...everything before us...

It's a luxury to have current commissions well in hand so that I can focus on projects I've been wanting to do. Blogging is a great tool for focus and organization.

Quilty Melissa bought some fabric-backed vinyl.  I'm going to try to create a boxed bottom for a Tudor bag for her.  It's just a matter of getting some measurements right.  Math, right? 

I've read about the Disappearing 9-Patch.  These 5" charms might be perfect for trying this project.  I'm pretty sure guild VP Heather managed to get these charm packs to me in a guild raffle. 

Although I still need bind the queen and baby quilts from the Hungry Caterpillar fabrics, I also want to try making pillowcases from some of the leftovers.  Quilty Eileen was working on pillowcases and has shared the directions.

My doctor is having her first baby - this woman was instrumental to my recovery when I had my big sick.  She collaborated with my ENT brother-in-law, and then they both helped me to understand and  make decisions proposed by the Interventional Radiology Team.  She told me she likes green and these mostly Marcia Derse fabrics seem kind of perfect.  This baby Trip Around the World just needs to be bound.

The fabric line Aubade by Janet Clare is one of my favorites.  Last spring I made a quilt for Cristina using these fabrics.  I still have more of the jelly roll and a 5" charm pack.  I'm thinking 10" squares with neutral sashing. 

Do you see what's here?  A jelly roll, a layer cake, a charm pack, and a mini-charm pack.  I can see three possibilities for this wonderful line - Fragile by Zen Chic.  The greys, yellows, blacks, and neutrals are wonderful together as seen in this baby quilt for Cristina's nephew Helios, who was born the day before Christmas. 

Janet Clare's fabric lines please me.  Most of the above are from her Wordsmith collection.  I have made two Trips Around the World already from them.  Here is one more.  And I think I'll use the scraps for a piano key border.

Another fabric line I am in love with is Zen Chic's Luster collection.  These are the fabrics I used for Julie's going-away present.  I have everything - a charm pack, a mini charm, a layer cake, and a 5" x 10" pack.    Pictures of Julie's quilt are at the end of this blog post from August.  No great inspiration for what I want to do.  Just fondling and touching these fabrics - that's enough.

My thirst for jelly rolls continues.  Above is one from Carolyn's Friedlander's latest collection and another from Zen Chic in all blues.  But I think these two lines might play well with one another.  The key, I think, will be to surround them with a fabulous neutral. 

"...everything before us..." is from the opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

I'm amazed at the universality of these words.   On this first day of 2018, optimism abound - an optimism I didn't feel yesterday.  Everything is before me.