Outside inspiration

Wow - thanks for all the quilt love!  I am super excited about how it came out.  Now I just need to work up the courage to actually quilt it!  All in good time, I am sure.

One of the things that was so satisfying about making that quilt top was being inspired to just do it.  I think I am most creative when my brain is working over-time, analyzing color and pattern, thinking about scale, wondering what I can make out of a particular material.  Sarah's gocco swap is a perfect example of that.  I had to think outside of my comfort zone to come up with something mid-winter.  But you know what?  I love how it all came together.  Finding the inspiration to go with the theme, pondering the possibilities, planning, mixing ink and printing those note cards was actually fun.  I was inspired and in the end, I think it showed.

So to keep myself creating outside of my comfort zone, I asked Tracy if she would give me a word or phrase or image to use as a jump start for a new gocco project.  She readily agreed and asked me to do the same.  We gave ourselves a month to complete this project.  The month is almost up.

This is what she gave me:  tea.

I am not doing a gocco print because pushing down to print hurts my wrist (which is slowly getting better).   Instead I am working with fabric.  I am excited about this collaboration and about what I am making.  Thinking it through has been fun - I have come up with all sorts of scenarios, but finally settled on one.  I am inspired again.

In the end, I just hope it shows.

And I am dying to see what Tracy has done with the word I gave her: piece.