Another reason I love the south.
There are things that bloom all the way up to the first frost, which hasn’t happened yet. It may be just around the corner, but not quite yet. I keep pleading….please….not quite yet. Let me enjoy this beauty as long as I can.
Over the past couple of weeks these buds started to open. Just a few at first, then day by day, like some kind of alternate springtime, the blossoms are now covering the bush in my front yard, blanketed underneath by the ever growing pile of leaves falling from tall trees.
The contrast is quite amazing, isn’t it? The dry crunch of leaves underfoot, the end of their season. And these abundant blooms beautiful in their lacy whiteness. Two opposites. Beginnings and endings.
Is there a life lesson in here? Likely.
But I don't want to think too hard. I just want to enjoy it before it all goes away. Beautiful blooms on a backdrop of autumn leaves. I love it.
Harder to see here with the light…but it is just covered!
To me this is a promise. Spring will be back again. Give it 6 months! [heaving a sigh of impatience!]
While I’ve neglected things on the outside during the 6 week span of order shipping to date, other creatures have been busy with their own endeavors under the eaves of the front porch.
Great! My Halloween decorating is DONE!
I just never looked up and saw this until yesterday either. I’m leaving it until I get back from Houston. It’s kind of cool in it’s authentic webby-ness. Perfect for the season. HA!
Speaking of Halloween, I mentioned last night on Quilt-Cam that I thought I left my Halloween pumpkin table runner at the cabin. I couldn’t find it anywhere in the sewing stuff I brought home. But guess what I found this morning moving a stack of fabric from another tote?
YEP!
If everything goes as planned today: Haircut at 11am, mani/pedi later in early evening. [Don’t want to give myself enough time to mess up my nails before going to bed so suitcase/quilts and all other Market stuff will be all packed before I go for the mani/pedi] I may have time early afternoon to load this in the machine and get it quilted. I can take it with me and bind it on the plane to Houston. It MAY get finished BEFORE Halloween. If the stars align today.
Excerpts from last night’s Quilt-Cam [now archived under the Quilt-Cam Tab at the top of the blog!] was what to do with these:
Hello? the 1990s called and want their quilted patchwork vests back!!
I pulled these out of the closet after searching for what I want to pack for Houston. WHY am I holding on to these? Do you have these in your closet, too? And…can you still fit in them? LOL The one on the right is a bolero style and it is so snug it must have shrunk several sizes while it hung in my closet!
I thought this was so impressive at the time! LOL!
We talked and laughed during Quilt-Cam with watchers sending in their photos of vests that hung in THEIR closets too. I guess it’s a QUILTER THING. We made it, therefore we must keep it, no matter how hysterical we would look if we tried to wear them out somewhere.
So super stylish!
But what can we do with them?
One suggestion was pot holders. LOL. Another was to maybe turn them into pet beds.
The crazy thing is, I still like most of these fabrics, but maybe not together this way. But I likely still HAVE some of these in my stash and I still feel free to use them however I please in scrap quilts, but likely not with each other ever, ever again.
So…what would YOU do with your 1990s quilted vests? And are they still lurking in the back of your closet waiting for the tides of fashion to turn around and bring them back in style?
Maybe I’ll hang on to them a few decades longer and put a stipulation in my will that they be cremated along with me so no one will have to worry about what to do with them after the fact.
Or maybe…we’ll just put them at the back of the chapel and hand them out as door prizes to folks on their way out!
One thing is for certain. Making these made me so happy. I remember that sense of accomplishment. I remember loving to wear them. And it was a good time to be a quilter when quilt-wear was the rage.
Found hanging on the wall at the Antique Mall the other day.
This was hanging behind a bunch of furniture and there was no way to get a better look at it, but I just LOVED those big splashy white polka dots on red. Who wouldn’t? I also love that the strips are random widths. And some strips are pieced from more than one fabric to make it work. I can see myself doing another one of these for some simple brainless sewing. Wouldn’t it be great out of recycled fabrics?
I used this photo for today’s inspiration:
Quiltville Quote of the Day!
I find this so very true! Except maybe when it comes to those 1990s patchwork vests! HA!
Tonight I am drawing for the lucky winner of the Shift Happens Gift-Away! Did you enter?
Also, I haven’t heard from Norma Sterbenz, the winner of our October Quilty-Box. Norma, I’m giving you until I return home from Houston on the 31st to get back to me with your snail mail address. I’m also sending you another email. If I haven’t heard from you by the time I get back from Houston, we will draw a NEW WINNER on November 1st!
Have an awesome Wednesday everyone.
31 comments:
I have repurposed table toppers into zippered pouches and tote bags. Could do the same with the vests.
Looking all pretty. Loving the blooms♥
Is that a magnolia? It's beautiful. Mine only blooms in the early spring here in northern Missouri.
What about using on the back of one of your special quilts? Memory Quilt. Would certainly add to the memories of yesteryear. poladydwd(at)yahoo(dot)com
I iknew I would never wear a quilted vest so I didn't make one - how about pot holders?
