new quilt

I love when I sit down at my sewing machine and the fabrics come together without a lot of thought. This is not to say that I don't spend plenty of time in contemplation about my quilts, but I love it so much when I just walk in my closet and start pulling fabric down and I find enough pieces that I don't have to go buy any and that when I start cutting them, they come together ever so perfectly with exactly what I had in mind. This weekend, I decided to start a new project. I've got a commission to work on, but when I went to start it (because the drawing is complete) the piece of fabric I REALLY need, I don't have, so I went in search of something similar at a fellow quilters home, Anita Heady. She hand dyes fabric and it is beautiful fabric. She also teaches quilting classes. I bought a piece of fabric from her almost a year ago for this quilt (it just turns out the drawing was perfect for the person wanting the commission) and naturally, I can't find it. It was the perfect piece of fabric and it matches all the other fabric I have been gathering for a year for this particular quilt, so since I can't find it she is working on a new piece for me since she is already dying other fabrics for a show she's going to. I'll put this new piece to the side when I get that fabric from her, but in the mean time... I decided to start another collaboration with my Hubby. I'm excited about it. We already do a lot of collaboration with my quilts, but I have been thoroughly enjoying taking his drawings and ideas and putting them to fabric. So, without further ado... the beginnings of my next quilt...

(the photo quality is terrible, but I was excited last night when I got the background finished)
I'll be doing some stitching on it before I start working on the image, but I really am enjoying how the shades of purples and burgandys come together to give it some movement. I also am REALLY enjoying the wonder under made by Pellon. It allows me the freedom to layer the pieces without having to sew each one down before moving on to the next one. Sometimes I still sew them down like I did on the previous critter quilt I did, but I wanted the look of the stitching on it. This time, I have other plans for my stitching, so knowing the pieces won't shift I can wait until I'm done layering before stitching and it is all just ironed down to muslin. Another quality of the wonder under I like is that it also works as a light stabilizer so I can do the stitching on it before I layer without having to worry about my machine skipping stitches and I can get more even stitching with it. Otherwise, I would have to use some sort of fusible interfacing to give it all some weight.

Man, I love quilting and the directions it leads my mind. There is always some new challenge to work out to get things to come together just right and the possibilities are endless!