Back in 1987, when I first jumped on the speed piecing / machine quilting bandwagon, a local shop sold yard goods. You've seen them I'm sure, places where folds of fabric are stacked in colorful array, but content is sometimes questionable. The sales clerk assured me the white fabric was indeed 100% cotton. After assemply, attempts at machine quilting verified, that no, it was not. Blends will bunch and pucker and fight you all the way. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. This is one quilt that I do wrap furniture in when moving.
How do you protect yourself from such a mishap? One way is to buy a small swatch or fat eighth if possible. Turn your iron all the way up, lay a piece of freezer paper on your ironing board, and press the fabric on top of the freezer paper. If it melts in any way, it's a blend. Cotton and flax are plant fibers, they will burn to an ash if you put a match to them. Anything with man made fiber will melt or glop up in some fashion.
I have learned to rely more on the "hand" or feel of a fabric. Some finishes can fool you though, especially Moda brand, which have that slick glossy coating. When tearing fabric to straighten the grain, blend fabric will resist and be harder to tear. Blends receive dye differently and often have a shinier surface. Also, check the bolt end, but don't rely on it. Fabric can be rewound on different bolts or mislabeled. By educating yourself on brand names (which can be found on the fabric), fabric lines, and thread content, you'll learn to make wise choices and avoid investing in unusable fabric.
Until then, keep stitchin' . . .
Considering that there may be a soldier of the feminine gender who has a deep love of purple, I finished this one thusly. 
Do you remember last year when Patti shared with us that wonderful tutorial on Crumb Chaos Blocks or Mile-A-Minute blocks? I was very impressed with her ability to use up so many of her crumbs. 
This is what happens when you try to clean up a project box. Too many need pieces and parts. Finally, I managed to focus on just one project tonight. 
Some quilts need to evolve over time. Not because there are other quilts to make (well okay, maybe a little), but collecting a variety of colors does not happen overnight. The bright yellow square is from the 1970s and in the second row, on the right, is a small flowered print with black background that was left over from an Easter outfit I made in 1979. 
Bit by bit, block units have been sewn together over time and were tucked away in a box . . . or 2. Recently I decided it's time to begin my next American chain quilt. Oh the excitment of seeing it all come together. Finally.
Dear friend Louise was kind enough to take the pre-trimmed sashings, borders, and squares home recently in order to assemble one of the last QOV projects. We're almost done folks!
