Quilt-spiration

(Detail from a baby quilt I made last fall.)

(a coffee shop near my sis. I love the interior almost as much as I love the coffee. See that quilt in the upper right hand corner? It has me swooning. I just wish I could have gotten a closer picture of it.)

Seems I've only had time to post about once a month here. Life just tumbles on, and the older my kids get, the less time I have at my disposal. It's ironic, you wouldn't think it would be that way. But I find myself outside of the house a lot more, with school and activities, etc. So my "free time" is limited to household tasks and preciously guarded sewing time. Prattling on about my fairly unimpressive life is not that appealing. And by "unimpressive", I don't mean uneventful, unsatisfying, un-noteworthy, un-beautiful... no way! :)

(another quilt hanging at the same coffee shop... it is absolutely gorgeous. I love the masculine charcoal grays, mixed with the floral pieces and the burlap coffee sack material. And the scrapped-together bias tape adds so much character!")

Lately, however, I have been inspired by some lovely, lovely quilts. You see, my goal is to make a quilt for Job and I's bed. My only self-imposed rules are these:

-I must use fabric I already have, starting with scraps
-I want to have "some" kind of plan. It can't just be any quilt.

I am not an overly analytical quilter. I love improvisation, frugality and plenty of "charm". That said, I do want to make a quilt that veers a little more towards "lovely, personal and challenging" (though without using a bona-fide pattern) than "overly spontaneous and quirky." That's right: I'm gonna try to "step it up," folks! And I finally feel inspired by some quilts I've recently come across. The color combinations are very nicely thought out, and yet there is an element of inventiveness and spunk that never fails to catch my eye and draw me in.
Check out that hand-stitching! I'm not sure I could ever undertake such a task! I think I'd have to buy a new, super comfy couch... and a new flat-screen TV, and a DVR, and a new DVD player (plus Season one of Downtown Abbey)... because it'd be a non-stop movie marathon working on such a feat. And all of that sitting means a jogging machine would become a necessity, naturally. Oh, the things I could justify in the name of quilting.... *wink*.

Honestly, I'd probably just opt for hand-tying, as seen in this amazing log-cabin quilt at Posie gets Cozy. Yeesh! Isn't that quilt so lovely? I admit, I've been drooling over it for the past few weeks. My teeth hurt, it is so sweet.

This is probably the quilting philosophy I admire the most, gleaned from Anna at Pleasant View Schoolhouse (I love her work!).

And of course, one of my favorite quilts is from Patricia Polacco's "The Keeping Quilt".



I love the hand-stitched, colorful figurines and shapes all sewn onto a stark white. And the scalloped red border? Incredible, even if it isn't real... or is it??!
HOW COOL! I never knew this until now, when I googled "The Keeping Quilt". Now I'm doubly inspired!

Lastly, here are some baby quilts I've done, although I might take a break from the wee-sized quilts to selfishly accomplish my aforementioned long-held goal. But since it's nearly impossible for me to purchase store-bought Carter's jammies for the millionth time, I'll probably fail miserably (especially with all of the new babies being born this year!).


For Baby W.

For Baby K. (last October)

The only thing better than a brand new quilt is a well-loved quilt. Today I met our friend's new baby (just 3 weeks old!) for the first time, and he was bundled in a quilt I had made for his big brother two and half years ago. It made me happy to see it still being used! "Quilter's high"!

Oh, I need serious help. ;)