Fat Quarters of Quilting Fabric

Fat Quarters of Quilting Fabric, originally uploaded by confections.

The San Diego Quilt Show happened over a month ago, but I had a whirlwind September with family visiting, so I'm just getting around to showing a bit of the stash I accumulated at the vendors' booths.

My sister and a friend joined me for our annual jaunt to ooh and aah over the quilts and to power-shop to build up our stashes--not that they need building up (just sayin'), but quilting fabrics are a form of ephemera, I think, and one has to scoop them up as they fly by! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

About mid-afternoon, following a long-standing tradition, we leave the exhibit hall, retreat to the conveniently located Starbucks in the convention center, and compare yams--uh, fat quarters. This is one of our favorite rituals. Out come the treasures from our bags--patterns, tools, books, gadgets of all kinds.

We are spurred on by the beauty of the quorum of quilts we have just soaked up. All that creativity manifested has an hypnotic effect on us every year: must.make.quilts.

Winter's comin' on.

Daddy Tying Flies Circa 1975

Daddy Tying Flies Circa 1975, originally uploaded by confections.

My father passed away sixteen years ago this week and the unfathomable pain of his loss has only slightly lessened for me. I love this photo of my Dad, taken in our backyard by anthropologist and photographer Frances M. Cox, a now-deceased friend of my parents. He is tying flies to use when fly fishing for trout, one of his favorite pastimes.

He was an unself-consciously creative man. One of my earliest memories of his expression of that natural creativity is his crafting an archery bow from scratch with laminated colorful woods. I was a pre-schooler and was fascinated by the steaming of the wood and its taking shape in the custom form he built. He made the arrows, too.

Years later, for my youngest sister's wedding reception, he and my mother hand-gathered grapevine and he wove an oversized fruit basket to grace the dessert table. I come by my love of crafts and handwork honestly. My mother is no slouch in these areas, either! More about her in an upcoming post.

She's a little like the Velveteen Rabbit

She's a little like the Velveteen Rabbit, originally uploaded by confections.

You may remember the tale of my thrift store find of an Effanbee doll from a few months back. I posted about her in a thread on the Etsy forums, where fellow Etsian Mosey had started a contest for the best thrift store treasure. I named my doll Helene Elyse after my Mother and one of her favorite models and actresses, Elyse Knox, from the late 1930's and early 1940's. I was thrilled to win the contest; Mosey was so sweet to send me the lovely handmade linen clutch pictured below as a contest prize. Thanks, Mosey!