Yesterday was a pretty good day. I gave myself the promised "treat" for making it through the tooth-stuff and went to McKinney.

McKinney is an interesting place - at least the downtown square is. It seems to always be changing. Stores open up, seem to prosper, then close down and are replaced by something else. (One of the shopkeepers told me - and I can't remember all the details so I might have it kind of wrong - but apparently few of the shopkeepers own their buildings; either the city does or a developer does, and there have been cases of otherwise-prosperous and bill-paying businesses being told to close or move because the building owner wants the space for something else. I suppose that happens everywhere - after all, that's why Ewe Knit had to move, up in Normal - but it seems unfair to me somehow.)

I was somewhat disappointed to find that my favorite antique store of all time, The Antique Collection is gone - apparently to be replaced by yet another restaurant. (There have been three or four new restaurants - most of them very upscalely and expensive looking - come in in the past year or so. I hope that the square isn't converting to "Restaurant Square," because then I will no longer have a good reason to go there. I can only eat one meal per trip...)

Also, a few of the funky stores that had been there have been replaced by very fancy, very expensive-looking "high grade antiques" or home stores. (I say "-looking" because a glance in the window of the places told me (a) that they had nothing I'd be all that interested in and (b) it was probably out of my price range anyway and (c) I probably do not look glamorous or rich enough to be welcomed in the store as a customer).

I will say one new store I was very happy to see - a Texas/Southwestern specialty-food store called Loco Cowpoke. (I hope they can avoid the "O HAI WE UPGRADED UR BUILDING. NOW LEAVE" trend). I bought a bunch of stuff for birthday presents for various people (who do not live in or near Texas) because they are things that are unlikely to be found elsewhere. And I found a pickled baby corn that is almost (but not quite) a replacement for the Paisley Farms brand that I used to love but can no longer find for sale.

The guy running the place was very nice and very friendly. He said he had (I think) twin four year old sons, and he hoped they'd be taking over the business someday. He also had samples of most everything out - so if you wanted to know if you'd like something that you'd never tried, you could. (He even opened a bottle of the pickled corn for me to try one, because he didn't have any of that out). He also hopes soon to have online ordering from a website, which would be nice, especially if you wanted to send a gift to someone.

I also found a very amusing item - in one of the gift/antique shops, they had these little flashlights shaped like black cats. They are the dynamo-powered kind, where you squeeze a lever on the side to charge them up. And then, the eyes of the cat are two LED bulbs - so when you turn it on, its eyes glow. I know I am easily amused, but it made me laugh. I got one for my sister-in-law, as part of her birthday present, because I think she'll find it funny. And a person can always use an extra flashlight, especially one where there are no batteries to corrode and leak when the thing isn't used for a long time (or be snagged by someone who needs that size for a radio or remote control or something).

Ambrosia was still there (frou frou stuff - candles and soap and things like that). As was Morningstar Treasures, which I guess is now my favorite antique shop. (I hope I have not cursed them now by saying that. Except I think - though I am not sure - the owners of the shop actually own the building). And several of the other long-term antique stores were still there, and The Little Red Hen (where I bought a black jumper-dress made of a clingy knit, perhaps against my better judgment - it fits well everywhere but it looks a bit poochy around the gut. Though maybe the right slip - or, failing that, a few months of sit-ups - will correct that. Or maybe I'm being too self-critical. I liked the dress because it was kind of arty looking but also was fairly comfortable). And the Pantry, where I ate lunch. (I don't feel comfortable going alone to the really fancy places that have opened up there, and besides, I enjoy a $5 sandwich and $3 piece of pie at The Pantry as much as I would enjoy a $20+ full-course lunch).

And Happiness is Quilting is still there, happily. As is Quilt Asylum (which is actually in a strip mall on University, rather than in the downtown).

