Sometimes I don't manage to spend much time behind the sewing machine. This was one of those weeks. I guess there was that morning running errands, the afternoon getting Liam ready for back-to-school and the other morning at the lake. It's summer, after all. And since this fall Liam is going to school, as opposed to homeschooling, it feels more like summer vacation than ever.

Still, I did manage to add two new words to my Brave quilt. Hurrah! This morning I noticed that everything looking this direction matches: my work-in-progress, the chair, the quilt boxes, the customer's quilt on the longarm machine and even the scissors by the machine head. It's the little things, sometimes accidents, that offer satisfaction when the day is just plodding along.

Satisfaction is not entirely my reaction to this quilt so far. More like apprehension. Amy I getting the concept right? Are the fabrics spot on? And, really, where am I going next? Haha.

I actually do have a sketch of how I'd like to lay out the words to this chorus (Brave by Sara Bareilles), but what goes behind and between them is a bit fuzzy. I'm hoping to let out some curvy improv, using The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters as a springboard for ideas.

Hmmm... What will be, I wonder?

Here are some of the fabrics I've pulled for my Brave quilt. I have low volume/pastels for the background fabrics and saturated prints for the words.

One thing I have decided: more Cotton & Steel basics. They're a great scale for this kind of piecing and have the kind of attitude I'm trying to channel - bright, upbeat and modern. I've yet to meet an XOXO or Sprinkle or Netorious print that I didn't use up in short order. In fact, I just burned through another XOXO today.

And while I was shopping, I added these pretties to my shopping cart. Rifle Paper Co. gets me every time, and those strawberries have been on my mind for ages.