The thing about belonging to this crafting, sewing, quilting community is we are bombarded, constantly, with inspiration and ideas.
The sound of thunder and a steady rain early this morning started my day. A quick glance at the radar map showed a heavy storm over top of my immediate area, as well as lots more headed over from the west.
Perfect. I could, in between the rain showers and lightening crackles, walk the dog, complete some early morning chores, and eventually, sit for a few uninterrupted hours at the sewing machine.
However, after I plugged in the laptop and grabbed a Coke, I was instantly caught up in reading about and seeing the creativity of some of my friends.
Wendi, who lives a hop skip and a jump from my children's school, had just posted about a new pattern she secretly tested this week for her daughter Amanda.
Wendi's quilt, made from Amanda's pattern, Treasure Hunt, and with tons of saturated Anna Maria Horner fabrics, is inspiration number one this morning. The PDF can be purchased from Amanda's online store Westwood Acres.
The second piece of inspiration comes from my online friend, Erica, whom I started following a year ago. We like the same things - bright, colorful, happy fabrics.
Straightaway, I was drawn to the scrappy vibrant hues used for this block. It's also easy - being strip-pieced on phone book pages and made from random width scraps! One which BabyBird and BigP and I could make together this summer. Quality sewing time with my two + easy + scrap usage = winner!
Two new additions to my ever growing "Quilts, Inspiration, and Fabric" Board on Pinterest. Thanks ladies!!
If I'm going to sew, I need to leave the computer. Happy Friday!
As I've mentioned previously, I'm really good about starting projects. Terrible about finishing them.
Example: These piles of 2.5" strips. Halloween fabrics and coordinating others collected over MANY years. Some from JoAnn's. Some from Hancock's. Some from Walmart. Some good ones from A&E.
I cut them because I was inspired by this:
Riel's Scrappy Strippy Halloween Quilt was simple. It was colorful. It was bright. It used Halloween fabrics. It was EARLY October 2011. Sure, I could do this. Sure, it would be finished by Halloween. No problem.
However, my quilting world is never that neat or quick. Those strips have lingered.
I keep meaning to get back to them, but something else always catches my attention.
I rifled through them numerous times this past September and October when I was making Trick-or-Eek! bags.
I pulled some of them out for our guild's, ECMQG, 1 year anniversary scrap swap challenge. Leslie made me a fantastic table runner!
I pulled from them again two weeks ago when I was creating this little presentation bag for the mini-quilt I entered in a quilt show.
Heck, they were my go to fabrics when I pieced those mini-quilts, Fright Night, for L, and Monste-Madness for Jean.
So they're being used. Just not as I originally thought.
However, I am trying to get back to that original inspiration. See? (Ok, I need to rotate that picture.)
A little bit each week. And maybe, just maybe, I'll have a large, bright, scrappy, strippy Halloween quilt this year.
We'll see.
