Went looking for color and found...

About this time of year I feel the pangs of hunger for color. Starving, really.
A few years back my symptoms were so evident Jerome had to take action. He discovered the delights of a tiny powerhouse of color, the Oak Park Conservatory., and quickly drove us there for a visit. Not having a conservatory handy out here in the driftless region, I did the next best thing and bought an African violet from my local florist, and on my monthly trip to the big cities last Friday, two primroses from Home Depot, and a lovely little Phalaenopsis orchid from Walmart!
The tag on this orchid read Just Add Ice Orchids. The instructions actually read, "Water with 3 ice cubes once a week." There's even one of those QR codes on the label to watch a video! Jeesh, everyone's getting into that act. Sometimes I feel so left out not having a phone to read them with! Like some secret society I'm not a part of...
 But before I even arrived in Onalaska, I stopped at a tiny quilt shop in LaCrosse called River Road Quilts (situated inside Nelson Flag and Display) and found these beautiful pieces from the Moda collection, Morris and Co. designed by Barbara Brackman based on prints by William Morris.

Then Saturday's post brought my order from Connecting Threads, 4 lovely spools of thread and several pieces of Quilters' Candy nearly solids. They proved to be a warmup for the real feast which I had the next day in Madison.

If you notice on the sidebar of this blog, one of the links I have to women whose work I admire is to Jennifer Chiaverini. Sunday she presented a trunk show at Mill House Quilts in Waunekee, a "suburb" of Madison and one of the nicest quilt shops you could ever find. Jennifer lives in Madison and has a long standing relationship with Mill House. Her novel series, Elm Creek Quilts, is one I love to read and reread. Jennifer is not only a talented author, but a beautiful quilter. Her trunk show included all of the quilts in her latest how to book, Traditions from Elm Creek Quilts, which Jerome gave me for Christmas. I had her autograph it for me! Each of the quilts in that book was constructed using the fabrics from her collections for Red Rooster Fabrics.
Here she is standing in front of Caroline's Quilt made with the fabrics in the Caroline collection.This is the newest quilt she has designed.

(I took this photo very quietly while she was looking down so as not to distract her.)
The event was lovely, 50 ladies enjoying pastries, cheese and crackers, coffee, lemonade and door prizes, none of which I won, but we all were given 2 fat quarters from Red Rooster and a pattern for this lovely Caroline's quilt.

 Of course, before the presentation, I had arrived in plenty of time to do some shopping.

Keeping in mind things I already had at home, I chose a few lovelies that would work on many levels.
I had printed a map from Mill House to another lovely quilt shop in Madison called Stitchers Crossing, which I planned to visit before making my 2 hour drive back before dark. They were having a Souper Bowl Sunday event, bring a soup can for the hungry and shop their sale.

You can see I had no trouble finding some beauties to bring home.
Yesterday I snipped swatches from all my new fabrics for my 3 X 5 notecards then washed, dried, and in some cases ironed the pieces, folding them in groups, adding them to my stash, and leaving some out as a feast for these color hungry eyes.
Such riches. Just thinking about all the possibilities they represent gives me shivers of delight. Perhaps they'll find their way into gifts that travel many miles from this midwest farmhouse....