Fabric Obsessed

As you may have guessed, I have recently been re-infected with a very serious affliction.  Fabric Obsession/Compulsion.  I can no longer help but steal moments out of my work day to lust after various sewing blogs and DIY projects.  I spend my lunch break at work searching for vintage dress patterns, fabric sales, and even craft give-aways on craigslist.  My daydreams revolve around what I'm going to do to certain Salvation Army dresses to make them the perfect outfit.  Will I hike up this hem?  Could I lower that neckline?   How sweet would that dress be with red tights, mary janes and a wide headband? I literally drool over these thoughts.  Even now, I'm debating whether or not I have enough time to drop by the thrift store that's going out of business and is just five minutes out of my way if drop by before I go home...  My name is Megan, and I have a problem.

The double problem is that, like everything else I do, I have gotten so excited about the idea of making my own clothes and re-purposing vintage items, I have not actually finished my current project.  I am supposed to be in the final(-ish) phases of making a personal quilt.  And this is not just any quilt.  This is a marital quilt.  Well, ok, sort of a premarital quilt since I am moving into my fiance's house sometime this fall and we're not actually getting married until May.  But the quilt does not have a den-of-sin motif, more like a rainbow-of-our-love motif.  At least that's what I think I was going for.  It's pretty simple in terms of pattern-- just the plain 12 inch squares (and rather hodge-podge at that), but there are lots of memories sewn into it.  There's the striped sweater piece I wore when I used to work at the bookstore all the time, the green fabric from the hippie dress I got at Penny Lane and wore all through high school, the screen-printed t-shirt I made while working at a summer camp in Maine that has a line of a Mary Oliver poem on it.  This poem actually:

When the Roses Speak, I Pay Attention

“As long as we are able to be extravagant we will be

Hugely and damply extravagant. Then we will drop

Foil by foil to the ground. This is our unalterable task,

And we do it joyfully.”

And they went on. “Listen,

The heart-shackles are not, as you think,

Death, illness, pain,

Unrequited hope, not loneliness, but

Lassitude, rue, vainglory, fear, anxiety, selfishness.”

Their fragrance all the while rising from their blind bodies, making me

Spin with joy. 

Isn't that lovely?  I think so.  She has another called Praying that I think is just wonderful too.

Praying

 It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

 Nice, right?  Anyway, I'm supposed to be concentrating on finishing this quilt for my future husband and I, and I want to, believe me I do, but I also want to start my dress patterns, and shorten the vintage dress I bought last year and still haven't worn, and I definitely want to stop by the clearance thrift shop.  I'm not a total quilting failure though.  I did get the entire front and back of the quilt assembled, including the gorgeous gray and rose border, so really it's just a matter of assemblage and, you know, the actual quilting part.  How hard could that be, right?  Right?  I promise: pictures soon.