As decorating goes – I can’t say I’ve ever been stellar at it. I tend to stumble upon things I like; bits and pieces really. I always feel a bit like I love odd things that are mostly random, don’t often go together, yet possess an intangible meaning I can’t always explain. Like umbrellas, for instance. I like them very much.
I bought the above painting a number of years ago because I needed something to at least kind of match the green paint I had chosen to throw up on our bedroom walls when my husband was away one week, traveling for business. Those were what I call the olden days, before his job was being the brainy numbers guy for our shop. He traveled a good deal then while I stayed home with our littles. Every so often when he was away, I’d get a bee in my bonnet to do something big.
Usually my ‘somethings’ involved tackling more than conquering. I tended to reorganize closets or thoroughly vacuum the whole house (including trim). Occasionally, I’d pick a room to paint. Sometimes when I painted, I chose a good color. Other times (like that yellow sponge-painty gig I did in the foyer and all down the whole, long hallway) – let’s just say I knew the moment the paint was dry – I’d be repainting!
In the case of the Earthy Green I chose for our bedroom 4 years ago, my emotion about whether it was a great color or an awful one was kind of more grey than green, if you get my drift. In theory, it seems to me like a good color, this earthy, mossy green; but ever since I painted it – I’ve been on the fence. The thing is, I like it. It’s a nice…green. It’s just that because I’m not a stellar decorator, I second-guess myself. It’s also that I’ve struggled to find a way to pull the room together in a way that makes me NOT sit the fence about it. The painting was a good start. At the very least, the green is right. I also like how it makes me feel.
Almost as much as I love the red umbrella that the girl is carrying – I love her blue hooded raincoat.
She must have chosen the coat in a quaint little shop somewhere; a perfect length for it to just cover the bottom of her most-often-worn skirt or dress (no, it’s definitely a skirt). In my own world, I never think far enough ahead to remember that I might need a mid-length coat that, just in case I’m ever anticipating walking alongside a river in the rain, I could just scoop it off the hook that hangs by the door (which doesn’t currently exist, but now I need to remember to get – a hook, I mean, to hang by the door for hanging a mid-length blue hooded raincoat I don’t have either), as I run out with my red umbrella in hand, in case it rains.
Near the painting, sits a coral chair. It’s crushed velvet, once belonged to my neighbor, and I completely love it.
It sort of matches the painting. Kind of.
Did I mention I’m not much of a decorator? I’m a much better quilter, at least in my own head. Yes, that’s what I was intending to talk about here (because that’s usually what I’m talking about here, and I know that’s what everyone who comes here to read probably wants me to talk about…so I’ll just get to it.
Every quilt I make lately, my hub asks the same question:
Is it big enough to fit on our bed?
Usually I say no because I make lots of (quicker) lap quilts. Most recently though, I started pondering a project for Robin Pickens’ Dear Mum collection and I got to thinking that for some intangible-at-the-time reason, I might like to make it bed sized.
I’ve been staring at a pattern I’ve had in my stash for a long while by Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic.
I have this habit of falling in love with a pattern and then coveting it for eons as if it will self destruct if I use it before the perfect fabric collection reveals itself. The problem is that if I have any intention of sharing it here (and I’m using fabric we have in our shop) I darn well better be able to come up with at least a few copies for those that want to make it too (you see, I’ve got your back, don’t you worry).
Except, huh.
Say it with me, friends: Out. Of. Print.
(unless I ask the right person…maybe)
Fast forward with me here for just a sec, while I take a chance, and start cutting.
Speaking of sweet little bugs…
So, before YOUR brain self destructs in anticipation (or sheer boredom) – with the inspiration of some peculiarly familiar coral, the earthiest of greens, and (eureka) a particular blue Essex Linen to compliment the Robin’s Aqua and to blend with a certain mid-length hooded raincoat which hangs from a hook (which doesn’t exist by the door, but should…and will).
I’m overjoyed to share my Dear Mum X & + quilt in our earthy green space.
Pretend with me (as if you haven’t been already), that the painting is visible in this photo, and that the red rectangular pillow I found later in the living room is plopped right there by Sophie and her mouse friend, Meg. And maybe also pretend there’s something a little more amazing above the headboard there that’s better than that oddly small framed something that should feel more meaningful to me, but doesn’t. After all, as you all may recall, I’m not much of a decorator, Maybe that’s because I can imagine things where they could be, or might one day be.
(okay fine…it’s morning and I needed one more skim through this post before sharing it anyway…and there’s a thing called daylight and the panoramic setting on an iPhone…)
In case you wondered, before this post, it had not even occurred to me to be in search of something more meaningful for above that headboard, nor a hook, or a perfect blue raincoat. Now my quest has begun. Thank you.
I wish you happy quilting. Even more – happy imagining.
(one more scroll…can you make it?)
The pattern…out of print…still – BUT. We’ve been granted a special purchase opportunity of a limited quantity of printables of it. That means we’ve promised to only print a certain amount for KITS RIGHT HERE that we’ve made available in the shop. Once they’re gone, they’re gone (because fair is fair).
