Bolt

  I've only ever once bought a whole bolt of fabric ever.  And really it wasn't even the whole bolt. Back  then, SIL Joyce was buying pretty close to a whole bolt so I said, "what the heck? I'll take the rest."  That was many, years ago when I was first starting to quilt and I've never done it again.  Until now.

I bought a bolt of horse blanket

 I'm not sure how to explain it.  There is/was a cute shop in town that sold some antiques, some upholstery fabrics, trims, buttons, some new chotchkies, a little of everything and we loved it.  I tried not to go in TOO often because I'd come home with something.  The grand girls went there exclusively to find something for their mom's birthday and Christmas and as she walked out for the last time Adelaide cried.  We will miss this place.

Anyway, when I found out they were closing I stopped in a few times.  I had my eye on this bolt of horse blanket because come on, when do you see a bolt of horse blanket? And what would a person who doesn't have a horse do with a bolt of horse blanket?  It didn't matter. I kept stroking it and decided it had to have the headache test.  Headache test:  when I see something that's unique and keeps drawing me in I ask myself "When you get home will you have a bigger headache if you DIDN'T buy it or if you DID? " One of those kinds of things.  A missed chance kind of thing.  How often do you see a bolt of something this cool?  And unique?  And cool?  And no, I had no idea what I'd do with it when I got it home.  But I had to be the one to take it home.

Because the shop owner knew me and because she was closing shop she gave it to me for a song. I wrestled it out to the car - it weighed as much as a ten year old.

Daughter loves plaid.  It reminds her of her school year at St. Andrews in Scotland so I called her.  She came to inspect and decided whatever, she would find a use for some of it.  

She has a small room.  She measured the room and decided cutting two 90 inch lengths would fit nicely as a rug. The bolt is 42 inches wide.  Cutting two pieces 90 inches long and seaming them together with carpet heat seam tape would make a nice sized rug.

So I spent a couple of nights sleeping on the hows. It is tightly and densely woven. I zig zagged the edges (no, I don't have a serger) to control the ravel, ordered 2 inch cotton twill tape, cut it to length for the cut edges, ironed it in half, pinned it on and miracles of all miracles my little machine handled the binding beautifully. 

Two 90 inch pieces are now cut with edges bound. 

On noodle making day I took it  over to daughter's house so we could combine the two pieces. Everything matched perfectly, but of course it would.

We think it looks great and is surprisingly comfy to walk on.   

Now, what to do with the rest of the bolt !?!?