Windfall Quilting

The next best thing to a trip to the quilt store is the Freebees table at our guild. It's amazing what other quilters want to get rid of. This past Saturday was our guild meeting and I always get there early and hang out by the Freebees table to see what's going to be dropped off for the membership to adopt. This month I made such a haul I almost felt guilty, shouldn't I pay somebody something for all this?

First off I scooped up 10 back issues of Fons and Porter magazine. Those will be great reading when the weather turns cold and I'm curled up by the woodstove.

Then I talked to a new member Kitty and admired her quilt guild cloisonne' pin, only to discover it was OUR guild's new pin. Had to buy one of those!


By that time there was a wonderful, warm buzz of quilters arriving, visiting and unpacking for the meeting. I said hello to our President and presented her with her Birthday FPC. She didn't know what to say! Partly I think because she'd never seen a FPC before. :D

I took another turn around the room and said hello to my good friend Rosy. She asked me if I'd been a good girl and that threw me for a loop... Yes, why? She then opened her bag and presented me with a couple dozen spools of DMC and Mettler machine embroidery thread! She said it was to go with my terrific new machine. And she didn't want to 'burden' me with too much, but thought I might enjoy playing with the embroidery feature on my Janome. Knocked my socks off! Rosy you are such a sweetie bear.

After picking myself up off the floor from surprise at her gift, I went back to the Freebee table and another member was unloading what looked like a good chunk of her fabric stash onto the back table in 5 or 6 large brown grocery bags full of quilt material. You're giving this away? She said she didn't have any use for it. Well you can bet I swooped in, trying to decide between what I'm always drawn to and 'rounding out my palette.' I tried for a little of both.

Greens are not unknown in my stash. So these pieces called my name.

And while I love purple and wear it a lot, I've never made a purple quilt. So these had to come home with me. And yellows used to be hard to find, so I often think I need those too. But the best find were the blues. Clear, watery blues just right for my Snail's Trail blocks. I got two 'useful baskets to put things in' from the Freebee table and sat during the meeting folding and grouping my blues in a little display.

I had one or two guild ladies ask me what I was doing putting these together like this. I smiled and said, "Just playing." Color play is so refreshing. And we all have enough fabric in our stashes to color play just fine, matching and contrasting fabric groups to our hearts content. I've gone on record as saying I don't do pink. So just to stretch myself, I threw in a pink print for fun.

To top off the day, I won the door prize. You guessed it, more fabric. :D Gee I went home happy that day. A serious fabric fix was had, without spending a dime. The best way to do it.