Where Are My Pants?

I took this photo off our 2011 kitchen calendar, which shows vintage illustrations of magicians and psychics. I loved this little devil holding up his question to the clairvoyant, and I admit that's how I've been feeling lately.  

I spent the last week at Vanderbilt University, preparing for a grant application with a colleague, and my head has just been a-spin with that and other non-sewing related things. I managed to leave my very expensive Bose noise-canceling headphones in my hotel room when I left for my 6am flight. Fortunately, the hotel found them and is returning them to me, at my expense, of course. I figure it's just a matter of time before I am asking "Where are my pants?"
While I was in Nashville I did have a bit of time to myself. I made a trip to Textile Fabric, which is a very nice but supremely expensive fabric store. For example, Echino linen/cotton was going for $29 per yard - yikes!  Cotton yardage ran for around $12-13 per yard. I did get a bit of fabric that I haven't seen in Canada, but I didn't use the budget I had allotted. At that price, I didn't feel the need to stock up. I found an amazing used bookstore in Hillsboro Village, where I picked up a couple of quiltish books. The first one was this HST book from 1987.

Interestingly, it is based partly on The Sense of Order, the 1704 book by the French monk Dominique Douat, who figured out all the possible combinations of light and dark half-square triangles. This book has an interesting adaptation of this infinite permutation. Here is a page where four HSTs are assembled to show many different combinations. I thought it was interesting how the author talked about making personalized blocks based on a numerological adaptation. For example, if your birthday is October 3, 1985, you might make a complex block using blocks 10, 3, 19 and 85. Imagine making a HST quilt that was all a top secret coded message!

I also bought this book on needlecraft inspired by the work of Rennie Mackintosh. Gorgeous photos and some great inspiration for applique made along the lines of that Tile Quilt book that came out last year sometime.

When I returned home, I found a great lot of loot from Sherri, to whom I had sent some giveaway swag a few months ago. Look at this pile of vintage buttons, Dresden plate segments, yoyos,etc. What you can't see, because I piled other stuff on top, are a couple of issues of The Workbasket, one from 1958 and one from 1970. Great stuff!

Before I left, I dropped my machine off for cleaning and routine service. I can't wait to pick it up and get to work!