INSPIRATIONS

I'm heading out this morning for an evening lecture "Viewed With A Smile" at the Cabarrus Quilt Guild near Charlotte, NC. It's a lighthearted look at my quilts and their inspirations. If you are in the area.....please join us. Then on Tuesday, I'll be teaching "Beading Basics & Beyond". It's a full day class where students learn a vast variety of beading techniques and how they are applied to fiber.

So....would you purchase this fabric?? I did..... It was originally bought to be the lining of a jacket....thankfully I had some left over when the next inspiration hit.

Idea # 1 - Rushing through a big box toy store in search of a baby gift.....I spotted the old "Mr. Potato Head" game. Pausing long enough to recollect the silly facial features one attached to the potato form.....I moved along. By the time I got to the next aisle, I was already thinking that this would make a fun subject for a project. Ultimately, I created a jacket.....with the 'perfect' lining!

In this detail you'll see why I had so much fun making the jacket. The facial features I created for Mr. Potato Head, were attached with Velcro.....so they could be moved around.

Fast forward a few years...... I hosted a Quilting Tour to Iceland, London, & Paris.......the entire story of this event is too long to share....so I'll summarize. On a flight from Paris to Iceland, one of our participants was sitting across the aisle and 1 row forward of my aisle seat. We always kid her because she seems to be a magnate for annoying seat mates. Suddenly, I see her continually turning her head toward me....with a look on her face saying, "You can't believe this". So I got up and strolled past her.......and she was right....NO one would believe this.

Her odd seat mate, an old man (not part of our tour!) had taken his teeth out and was cleaning them with a toothpick in a plastic water glass! This tiny quilt flew into my mind almost immediately. Even before returning to my own seat, I marched back to the flight attendants and pleaded for an unopened Icelandair toothpick.

The quilt was presented to Jan Vander Hill with much laughter on my next Quilting Cruise a few months later. The moral of the story.....keep you eyes open, and your mind ready to receive images that are begging to be documented.

My lecture tonight is full of such silliness........and yes, you'll be wondering what my 2:00 AM thoughts are!!