WIP: Visits and Kits

This past week my husband and I spent visiting our daughter, son-in-law, and eldest granddaughter in Oklahoma. I did not work on any projects at home but it still was a very quilt-y weekend. Since the weather was hot, and of course since mom and daughter wanted to bond and chat away over fabric, we looked at her stash and discussed her plans and looked at her WIPs. Lots of fun!

Even when not looking at fabric there was color inspiration throughout the weekend. While plant shopping at a local nursery, my granddaughter, who is six weeks shy of turning two, had a mini-lesson in color theory with these ceramic kitties.

Like her grandma, red may just be one of her favorite colors. Of course Grandma caved and we left the nursery with that kitty statuette in tow.

At Distinctive Decor, a kitchen, table, and home decor store in downtown historic Duncan, OK, I saw these rooster dishes whose saturated colors made me want to stitch up a quilt in that burgundy, pumpkin, blue, and lime colorway. Those speckled bowls and salad plates are just too cute! For those of you who have money left over after fabric purchases, these dishes are Vietri Galletto Dinnerware. They are made in Italy where the rooster has long been a symbol of good luck.

All these quilt ideas made me remember that I have not only yardage cuts of fabric but also several kits in my stash. I was trying to create from memory a list of them while in Oklahoma. My daughter suggested I dedicate 2015 to be "The Year of the Kit".  I liked the idea. Of course when I got home from the airport last night I had to go to my closet(s) to revisit those I remembered and refresh my memory on those I had forgotten until I saw them once again. Here is that embarrassingly-long list. They are in no particular order.

1. Zig-Zag Tessellations bought at a California quilt show
2. Harvest Home bargain bought at a California quilt show
3. Backyard Safari in bright primary colors bought at California quilt show
4. Nuances in browns and turquoises ^
5. Cupcake Cottage from The Savage Quilter in OK ^
6. Hungry Caterpillar x2 for Autumn and for Vivian from Fons and Porter
7. Piece O' Cake in muted greens/brown from In Between Stitches, CA 
8. Poppy Bella's Bird Quilt Fat Quarter Shop ^
9. Barnyard Buddies Baby Stripper bought at Oklahoma Quilt Works, OK *
10. Life in the Jungle Baby Stripper bought at an Oklahoma quilt show *
11. Blue Skies in Storybook taupes and aquas from Fat Quarter Shop *
12. Christmas presents in aquas and limes from Quilters' Cupboard, CA *
13. Scary Night Stripper from Cotton Patch, CA * ^
14. Barrels of Fun in beige, red, brown Fat Quarter Shop *
15. Odds and Ends in taupe, cream, and black Fat Quarter Shop * ^

                * not shown        ^ it once was lost but now it's found

Today, I spread some of the kits out on the bed and snapped an overall picture. There are pictures for the first half of the list only. Sprawling them out like this, I surprised myself with the wide variety in what captured my fancy. Each kit also had "metadata" associated with it: where it was bought, memories associated with its purchase, and possibly why it was bought – colors, theme, technique, bargain price, to repurpose fabric. In my feeble defense, all were bought on sale or with a percent off coupon.

The queen-size bed my husband and I slept in at our daughter's was covered with a tri-toned bed cover. My daughter said she loved that quilt and it had been a wedding present, but she'd moved it to the guest room in their larger home since her and her husband's bed was now a king. Hmm. Maybe this is quilt inspiration for her or me to make in the future. Seems pretty straightforward, right? Just squares and 45° angles, right? Just three solids, right? Pretty large pieces so should assemble quickly, right? Just need to add wider or more borders, right? The gridded quilting pattern is pretty straight-forward or as a king it could send out to be quilted, right? See how easy it is to expand that quilts-to-make list?

My stats for the week lack any completed or new projects and I made no progress on ongoing projects. But, a lot of planning, thinking, and fabric and family hugging went on this week and that's what it's really all about.

I am hooking up to today's Freshly Pieced post for WIP Wednesday. In case you missed it, her previous post about her new studio was awesome.