Quilting Plans!

Making a bed-sized quilt is one of my goals for 2014 (OMG, typing that date seems very wrong! Let me go check my calendar… yikes. It really is 2014!) 

I like to move fast on my New Years goals so that they get done before I lose the inspiration, so I’ve been gathering materials and making plans! 

First off, the fabric that started it all…

I bought these three rolls of vintage cotton (aka. old and slightly yellowed at the edges) before leaving Japan with the intention of one day making us a quilt. Each roll is about 30cm wide and 12m long, designed to be the perfect amount of yardage to make a cotton kimono called a yukata. I wish I’d bought more - They were only $10/each!

My next step was to start a pinterest board of other quilts made with indigo fabrics…

…and to order a flannel sheet to use as backing! (Bonus: I paid for it with a gift card we got for our wedding 2.5 years ago!) 

And right about then, my rainbow-loving brain started to get bored of all blue! Thankfully my husband approved adding in some little bits of colour… and BOOM! A rainbow quilt was born! 

That looks more like me, doesn’t it? My friend Katherine helped me pick out some fat quarters at our local quilting shop, and I mixed in a piece of blue chambray from my stash. Now I’m just looking for a few fat quarters of dark indigo prints to tone down the white… and wouldn’t you know, turns out there is someone who sells Japanese fabric out of her home locally. Jackpot! I’m hoping to make an appointment with her soon, and possibly drag some of my local sewcialists along too!  Oh dear. My fingers seem to have acted without my brain, and somehow I just clicked “buy” on some yukata fabrics from KimoYES.com! Can I still go check out that local lady’s stash?

Now that I’ve got all this fabric, I guess it’s time to think about how to sew it together! I pinned some improv quilts that I liked…

…and asked Jamie which designs he liked most. He picked the green-and-cream one in the top row, and the rainbowy one below it. In his words, he likes the geometric and linear, but with human imperfections and a sense of chaos.

Based on that, I think I’m going to do improv pieced squares with similar colours pooling together. (Oooh! Maybe rainbow on the top of my side of the bed, and diagonally fading to dark navy at his feet? So symbolic! ;) And also very similar to Morgan’s quilt which was one of my inspirations! 

How do you plan big projects? Do you have any Pinterest boards on the go for upcoming sewing, decorating, or wardrobe-building plans?  I’d be so curious to see them if you leave a link in the comments!