One thing I noticed - very few of the stores were at all busy. I don't know if it was because it's still so soon after Christmas that most people are paying off their holiday bills, or if it was because it was somewhat chilly that day, or if it really IS the bad economy, but the only places that were hopping were the two quilt shops. (Which makes me happy. I always like to see a quilt shop busy selling fabric and books).

I don't know if it's a function of "Fabric will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no fabric" (to misquote The Whole Earth Catalog) or whether quilters are less buffeted by the winds of changing finance, or if there are more "small" splurges you can do at a quilt place than at a frou-frou shop or an antiques store. (A fat quarter of fabric can be had for $2.50 or even as little as $1.50 if it's an "orphan" - a piece left after the rest of the fabric on the bolt has sold out)

At any rate - yes, I have a new quilt's worth of fabric (all washed and folded and piled up for now). It's from the new "Ooh La La" line (I got the more pink-and-teal colors, rather than the yellow-and-gray-and-brick colors.) And I selected some coordinating fat quarters to fill in, and a big piece of a solid blue-green fabric that is the same as the blue-green in the print - I'm going to do another one of those "County Line" quilts like the one I did with the Poppy fabric.

Most of the coordinating prints I chose were kind of "abstracty;" the feeling I am going for is an (imagined) Paris of the 1950s where people went to see art and to be sort of what was thought of as cool or hip in that era. (It sounds dumb when I write it out but I think the quilt will look nice. I guess what I'm shooting for is to sort of recall the drawings of stylized, stereotypical Parisian "street scenes" with fashionable women wearing Dior's New Look and walking dogs, and starving-artist painters with their easels, and the little flower sellers on the quais.). One of the prints I am using looks a bit like a Mondrian painting; another is large stylized flowers, and still another is an abstract pattern of black and dark grey on a blue-green background.

That's kind of how I plan quilts, a lot of the time - I start with a fabric or a group of fabrics and think about what I want the quilt to "feel" like when you look at it, or what I want it to make me think of. And then I try to find fabrics to go with the original fabrics that keep that mood and color scheme going, and I figure out a pattern that will work. (I think County Lines will work well because of the strong rectilinear design, recalling the squares and rectangles on the Mondrian-ish print).

I also have a packet of fabrics that I finally "finalized" out of my stash today - I had been working on this for a while but I think it will be the next quilt after I finish the one I'm currently piecing - I wanted a "sea glass" quilt - one in very soft, greyed colors, mainly that greyish bluish green, and I wanted to do it using the "Yellow Brick Road" pattern (The same pattern I used nearly four years ago now). I had a bunch of Kaffe Fasset prints (and other Westminster) prints that I had originally got for something else when I decided on the sea glass look - but several of the prints I had in the stack didn't work with that, so I took the stack apart and searched around and found a couple other fabrics that WILL work, ones I had bought because I liked them but with no set destination in mind. And I even have the exact amount of a border fabric I need - a big piece of that Dimples fabric that I had bought with the thought of it being borders on something some day in mind.

I have to talk about Dimples - of all the fabric lines I've used, is is my favorite. It is the one I keep going back to when I need a "fill in" of a particular color. It comes in all kinds of lovely colors (there are 10 "pages" of it on the site I linked above), it's simple enough that it doesn't detract from other fabrics, and you can almost always find a matching color to whatever prints you are using. If I had unlimited money and storage, I think I'd order a bolt of at least my favorite colors and the ones I use the most.

(In particular, there are a lot of wonderful greens in the line. And I use green a lot in my quilting).

Oh, the current quilt? I'm finally cutting and sewing the Sock Monkey fabric. It's a very simple quilt pattern - some just-big (12 1/2") squares, with some smaller squares with 'frames' around them, and a few Pinwheel blocks. I'm not 100% sure I'll keep this quilt, either, after it's finished - it's maybe a bit bright for me. (But being sock monkeys, if I decide I don't want it, it would be perfect to give to a kid). But then again, I might decide I like it and want to keep it once I get more of it put together. I'm trying to keep the orange (my least favorite color) to a minimum, but it may be hard to avoid.