Before I share my thoughts with you....I think a Flamingo Update is in order:
When I first saw this Flamingo...I thought it was the black sheep of the family....but I was wrong. This Flamingo can be illuminated and it glows at night :) As you can see, Glowie Flamingo has chores to do today....
And Gimpie Flamingo also needs to finish some chores.....but.....
their siblings got their work done early and they've gone fishing!
"A Better Way"
I find myself saying there has got to be "A Better Way" frequently....and then the wheels start turning....
my old wheels start turning. You know they can get rusty don't you? LOL
How many times do you start a project with a specific pattern and know exactly what you want to make and then go buy just enough fabric for that project? Honestly....I want to know from each of you that read this post....please leave me a comment telling me approximately how often that happens for you.
Here is my dilemma... I have some fabrics that I bought for one project and then changed my mind so I have these fabrics....
My mother wants me to make her a full size quilt for her birthday present and she really likes these fabrics. I'm tickled because I can use up this fabric.....until I remember that this was going to be a baby quilt so I'm going to need more fabric to make a full size bed quilt.
My process:
1. Need more fabric
2. Search for more fabric and I'd like to expand into some of the other fabrics the designer has in this line
3. How much more fabric will I need? That will depend on what pattern I'm going to make.
5. I need to find a pattern.....which in part will be dictated by the fabrics. While looking at the fabric I know I don't want to loose the focus fabric so I don't want to cut it smaller than 6" finished.
Are you frustrated yet? This is where the frustration sets in for me. Now the task is to find a pattern that will finish into a full size quilt AND have 6" blocks AND will use the coordinating fabrics in a pleasing way.
I think that is why people buy kits...like this one....
Yep....this one comes with the pattern and all the fabric needed. That is one solution....but many of us buy fabric before we know what we are going to make....am I right?
I don't know of a database that I can search where I can enter the size quilt I want to make and then up pops tons of choices in that size range. I also don't know of a data base where I can say how much of each fabric I have and get a list of patterns that I could make using that amount of fabric (and if I wanted it to be larger...how much more fabric would I need).
Stick with me here.....
It is like being able to plug into a database that you have chicken, butter and three eggs....and then a recipe containing these ingredients would pop up (in my fantasy life...the database would scan recipes and spit out choices of different meals that could be made using those ingredients and highlighted in red would be the "other" ingredients you need to go and buy to complete the recipe).
Sounds simple doesn't it? My mind tells me an algorithm can be written so that the process can be reversed....starting from ingredients firs,t instead of completed project. I approached the folks at Electric Quilt a few years ago at Market and shared my idea. I hope and pray they add this to their software.
OK, I know that I can make my own pattern....I can go into my Electric Quilt 7 software and design something....I can change other patterns to make them work with what I have....there are lots of options here...I get that.
How many of you don't want to do all the calculations and gyrations and hope that it all works out? Call me lazy....but I want a database that has this information in it that I can access. Perhaps I've been spoiled by Google....I Google everything under the sun. Google has become the wise elder in my village. Honestly, I do feel a bit of guilt just writing this post because I know my brain can solve all these things...but aren't we all so happy to have a calculator even though we are completely capable of doing the math ourselves?
I want to know what you think....and what you do in these situations. If you don't want to leave a comment for everyone else to read...you can e-mail me at IHaveANotion@yahoo.com
I Have The Notion but lack the skills to get to the end result....LOL
Smiles,
Kelly
PS....I reserve the right to see things differently once I've been enlightened by my friends :)
