Daffodils, salix discolor*, and bargains

 Daffy-down-dilly has come to town
In her white petticoat and her yellow gown.

Daffodils are my favorite spring flower. The blossoms finally opened sometime in the early, early hours on Friday. They're about two weeks behind last year.

After the  torrential rain on April 18 I couldn't even get to the parking lot at the Camp Logan unit of Illinois Beach State Park due to flooding.  This picture, taken April 27, shows the path that we often take when we walk in those woods -- there's still a lot of standing water.  



Salix discolor

(*Salix discolor is the Latin name for this plant. The common name has a word that which some filtering software excludes, as I found out when I looked at my blog on my iPhone.  You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salix_discolor )
   

As I've written before, if I can't not buy fabric, then I need to be sure to get it at a bargain price.  I went to an estate sale on Friday.  The fabric was crammed onto storage shelves in the basement.  The sign said, "$2 per piece." I grabbed anything that looked like quilting cotton, rejected some very flimsy stuff, and filled a box.  I bargained the guy down to $40.

Back home, washed and dried, ready to press, measure, and fold.



TG&Y label--that's an Oklahoma dimestore chain ("turtles, girdles, and yo-yo's").



The final count:  92 yards -- at $40, that's .43 per yard.

I have a modest collection of bandannas for a someday quilt --these were .50 each at the estate sale. 

I used some of the estate sale fabric for the sashing for this sailboat quilt. The green pindot was just right.   This is a gift for a library staff member who is having a baby in June. (It's the first baby in the library "family" since anyone can remember.)  The all-staff baby shower is May 14 so I need to get this finished!  (You can see the companion sailboat quilt in this post.)             

See what other quiltmakers are up to this Design Wall Monday at Judy's Patchwork Times.