Raise your hand if you would drive an hour and a half just to go to a fabric store?
OH OH OH... ME ME... I would I would...
Don't look at me like I am crazy. I already got enough of that from my Mom, sister, and husband. "Your going all the way to Buffalo... for fabric?" they said. "Yeah," was my reply. It was so worth every minute of the rainy gray thruway drive. And besides, I had great company for the trip so it went by in the blink of an eye.
Last week, Lindsey was over visiting (and doing grading, she is a professor, did you know?) while I was making my fabulous "toTaLlY TwiStEd" bunting for the studio. She popped open her laptop and showed me a "quilt-a-long". She was thinking of going along with OH, Fransson! and making this as her daughter's quilt for a big girl bed that will soon be making it's way to her little lady's room just in time for her 4th birthday. Laurelle (Lindsey's girl) and Lauren (my girl) have birthdays just a few days apart.
The quilt is a fabulous design. I love it!! Lindsey and I plotted and schemed and decided that the road trip we wanted to take to a fabric store in Buffalo NY, http://www.forfabric.com/, was long past due. The store is fantastic. It is the only place in a hundred miles that carries all our favorite designers. Anna Maria Horner, Heather Bailey, Heather Ross, Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry, Alexander Henry and more. I can't tell you how incredibly cool it is to see so many of our favorites... in person... in our actual hands. Really, too cool. No photo online can compare to seeing the colors in person and feeling all that cottonie goodness.
I wasn't planning on making a quilt, but I couldn't drive across the state without a project. That would have been a bad thing. I would have randomly bought tons of fabric and done serious damage to our credit card. So, Lindsey and I are doing the quilt along together. Both our girls will be getting these as birthday quilts (lol, actually we are doing a couple of the same handmade gifts for them... you'll see what I mean in a few weeks when I show you more). And I must say, she is doing most of the work. She did all the math to figure out how to turn this into a twin size quilt. She knows all the sizes of everything we need. And I feel like I am just going along for the ride. I am blissfully complying and thankful for her patience as I ask her a million questions that I am being too lazy to figure out on my own. *sigh*
I think it is neat to watch the two of us when we are in a fabric store. Our styles (and thus our daughters' tastes) are totally reflected in what we pick and they couldn't be more different. Lindsey's quilt has a lot of Amy Butler's fabrics. Soft greens, blues, a little yellow and a touch of soft lavender with some browns. So calm and sweet. I was pulling all the intense colors I could find and ended up with rich purple, hot pink, poppin' turquoise, gray and ivory. Lots of tone on tone and strong geometric designs mixed with fancy flourishes. So vibrant and lush.
I can't tell you how inspiring this trip was. In more ways then one too. I am freaking loving the looks of gray on gray with ivory right now. And hot pink... love hot pink, with purple, red, and orange of all things. I know you are thinking that you have heard me mention these colors before... but I am telling you... it is different in my head this time. I can see a lot of this coming to life in glass. If only the colors dancing in my mind matched the rods on my desk. *double sigh* My glass colors seem so dull compared to them. Lindsey seems to think I should play with http://www.spoonflower.com/ and design some fabrics to offer for sale. Kinda pricey at $18 p/yard but hey, you never know.
Okay... so that was our road trip. It is going to be fun blogging about this quilt coming together. All the fabric needs to be washed and ironed before it makes it's proper blog debut. I have lots of other things to tell you about too. I finished my February Lady Sweater for one. I am suffering from "reactance", which is a serious talk we have to have for two. And huh, I know there was something else. Oh, well... it'll come to me.
What did you do this weekend?
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5 comments:
Hey Kerry,
Oh my, creative minds think alike! I printed directions to that store on Thursday and had all good intentions of going to Buffalo on Saturday but got wrapped up in lacrosse stuff and grocery shopping. That would have been funny if we met up in the store.
Marcia
OH! I wanna go, too!
Of course, my drive would be more like nine hours, but hey, a fabric store that carries all those designers....it would be worth it! It looks like you had a lot of fun!
so worth the trip ladies.... soo soo worth it.
I am so so so so so jealous right now. We have nothing like that remotely near us. That's probably a good thing, but it hurts my feelings a lot.
wow, that sure looks like heaven. Can't wait to see the progress.
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