Ups and Downs and Double Toothpicks

Today has been another day from the double toothpicks--that is the double toothpicks as in "H" "E" "Double Toothpicks". So I thought it would be appropriate to make a Zig Zag quilt to help me remember that life has ups and downs. I started with this:

A stack of red, white and aqua squares.

Recently I was reading a blog and the writer mentioned that she just loved red, white and aqua together. Guess what? So do I. Well I do now, at least. That is one reason I love reading other bloggers, because they have such great ideas and are inspiring. Here is something I do. I keep a bound quilting journal, my little (big) black book. Whenever I am browsing quilting stuff and I see an idea that catches my eye, I jot a quick note and make a little sketch of the block or idea. Then later, I have a collection of ideas which I know I like to work from. If I plan out a quilt I also use the book to make and keep all my notes and measurements. It would be closer to a perfect world if I would slip in a finished picture of the project too, perhaps it will evolve to that level. For now, I am just happy to keep my thoughts organized.

I plan to alternate the aqua and white with the red and white. So far I have only this row and a half of aqua. But, I am already loving it! It seems really outside of my history of color scheme choices, but maybe that is why it jumps out at me. I can't wait to see the whole thing together.





On another note, one of my WIP (works in progress) is finally getting quilted. This Floral Fantasy pin-wheel top went together so quickly but the slow going quilting has made up for the speed of the top. My first quilting pattern once started, i realized that it was just not working for me or for the quilt, so out came all those hours of work--no wonder my hands are in such pain. Most of the new quilting is done, I am much happier with it, you can kind of see the quilting on the photo of the back of the quilt.


Also there are some pictures of a few of my favorite pin-wheels.
This first and second pinwheels are from some of my mom's free to me stash--Thanks Mom!
















It seems to me that this is a good note to end on--much nicer than thoughts of the Double Toothpicks place.