It's a love/hate thing.
(Channeling my inner Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof):
On the one hand writing here, specifically on my blog, is so important to me and my work and my business. It helps me to think through ideas, forces me to document via photography, and helps to promote the stuff I'm trying to sell.
On the other hand, the work of keeping up with social media can start to feel like a job of its own and, though I like the job, I'd really rather be making stuff.
So, why am I here today? Because of this:
Aren't screen shots great?
This particular one is from a site I follow, primarily on Instagram, called Nitch. Everyday they pair a beautiful black and white photograph of a well-known person with a quote from that person.
This quote caught my eye and came at the perfect time. I know I should be writing here. It's good for me and not in the way brussel sprouts are good for me (I love brussel sprouts and have a great recipe for them, but that has nothing to do with my point). Writing in this space is important because it's part of my making journey. I can't, however, wait to be inspired to write, I just have to show up and start pounding those keys.
So, here I am, ready to engage in the process.
Now to explain the first image:
The smart-ass in me wants to claim they're petrified logs or the food color dyed interiors of cinnamon rolls, but they're fabric rolls, Kona cotton fabric rolls, specifically. The reason they came into my life, because I've never really been a pre-cut gal before, was this quilt:
I don't exactly know where the idea for this little quilt came from, but I initially designed it as a free tutorial to include with my bi-weekly newsletter which, incidentally, you too could get(the form's at the bottom of this page). Anyway, the pattern is very simple and graphic and I sensed that it was the beginnings of something else.
And it was.
Though this is a still a work in progress, making the mini-version started me thinking about the possibilities for manipulating this design. Despite my total lack of experience working with pre-cuts, I wanted to explore designing within the parameters that fabric that's already cut and measured and selected presents.
I specifically chose two "ombre" rolls to work with because I wanted to see what happened to the graphic nature of this design as the colors changed.
The other day someone asked why I don't design on a computer and, if I didn't know before, the process of creating this quilt has certainly answered that question. As I sew this top together, I make changes from my initial plan. I wouldn't "see" those changes if I was just manipulating images on a computer. Frankly, I think it would lengthen, rather than streamline the process of making because when I did move the design from computer generated concept to actual fabric item, I'd then have to adjust the design for the change in media.
Next up for this design?
Finishing and quilting the top, making a second, smaller, different color way version, writing and testing the instructions, and publishing the pattern so that you all can make it and change it for yourselves.
Also, because it really is all about the process, this unfinished make has already, dare I say, inspired new ideas.
Here's a sneak(y) peek:
