Bright quilter

I know I make bright quilts. Every quilt I make is bright. Even the $5 quilts, where I use the same fabrics in the same places and the same proportions in my blocks seem to come out brighter than everyone else's. They may use white as sashing and borders and mine will still look brighter. And, for years, nobody told me I should be afraid to use yellow, so I used it liberally and still do. But, somehow, it has never seemed to stand out.

Because the indian orange peel is oranges and grays, I've been pulling out of my stash of blacks and grays. Even my blacks have pop. There was only one fabric that read as black. All the rest have some other color in them that makes them stand out. A wave of rusty red and white, or gold diamonds and dots... You get the picture. Lots of pop and pizazz.

I guess I should expect that since I also dress in bright colors. I'm the only guy in my workgroup that will wear anything remotely close to pink. And, I wear lots of bright green and bright blue. I'd wear orange if I could find it in men's clothes. But, I don't wear a lot of yellow. I do have golds, but not bright yellow. My theory is, there's plenty out there to be scared of. Why be scared of a color?

My bright fabric choices have never been more apparent than now, when I'm making this quilt with my mentor. She sent another box of fabric strips to me the other day and I looked at it compared to the fabrics I've pulled out of my stash and already used and my quilt is going to be so bright. When we get together this weekend, I'm sure we'll lay them out and I'll try to get pics of them both to share. It should be interesting and we'll see if I get into trouble for wandering too far from the plan she had in mind for us.

Anyway, things are calming down around the house. Rob is getting more used to not smoking, although he kept wandering in and out of the sewing room yesterday evening and when I finally asked him why and if he wanted me to clear a place for him to sit, he said he doesn't really know what to do with himself now that he's not going out to the garage for a smoke. I wish I'd thought to hand him a paintbrush. And Sydney made dinner last night. She made the yummiest chicken club sandwiches with the first tomatoes out of our garden. Ahhhh, tomatoes with real taste! Finally. And, they may have cost more than the $3.99 a pound we've been paying for good tomatoes at the grocery, but as I was eating it last night, it was darn well worth it.

Y'all take care and we'll see ya round. It's Thursday. Just today and tomorrow and this work week will be done. I can hardly wait! Lane