Project Quilting = {adore}

I knew I would love this journey once I started it. And this week was no different…

Here was the challenge:

For Challenge 4 we are going to do a remake of one of Season 1's  Challenges. Office Supplies was one of my personal favorites from last year. One of the best things about this type of challenge is learning to find inspiration where ever you are.

1.  You inspiration for Challenge 4 will come from a visit to a hardware store. Look around, maybe take some pictures, get a feel for the place.   The visual impact is greater at a brick and mortar store, but visiting an internet store can work, too.

2.  Choose at least 3 different things to be your inspiration.  You can use the actual items in your quilt, but are not required to do so.  Be sure to tell us about the items and how they inspired you.

3.  Please remember that these projects need to be created during the week of the challenge.

 

So I walked into Home Depot (my local hardware store)…now, let me set the picture for you…My brother worked in a hardware store when he was in high school and we frequently went by and saw him there (he's older, btw!). This particular hardware store was owned by a guy who went to our church and sang barbershop with my dad, so we had an affinity for this hardware store…And the thing of it for me was always the smell…those nails give off some weird kinda "hardware-y" smell that i LOVE!!! I know, I know…I'm weird, but go into a hardware store and take a big sniff…YUMMMMM!!

So this is me…walking into the Home Depot, which smells exactly like every hardware store I've been in (unless you are in the mulch dept…just sayin'…) and I'm thinking, I just want to be spontaneously inspired. I don't really want to strive for this…I want pure unadulterated inspiration. And it started…one after another, the ideas hit me. I edited to make sure I wasn't going to have some wacky quilt, and here's what I came up with…

I saw the display of ceiling fans and the first thing I thought was…I just finished that Block-a-palooza block with the half square triangles and it looked just like a ceiling fan…

Then I saw this (which I really really want to purchase for my kitchen…it'll take a little more convincing Mr Gorgeous for this one)…

I thought…ohhhhh I need crystal beads or buttons or something that looks like this!!

And then I HIT the Jackpot, baby…

When I saw this, I saw my quilt! And I saw an idea to make it practical. I adore making art, wall hangings, little vingettes…but this quilt was going to have little windows…and what to put there? Every good scrapbooker knows what – pictures, of course!!

As it was all forming in my head, I came upon these doors…

If you've been following my blog at all, you know I just learned how to free motion quilt…well, i started learning…i'm still practicing…it's going pretty well…but this pattern on the door really looked like something i wanted to do on fabric!!

So here's my finished quilt…

(click on the pic to see it a bit bigger!)

and my inspired elements close up…(don't forget to click!)

ceiling fan half-square triangles… with a little chandelier crystal in the center!

the window pockets with little crystal "doorknobs" over them and scrolly quilting on all of it…

heart quilting over both pieces of the quote, "whatever our souls are made of… …his and mine are the same" (ADORE that quote!!)

The little windows were made with my Big Shot die cutting through interfaced fabric, and then the fabric hemmed and sewn around a 4×6 page protector (cut down to a smaller width).

Btw, I love these pics of Mr Gorgeous and me…three of them I took of us, and three of them my mom took last Thanksgiving…*sigh* … love the guy, too!!

And isn't that fabric designed by Tula Pink called "Parisville" the best??? I love, love, love it!! 🙂

Isn't this journey fun? As I let inspiration hit me this week, I realized that I truly have a deep desire to be inspired by even the most random things around me. My senses were completely hightened. I am so excited that it will spill over to my song writing, my scrapbooking, and even my parenting. I'm hoping I can even inspire my kiddos with the most mundane things! But that's just another part of this journey I'm on…

Thanks, Project Quilting!