Skully Inspiration in MY STASH

Among the things I like to do when I have time. Time???? Okay, well..., that's a relative term around here. Anyway, what I like to do is quilt. Mostly I think I like the hunt of the fabrics that fit the theme I'm interested in or the color scheme. Then you have to find the perfect quilting pattern that might suit the fabrics you've chosen. It's kind of a chicken or the egg issue. Sometimes you find this killer pattern and the hunt is on. Other times it's the fabric and the it's the pattern that is the secondary find. Either way, in a great quilt they go hand in hand. Matching the two in unison is important. It separates a great quilt that "works" from one that's ho-hum. Art is art no matter what the medium.

This time...it's purely personal. I love sugar skulls - Mexican holidays and color schemes - I have a skull tattoo and I have collected skulls (kind of a biology thing) since I was a kid. I'm a flower child - a DIY'er - a boomer. This is the perfect time of year to find skull themed fabric.

I have found my stash in all kinds of stores. It's like going to bead stores. There is almost always just a little something different in each one from a different manufacturer. I've been in old Ben Franklin's, new Joann's, and some local fabric stores. The hunt is fantastic. The look on customers and clerks faces is priceless.

When I take my purchase to the cutting table there always seems to be a line. Fabric stores are cutting back on employees like everyone else. There is always camaraderie among sewers - just like beadmakers, jewelers, and everywhere people meet with a common interest. We talk in lines while we wait to make our purchases. It never fails. At the moment they look at the fabrics (currently skull related) and they have to say, "Wow, you are going to make a lot of Halloween things." I really wish I had the pink streak in my hair right now. Since I am usually out of town (we only have a Wally World here and I've already scouted the fabric department and made my initial purchases), after the first opening Halloween conversation, I decided to have fun with it. Now my answer to the inevitable of question of what I'm doing with all of THAT -

"No, not Halloween. But, it is my time for year to shop for skullish items . You see - I collect them. It's a kind of garish collection and a family favorite. I've made lots of quilts but we think this is the one the kids will eventually fight over when we pass. We all have skull tattoo's and my kids are a varied lot. Undertakers and crime scene people seem to multiply like rabbits in my family. Uncle Louie was in CSI clean-up. I mean someone has to do it after all. Look I have this cute girlie skull on my back (I pull down my shirt). "

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHA

I wonder if they will ever look at a conversation about fabric the same way again.