I too was thinking the back of a quilt, but I kinda like the zipper pouch idea. It could become part of your travel apparel.
My gardenias are blooming and the fragrance is wonderful! Who knew-it's almost November and these lovelies are right beside my back door. Love it!
I was a Kindergarten teacher many years and made all the "teacher" vests and aprons and whatever else. They have all gone to Goodwill. Hopefully, another teacher will find them--and then probably say, "Whaaaat!" hehehe:)
gonecoastal2@att.net
A salvage blocks section would be beautiful on the back of one of your quilts. After all, you are the queen of de-boning shirts!
Why not make your vests into memory bears? You will have a way to keep them and also some really cute bears. Either that our save them for an ugly Christmas sweater party.
Your quote today reminds me of how the internet affects us… making us want what we don't have but "need" because everyone else has it… and after all we can have it too with just the click of a button.
Use them for Halloween costumes! Then recycle!
Bonnie, thank you for reminding me to look outside. Recovrring from surgery limits our view. Be sure to have an ugly vest contest with a party or with quilters. They are really fun. Thanks for sharing your life with us. Have a wonderful time st Market.
Diane, Riverton, Utah3
Your positivity is remarkable. Looking outside and finding spider webs should be a negative but you turn it right into a positive with 'it's perfect for the season'. I think that's one of the many reasons you have such a big following...especially to those of us who have lived in/with negativity since birth. Blessings to you.
If you no longer want those quilted vests, give them to some homeless persons. They would love them. Remember the story of Joseph's coat of many colors! While you are fortunate to be able to shop for some style in your clothes, others can not always afford their needs and would appreciate the warmth.
I have a feeling that a bunch of your followers would love to get their hands on a Bonnie vest! What about raising money for a charity/cause by raffling off the vests? That would get it so you never have to stress about them again (or cringe) and someone else would get their own Bonnie memorabilia. Just a thought from Albany Oregon.
Your today's quote has been hanging on my bathroom mirror for about the last 15 years.
Beauty is where you find it. You are always a Positive poster for my morning Facebook scrolling. Thank you! I made a Flannel Quilted Jacket. I think I've worn it a few times. LOL. I also have a Halloween Vest made from a panel. I think my Costume is ready for the Trunk or Treat. Have a great last day before Market. Oh to be a fly on the walls of the Houston Market...
I think either zippered bags for cosmetics or stuffed animals, like teddy bears and donate to police departments for kids in accidents and things, that is where my mind goes to for upcycling the quilted vests.
Everything is a song reference for me lately.....your post about your quilted vests reminded me of a Barbara Mandrell song, except change the words........"I was a Quilter, when Quilting wasn't cool......" as if quilting was never cool! Yeah right! LOL
Yes, there are a couple quilted vests lurking somewhere in my house. Will I ever wear them again? Probably not, but I still really like them. What to do? What to do?
go to any large quilt show and you'll still see people wearing them. I just chuckle when I see them. :)
We have new raspberries growing on the vines (outside of Chicago). We'll see if they turn red or not. We've already had a freeze, earlier this week. I missed the quilted vest phase, since I didn't start quilting till 2001, but, I do have a couple of the vest patterns, that have been given to me over the years.
How about pilloes! They are gorgeous. Are those camellia blossoms?
I figure they'll come back on style someday. My granddaughters will be thrilled to have authentic vests and a jacket! Blessings, Gretchen villacrestfarm@gmail.com
My Mom made my quilted vest for my 30th birthday, so 1983. I was an oncology nurse and wore it to work frequently, my patients loved. It is still hanging in the back of my closet, reminding that my Mom loved me enough to make this puffy thing for me.
Blooms look like they could be Hibiscus. Really pretty to see them this late. I still remember one late fall when I found a rose bloom encased in ice while waiting early one morning for the school bus. Such unexpected beauty!
That is a sasanqua camellia, they bloom in the fall and in the winter too. Japonica camellias bloom in the spring and summer. : ) I love to keep a sasanqua camellia "Yuletide" for its red blooms at Christmas.
My pink camellia is at my kitchen window and I enjoy seeing it everyday. It's loaded with buds.
About those vests Open them up at the sides and add panels there to make them bigger. I do this anytime I have a top that I just can't give up on. I have a couple of shirts that I have taken the sleeves off, deepened the arm hole and used the sleeves to enlarge the side panels. Or you could add them to the back of a quilt. That would make for an interesting story at trunk shows. Crazy I know, but you asked for ideas.
The fashion reached all the way to Australia, i have two crazy patchwork vests...one in green and red furnishing fabrics and the other in cream satins and other cream glam fabrics. Both are embroidered and beaded, very stylish :-)
I quite like Lin's suggestion (first in Comments) to make zippered bags, Thats if i can bring myself to cut them up. They both still fit as i made the extra large to go over the boxy linen shirts i favoured then.
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