Friday, February 05, 2010

Quirky Quilter?

I am thinking about quirkyness today. It started with reading an article in our local paper about a YouTube video featuring how Canadians drink milk from bags. Who knew this daily activity was news worthy? I did not know that this was weird to most people around the world because, well, because I spend a lot of time in my basement quilting so I don't know what's going on in the world! LOL! If you want to see the video on how we purchase and drink milk, click here.
Darlene from Quilting Daze wrote an interesting post about quirks on her blog - click here and scroll down to january 16th to see her stitchery blocks, read her post and then read all the comments from her readers...too funny!

This morning I went to Thelma's blog to see her finished quilt top and she is celebrating her 100th blogpost with a quilt giveaway...yes a beautiful quilt! If you leave a comment and tell something quirky about yourself, you are entered in the draw - click here to enter. I had no trouble coming up with lists of quirky things about myself.
Which leads me to today's blog post...the top 5 quirky quilty things about me:
1) I never throw out any fabric scraps when I'm quilting. I keep even the smallest useable pieces and keep the really small bits like dog ears in jars, which I call my "Quilter's Jelly". I haven't posted a quilt made of my mini bits in a while (here is an old one to see) but I always have one on the go. And I am always collecting bits...here are a few of my jelly jars on the window ledge.
2) Yep...I collect the thread bits too! I am only tempted to throw out beige thread snips...everything else goes in this great jar given to me by my friend Louise.
3) I listen to CBC radio podcasts when I am quilting. I download the podcasts and listen to them when I have time to quilt. My favorites are "The Vinyl Cafe" with Stuart McLean,  "DNTO" with Sook-Yin Lee, and "The Next Chapter" with Shelagh Rogers.
4) Oh yah...did I mention I save everything?!? Including all the ends of my binding strips!  Here is my binding bits basket! (Don't say anything about the aging UFO under the basket...I'm working on it!)
5) I take my "quilt vitamin" everyday so I can stay healthy and sane. I sew everyday. Some days it is handwork like embroidery, beading or binding, and sometimes it is piecing or quilting at the machine.
Are you a quirky quilter?!? Should we start a club?!?

8 comments:

Libby said...

I'm quilting a little quilt made from those cutoffs. It's fun to see what can be made from what others might perceive as trash *s* Not quirky in the least!

Maya said...

I used to save the tiniest bits too. But since I saw I've not been able to do much with it, anything that is less than 1/5" wide goes into the trash can. It has taken a lot of will power to do that! :)
BTW, I love your Winter Wonderland quilt (on the Quilting Gallery weekly themed contest). I've blogged about it! :)

Darlene said...

OMG, Kathy you gave me wonderful a chortle, laugh, giggle, snicker, snort, gaffaw, smile, grin - well you get the picture. What a terriic post and yes, yes, yes we absolutely need a Quirky Quilters Club and we can meet Someday (aka Sewday) LOL

I think I shared with you that I think of you every time I toss 1/2 square snippets in the trash - I immediately get a mental image of your adorable jars.

Quilt Rat said...

Well I MUST be quirky too cause I have those very same jars fill with threads and scraps and selvages, I even save little bits of cotton batting (It takes paint beautifully)
Quirky Quilters ROCK!!!!

Jean said...

You definitely save everything,but looks like you use it too! Hadn't heard of the bag milk, interesting video. My sister lives on Vancouver island, will have to ask her about it.

Jenni said...

They briefly tried milk in bags when I was a kid, but it didn't take off. We went back to glass bottles. Now we have milk in a carton or a plastic bottle. Imagine all the things we do differently but don't even know about yet.

Sew Create It - Jane said...

LOL - I never would have thought that people would be interested in how Canadian's drink milk..having grown up there..milk in bags is normal! and the little plastic bits that have the date on them are fab..I still have some left over from my grandmother that are holding a bag closed that has her UFO! LOL

Thelma said...

OK, I"ll give you the not throwing out fabric scraps, but thread....I don't know.....it sure looks pretty in your jar though. Thanks for the shout out! It's taking me forever to get caught up on my comments but I"m finding so many new blogs it's been time well spent!

I'll be back!