DQS10 - designing

I never rush into a swap quilt design. I look at my partner's Flickr favourites and galleries. I study their mosaics. I read their preferences. I check out their blog. Then I forget about it for a while. Then I have another look and repeat the process. Then when I have a bit of time, I have another look, and get a few ideas in my head, then put pencil to paper, and let something evolve.

I put pencil to paper the other day, and this is what happened. You might need to double-click on the image to read the notes, which explain the meagre sketches. Top left are the main notes I took for ideas, the rest are notes about how I'm going to put the quilt together so I don't forget anything. That said, there's a fair chance things will intentionally change as I go. So far, this quilt is going to be a real mix of techniques to get the effects I want - foundation-piecing, hand applique, machine applique, trapunto, free-motion embroidery and free-motion quilting...

Here's my starting palette (it contains Sandi Henderson (Farmer's Market), Patty Young (Flora & Fauna), Heather Bailey (I think Freshcut and Pop Graden), Chez Moi (Swanky?) and a couple of tone-on-tones to fill out the colours. The finished product won't be so overwhelming, becuse they'll be set on a solid white background. The stripe is a potential binding; I rarely settle on binding until the quilting is complete and trimmed, and I can lay out a few options accurately.

I can't wait to start sewing tomorrow (hmm, it's 3am, perhaps I should say 'after a sleep'?).