In spite of the sign, this station was not “open”, but someone was working in the back in the “Main Street” office.
This art deco gem was built in 1939. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places, and believed to be one of just three left.
Such an amazing and functional building, with its wide overhangs, neon sign, and tiny, perfect lunch counter inside.
The underside of the overhangs was even stamped with quilting designs!
It was unseasonably cold when we left Ohio Monday morning, and we passed many frosty fields. When we arrived in Missouri, the fields again looked frosty, but they turned out to be frosted with ripe cotton. We have traveled in cotton country before, but never in the fall.
I’m used to corn lining the roads at home, but here and all through Arkansas, there were acres and acres of cotton in various stages of harvest.
In some fields, the effects of the drought were evident, with sparse crops.
Still, they seemed to be harvesting a lot, some in these huge rectangular bales, and some in large round bales that were each wrapped in bright yellow plastic. Rail cars waited on sidings and trucks hauled bales around.
When we stopped to take these pictures, I felt the “lint” on the plants. It reminded me of wool: soft and a little greasy. Of course, I was thinking about all the quilt fabric this could produce, but I forgot that cotton seed meal and oil are important parts of the crop. Anyway, this is one of the places where our beautiful fabric gets its start!
Finally used some fabric! Well, I’m always using fabric, but I wait until a project is finished to count it. The Blue and Gold Cabins quilt was all from stash, which tells you something about my stash. More importantly, it used two rather difficult pieces of fabric. I loved those wild blue and gold prints when I bought them, but they were on the verge of becoming large (2 yard pieces) stash dogs. In this quilt, they are not just “okay”, they are perfect for this recipient. Now they’re happy and I’m happy, and I feel like counting them double, but I won’t.
Recently, Judy was saying that she uses the yardage calculations from her EQ7 designs to calculate stash usage. Somehow, this hadn’t occurred to me! I guess I always assumed the estimate would be too high. I took a look at it this time, compared it with my guesstimate on yardage for the top, and found it to be pretty close (with the large, straight pieces and limited fabrics in this quilt, it was fairly easy to figure). What about you? Do you find EQ estimates to be close? How do you measure your fabric usage?
This week: 0 yds. in, 9.5 yds. used
YTD: + 102 yds, -185.5 yds.
Net used in 2012: -82.5 yds.
See more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times.
Seems like a while since I’ve finished a quilt, and longer than I thought with this one, but Blue and Gold Cabins is done. I did remove and reverse the fabric on the borders, and I like the result.
It was awkward and cumbersome to rip off the borders and reattach them at that stage, and added a few more hours. While I worked I could only see that it looked like the back of a fabric, faded and not as smooth as the front, but it looks fine washed up. Like a lighter colorway in the same fabric line.
One thing that did happen is that I must have brought thousands of batting pills over to the front (I guess because of the spray baste). I’ve washed it, shaken it outside, and now will lint roll it thoroughly before I box it up to send today.
It’s going to a relative in the hospital who survived a medical crisis and now has a long recovery ahead. This is nothing if not a cheery quilt!
Here is the view out my studio window, where I look into the top of a dogwood tree. What you can’t see are all the birds hopping around, eating the orange berries. Right now I see a wren, but often there are titmice, chickadees, cardinals, flickers, and others. Lots of company and extra interest for the cats.
I hope you all have a beautiful fall (or spring!).
I’ll be linking to Finish It Up Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts.
Evening in the Garden Quilts 