Okay, I warn you now this is a little long, but it's a "Never say never" Tale.
DH and I spent a long wkend in Salt Springs, FL[close to Ocala] at our friends' lake cottage they loaned to us [great friends!]. It is also not far from DeLand, Fl. home of 2 great institutions-Stetson University and Judy Hansen's Quilt Shop of Deland -
http://quiltshopofdeland.com/. She is also a fabric designer and teacher. I wanted some of her Christmas Memories fabric and I wanted to visit her shop. When I checked her website I saw there was to be a trunk show that day with Marcia Layton [Marseeuh, not Marsha]. Something about yoyos...well I have raised 2 boys and frufru is not my style, but hey to each his/her own. Yoyos have always said frufru or 1930s to me-no idea where they really fit, just not my taste. Off I went to Judy's shop with my budget amount firmly in mind.
When I got there it was "Hello, sit down, would you like to make a pin cushion?" Well, didn't want to be rude, and you can always use another pin cushion, right? Let me say up front, while I have been wanting to find some type of handwork, knitting and crochet, although I have a working knowledge-don't appeal to me here in Florida, and when handsewing skills were being handed out mine were given to someone else. [Does anyone on the board have mine, because I could surely use them!]
Well there I was making a pin cushion with a Clover yoyo maker and hmmm this is kinda fun..."Wait, those are cute fabric flowers, Judy made those-well they aren't frufru, and I can think of some ways to use them for small gifts, and I could make our cheerleaders some cute hairbows--WAIT, would you listen to me???!!!! I'll just take a couple of pictures if that's okay... Oh, Marcia's going to talk about her wall hangings, well now I can see how I could adapt the 'Harvest Road' one to my taste, I've been wanting to make another fall wall hanging, whimsical but not frufru..."
Needless to say, I had to do some fancy financial thinking [no mani/pedi in my near future, on sale bathing suit or other quilt spending...] and walked out with 6 [count 'em 6!!!] yoyo makers [hey we nonhandsewing types need help!] some fat quarters that were not Christmas Memories [21 or more and they were $1.75 couldn't ignore that now could I ?!, and I didn't need that many Christmas fat quarters!], thread and some embroidery scissors that have been on my wish list. Hey, the lake cottage was amazing, but no TV, cell and very little weak Wifi that my iphone couldn't even pick up so I wanted something besides reading material and old movies for the evening and the long periods it rained almost every day. Sitting on the screened porch working on my project watching the rain or the wildlife was awesome! I've since added to my extended budget purchasing and am going to make 2 wall hangings the fall one and a similar one for spring...
Check out Marcia Layton's website
http://www.marcialaytondesigns.com/ turns out she is from Tampa, right across the bridge from me! She has several great patterns and ideas, and also has a book about making many different types of quilting projects using handprints, embellishments etc, great for grandkids, young school groups etc. check her out!
So the moral of this story is never say never, there is a way to adapt many different types of projects to your own taste-not all but many; of course this means I've added to my "Lord you know I need another 50+ years to make all of these projects, right?" List... bucket list nothing, I'm up to wheelbarrow... :thumbup: