Mr. Mailman.....

and I can say that and be accurate, since I have a "Mr" as my mailcarrier on this rural route. Mr. Mailman brought me treasures this week, in the form of gifts from good friends in blogland *VBS* I feel so very blessed to know people like all of you. My new favorite mini quilt measures 5" X 6.5" and was a gift from Libby, of A Simple Girl. I'm just amazed at those tiny pieces, and feel so honored to have one of Libby's little treasures*VBS* Thank you again Libby! Even the envelope has polka dots...a favorite of mine!!!
 This lovely gem of a gift came from my dear friend Norma, of Random Stitches. It was a HUGE surprise!! Seems I won a giveaway...LOL It's extra long, and of such beautiful workmanship. It will hold many of my disappearing rulers and keep them from running away from me. Mr. Norma, known as the Great White Hunter, makes these beautiful items, what talent he has!! Thanks again, Norma, for thinking of me, and to both of you for my gift, I'll treasure it always. The week has flown by quickly, and I wish I could say I have accomplished alot, but I haven't. I've done some sewing, some cutting and alot of nothing in particular. My friend Jean has surgery,again, earlier this week, and dear friend Betsy was in Philly for her DGD's first birthday, so a quiet week for me. My eye is doing quite well. The vision isn't as good as it was the first days after the surgery, but still is such a huge improvement over before. I see the optho dr. again on Tuesday, hoping the eye has healed enough that he'll write a glasses presc.
I've been thinking,a lot, this past week, mostly about fabric. No doubt a person could write several books just about 'fabric'. I've been cutting scraps, which occupies my hands but not my mind. I find my mind drifting back to where each piece (christmas in this case) came from. What company made it, and possibly what year. Going back into the early 1980's, "collections" were just beginning to make an appearance on the shelves. There were no quilt stores near my location, and most of my fabric came from Ben Franklin dime stores, which used to have a really nice selection of both bolted and flatfold fabric. Because so much of what I've bought over the years, and what is in my stash, ISN'T part of a "collection" from a particular designer, I often refer to whose line of fabric it was, i.e. Marcus Brothers, RJR, VIP, Cranston,Alexander Henry and the like.
Before collections, what was available was the same fabric in many colors, but not necessarily with any companion pieces. In my Christmas scraps, in the Monday post, you probably can see a fabric with white swans. It's a VIP and I had it blue, red and dark green.
My favorite (of all time)Christmas fabric peeks out at you from the first picture in Monday's post....the lime green with snowflakes and a very funny looking Santa. I wish I could explain the attraction of that particular fabric, but I can't. I just love it, and it makes me smile and almost laugh every time I see it. I have very little of it left, but I put in as many of my scrap quilts as I can....I'm sure some of you long time quilter know that feeling. It somehow connects me to days gone by, home, family and happiness.
 All that was to lead up to this strange piece of Christmas fabric. It's a scrap of Alexander Henry fabric. Betsy bought it for me, because of it's western theme. I've had a cowboy quilt on my 'someday' list for a long time. The piece you are seeing is the bulk of the scrap. On Tuesday I cut the rest of the scrap away, leaving as much of this particulr scene as I could. I've decided I want to add a checkboard border and make a little quilt to hang over my kitchen sink. When at the sink, which isn't often, I have a blank wall ahead of me, except for the clock. Well, the clock will be moving! This piece doesn't "hit me" quite as well as the lime green santa fabric, but it's close