Not-So-Finishing Fall

So...as much as I try to be all "100% Focus! More Finishing Fall!" there are a few distractions that have crept in here and there. (Who, me? Add more to my WIP list? Never!)

A few weeks ago, I had an Amazon order with an "add-on" item that needed a partner to get over the shipping minimum, so I finally bought a quilting book I've had my eye on, Jen Kingwell's Quilt Lovely.

I love Kingwell's scrappy aesthetic, and several of her designs are on my quilting bucket list. I love them so much that I kind of couldn't stop myself from starting in on one from this book, the Glitter quilt.

I love the idea of a pattern with tall, skinny blocks instead of the standard squares. I also love the push to combine interesting colors and patterns, as I think I can be a bit formalist. (This should ostensibly drive one to endeavor to use up more fabrics from one's stash rather than indulge an impulse to purchase, but...we all know how that goes.) It's a pretty easy block to cut - the squares and the edge triangles are easily rotary cut, and while the other pieces are kind of wonky shapes, they're all quadrilaterals, so it's not too hard to cut them from rectangles. With a little finagling, they can all actually be cut from charm squares, which opens up stash-busting possibilities. The only pain is that you have to add the seam allowances to the templates included in the book - if you look at the picture above, the papers sticking out of the side of the book are the copies I made to trace the templates with their seam allowances onto the template plastic.

My other impulse purchase is also fueling a drive to embrace colors and patterns - the Tula Pink coloring book.

I've often admired Tula Pink fabrics from afar, without quite knowing how the dynamic prints and bright colors would fit in with the rest of my stash. Only recently, I've started to add some here and there . You can see one in the Glitter blocks - when Southern Fabric had their insane, site-crashing 30%-off sale a few weeks ago, I grabbed an Elizabeth scrap bag. (How could I not? We have the same name!) I love that the coloring book allows you to indulge in designs from some of Tula's older lines, without diving into the crazy, price-gouging black market of online Tula sales from any line Salt Water or earlier. My first choice of coloring project - dragonflies from Flutterby.

I love that fabric designers are getting into the coloring book game - it may be a fad, but it really is soothing, and gets my brain thinking in new color combinations.