The Planning Stage – Chapter 2

When Marilyn asked for a new design she had five – 1 yard cuts that she wanted to use.  With that in mind my first design attempt used just five fabrics (hmmmm will it stay at just five?), well not fabric but paper. 

 

In my real life, I am anything but organized but not when it comes to designing.  In order to stay organized I start out by numbering each fabric paper.  Once I start playing around the organization is crucial as I can easily get myself confused. 

As I think it through, I take notes.  As I mentioned in Chapter 1, I always have a notebook with me.  This is not where I usually design but in this case (since I was riding in a car and not planning on starting a new design) this is what I used to start my notes.  BTW it’s a spiral notebook using my “Not Just Another Note Pad” pattern.  This one was made by Frances Moore as a gift at one of her machine quilting retreats.

The notebook under neither is where all my design thoughts, notes and patterns have lived for the last several years.  It is well used and slightly tattered.  I try not to remove any pages even if they don’t appear to be of any value.  You just never know when you want to go back and review something.

Here’s a picture of the inside showing some of my notes from an earlier design.

As you can see it has other pages stuck in here and there.  It’s messy, but it works for me.  So I’ve now taken my original notes from the spiral notebook and taped them to the starting page of the new pattern. 

The next step is to start making my prototype quilt, selecting the fabric, taking notes and pictures all along the way. 

Next up, Chapter 3, let the cutting and piecing begin.

Enjoy,