Dare to be different...

Recently, I got into one of those moods that in my child-bearing years I called "nesting." It's the mood that makes me want to clean and organize. Sometimes I think it comes now at a time when everything around me is in chaos, and I need to bring order to something...anything...in order to cope. Whatever the reason, the result is calming. 

I started with the bottom drawer of my sewing dresser. I absolutely love neutrals. Always have...in decorating, dressing, and quilting. So, I took all of my neutrals from everywhere in my studio and stash closet, folded them neatly, and set them in order by tone or design.

Next, I attacked what I call my leftovers. I rarely use patterns for my quilting. Generally, I purchase the yardage I think I need, make as many squares as I can from what I have, then put a quilt together. The result is a pile of strips, scraps, and completed squares with no home. So, I went through all the mess and organized all my leftovers into bags. I have an entire box full of these bags. Here are a few....

Now, I come to that Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabric that I already made two twin quilts and a baby quilt from. I started off with twelve half-yards of the collection. I purchased a cream background fabric and went to work. Even after all those quilts, I had a leftover bag! Over the past three days, I took everything in the bag and threw together another nineteen squares. Well, at this point, I knew I needed twenty to make a 4X5 block quilt, but I just didn't have enough to pull off another one. So, after some thought, I decided to throw a big circle into my quilt of squares and rectangles. I chose an inset circle....

The result is a quilt I am calling "Dare to be Different."