I think my brain is "unclenching."

I went down to the local quilt shop today...I had been thinking about the "Good Night Monkey" line of fabrics they had. I first saw them a couple of months ago. And I told myself, "You do not need another quilt made of novelty sock-monkey fabric."

And one day I went in and it was the front-of-the-store display. And I told myself: "You do not need another quilt made out of sock-monkey novelty fabric."

And the last time I was in there, they had it up on one of the big shelves near where you get your fabric cut, and I said to myself: "YOU ARE 40. You do not need another quilt with ever-lovin' sock monkeys on it."

And you know? In the past week, I decided that I did. Oh, I kept trying to talk myself out of it, but you know? I decided that since I kept thinking about it, that meant I really should have it.

And besides, I really am fond of the first sock-monkey quilt. I have it spread across the foot of my bed right now for nights when I need a bit more warmth on my feet. And a few times when I felt unwell (a couple weekends ago, I had a tiny touch of the stomach thing going around - nothing BAD but a slight upset stomach and chills and a few muscle aches) or sad, I wrapped up in it and it made me feel better.

So this afternoon I went down there. And at first I could not find it and felt the same little sadness and bereft-ness I felt as a child, on a few occasions when I saved up my little allowance for weeks (or even months) for one particular thing I wanted, and then finding that it was sold out (or that it was a one-of-a-kind and they weren't getting more) when I got down to the store with money in hand.

But I was lucky this time; they had just moved it into a large crib they use in the "baby" section of the store.

I really like this fabric. It is very different from the other sock-monkey fabric, almost, in an odd way, more sophisticated:


Some of the fabrics are from a related but different line, the one with the bananas (I bought the last bit on the bolt; it seemed lonely - it has been sitting there on the shelf for MONTHS) and the one with all the monkey faces, but they coordinate.

I am not sure what pattern I will use yet; I have a large amount of the monkeys-in-pajamas and the bunk-beds one, so I might do a quilt alternating long strips of those with pieced blocks.

Also, I LOVE little details like this:




See that green book spine? (The fabric is supposed to be books lined up; some of them even have titles printed on them). On the green book, they have parodied the little Modern Library running-figure - turned it into a little monkey.

That makes me so happy. As I said, I love little details like that.

I'm still working on the Pie Crust Pileup quilt - I actually have a backing for it now, too, it turns out I had forgotten the quilt shop was having a 50% off Christmas fabrics sale (and they were HOPPING today, which makes me happy to see). They had one of the very fabrics (the one that looks sort of like Fair Isle knitting) that was in my quilt top in the 50% off group - so for the price of a plain old muslin backing, I have a lovely backing that coordinates with one of the fabrics in my quilt.

I also mostly-finished (except for the long chain handle) the first of the "Fortune Cookie" bags, and mirabile dictu, it works. I thought I had done something backwards, but no - the bag folds up just like it's supposed to. It will need to be felted and I'm seriously considering doing a second one right away (I think I am going to give one to my sister-in-law; it looks like the sort of thing she might like) and felt them at the same time.