Design Wall Monday

I love Design Wall Monday, even if I don't have anything to show. I'm not saying that I have nothing to show today, because I do, but I realized this morning how much I look forward to spending time checking out what everyone has on their design walls. I've seen some amazing works in progress and it never fails that I see a project that just HAS to be added to my never-ending "to do" list.

I've also found that I'm intrigued by new techniques that I see, as well as unique color combinations. I have to say a big "THANK YOU" to all of you who make scrap quilts. Your pictures have helped me overcome my control issues and allowed me to dive into the wonderful world of scrap quilts, even if many of mine are "controlled scrappy."

Last week I posted a picture of fabric that I pulled from my stash that I wanted to use for Sadie's quilt. Of course I hadn't made the final decision on what pattern I was going to use, but at least I had an idea of the fabric. I love the browns and teals and a lot of this fabric was left over from my Caffeine Chaos quilt. After I made that quilt, I began to see those colors in lots of other quilts and it just reinforced my desire to make another project in the same color scheme.

After toying with lots of possible patterns, I finally decided on the Spiderweb pattern. I know this might sound kind of strange for a baby quilt, but I think this is pretty symbolic of Sadie's birth. She was overdue, it was hot, Nikki was kind of "out of sorts" because Quinn was not with them for a whole week prior to AND after the birth, Sadie had trouble breathing and spent time in the NIC-Unit, and things just seemed a bit crazy for a while until we knew everything was ok. (This is symbolized by the scrappy web part of the blocks.) Finally, things started to settle down. Nikki and Sadie go home, (breathing beautifully, thank you very much!), Quinn returns home and adores her sister, and Nikki and Zach embark on the challenge of raising two kids while juggling work and school. So far, so good. (This is symbolized by the dark outline of the stars and the stars themselves.) Ok, maybe I'm being a bit too philosophical about this quilt, but I'm just telling you why I made the decision to use this pattern. Anyway, I got started on the quilt this past weekend and here's the progress so far.



I had hoped to have at least the first border on before I went to bed last night, but we lost power during a storm and that took care of sewing. I REALLY want to get a generator big enough so I can sew when we lose power, which seems to be happening more frequently. I do care about keeping the refrigerator, lights, etc. running, but I want a generator large enough to keep all of the appliances running AND allows me to sew. Priorities, people, priorities! :-) A girl can dream, right?

I'm headed to the county fair shortly where I'll be judging the open class quilts. I did this last year and really enjoyed it so I was happy that I was asked to do it again this year.

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls by going to Judy L.'s Patchwork Times. Who knows, you might find a new project that you just have to do!!