I have been making some small quilts this year as I work on quilts for the book Robin and I are working on. My goal is to make a large quilt using few shapes, colors, and few but significant quilting lines. As I work on any quilt now, I am realizing it is easier to make a quilt using many colors and shapes, but using fewer makes it harder. Doing these small quilt studies gives me a lot to think about!

I had a wonderful time at the SAQA Symposium, and learned a lot at the workshops. It was so nice to meet Robin; she is just as nice in person as she is on her blog! We were both inspired at Quilt National. It is so amazing to see the quilts in person. You come home with a feeling of inspiration. I am trying now to get back on track with what I was doing before I went to Ohio. I have started a quilt inspired by prairie grass, and I want to continue in a series with this. Maybe I can post a picture of this soon.

This quilt is one I recently finished. Sometimes it is funny what inspires you when you start a project. This time I was at my yoga class and someone in the class was wearing a sweater with horizontal stripes of many different colors. It did not make an impression on me until she took it off and threw it on the floor and the stripes were going different directions. Two of the colors were red and tan and that got me thinking...and starting a new quilt! Now I am finishing piecing a quilt, and wondering what I will start next. Nothing has come to me yet but I know something will inspire me to start something new.

I made this quilt recently as a practice for a bigger quilt. I chose a few colors to start, then added as I sewed. I love the colors, and was happy to find another way to use a log cabin block. At first I tried another more curved quilting line, which really detracted from the lines of the quilt. I had to take it all out and stuck with the uneven grid pattern I have been using recently. I really feel I am finding my color palette!

I really need to dye more fabric, so I tried Melody's method for the first time. I really like the way the fabric turned out, and it was so easy to do! The color was fairly even, like I wanted it. I don't know if there is an advantage to using more water and adding soda ash later. Does anyone know? I hope to do more tomorrow. When I first started making art quilts, I was sure dyeing my own fabric was not something I was going to like. But I am addicted to it now!

I am feeling a little behind, having been sick for 2 weeks. So I am posting a photo of my pile of quilts that will be in the book Robin and I are planning. I hope you can see enough so that you are interested in the challenges we have come up with to create our book. Now I am working on a quilt that is based on the log cabin. It is amazing all the ideas that can come from that simple block. Add to that the hand cut line, and ideas seem endless. I am so glad to be feeling better, and can't wait to get back to new projects. Today I sold 2 more quilts, and that makes me feel humble. But I am running low on fabric!

Here is my latest little quilt. I am finding I have not many bits and pieces left over from the quilts I am making for the book. I feel the fabric I sew together is part of the creative process, it is a good feeling to use some of the leftovers from bigger projects. Sometimes, though, fabric I have sewn together just turns out to be something that was not a good idea from the beginning! This little quilt took awhile to figure out and in the end just needed to be turned, so the blue is horizontal.

While looking for something I found a book I was using to write quotes about creativity. Here is one by Twyla Tharp:

"The routine is as much a part of the creative process as the lightening bolt of inspiration, maybe more. And the routine is available to everyone."

Creativity

After coming back from doing errands, I was thinking about two people I had seen whose clothing had caught my eye. A cashier at the bookstore was wearing a royal blue scarf that did not quite match her top, but looked perfect. I remember seeing her before, and she always has on some kind of scarf that is beautiful. A mother buying fabric with her daughter, was wearing a long skirt she must have made out of corduroy pants that were cut to be the front and back of the skirt, with panels of strip-pieced fabric running along the sides. As a person who tends to throw on a pair of jeans and get busy, I often wish I would look more creative in my everyday clothes! I really admire people who can put on something a little different and look completely at ease with what they are wearing. I'd like to be a little creative on the outside, as well as on the inside.