Thursday, January 31, 2008

Slow News Day


There was another onslaught of abundant, unlooked-for, and not-entirely-wanted free fabric this week. Three boxes full, mostly odd scraps in odd weights and in the styles of yesterdecade, it washed up at work somehow. Since I have somehow become known as the hatchetman of scrap fabric, it fell to me to get rid of it. I spent all Wednesday evening washing, pressing, and sorting this crap. Probably not the highest use of my time, but -- I'll admit it -- weirdly satisfying.


One box of larger chunks will move on to SCRAP, a highly cool non-profit here in the City of Roses that is my fabric donation destination of choice. One garbage can full of the dregs will go to Oregon Waste Management, Inc., with the rest of the household trash. That only leaves about 500 piles all over my studio floor, some of which might eventually end up in regular scrap quilts, some of which might work for the "QuiltStorm" project I mentioned briefly last time, and some of which may end up being useable in other folk-style or utility quilts. The place looks like a dry cleaners exploded.


It's a Ring!

The other piece of news is that the "Quilt Blogs by Men" BlogRing has literally doubled in size since the last post!!! That's right: now there are TWO blogs on the ring. Thanks to Feed Dog for signing up.


Now, for all those other male quilt bloggers out there.... of which there must be one or two.... right...? Hello...? Guys....?


OK, that's enough. I'll be back sometime this weekend with a bona fide quilt-related post. Promise.

10 comments:

Featheronawire Sally Bramald said...

You should write to Ricky Tims et al to get this 'guy' thing going. Whilst there are fewer men out there in the quilt world, they tend to get a higher profile.

SuBee said...

Don't forget about Joe Cunningham!
You know, it doesn't look so much like a dry cleaners explosion as Goodwill --- LOL - having been the victim of a few dumps like that, I know the feeling!

Rebel said...

Umm... I think you need three blogs to constitute a 'ring' otherwise it's just a chain. But... YAY! Boys-only blog chain! Very fun.

Yeah, free fabric is a mixed blessing, lots of potential, but you've got to do some digging to get to it.

atet said...

Oh yeah, and don't forget Mark Lipinksi in terms of male quilters. Love the fabric finds -- and yes, I can see where it might be soothing.

Unknown said...

You do seem to have quite the rep as a scraphound. I picked up a 99-cent bundle of assorted scraps from a thrift shop this morning 'cause I liked one of the fabrics, and one of the completely nondescript other fabrics turned out to be a big compass medallion inside out! It's a cool find, but I haven't the faintest idea what to do with it (it's not my taste, but it looks good otherwise). I couldn't bin it. Maybe charity's a good plan....

Oh, and I know Mark Lipinski keeps a blog--I'll try to get him to join the ring next time we're in touch!

jovaliquilts said...

There are not many male quilters out there, but I just had the rare pleasure of meeting one. His wife quilts, and he decided to give it a try after an illness prevented more strenous activities. He got hooked. Doesn't like piecing (my favorite part), but absolutely loves the quilting and is doing a lot of our Project Linus quilts.

Rebel said...

M5K, I'm intrigued by* the idea of Quilt Storm. How would you feel about a little competition...put it out in the blog-o-sphere to see how many functional scrap quilts one could make in a month (or a week or other arbitrarty length of time. There could be awards for 'best use of ugly fabric', 'most 80s', etc. Think about it.

(and by "intrigued by" I mean, "going to steal for my own purposes")

Libby said...

I get so jealous just reading quilt blogs these days...scrap quilts, joy!! I've actually gotten my hands on a sewing machine, now if I can just get the tension to work...

Anonymous said...

Hey Mike,
I joined the Male Quilting Blog Ring....I need to get the link on my site, and I could use your help I think....
did I beat out Mark Lipinski? You know we men are so damn competitive!!
Looking forward to the fun! If this old man can keep up...I don't post as often as some, but I am trying to post more...

Unknown said...

I totally appreciate the Shout-out. I did recycle that quilt pieces/upholstry samples. I thought that it would be fun, and conviently pre-size and pre-cut.
Cheers
Sara