Decisions, decisions...

I mentioned a while back that I was thinking of redecorating my livingroom. I found just the right colour on the walls of a local gallery (the exhibition was great too...) and have decided to start soon. I'm having guests next weekend, so I'll wait until they've left - the chaos and upheaval of a big decorating project is not the best welcome one could get now, is it? Finding the right colur was great - I only hope it is the actual colour I had in mind when I get it on the walls too - we'll just have to wait and see now, won't we?
Thinking about redecorating means all sorts of decisions though, and lately I have been considering curtain fabric. The curtains I have now are very bright - blue, yellow, green and turquoise stripes, and will have to go. I'm thinking I'll get something softer, but the shops seem to be full of cream, beige and soft brown curtains these days, and that's way too soft for my liking.
I have long been a fan of Tricia Guild and find Designers Guild fabric to be very nice, but it is expensive, though. I have visited one of the two shops locally that carry their lines, but they had only the latest ones, none of the ones I wanted a closer look at (pictures 2-5). I'll have a look at the other one on Monday.
I was thinking green to begin with, but I think that would bring out too much of the green in the wall colour, so maybe not too good an idea. Otherwise the green Amy Butler fabric (picture 8) could work. It would suit my new Amy Butler quilt as well (picture 1, more about that tomorrow). Instead I'm thinking I should go for something floral, with some peach or pink in it, perhaps, so the blue-green of the walls don't look too cold.
I have also been thinking about something in cream and black (I have a black sofa), like the black tulips in picture 4 or the one just below it, found at eQuilter, here. These are all drapery weight fabrics, but in my search online I have also been considering quilting cottons. I might make it work if I make lined curtains - maybe floral fabric on one side and a crisp stripe on the other, like the turquoise Girlfriends stripe from Free Spirit in picture 12. Kaffe Fasset's Lotus Leaf is one of the candidates, but those big leaves all over might just be too much of a good thing.
Heather Bailey's great floral from the Freshcut line (picture 2, last row) has just the kind of colours I had in mind, and combined with her lovely stripe in picture 1, last row, might be just the thing.
I had a brief search for art noveau fabric as well, since my colour choice was inspired by an art noveau exhibition, and came across the tulips in the last picture at Sherwood Fabrics, and although I like it as an example of art noveau design, I have decided that we are not to be...
The search continues and any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Friday WIP

My current WIP. Or one of them... I'm still working on the Amy Butler quilt as well - or, well: it's resting next to my sewing machine...

More of this

meant more of this:Another cold and snowy day and I have made a lot of progress on my quilt. There's a lot to be said for days like this - no guilty concience whispering that I should go out and do something. It's too cold for outdoorsy activities, the shops are closed, there is really nothing I "should" be doing. Perfect sewing weather!

What's this?

Maybe not so easy to guess from this picture, but we had a hail storm today. It's been really cold and wintery, snow in the air, and the mountains in the distance are dusted with caster sugar again. Being an optimist I had put winter coats and boots away, but that was way too early it seems! Well, April is a tricky month, I tend to forget that every year - it's something about the days getting longer and warmer, and you think Spring has arrived, and the next minute Winter lets you know it isn't going to let go yet. And woudn't you know it, when I got my act together and went outside to take a picture of this terrible weather, it cleared and the sun was out! But only for a few minutes...
I had to rescue these tiny tidings of Spring - they looked so shivery and unhappy outside, so they're back in my living room again for now, waiting for better days... It's far better indoors today, both for humans and flowers. The Easter decorations are out and it is warm and cosy here. Lots of books and magazines to read - I got started on a bit of sorting out, so now I have three piles of magazines - one to keep (by far the highest pile...) one to throw out, and one to go to new homes. I'll continue tomorrow by sorting through all my old cross-stitch magazines. There are loads that I will never stitch anything from, and they could do with new homes, and that should leave enough space to store the "keep-pile" from today's purge, I think...
Finding the excuse to stay indoors on such a blustery day (love that word, reminds me of a little poem about bears I have somewhere...) also meant time with my sewing machine. I've been going on about this quilt, so I'd better show you a picture - proof that I am actually quilting the thing now! More of that tomorrow, I think.
Now for that poem*:

Bears, on the whole, like a blustery day

Because it refreshes their plush

And blows out the tangles and crumbs that collect

And which just won't come out with a brush.

So they walk in the wind and think it good fun

To get huffed at and puffed at and blown.

If it's gale force or more, that's all to the good

And you won't hear a teddy bear moan.

But they don't like those days when it's windy and wet,

When it rains and it blows both together.

They'll huddle indoors and sit by the fire

And grumble "What inclement weather!"

On those wet windy days you can seek them in vain:

No teddy, no matter how stout,

Will venture outside, for he knows if he does

His umbrella will blow inside out!

*I found this and several others in a magazine years ago and cut them out and stuck them in my little blue notebook, but stupidly didn't include the information about who wrote them... Hope I'll be forgiven!

Love is all around

A new colour scheme for Project Spectrum this month: green, yellow and pink. How appropriate that I have just finished this baby quilt! I did one in blue and green earlier that worked out very well, I think. When I needed one for a baby girl I decided to use the same pattern, but I'm not quite sure about this one. I love the combination of pink and yellow, but the colours are probably too similair in value for it to work as well as the previous one did. Or maybe the pink fabric is too busy. With the blue one you really get a 3D-feeling with those squares and frames popping out, but not as much in this one, though. I still like it - nice colours and as you can see from the close-up, it's full of love ;-) and that's what a baby girl needs, right! The colour goes well with her name as well - Ruby. No jokes about "Ruby don't take your Love to town" please, though that song has been spinning around in my head while I've been quilting. Let's stick with "Love is all around"!
There's more pink in store for this month as well, as I'm happily quilting my Amy Butler quilt - yes, finally! It's been waiting in the wings for far too long, but I'm getting there now. It's a reversible quilt - both sides are pieced, so it was a nightmare to line up straight on my own. When shall I learn to ask for help? I spent Saturday at the quilt shop (where thay have large tables in the back room) helping a friend to layer and baste her bed sized quilt, and it was such a breeze, there being two of us for the job. Remind me that I ask for help on my next quilt!
I've been doing a lot of small projects lately, and that's not really "me" so it's about time that I get back on track - lots of lovely fabric waiting for the projects I have planned for them, and my sewing room is organized enough to have space to work, but not so much that it kills the creativity. I'm hoping to get a head start this Easter with a few days off from work. Just one more day at the office and my sewing machine and I are off on our next jaunt!