I'm feeling inspired......

I'm feeling inspired today, and there is a quilt inside me just bursting to get out, we all know that feeling, yes?  I thought it would be fun to make a record of it and share my thoughts behind the inspiration, and the method of making it, from start, to finish.  I haven't done that before but for some reason I feel it is important for me to do that.  I'd better start at the beginning.

I am a May kitten, and Sunday was my birthday.  I received several gifts including quilting related ones, two of which are important to the process. Three were books, and what books, Creative Quilt Challenges by Pat Pease and Wendy Hill, Minimal Quiltmaking by Gwen Marston (which I have only skimmed through so far and will let you know about later), and The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters, by Sherri Lynn Wood.  On so many levels this is a wonderful book.  (My children have cleaned out my Amazon wish list already this year and I have acquired six new books, Oh Joy!)   The Improv book is the first gift which started the process.

The other gifts were a beautiful wooden box from my friend, handmade by a man in Northumberland, so lovely with little compartments to keep all the tiny things which are easy to loose, I absolutely love it.

The last gift I want to share is a set of four cake tins from my husband.  Now stop laughing, he put a lot of thought into it, he knows I like tins and he thought if I was doing out the new quilting room a set of tins make lovely decorative storage.  This is the second thing which started the process.  No, it's not a cake quilt!

The improv book gives challenges, she called them 'scores', and reading the first one it is about squares and gives guidelines including a timeframe so it becomes more inspirational than planned.  I like the sound of that, and decided there and then to work my way through the book, challenge by challenge.

I started thinking about colours, using my stash, after all it could end up total rubbish, I don't want to go out and buy fabric and waste it, I could use all the old stuff I keep meaning to clear out.  Looking out onto the garden a patch of bluebells caught my eye, and I remembered a birthday when we went out for the day and came across a meadow of bluebells, and wondered where the photos were now.

Then I noticed one of the tins was Bluebell Wood.

Then it struck me I had some fabric given to me by the friend who gave me the box, although not true bluebell colours they were ion a similar level.  I began to get excited and pulled out fabric, leaving a trail of devastation in my wake (that's my normal when I get a quilt idea in my head, really annoys my husband, but he's mellowed about it now, one of my not so endearing traits - hehe!).

This is my fabric pull so far.  I'm thinking bluebell colours, and shrubbery, and skies? I may have to add a very pale blue.

Following the rules, which can be broken,  I must set limits of two fabrics of set amounts, and a filler fabric (the finished quilt in the book had three colours per section), no limits on amount as you don't know how much you will need.  No rulers are to be used for the cutting, you can use scissors or rotary cutter.

I haven't gone any further yet due to time constraints this week but I will post the first pics of my progress as soon as I have any.

Just to let you know, the quilting is finished on City Lights (big sigh of relief), I had a little trouble, two tiny folds in the back, I ended up taking out five rows of quilting altogether but it as they disappeared with the restitch.  No I'm not showing you yet,  did you see the taster I posted at the weekend?

Here it is if you missed it, yes it is the back, but that's all your'e getting today.

The binding is made though, scrappy and colourful.

If you want to know more about the scores, Luna, from Luna Lovequilts is up to the fourth score now, here is the first finished quilt she blogged about, there are links to the earlier posts too.  Steph form Dawn Chorus Studio has also done score one, and Cheryl, from Meadowmist Designs made a baby quilt using another of the scores.

I am so excited about the bluebell quilt, I only wish I didn't have to work this week, and I have some other commitments too.  I should really do a proper review of the book, it is so much more than a quilting book, but I will have to leave that for another day.

Linking up with Freemotion by the River,  Let's Bee Social,  My Quilt Infatuation, TGIFF,  Confessions of a Fabric Addict , Crazy Mom Quilts

With smiles, from
Kate