regina is very talented. Love her patterns. The bowls are such a cute one too.

At 9/14/2009 5:36 PM,

Ann Champion Babbled Back:

That little Violet is just darling! I can understand why you keep it where you can look over and admire it. :)

I'm happy to see you got the patterns. I think they were meant to be yours? ;) I noticed it wasn't too hard to "talk" you into it? LOL

I love Regina Grewe's stacked bowls. I look forward to seeing what you do with that one.