PLANNING AHEAD

I am a planner when it comes to making some of my quilts.  Many of my miniatures have intricate color placement which requires a lot of planning ahead.  The next quilt that I am planning is light to dark grey hand dyed gradations. So that they are placed right each color has to be numbered.  I made a large map of where the color goes because the blocks will be too small to write them in. 

Anyway, I was trying to think of an easy way to handle my fabric to keep it all straight.  I came up with this idea

My husband made the little board with screws for me to use with a quilt I made several years ago.  At the time my sewing room was in another room and I could hang it on the wall right next to my work area.  I needed something different this time.  I had a kind of idea what I wanted to do, so I went shopping.  You know, how you don't know what you want, but you will know it when you see it?  I found this heavy stand.  Meant to hold rolls of toilet paper. It turned out to be perfect for holding my little 'strip board'.  I also find shower curtain rings helpful for many things. 

I also have a little portable design wall. It has an easel back and covered the board with cork and covered it with a layer of batting. I figure if the blocks don't want to stay up by themselves, at least I can pin them to the cork.

Hopefully I can get started by the weekend.  It is going to take a while.  This time, I am going to keep track of the time spent working on this quilt so when people ask (as they always do) how long it took to make, I will be able to tell them. 

I have a final design in mind.. time will tell what it will look like in the end.  I always write in a journal as I go along, ideas, and thoughts of doing things differently. It is nice to look back at later.  It always makes me chuckle as I invariably write something along the lines of "what the heck was I thinking?"

I doubt this will be any different.