Had To

It had been weeks since I sewed. All invigorated from vacation and bursting with inspiration and one of those pesky ideas that just won't go away I had to get in my sewing room and sew. With just a cutting table and a couch I piled, cut, and started sewing. A few days later I had a sewing table and a design wall and three helpers constantly underfoot.

More on the sewing room next time.

For now, let's focus on my current obsession. An obsession it is. A million WIPS to finish, looming deadlines for articles, quilts, and more, and a house that still hasn't fully recovered from the holiday season. All of it thrown aside to work on this quilt.

It started with the Architextures line, a wonderful fat quarter bundle that Carolyn Friedlander herself sent me herself (she is such an awesome friend!) I had a concept in my head for some text letters too. Instead of using the whole line I decided to focus on a few specific colours: pink, navy, and orange.

A note on the colour focus. It wasn't until I was putting away our vacation laundry that I realized why I focused on these colours. Those were the colours I also packed for the trip. Seriously, all my clothes were navy, pink, or coral with neutrals thrown in. Funny.

So I shopped my stash for more low volume prints and a few darks. Then the rotary cutter came out and I started to hack it all up. This is both the terrifying and exciting part. I LOVE this line of fabric and it would be easy to hoard it. But I was giddy with my idea and wanted to get going.

And go I did. In between school pick-ups, swim lessons, play dates, construction, and interruptions I managed to get some letters pieced. And then some!

Touch and Talk (Visit Your Local Quilt Store Day Blog Tour)

Quilting is a tactile art. No matter how pretty something looks from afar, when you are cuddled with a quilt on the couch it needs to feel good wrapped around you.

Likewise, fabric needs to respond to your touch when you are cutting, sewing, pressing. Some fabrics are softer, drape more, or are even silky between your fingers. And those are just the quilting cottons! Quilt batting varies in drape and feel too. From brand to brand and between fiber content. Then you add the quilting and a new dimension of texture emerges. Not just texture you see, but something that rubs and nubs under your fingers and over your legs when the quilt covers you.

This tactile experience begins right when you buy the fabric. Standing the store, too many bolts piled under your arm. Picked for their colours, but when you start editing and dreaming you start to feel the fabric. Some will get discarded because they are too stiff and you aren't sure how much that will wash out. Some will seem too flimsy, seemingly ready to fall apart with a pull on a seam.

This tangible beginning to a quilt is only possible in a quilt store. (With no offense to the wonderful on-line fabric retailers out there.)

Just as quilting is tactile, it is also social. Blogs and more are wonderful for connecting quilters across the world. And for many in rural or remote locations, those surrounded by kids more than quilters, or sewists living in a world of athletes the internet is a fabulous thing indeed. I love my connections that started here. But I do quite enjoy getting into a store and chit chatting as I pull fabric. From the store gossip to the latest fabrics not quite put on the floor, building a relationship with the owners and employees builds more than a retailer relationship. Quilters are drawn together and are tied by a bond only cut by rotary cutter.

As confident as I feel in my choices, a second opinion is always good. It is a challenge to my own sensibilities at times, but always welcome. When shopping in the store it is wonderful to hear and see what someone else might do with that particular fabric. And I'll be the first to admit that there are a lot of good ideas out there, and they might indeed be better than mine.

I must admit that when I was a beginner I heavily relied on the local stores to guide me through challenges I was having. Bring in a WIP and nearly anyone in the store (employee or another customer) is almost always willing to offer insight, opinion, and a little lesson. And usually lots of laughs! Now, if you run into me in a store and you are looking for an opinion you can count on me to offer it, even if you didn't ask me!

Geez, now I really want to go visit my LQS, or the 5 that I am lucky enough to have within 15 minutes of me...

Traditional Pastimes
My Sewing Room
Out of Hand
Along Came Quilting
A Sewing Sensation

And on January 24th I encourage you to get and shop your LQS, wherever you may be. Load up the kids and make it a day trip if need be. Support Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day!

See more blog posts on the Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day Tour. A whole host of wonderful quilters are there extolling the virtues of their local shops. Between now and January 24th you can add your post too! I'd love to see where you all shop! There is even a photo contest with some great prizes.

See you at the store, fabric in hand. I promise a chat and a extra bolt of fabric in your pile.

Friday Favourites: Black Books

I cannot live without these two black books. They travel with me (both fit in my purse), they take up precious counter space, they define the days of my life.

Coil Bound Sketchbook 
Over the years I've learned that I am much better if I have only one notebook. At one point I had one for quilt sketches, one for article notes and interviews, one for doodles, and one just for my purse. It became a giant pain in the butt to keep track of their locations at any given time and to search for an idea I had that one time. Now I keep one book only, this one. It holds all my ideas for quilts, articles, books, home renos... All in one place.

Moleskine Weekly Planner
Sure, I've had a smart phone for years. When I worked full-time I lived by my linked phone and Outlook calendar. But to manage the home life, the phone messages, the to-do lists, knowing Hubby's out-of-town schedule, birthdays and more I came to rely more and more on a paper calendar. For the past few years this trusty Moleskine has been the repository of the written details of our lives. I love the weekly planner that has a calendar dates on one side and a blank page for notes facing it. Perfect for capturing everything, including my blog schedule!

Put these two black books together and you have me. I don't keep a journal, but the collection of these two books will tell you more about me than any diary with a key.

Capturing Inspiration

Just because I was on vacation, it doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about quilts. 

Confession: I brought some hand sewing with me, but it never left the bag.

When you are open to it, inspiration is everywhere. Even my daughters were getting in on it. They pointed out textures and colours that would make a good quilt. 

I try to capture all inspiration one way or another when I see something interesting. Sometimes I sketch it out. Just a rough doodle and a few notes. I put date and location on the sketch that act as a trigger for my memory. Quite often I take a picture. It doesn't have to be a perfect picture, if the colour is what matters then who cares if the focus isn't perfect. My cell phone - which does not have a good camera on it - is filled with images that serve as inspiration scrap book.

It is pretty much impossible that I will make all the quilts that these inspiration images conjure, but it is nice to have a bank of concepts. You never know when the right fabric will appear for one idea, or you need a quick quilt and can't decide what to make. Then there are the times where you just HAVE to make something because the inspiration is too strong. I don't know anything about that...

Here are the images from my trip that may or may not get translated into a quilt one day.

Texture, all about texture.

Colour and stripes! Plus that age and fraying.

Light and texture. This is the sun through my hat.

My daughter loved the woven effect of this palm. Me too.

Blue.

Energy and colour contrasts.

This may be the start of a mild pink and white colour obsession.

Shape and line.

Curves. Simplicity.