Clam shells

For those who were wondering what a curvaceous square would be...here it is. The clam shell is one of my favorite quilt patterns. I've used it in small mats and tea cosies several times. I could explain my liking by saying it connects me to both coasts of Canada. But I think it's really because it is curvy. And I can put almost any color combination in and it looks good. Sometimes, I outline the shells but this time I wanted the greens to blend like a spring wood.

I started the color search with a beautiful piece of green wool. Nothing I had on the shelves matched, of course, and so I overdyed some tweeds to get a similar green. I just made up the dye formula and it worked pretty well, I think. I used a very small herringbone in gray/white, a tiny houndstooth check in black/white and a cream/grey/gold tweed. I decided that I needed five fabrics and chose a grey/green sweater wool which balanced not only color but also texture.

This is number 3 for the swap - just in case anyone's counting.

Hidden assets

Finally, there are doors on this cupboard. It all started in August with a sight-seeing trip to IKEA : before I knew it all my rug-hooking wool was nestled happily in large wire baskets. My quilt fabric stash was tidily put away and my workroom was so-o serene. But it still looked very cosy and colorful because there were no doors on the storage unit. They were back-ordered. After waiting patiently for a phone call, we became fearful that the doors had gone out of production or something. But, the truth was worse: they'd cancelled our order! Policy after 30 days - no one told us.

Cut to the chase: we found the doors, had them delivered and hung them on Saturday morning. They do a great job of hiding everything but are not nearly as soft and warm-looking as the baskets of wool. I will get used to the look - eventually.