Of Emperors and Kings

I'm in the middle of a large quilt made mostly from stash. It's coming along nicely but needed the infusion of some new fabric. Since the LQS went out of business, I visited the local chain store, searching for a certain shade of purple. Nada. So a week later I drove north into the hills to The Fat Quail.

It was a gorgeous autumn day and perfect for a drive. The destination was in a *small* community where you wouldn't expect to find a quilt store. I was surprised to find there were five cars in the parking lot.

They still have their 'library of fat quaters'. Each card catalog drawer is marked with the type of fat quarters inside. What a great idea.

They didn't have a *lot* of purples to choose from, but fortunately they had one in the right shade.

I prewashed when I got home and was glad I did. Even though it didn't bleed out a whole lot the water was amazingly thick and murky with a film on the surface. I didn't want whatever they used to set the color in my quilt.

Ancient Rome, Egypt, and Persia all used purple as the imperial standard. The source of purple dye often came from insects or fish, therefore purple dyes were rare and expensive and only the rich had access to them. I'm glad all I had to do was drive 45 minutes out of my normal sphere of travel. It sure is a delight to the eye. :)