Inspiration and Exploration

(today I have quite a philosophical essay about a direction I want to take for our Block of the Month program for the autumn.  Sorry about no photos....)

I had a good time putting together the pattern for the Row by Row experience. 
At the same time that I was doing that, I was mulling over the Saturday Surprise Sampler Program at the store that runs from September to June.   We've done that for 12 years now, and we need to have a change.
I noticed that I was quite enjoying the process of designing the row for the shop hop, and started to ask myself how I could repeat that process.   Although I don't want to duplicate the idea of making a row quilt on a monthly basis, I do like the idea of creating a slightly bigger project.  That is, the project kit would be larger than just one 12 inch block, and come out only once a month instead of once every two weeks.   Also, the projects would not be cumulative, combining into a big quilt at the end, but rather, each project could be complete on its own.    Ergo, Project of the month, or PROM.  

The wheels in my mind keep turning however, and I want to tie the series of projects together somehow, to add more meaning to it, not to just create a series of projects, willy nilly. 
 I came up with the idea of exploring the whole concept and process of Inspiration.  I hope to do  two things each month.

1.  Choose a source of inspiration and explore ideas that could arise out of it.   Share those possibilities through a store display and blog posts, hopefully leading to others considering how they could use that inspiration source as well.
2.  Provide a project in kit form, based on that source of inspiration.  The person who sews the pattern might finish it as an item such as a tablerunner, or it could be a starting point for a whole different project.  

Along the way, I hope to delve more deeply into the process of how we get inspired, and how we can take the inspiration we feel and translate it into actual finished projects.
A lot of the time when I get ideas of what I'd like to make, they just fizzle out.  I'd like to be more able to harness that interest in an idea and direct it into my sewing.

so, I would like to invite you to join me on this voyage of exploration !

Saturday Surprise Sampler starts soon!

We have a new round of our Saturday surprise sampler program starting in a week from today.

We had a lot of people wondering what the colors are going to be this year,

The fabrics we will be using are all from Andover. They include chambrays and fabrics designed by Jo Morton.   You can find out more about Jo Morton here. She often uses inspiration and patterns of prints from the 1800s.
this is the Charleston group,( photo from her website)

So this is a sneak peek at some of the upcoming combinations.

These aren't all of the fabrics but will add the others into the hoop display as they arrive in the store, most likely in September.

This is my chart of the fabrics.

To give the blocks a bit of a twist this year, I've decided to make them all repeating patterns reminiscent of the sort you might see on intricate tiled floors, 

photo from victorian tile restoration

each kit can be sewn into one twelve inch finished block, or left as four smaller blocks that finish at six inches.  This will give you lots more options for how you set the blocks!  I can't even imagine all the possibilities that people will come up with!


Hope you have fun sewing this year!

Block 16, Ripples

Block 15, Silver Maple

today the block is of some tesselating maple leaves,

Black white and Bright Block 12

Block 12 is called Color in the Corner:

Sneak Peek-- Black White and Bright

This morning I have been working on some patterns for the upcoming Saturday Surprise Sampler Blocks that we run at the store each year.  
This is a sneak peek at what's to come!

(sorry for the blur factor, it wasn't intentional)

 As you have noticed by now, the color scheme is "Black, White and Bright".
In working with the fabrics, I have started to group them into sets,
1. black, and black on black....

 2. White, with black prints

 3. Black, with white prints

4. Accents-- the brights, these are intense brightly colored monotone fabrics, which I haven't taken a photo of... .
the idea of the accent is that there will be a little bit of a bright color in each block.
(One thing that you can do is that if you want your accent to be the same in each block, you could just get a meter of some bright fabric that you love and substitute it in each block for the accent, and save all the varied bright pieces to use for some other project)

The first block is available on Saturday September 8th, which is fast approaching! 
This year it also co-insides with the Show and Tell of last years blocks!  Be sure to mark that on your calendar!  We will start the Show and Tell at 10 a.m. sharp!  (Don't worry, we will have coffee and refreshments if that is early for you,     and even if it's not)
If you bring your project from last year to show, then you will get the first block kit free that day!