Processing & Serendipity

I was very fortunate to be the winner of a recent blog giveaway by The Sometimes Crafter for the book, The Gentle Art of Quiltmaking. I've been reading and poring over the gorgeous photos! One thing that really struck me about this book is Jane Brockett's description of how her quilts came about. She explains how fabrics and things around her inspired her and the process she went through to choose fabrics and a design for each quilt.

It was really nice to learn how someone else thinks about putting quilts together and makes decisions about what does and doesn't work in a quilt and why. It made me realize how much I would like to see this in other books and in my own blog (and the blogs of other quilters, knitters, crocheters). One of the problems I have when making just about anything is that part of me wants to rush through it and get the finished product and this really takes away from enjoying the process for me. So I had been thinking about changing my blogging to include more of my actual thought process and then I came across a link to this post by Rossie and I was inspired to commit to talking more about process on my blog. I've joined the other quilters making a "process pledge" and I look forward to seeing where this leads me.

A funny thing happened with winning that book. That same morning, I received an email from Artquiltmaker saying that I had also won her giveaway of a package of tie silks. Just let me say that I have never won a blog giveaway, so to win two at the same time was a thrill! Here's the package of silks that she so generously sent to me.

Aren't they gorgeous? I love the dots!

Now here's where I figure I'm receiving some kind of message from above: in the book is a great pattern for a quilt made out of tie silks! I think I had better make this quilt! Here's a close-up of the quilt:


I'm on the look-out for wool suiting fabric for the alternate squares. This quilt won't materialize any time soon, as I'm working on a queen size quilt at the moment, but I'll post my slow progress.