Judy and other forum members,

I have been silent on the forum for a day or two because after I mailed the parts of the "Only One" quilt idea off to Mary in Florida I decided to go on an archaeological expedition in my stash closet in my sewing room. (Two closets in here ... one for notions, glue sticks, buttons and other "hard" supplies and the second closet is for soft goods.)

Perhaps you've heard of Empress Catherine the Great or Emperor Ivan the Terrible ... well, here sits Judy the Ruthless who has been on a sorting and purging binge, tidying and culling like there's no tomorrow.

Some former quilt projects are going in the trash bag.  Too boring to explain why.

Two Karen K. Stone foundation piecing patterns are being kept in reserve; I still  have hope for those beauties. I have had them for so long I had forgotten about them.

Some Zip-locs of random odds and ends of bright and brilliant scraps are going into a big pile on the sewing table for a potential future project. (More about that in a moment.)

The box of alphabet or lettered fabrics has been tidied up; DD makes her living as a writer and someday I will be inspired by an idea to create a special quilt for DD that involves fabrics with words all over them.

One kit for a 50" x 70" purple and pink foundation string pieced top that was "in the works" when Project Linus was pulled from me is going to Other Daughter who makes charity quilts for her church. 

Plus I found the very sweet 60" x 60" project I was making for my first great-grandchild that I was working on when my shoulders began to kill me. My twin granddaughters are only 18 and have entered college this year; I do not predict any great-grandchild any time soon. No. Not at all. But my mother had made a first great-grandchild quilt long before my son even started dating and so it behooves me to do the same thing.  LOL

That's not the entire story of my archaeology work over the last two days but you are getting the idea .....

The potential future project I am considering is a quilt named "Gypsy Wife" which has caught my eye. Think of it as something like a "Dear Jane" gone very, very wrong.   You can see a person's fingers at the upper corners of the quilt in this photo.

As far as I can tell, this project has no applique so I hope I can cope.

Oh, I have that book somewhere.  It would truly be a "forever" project for me, and would require a large design wall - but I know you have one of those.  I don't think I could do it if I had a deadline.  I would have to break it up into smaller sections and work on other projects in between the sections, lest I become overwhelmed.  Honestly, it's WAYYYYY down on my list of things to do, but maybe one of these days ............  

Just look at all the beautiful colors in this one!  What a cheerful project to work on!

Cris in MT

Isn't that sort of the "Dear Jane" part of this thing ... you could work on it in bits and pieces?  I have read about Ellen working on her "Dear Jane" in fits and starts over the years and I think that this "Gypsy Wife" thing could be handled in the same way.

Yes! 

Exactly!!

Bits and pieces now and then once in a while. Maybe it could be kind of like eating potato chips.

Maybe the gypsy wife makes herself ill binge eating potato chips ....

Oh, the horror!!  

The pattern book was delivered this afternoon and the front cover shows a different  title .... "Wanderer's Wife" ... with an explanation for the new politically correct name saying that the word Gypsy is considered culturally insensitive.

That is not the horror I am upset about.

I am horrified after flipping through the pages and seeing all of the instructions referring to dainty measurements of 5 1/8" and 4 7/8" and 2 7/8".  I feel a full-blown attack of nausea coming  on. I'm not sure if I have a handy-dandy little ruler with 1/8" measurements. Most of my rulers are great 24" brutes ....

Plus the cover art on my booklet does not resemble the photo I shared on the forum today. Obviously previous stitchers of this quilt felt free to "wing it" with their creations ......

Okay, after gulping down some ice water and fanning myself with the Wanderer's Wife booklet I went and checked my stash of smaller Omnigrid square rulers. Yep. I'm okay. I can get DH to custom-cut some of those old square rulers to the sizes I need.  After all, he is not doing anything else with his fancy band saw or his buffing wheel these days ...

If you have the book that looks like the quilt I showed in my photo I would be very grateful if you would please loan it to me.

I cannot find it anywhere .... it is as if it has been banished or "vanished" because of the politically incorrect title and it is the pattern I truly want to make.

The book I was sold is the third edition. The quilt on the cover of my booklet is not nearly pretty as the one in this photo. Does your book's cover have the nice block of teal and white HSTs?  If it does would you trust me enough to play long-distance lending library so I could photocopy it on my HP printer?  I will gladly cover postage both ways.

Yes indeed my dear Jane has started and stopped more often then it’s been on!  That being said, I am challenging myself to get the top together - not by Christmas, but into new year!

Judy,

    Just a comment about those 1/8 and 7/8 measurements!

whenever I see them, I look to see of they are for making HST and QST.  And if so, I round up, cut the larger size , make my blocks and trim them to size!   Just my comment!

I will try to find it when I get back from out of town, but it may be a while before I find which box it's in.