You’d think after finishing Spring Bouquet, I’d be all quilted out, but apparently not.  I hadn’t even finished appliqueing all those flowers down and I was already planning my next quilt, which I intended to be a pieced quilt.

I borrowed Carrie Nelson’s “Another Bite of Schnibbles: 24 Quilts from 5 and 10″ Squares” from the library over the winter, just because I thought the title was funny. There was one quilt I found particularly attractive and I decided I was going to make “Two Percent” (her titles are very whimsical and the stories behind them are equally amusing) as soon as I’d wrapped up my applique project. Whenever I happened to be in a fabric store, I kept my eyes open for fabrics in tones of blue, brown, cream and red that I thought might work.

The one downside to Carrie’s very accessible designs in my opinion is that these quilt patterns are designed specifically for charm packs.  Frankly, I find the idea of pre-cut, pre-selected fabric one step removed from paint by number, but I did like a number of the quilts and figured I could make them just as well from small lengths of yardage.   Nelson has a very engaging style, and I really enjoyed her colour choices, so it seemed like a sensible addition to my growing quilt pattern library.

But I was determined to get Spring Bouquet done first, so I didn’t buy my own copy of the book until I was all done.  I needed another seven dollars to qualify for free shipping, so sight unseen, I bought an earlier book of Nelson’s, “Miss Rosie’s Spice of Life Quilts“, simply because I liked the cover quilt.

It was a great decision because not only did I find the perfect pattern for a modern, Hansel and Gretel quilt I’ve been toying with making over the summer, I ended up changing my mind entirely about my next project.  “Two Percent” was yesterday’s news; make way on the cutting table for “Raise the Roof”, a log cabin/star combination with a wonderful vintage vibe.

Thanks to my previous shopping binges, I had an excellent selection of dark, antique style prints to chose from.  The  browns, reds and blues were no problem.  A rummage in my stash revealed three perfect green prints, and I was able to find the small amounts of a cheddar, a dark violet and a gold print in a couple of local stores.  (I always find it interesting how my stash mirrors my own clothing choices – I don’t wear yellows, oranges or purple often, and I only had one measly scrap of gold fabric in my stash that wasn’t nearly enough to complete this project)

Here are the cream prints I’ll be working with.  They range from a white and beige floral, to bone, cream and tan.

There are nineteen dark fabrics, ranging from a black print, for depth and contrast, to browns, burnt orange, blue and greens. The prints are all fairly small, and interspersed with either regular patterned prints, stripes and a few random-ish all over designs.  I think they will work perfectly in replicating Carrie’s quilt design.

Everything’s been washed, starched and pressed, ready for cutting.  As soon as I finishing up my end of term marking, I hope to devote a whole day to getting everything cut out and bagged, ready for some serious chain piecing.

So I want to know:  How often do you change your mind about a sewing project?  What makes you change your mind?