Monochromatic Colour Scheme

This "White Swan" Echinacea photo was taken 4 years ago when we visited Niagara Parks Botanical Garden. After coming across A Quarter Inch From the Edge's post on building your own Kona solids palette using the Palette Builder 2.1 from http://www.play-crafts.com/blog/palettebuilder2/, I was stoked to play with it as I have been looking for something to build a Kona solids palette with.

Here are the colours it came up with.

I love the monochromatic scheme and it reminded me of a garden we "quickly" designed for work last fall featuring of course a lot of the white Echinacea and other perennials with interesting foliage.

Finding Inspiration

When I am in a funk (which is almost always), I look around me for inspiration.

Hyacinth blooms grown indoors

 Hex quilt based on one of my favorite board games?

The Settlers of Catan

 
Graphic quilt based on a thrift store find? DH found this poster hanging on the wall of our favorite little thrift store. This is now hanging in his office ;)

Groovy baby!

I saw this throw pillowcase at the local Sally Anne store. The second time I went back it was still there but last week, just when I was looking for it, I couldn't find it anymore :(

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Bright and cheery

Getting Out of The Box

This is what my brain felt like three weeks ago. I was in such a rut I didn't want to do anything at all!

To make matters worse, one of my molars started acting up and gave me so much grief one weekend (was in so much pain over the weekend and almost broke the dentist's clinic doors down when they opened Monday morning). After an X-ray and a consultation with the dentist, it's either root canal or extraction. Of course I chose the latter, never mind if the tooth can still be saved :( The root canal is 3 times more expensive than the extraction and without a dental plan, even an extraction will put me out of pocket. 

I can't help but wonder what percentage of this world's population don't like going to the dentist. I certainly don't! There's something so in-your-face about it, I almost always feel violated afterwards.

The antibiotics and pain meds must've done something to my brain aside from numbing the toothache because I have been in a creating mood ever since. Since then, I have made a diaper bag and made 2 kinds of cake (lemon and coffee cake) which were a big hit with the family.

Diaper Bag

Coffee Cake

Maybe I should get a toothache more often?

The Balikbayan Box Countdown Begins

Last Saturday morning, the courier company picked-up the ultra heavy box containing the baby quilts, books, chocolates, etc, etc...It will hopefully arrive in the  Philippines within 6 to 8 weeks. Longer, I guess, if there are going to be severe weather conditions which will delay the cargo ship. 

By that time, my niece will hopefully be out of the hospital. I was able to squeeze in my first rag quilt too into the Balikbayan Box (Balikbayan means return to home country in Filipino). It took me two days to make said quilt and I was pretty pleased with myself. It got me thinking that perhaps small projects are good to work on because they are attainable (Du-h!) and they give you a boost of much needed self-confidence as I am pretty new at this quilting lark.

I need to write down my 2013 goals too and one of them is to get started on the Batman quilt for DS (who is now on a Batman phase) and hopefully he will still like Batman by the time I get that quilt done. I lost the Nine-Patch Revisited instructions for it and I don't really want to drive all the way to the next town just to get another copy of it. You know when something turns up just when you're not looking for it anymore? Exactly...I am waiting for one of those days...

Taking Stock

Last night, while watching some old Top Chef Season 5 episodes I thought I'd multitask (as usual) and go through my stash and hopefully find something that will inspire me. And I did! I found a handful of little heart yo-yos that I'd forgotten all about. 

What's in your stash?

Heart yo-yos

Musical instruments

I also found a panel of fabric with musical instruments which I could make into a lap quilt for my Mom or my sister. We'll see. How about you? What's in your stash and how did you "build" it?

Seeing Red (and pink)

Started on my scrappy hearts quilt..Hopefully, I will get it done before February 14. A bit cheesy but there might be a romantic hidden in the deepest darkest recesses of my heart...