Quilts and Dogs

 PattyA over at the Quilt Lady blog is making a Cow Quilt for a friend who lives on a farm and is having a new addition to their family.  She does some incredible improvisationally pieced quilts.  When she talked about making the cow quilt, I told her I had forgotten about the cow UFO I had and needed to dig it out and finish it. 

She replied with, "Cow quilt? 

 It is kinda funny.  I had just joined the River City Guild and didn't know a single person.  They were sort of clique-ish.  My second meeting was their annual charity auction.  People donated fabric and sewing things and they auctioned them off with people shouting bids and others bidding them up.  Prices were pretty cheap as far as I could see, but I really wasn't schooled on what things cost at that point yet.

Toward the end of the auction Suzi held up a "bag of random cow fabric".  Bits and pieces of leftover cow fabrics.  No one bid on it!  She started at $2, went to $1.50 and then to $1.  She said, I guess no one wants the cows!

 I impulsively shot up  my  hand and bid $1.  It was for charity after all, I figured.   No one else followed my lead. It was mine.

I will never forget, when Suzi ceremoniously awarded me my "bag of random cow fabric" someone from the back of the room said, "Will you look  at that.  She actually WANTED that ugly fabric."

 I made two really great quilts from it.  And I like them both!

I still run into a few bits and pieces of that "random cow fabric" in my scrap boxes.  I now know so much more; people and quilting stuff.  I  know how much stuff costs, I have won hundreds of dollars of stuff at the charity auctions since then.  I have a roomful of fabric and gadgets now. 


And I still love those bits of "random cow fabrics" and I smile when I see them!

Yes, I guess I need to get it out, slap it on the frame and  finish up that quilt.  One is already done, but the other sits, neglected, in the UFO box.

Thanks, Patty, for reminding me that I still have those beauties in there.  And I need to get to it!  I can't wait to see your great Cow finish!