Sometimes...you just have to go to the ocean.
And sometimes, someone has left behind little rock pile sculptures that make you a lot happier than you were before you got there.
Determined to give even the tiniest rocks a rumble, each grey wave's retreat proved louder than it's initial crashing.
Maine When random things line up in unexpected, pretty ways, my heart goes pitter-pat. I like to pay attention and let such moments inspire me. In fact, this is why I wanted to start this blog in the first place... to point out that inspiration is all around. It's not necessary to seek it out, 'work hard' or over think to find it, it's just there.
Some might not think it's worth the few extra dollars to buy fancy patterned page markers over the cheap post-it kind. Some might find page markers in general a frivolous expense... but I use them liberally, so the fact that I now have pretty printed ones instead of florescent yellow (thanks mom!) makes me really happy. It's so small and simple, but it really does brighten my day. Look...
The page markers completely match the book cover! It's so cute, I just want to leave it laying around so everyone can see how 'together' I am! (ha)
So then later on in the week I was putting away some yarn that I had lost interest in using. It had been sitting around in the drawer/basket/pile for so long I just wasn't inspired by it anymore. Since it was taking up prime real estate in my room, I decided to put it in a storage bin, but then an awesome thing happened. These five skeins lined up next to each other, in this exact order, I kid you not. A perfect color scheme for a baby blanket I had just decided to 'think about' making. And so it was...
And the stitch pattern swatch I have going...
Remarkably close to the page markers and book, wouldn't you say??
Thank goodness for friends of your mom who cast off treasures like this:
A finished quilt top in need of a little love... Oh bliss! I love quilts that are mostly white with all these cute little pattern pieces. Now I can get right to my favorite part which is hand quilting the layers together.
First I'm going to iron the top piece so that all the petals are flat and take out the old ties. Then I'll get some cotton batting to make the 'sandwich' with the backing fabric. I haven't quite decided about the backing fabric yet. Should I go simple and get a nice quality, whole cloth back that's just white? Should I get a cute little patterned fabric, like flowers or polka dots? Or should I piece together a back using the old fabrics I have downstairs at my moms house? Part of me thinks that piecing the back together would be the most resourceful, 'quilterly' and congruent with the style already set forth. There aren't too many non-cotton fabrics, so I don't think the maker was cutting up old shirts and dresses or anything! I'm not sure if these are feed-sack fabrics, but they certainly point that way. Perhaps she got a bag of scraps from the fabric store?
I think I'll investigate the fabrics downstairs first, to see if any would match, then go from there. I also want to add borders on all sides of the quilt top, since the motifs are currently quite close to the edges. I don't want anything too distracting though, no patterns. I would go with white, but trying to match the current color would be impossible and would probably look terrible. So I'm thinking a subtle, muted solid color like a light green, gold or coral. Something unusual to satisfy the artist in me. This is so exciting!
I plan to quilt around the outside of each motif and at the same time, tack down any loose tips. This is probably not the 'right' way of doing it, but I thought it would conserve time and thread. If I'm going to be going around anyway... why spend hours tacking down loose tips before hand? Not to mention tying all those knots?
Any suggestions for what I should do in the center of the flowers?
Country, Crafts, Decor, Home, How To, Obsessions, Quilts, collecting I just added two new lace cuffs to my Etsy shop. Hopefully I'll have more time to update the shop while here in Maine. I'm really into the color of these photos. I think I took them this summer when I had a crazy tan from being outside all day, almost every day. I also can't believe I took them myself, holding the camera with my other hand! Not bad right?
