The other day, I ran across a book from C&T Publishing called "A new light on Storm at Sea quilts" by Wendy Mathson. The quilt shop I visited previously, quiltfabric.com, mentioned the book on their site. In looking into it further, I noticed several things. First, it's a quilt I have considered making in the past, but the twist on this one is that there's a tool created to make the block easier to make and more accurate. I do love tools that let me piece a little less-than-perfect and still have everything fit together once you've trimmed the block. Then, after I bought the book, I discovered that my friend and former coworker Carol Zentgraf was a technical editor on it. And though I had always thought I'd do an off-center log cabin with the fabrics (like this one), I think this might be the answer to my newest quilt idea.

When I left McCall's Needlework, I'd just made a slipcover for a chair using a tulip fabric that I loved. It combined royal blue, purple, and a dark green with a teal blue tinge on an ivory ground with gold tipping. At that point, I started collecting fabrics to make a quilt based on that fabric's color combination. I've moved these fabrics from Birmingham to Northwest Arkansas to Chicagoland to Milwaukee to central Wisconsin and back to Milwaukee. And I think now might be the time to finally cut into them! Then, the remaining fabrics can be put in their correct color container and I can enjoy sleeping under a quilt that's been rolling around in my head for years.