Friday, August 31, 2012

A folly of fabric

Years ago, a quilting friend and I came up with the idea of "a folly of fabric" as a way to describe our purchasing habits. The definition might be something like the following:

folly n. A unit of measure connoting the amount of happy excess added to one's fabric stash with each new purchase.

Mathematically, I think a folly would be a function of the variables N and T, with N denoting the amount of fabric purchased, and T the chances of using said fabric within what remains of one's natural lifetime. Perhaps the simple ratio of N : T would provide sufficient definition.

After the three-guild meet-up in Seattle earlier this month, I definitely returned with a folly of fabric:


Thanks to a combination of mail order and in-person shopping, I brought back a big pile of batiks, some lively and fun children's prints, a range of beautiful Japanese yukata fabrics, a gorgeous set of hand-dyed cottons by Vicki Welsh, and various other irresistibles. Although they're not visible in the photo, there are happy prints with gray elephants, little red mushrooms against a gray background, and a gray geometric that will go into the baby quilt that I'm planning. Work on that quilt will begin soon, once I finish binding my striped quilt.

By the way, did I mention that the African batiks that I ordered from Kallisti Quilts just arrived?

2 comments:

  1. I arrived home from Seattle with a folly of fabric myself! I look forward to seeing your red and grey baby quilt, those elephants are so cute!

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  2. Did any of us manage NOT to acquire a folly of fabric in Seattle? If so, we have some extremely disciplined quilters in our midst!

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