Sing It Fatboy

Every good quilty story starts with a trip to the fabric store, right?

The Fatboy sang to me this day, begging for a ride on a sunny fall day. How could I resist? Country road, sunny mild-ish day, blue sky, and a rumour that Cotton & Steel skull fabric was in stock at Avonport Discount Fabrics. 

The C&S skull fabric was there...oh yes, indeed...but there was also this oh-so-incredible collection of skull laden Halloween bolts that demanded my attention. The quilty world needs more skulls. And if you should find yourself wrapped in black leather looking all bad-ass in the middle of a fabric store then skulls are exactly what you should buy. 

So, as I'm piling up 8 bolts of the Halloween collection on my cart I hear a woman come in the front door and demand of the clerk, "Who owns that big motorcycle?"  Of course my first thought was, "Oh Jeezus, please tell me you didn't hit it!?" followed by a chuckle when I realize that the ole gal was just shocked to see it there.  Soon, I'm piling my bolts on the cutting table and she comes over for a closer inspection. She didn't show me her badge or any identification but I suspect she was an undercover agent of the Quilt Police. With furrowed brow she looked at my fabric pull, gave me a head-to-toe once over and the interrogation went as follows:

  What are you doing with all that?

  You're a quilter?

  How old are you?

  How many quilts have you made?

  Do you hand quilt?

  Do you belong to a guild?

  Do you know so & so?

    What about so & so?

    You must know so & so! 

  Don't you own a car?

  How in the world are you going to transport fabric on a motorcycle? 

  Where do you live? 

  Would you like me to take your fabric back to Sackville for you?

  Do you have many scraps?

  What do you do with your scraps? 

  Would you like to give your scraps to my guild?

You can imagine I'm dying inside answering her questions with certain but limited information...just enough to satisfy her but not enough to blow her mind. Don't tell the Police anything...that's what Poppa always said. 

It never gets old this reaction to a biker chic in a quilt shoppe. 

My favourite place to ride? 

A countryside fabric store...clearly.

Anyway...this is the quilt that happened:

A sinister Giant Vintage Star (a la Jeni Baker in blogland @ In Color Order) with Kona Stone in the background all quilted up with "Haunted Web" edge to edge from Apricot Moon using purple variegated Coates thread up top and orange variegated Aurifil on the back. 

It needs to be noted that The Robot loved that Aurifil thread...virtually no lint to clog his belly button. The purple Coates? Holy linty hell. Even worse than the typical linty hell of the solid colour Coates. I recently won a dozen spools of Aurifil thread (1st place!!!)  from the MMQG through that Paint Chip Challenge and so I'm looking forward to quilting with it! Even though it's 50wt cotton like all my other threads it's finer...which translates to more thread on a bobbin which translates to fewer bobbin changes for The Robot which translates to a much happier lil ole me.

After I got this quilt all bound I noticed a teeny weeny tear in the backing fabric...I was somewhat gutted but not defeated. I must have snagged a pin in the mountain of quilt off to the left side of the machine as I  was stitching down the binding. What odds? I just hand appliqued a bitty skull to patch it up. If only I could've found an itsy bitsy spider...

I should've waited to snap photos of this finish til this week...the leaves here right now are stunning. Last week? Not so much. Adrienne over at Chezzetcook Modern Quilts waited and got amazing shots of Mr. Chillingsworth in a old graveyard somewhere on the back road between Windsor and Avonport. I toyed with bringing this quilt along that sunny day but alas, her Mister had to go it alone. We were on a fabric & cheese bun run in the Jeep, because:

NO, SERGEANT-MAJOR SO & SO, I DO NOT OWN A CAR. 

Let's Ride!

Never wanted to get on a motorcycle, let alone learn to ride one.
But it happened.

Never wanted to own a motorcycle quilt, let alone set out to build one.
But that happened too.

Plans change. People change.
One thing leads to another.
3 bikes later, I look back and smile.

This quilt was a classic "brain on fire" episode. A spark that blew up in my head...an explosion of "what if's" and "this might work's" that landed me, years later, here.

A few years ago I sketched my 2nd bike, a 2006 Suzuki Boulevard 800. I fondly called this bike Piggy for as much as I loved it I hoped he'd one day grow into a Hog. Thought I could free piece it-- HA! Changed my mind-- QUICK! So instead I drafted my bike in a fashion that I could see it paper pieced, enlarged it, tweaked it, pieced it, made some free pieced letters, put it all together, took it all apart, cut parts down, put it back together, basked in the glow, showed it off a bit, put it in the closet. Figured I'd quilt it, someday.

Someday came on Tuesday when I saw a flame panto for download when I was surfing quilting patterns over at Intelligent Quilting.
Had. To. Have. It.

Flames were the right choice!
"Hot Nights" by Apricot Moon 

Finally complete.
With a long arm I never thought I'd own.
Have to make another quilt someday, I ride a Fatboy now.
Like I said: Things change.

What better way to kick off this year's chilly riding season than to have a cozy bike quilt for my cold bones to curl up in when I get home!

Linking up with Anja Quilts who's hosting

Stay Tuned...

Finally.
It arrived.

The phone call came on Thursday...did you feel the bump in the universe? So Friday we loaded up the truck and lugged all the bits and pieces home for the Giant Wiggler. The robot has landed! Yippee!

Starting to look like something...

Assembly has begun...the month late arrival means that Mr. PurpleBoots is busy with lobster season again so Not-So-Little PurpleBoots and I have tackled the build thus far. The instructions are fairly clear so minimal profanity has escaped my smiling face...even still, the boy reminds me to "Please stop swearing." I just can't get anything past this Virgo child of mine. It's right or wrong with him, there is no fine line of grey where you might plead your frustration filled case for profanity exemption...nope...leaves me to wonder if he'll always be so good? Ha! At about 4:00 I sent a text to Mr. PurpleBoots that stated, "Bring home chocolate and no one gets hurt".

Quilty Pleasures

Kicked my day off with a scoot to Avonport Discount Fabrics in the Valley to pick up the remaining colours of Kona Kandy for The Gravity Project. I also picked up a spool of Aurifil thread, my pal Linda over at Scrapmaster would be proud! She swears by this brand and I typically cheap out & stock up on the 40% off Gutermann sales at Fabricville for piecing thread. From there we bumped and bounced our way along the pot holed back road to Elmsdale where we stopped at Withrow's Meat Market...yes, bacon in 3 delicious formats followed me home, and lastly to It's Sew Time for a few more quilty pleasures. I got my very own Super Sidekick ruler (because I had to borrow Ellies for the Gravity Project) and the invisible zipper foot for my Pfaff 4.2 that impressed me so when Linda and I did that class last month. There's no way in hell you'll catch me making buttonholes, but throw pillows with invisible zippers are on the list of projects Sister PurpleBoots has in mind. All this Saturday fun and more: there has been a bbq, a splash of red wine and some chocolate.

What a great day! Saw lots of motorcycles on the road today. It's still a bit chilly for me but I can't lie, I'm getting antsy to feel the wind in my pigtails. The Fatboy is singing, but I'm trying my best to ignore him...the robot needs me now.

So stay tuned, The Giant Wiggler is coming soon to a screen near you!