Bird on it

There's a joke - I think the show "Portlandia" uses it, though I have no idea if it originated with them - that in some parts of the country, all it takes to make something "art" is to put a bird on it.

Considering that I've nattered occasionally about art quilts vs. quilts you actually use vs. quilts that are just quilts (and that I tend to see my quilts as "just quilts" rather than art), it amuses me that some of these fabrics here do, in fact, have a bird on them. (It's small and hard to see).



This is the quilt using the Tufted Tweets fabric. I picked it up from the quilt shop yesterday and decided to go ahead and put the binding on it. (Binding is often a point-of-resistance for me; I am not as fond of doing it as I am of doing other parts of the quilt, so it can take me quite a while to attach the binding). But I'm quite fond of this little quilt, so I got it bound in record time.

Here's a close-up:



In the block on the right (the one with the white armchairs), you can sort of see the little yellow bird.

I like the quilt because I like slightly odd novelty fabrics, and I also like the colors in it - they're different from what I ordinarily use.

And here's the backing.

If the photo looks odd, it's because I turned the camera upside down to take it - I had hung the quilt so that the backing was upside down and didn't feel like re-hanging the quilt to right it. The print reminds me of the old Aesop fable about the fox and the grapes.



I had a $20-off filled out "loyalty card" (you spend a certain amount of money at this shop - and it can be on ANYTHING, including quilting, which is often the biggest expense for me there, you get $20 back on your next $20 or more purchase). I suppose some would say "loyalty cards" are a bit of a scam...because they keep you going back to the store...but then, if you'd be shopping at a place even if they DIDN'T have a loyalty card (and I would be doing that with this shop), they're probably a good deal all around: the customer feels like they get a treat occasionally, the shop gets people coming back in and spending...

At any rate, I used my loyalty card yesterday.

I had thought, earlier on, about going to McKinney this weekend for my traditional birthday day-of-shopping, but that was before this cold hit. And so I decided yesterday that as I wasn't feeling that great yet, as gas prices are really high right now, and as I have some good sources of good stuff right here in town, I'd spend some of the "birthday bash" money locally.

And so I did.

To riff off of what I always thought was one of the squickier Knitlist acronyms, and a slightly squicky Internet meme:  Doesn't matter, had stash enhancement experience.



I took advantage of the fact that the shop now sells YARN, and that they had a color of yarn I really liked and wanted, and that I have plans to knit myself another Central Park Hoodie...so this is the yarn for it. Yeah, I know, I said I was thinking of a bright color this time, inspired by the fuchsia version in the Knitscene book. But I really like this particular color - sort of a beachglass color - and it's one that will go with a lot of the other things I wear. I did consider a sort-of-fuchsia purple (but decided that was "copying" too much) and a pale peachy orange (but wasn't sure that it was so good with my complexion, and also, would I ever actually wear it? I don't have a lot of clothes that go well with orange. And at any rate: I'm less likely to wear pale sweaters because I'm always afraid of rubbing graphite or chalk dust or something onto them.)

Of course, I need to finish something ELSE first, so it's back to Basketweave for the rest of this afternoon...