Amused Inspiration

I've been continuing to play with the possibilities of the EPP block that I showed in my last post. I'm calling the block "Porch Steps" and I came up with so many possible quilt designs, with just this one block, that I had a hard time deciding in which design to invest my time. 

(Oh, if only there were enough hours in the day to sew every design option!)

But it was after a fun trip to Knoebels Amusement Park with Hubby, (first time there without kids!) that I knew for certain which direction to take.

  

Who could help being inspired by the fun colors and the turning, twirling 

of everything that one finds in such a place? 

Certainly not me!

(Which coincidentally is exactly what I say when anyone wants me to ride one of theses stomach turning, world spinning, vertigo inducing things!)

 Now that I had settled on a direction, fun colored Grunge fabrics were selected.

Paper templates pieces were cut, covered in fabric and stitched into the blocks.

Coded pieces and helpful binder clips helped me stay organized and hold it all together.

Blocks were stitched together.

And a sigh of happy amusement was uttered when I saw it all come together,

reminding me of my my happy inspiration.

Now I just have to quilt her and bind her and I think create a PDF pattern for her!

(And I think I shall call her "Ferris Wheel" as it's a ride that I actually enjoy!)

And as for my next project, I already know what fabrics I shall be using...

These oh so lovely Cirrus Solids from my friends at Cloud9 Fabrics. 

I was so happy when I first heard that they were coming out with their own line of organic cross-weave fabrics, and floated on my own cloud 9 when they generously sent me this gift bundle. 

By the way, cross-weave's belong to the same family as shot-cottons and chambrays and the names often get used interchangeably, so it can be confusing. All three types share the same trait as having different colored weft and warp threads. Technically, (at least from my understanding) chambrays traditionally used white as one of those colors, (think of those pale blue chambray oxford men's shirts). However I have bought fabrics listed as chambray's that had no white in them at all, and were more of a traditional shot-cotton. Cross-weaves and chambrays generally tend to have a more quilt weight hand to them, while shot-cottons traditionally are more light weight, and have a lovely drape to them, but again, I have bought shot-cottons that were more quilt weight. Most cross-weave fabrics that I have used, (including these Cirrus Solids beauties) have a more subtle color variation to them, meaning that while the weft and the weave are different colors, the difference is minimal. Most, (but again not all) shot-cottons that I have used have more of a defined difference in the weft and warp colors, creating an almost iridescent color about them. All three however have a depth and interest then any regular solid colored fabric where warp and weft threads are the same.

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Many thanks to those that gave me useful info on my last post concerning the stiffness of some hand dyed fabrics and the difficulty I was finding in hand sewing with them, I truly appreciate the info!!