This vintage quilt (maker and date made: unknown), Love in a Tangle, Snowball, Windmill, was part of an exhibit of orange quilts at Road to California 2009. It is believed to have once been all the same shade of orange. I like the spontaneous, carefree feel that uneven dye fading on old quilts gives, as well as when the quilt-maker ran out of one particular fabric and finished the quilt with whatever she had on hand.

I have fond childhood memories of snuggling under quilts at my grandparents’ farmhouse in northern Minnesota, and although I can’t recall the shape of the blocks themselves, I distinctly remember noticing that some fabrics “didn’t match”. Today, this mismatched casualness is one of the things I enjoy most about quilt-making. Of course, since I’m not into matchy-matchy, this necessitates a larger fabric stash, but that’s part of the fun!

I bought this marvelous assortment of vintage silk kimono fabric pieces, 22 in all, at Maeda Importing. Opening the package, I felt like a magician pulling an endless string of silk hankies out of a hat because there only appeared to be half that many pieces in the bag. These will be fun to play with when I want to make special little treasures from my Kumiko Sudo books.

Kahn Fagan was a new Road vendor this year where I got some wonderful vintage beads. Above, left to right, 1st three strands: West Germany, post World War II, probably Berlin glass; 4th strand: Bohemia, Post World War II; 5th strand: Japan 1940s-1950s, possibly Cherry brand. I’m planning to make earrings with these beads. Below, Czech seed beads, 1950s-1960s for embellishing quilts and making jewelry.

Still more Road adventures to come! =(^_^)=