2012!

What does the above pic have to do with a new year?  Nothing.  But it's cute, isn't it? Maybe good fairies will visit us all in 2012 - who knows!

Are you the type of person that makes resolutions when the new year comes in?  I'm not.  Don't want to disappoint myself for a whole year, so I just don't make 'em.  I do sort of have a philosophy of life or at least a philosophy of quilt making and cooking.  When I look at a recipe or a quilt pattern, I think, o.k. what can kick it all up a notch?  Maybe not a huge notch, but a notch none the less.  In cooking that translates to things like: if the cracker recipe is good, wouldn't sesame seeds be a good addition and wouldn't they be even better if they were toasted first?  Make every ingredient its own best and the end dish will show it.  The same thing applies to quilt designing.  A good book to illustrate this philosophy is an older book, but one I love to look at:

It will take a look at two different quilts in the same style, analyze them and tell you why one is more valuable than the other.  I didn't get the book as a guide to pricing antique quilts, but rather as a guide to tell me how to kick my quilt designs up a notch. Why add a plain border if you can put a pieced one?  Why use only one pink fabric if you can use a whole host of them? That type of thing.  What can you do to make the whole quilt just a bit more interesting?  What can you do to keep the viewer looking at the quilt?  What will hold your own interest while you are making the quilt?  Those are all good questions. 

Let me know what your thoughts are on this subject.  Love to hear from you all.

Till next time......

Sheila