January

Ah, the start to a new year. It’s a time when many people pause for a moment to decide on new challenges to tackle.

As I noted in my last post, I’ve got a new challenge in the shape of a wee infant named Simon. But! I also have a very supportive husband, friends, and family, so while caring for Simon is rather all-consuming, I do get time away. Often, I don’t feel the need to go much further than my studio. As you may recall, my studio is in an out-building on our property, so it is a completely separate space, and yet I can be back in the house in under a minute when it’s time to feed Simon.

One of the things I’m working on this year is the Year of Color Quilt from Mighty Lucky Quilting Club.  This quilt and club are the perfect amount of guidance for me right now…a framework, some lessons, but plenty of space for me to insert my own voice, too!  And I love the interaction with the designers.

The project is a 60’ x 80’ quilt with this rough block layout:

You can also take the block designs and use them in any way you see fit!  January’s block is a 10″ square that could easily stand on its own in a quilt if you just wanted to make a bunch of them!

In the January lesson, Carolyn Friedlander gave us some tips on choosing an overall color scheme for our quilts and she gave us a block design for the areas noted in the above sketch. I had a lot of fun following her advice on choosing an overall color scheme for my quilt. I came up with not one, not two, but three possible color schemes!

The color inspirations are a handbag from Target, a piece from a mid-century Memory game, and a page from a children’s book about Mary Blair.

I was tempted to use all these color schemes and make three quilts, but after playing in my stash realized I would leave the bolder color scheme for another time–I have another quilt in the works with those colors, so that part of my stash is already set aside for it!

My fabric pulls for the two remaining quilts came together quickly:

I’ve ordered a few fabrics to fill in some gaps in my color schemes (and also: I just love buying fabric and I’m not afraid to admit it!)

I’ll be posting about these quilts throughout the year, but also want you all to know about the club because you can still join. It’s $50 for the year and you can read all about the great experience Mighty Lucky has put together for us on their webpage.

If you do go and read on their webpage, you’ll notice that I am one of the designeres! Yep! In a few months I get to share some of my color wisdom and a block design. I can’t wait.