Valerean

I've started playing wih some ideas and my Fabscrap materials for a quilt design. Dresden fan is one of the quilts on my bucket list, and would make good use of most of the fabric. I really can't sew straight, but creating the wedges isn't super difficult, and I can use a lot of different colors in one quilt.

As I mentioned yesterday I fell in love at first sight with this print; I have no idea why. Sometimes love is just love. :) I don't really have a method to designing a quilt, but I thought I'd document my process with this print anyway. One of the few color palettes with pink that I actually like is combined with gray and white, so I hauled out a scrap and a jelly roll I've been saving, and put them with the fabric. Works. I then searched for a free online pattern that uses blocks and jelly roll strips, and found this one over at Sewcanshe.com. I won't do the exact same thing, but it gave me an idea of how to use my blocks and jelly roll. So now I need to think for a bit. :) Third image credit: Sewcanshe.com

These little wildflowers grow by the fence in my backyard every spring. Although I'm not a fan of anything yellow I always like seeing them bloom, and they were on my mind as I started a little embroidery design project. My idea was to make a pretty bookmark, so I took a cutter quilt strip piece and started embroidering a simple design. My lettering needs work, and I might straighten the wildflower stems a bit, and get rid of the bloomless stem on the right side, but I'm pretty happy with the overall design. I'll make it again with some changes, and then draft the embroidery design into a stitch map and write up instructions to go with it.

Tonight I spread all the shibori fabrics out on my sewing table and basically stared at them for two hours as I tried to decide what to do with them. There is definitely enough for a good-size lap quilt. So I stared and brooded and even called Katherine in to give me her opinion. At long last I've decided what pattern to use, and it will be: A shibori card trick. :) The other decision I needed to make -- whether or not to commit to participating in National Novel Writing Month -- was another tough one. Last year I felt rather discouraged by the new web site, the largely negative atmosphere in the forums, and the ongoing commercialization of NaNo. At the same time I wrote 50K+ on Twenty-One , which felt very good. I think this year if I stay off the forums, ignore the money-making crap and just be supportive to my true pals (that would be you, Theo) I can enjoy it a little more. So I'm in. :)