The Energizer

Just finished the quilt top sample of Ohio Stars for our Retreat. My objective was to show how changing the center or the corners of a simple block can completely change the look. I have a few blocks that I made but didn't use. This will serve it's purpose quite well.

Then I hit my usual slump that always follows completing any project. I always rather stumble around for a period of time trying to decide what I will work on next. I generally, begrudgingly, drag out a UFO, and try to inspire myself to work on it. Usually, something will stimulate my imagination shortly, and I'm off and running again.

Last night, my quilt group got together, and Roseanna brought along a bunch of old quilting magazines she had been given. We were browsing through them, and BINGO!! I found a "buzzer". It's from the J/F 2000 Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, called, "Kitty Corner". It's just four patches assembled with plain squares in a 9-patch set to create a block. The blocks in the sample are set to create a diagonal reminiscent of an Irish chain. I thought about it the rest of the evening, thinking of my scrap drawers, and what type color theme to use. The quilt pictured in the article made one think of 30's reproductions. I had gone to bed, and was just about to drift off, when a neutral fabric in my stash popped into my mind as the perfect complement to my stash of scraps. I should probably have just gone downstairs and pulled the fabric to start cutting. I didn't sleep very well . . . every time I turned over, I saw that fabric in a finished quilt top. I went to the office, and when I came home for lunch, I made a bee-line for the basement and grabbed the fabric working on my mind so intently. I cut a couple strips, and started pulling scraps to cut into 2" squares. Whittled down a zip-loc of pinks in fairly short order. Then, it was time to return to work. I was about 2 blocks from the parking garage, and I thought about my stash of Benartex squares, including some "quilter's candies" that they gave out in Paducah for several years. Couldn't remember if they were two-inches or less, so my mind was once again obsessed until I could get home and check on those. Lucky me . . . they are precisely two-inches, so I have probably 200 two-inch squares ready to start making blocks. Because it is so simply pieced, it is a wonderful candidate for Bonnie Hunter's leaders and enders technique . . . if I can keep myself from just sewing madly on only it.

I've asked my friends who wanted to make a scrap quilt sample for Camp to make at least nine blocks so one can see the interaction of the blocks together. (So far, none of them have been able to stop at 9 blocks!) I see 9 blocks . . . at least . . . in my immediate future!