Rare Red and Raspberries

RED, I can't get enough of it!  Is it an obsession?  Yes and no.  Yes, I'm obsessed with finding bright red fabric only because I use a lot of red.  So it's not one of those bad obsessive behaviors unless you think having a fabric stash is bad.  And since a good red is getting harder to find I need to make sure I have enough to get me through the red fabric slump.  You never know it might be a few years before they come back in style.  The more muted color pallets are trending right now and when I do find a bright red in the new lines of fabric the print is not pleasing to my eye.  They are typically too big of a print or they have a print on them that is just a little too childish for me.  Before I tell you where most of these were purchased I wanted to tell you that Walmart has a few decent reds if you don't mind Walmart fabric.  I would rather have the good stuff but I have no issues with Walmart fabric.  I understand the chance I'm taking with it being a lower quality fabric.  The large white dot and the fabric beside it are both from Walmart.  $4.97 a yard.  A bargain!

I found the rest of them in two different Etsy shops.  Wading through Etsy can be a chore but here's how I did it.  On the main Etsy page there's a search bar.  I typed in "Red fat quarter bundle".  The results were not great.  But I skimmed through the images looking for bundles with fabrics that had smaller prints.  I didn't like the bundles curated by the shops but I knew if they had bundles of red they probably would have yardage or single FQ's of red.  Then I would click on the image of the bundle, then click on the shop name, this takes you to their shops main page where there will be another search bar for their shop.  In the shop search bar I would search, Red. From this search I found what I needed.

  Word of warning!  The three fabrics in the center of the picture below were all advertised as red and looked red.  From now on I'll double check the line of fabric to make sure they are really red.  These three fabrics are more of a coral color.  

I'm not a big fan of coral but I think I can work them into a scrappy quilt.  They will not make it into my favorite fabrics cabinet.  Instead their home will be in the other cabinet of misfits.

Speaking of Red, its that time of year again. Berry Picking!  Looks like I'm going to be doing some berry picking this week.  They aren't as plentiful as last year but it'll be enough to freeze some for cobblers and if there's more than I can use freezer I'll can some raspberry syrup.  Soon after these ripen the wild blackberries will be ready for picking.  

Wild berries are much smaller than store bought berries.  And they are loaded with seeds.  Mr. Podunk doesn't mind crunchy berries in his cobbler and jams.  The best thing about these little berries is they have a much richer taste than the big ones without berries.  The best wild fruit in my opinion is wild grapes.  They make the best jelly ever but they have one big seed in them.  That's okay because grapes are typically made into jelly not jam.  Jelly is made from the juice due to the skin being so tough.

So I guess I  better get my berry picking cloths on and get picking!