inspiration Beckons
Happy Monday!
I have to admit, I do like Monday. As much as I enjoy taking a break over the weekends for other things, I also relish getting back to my creative work on Mondays.
This morning in the bright sunshine, I sang to Rora as I took my own quilt off of the machine (a finish I’ll be sharing soon!) and started basting a customer’s quilt. It’s good to have work to do!
I’m so glad I launched into longarm quilting services. Thank you for sending me your quilts!
While my improv cross quilt (tutorial here!) was quilting this weekend, I started my next quilt. What, you’re not surprised? I know, we quilters are relentless, haha! Well, unlike my improv crosses quilt, which I started on a whim, this one is something I’ve been pondering for a bit.
It started with my love for this Cloud 9 voile. I made it into a romper for Rora last spring. When she grew out of it, I had trouble letting it go. The color scheme is so dreamy! So, I pulled scraps in the same colors and set them aside….. waiting.
At last, I know what to do with them! Right now many of my students are making Indian Blanket quilts. It’s the first pattern in my Angled course, which is all about sewing pointy patchwork such as triangles, diamonds, HST and flying geese. Indian Blanket focuses on equilateral triangles, which is a perfect place for beginners to start. Throughout the course, the quilts get more and more impressive, but the sewing isn’t necessarily harder. Once you understand how points work, you can sew any angle and save those points! This is a self-paced online course that you can start anytime and work through until July 31st. Details here.
Anyhoo, wouldn’t it be fun to make a scrappy version of Indian Blanket? Of course it would! I’ll use the Cloud 9 color scheme, but pull the colored triangles mostly from my scrap drawers.
First, a little planning. Each row will have a unifying color. I arranged my scraps in a pleasing color sequence and marked my plan on the Indian Blanket color sheet.
Then I cut a big batch of background triangles from this Cotton & Steel Checkers yardage, available at Quilt Sandwich Fabrics. The color is called “linen” which make sense because it’s somewhere between gray and brown - very neutral. But it’s a true woven cotton fabric with a similar weight to printed quilted cottons. I think it’ll be a nice contrast to use scraps for the colored triangles, but a consistent neutral print for the background.
Oh my gosh, I love it! The gingham has a happy, springy feel, which really hits the spot in this cold weather. These first two rows feel so pastel, so unlike me! And I adore it! That’s the thing about following inspiration - you never know where it might take you.
Wishing you a bright and beautiful day!
