Here’s a stack of fabric I pulled for a fall project. I’m thinking chevrons, the design element of the year! In little leftover bits of repro fabrics! I’ve been meaning to pair those pinks and yellows for years, and the green and orange just go along. I bought most of these fabrics when I first started quilting years ago, and feel ready to use them up.
Last night I dreamed that I had the *perfect* idea for my Flea Market Fancy 2012 stack (that has been carefully stashed in my closet since April). I woke up and the idea was, of course, derivative. And I don’t want to copy anyone’s idea for this special fabric, I want to do something on my own. I don’t think I mind using a pattern, but I don’t want to straight-up reproduce a quilt I’ve seen floating around Pinterest, you know? No matter how divine said quilt.
I have “good” things and “everyday” things. Ask me where my Tiffany crystal candlesticks are, and when I used them last. My kid wears the Garanimals yoga pants I pulled off the $1 rack at Walmart, not all the lovely Bailey Boys clothing her Mimi buys her. Even when I cook, I tend to choose crappier, more beat-up looking bowls from the cabinet instead of my “nice” ones. The end result? I haven’t seen my crystal candlesticks in ALMOST A YEAR. Lucy outgrows her best outfits before I can get them put on her.
And I end up with fat quarter bundles of FMF 2012 and Chicopee, untouched, packed in plastic bags in my closet.
Part of this is that I’m afraid that any idea I have for this lovely fabric won’t do it justice. I want to make JUST the right projects with it. I want to stretch it as far as it will go.
Part of it is I’m just a chicken.
Today I woke up resolved to make the first cut in that FMF 2012. That didn’t happen, and it won’t, today. But as the year draws to a close, and as I start to evaluate what I want to have done by the end of it, I’m thinking…
that I need to use my good things. And not just my crappies, my leftover repro prints (even though I think these’ll make a cute little throw, one with a sense of humor).
That goes for the candlesticks and the baby clothes and the red J. Crew pants, too.
little and lots 