Plus One or Splitting Hares Finish

It's early here. The clematis paniculata is in full bloom already. The outside lights haven't even shut off yet, but I have to run out to get you pictures before my busy day starts. I think the colors are showing off truer, too.

I am most thankful the Plus One is done. Isn't it amazing that we can pick out fabric, dream it up and stitch it all together, and it still gets changed up into something more than what we anticipated?  I love that moment we see it for the first time. Our creative energy investment is fulfilled. But, you know, I feel so emotionally connected to something while in the throes of the project, and the minute it's done I'm off thinking about the next one. Call me fickle, Doxie girls. It's the thrill of the project!

It's not a secret, and most of you know I am really the newbie out here.
I only picked quilting back up last October after gingerly testing the water with my big toe decades before. The waters had looked so murky before. When I ventured back last fall, it was a virtual color storm.! I don't need the gold--I've got the rainbow! I'm so hooked, and I'm so thankful for color in my life. Our winters here in Ohio are grey, dull, lifeless, and the sun doesn't even bother to show up many days. My sister-in-law calls quilting color therapy. Yes, it is, and it keeps me going.

The third thing I'm thankful for is the quilting community. Thank you for bearing with me while I take it all in. There's so much to learn, and it's hard to suppress my excitement. I spent yesterday morning finishing the binding on the Plus One, but afterward made a trek to the wonderful ladies quilting at First Mennonite Church in Sugarcreek, and then Miller's Dry Goods, my favorite shop. I wanted to share the quilt because all the fabrics I'd used in it had come from the shop at one time or another. I was also able to share some of what I'm learning with friends that have been sewing and quilting most of their lives. And, in turn, they shared back with answers to my silly questions. The non-competitive attitude in this community is overwhelming. Is it that we know it's all been done somewhere, sometime before, and it's near impossible for something to be "original"? Is it that we realize "perfect" isn't practically possible all the time in everything? For whatever reason, I sense we are all welcomed as equal players here. I like it, and I am so thankful for acceptance.

Don't you love the fabric? I think I see it working in a brilliant, free-form compilation. I've been reading and influenced by both "Quilt Colour Workshop" by Fat Quarterly, and "Quilting with a Modern Slant" by Rachel May. Both are worth reading cover to cover.

I look, I think, and I see.

I leave you with this picture my daughter took on her almost 1st day of Back to Homeschool. Won't it look cute when she tells people it's her class picture?