quiltology...

When Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern collection arrived earlier this summer, I cut a quarter yard piece from each print with the idea of recreating her amazing Charm quilt. After cutting up the background patchwork, I spent a few weeks trying to lay this out but it just wasn’t working for me. I put it up on the design wall, stepped back and waited for that “yes” moment. It didn’t come. So I took it home and tried again. Still, I couldn’t get the pop I wanted. I loved the scrappiness of it, but I just couldn’t make it work with the appliqué ovals. Sometimes this happens. You have an idea, but once you start putting it all together, it just doesn’t match up to the picture in your head.

So fast forward to an absolutely beautiful Sunday afternoon—everybody must have been at the beach or the Cubs game—the shop was slow. I pulled out my rotary cutter and started sub-cutting the Charm patchwork into new blocks. Before I knew it, our new shop sample In & Out Modern was born!

Fast forward again—a few really bad days at my day job with a few evenings of therapeutic sewing later—and the blocks were finished. Then life kicked in—I escaped the bad day job for a much better (and happier) position. Life was good—but my poor blocks fell by the wayside, relegated to a plastic bag in my things-to-do pile.

Luckily Susan stepped in and worked her magic—laying out the blocks—and sewing them together into—dare I say it—a finished quilt top. Next stop—Sally’s house—where she will work her magic on the long-arm machine and finish this baby into a real quilt. I’ll bind it and hang it in the shop.

stay tuned…

Colette