INSPIRATION

Why would anyone purchase this fabric??  Luckily I did.  It was bought to use as a lining in a "Mr. Potato Head" (theme) garment I'd designed.  I couldn't imagine ever having another use for it, but being a quilter, one hordes fabric, and so it was still sitting on my closet shelf when inspiration hit again.  The story enfolds below:

Jan Vander Hill, of Wind Lake, WI, one of my students (now a good pal) has traveled on nearly all my tours/cruises.  Because she so often gets annoying seat mates (non-quilters) on airplanes, while traveling from Paris to Iceland, I made sure she'd be seated with others from our group, rather than the general public. 

Well, we checked in for our flight in Paris and learned that the aircraft equipment had been changed....so our seats had been reassigned.  Jan ended up sitting next to a weird, scary looking character, perhaps some sort of clergyman, who kept mumbling to himself.  She was seated across the aisle, about 2 rows in front of me.  Suddenly, she kept looking back at me and soon it became apparent she was trying to tell me something.  

So, I got up and waltzed up to see what was going on.  Nothing could have prepared me!!  The guy next to her had taken his dentures out, put them in his drinking water, and was cleaning them with a toothpick.  I still laugh every time I think about it.  (Ya, I KNOW it's disgusting, but very amusing in a way.)

Immediately, I made a bee line for a flight attendant and pleaded for an unopened Icelandair toothpick.....already envisioning this "Denture Dunker" quilt which I made for Jan as a surprise.

Perhaps when matching points on your patchwork quilts becomes a chore, you might consider developing a small original piece, inspired by an event from your personal life.  I often tell my students, "the greatest thing about doing original work is that nobody knows what it's supposed to look like, so you can always declare you planned it that way!'