Well, this is a new experience for me. I've had quilts tell me what to do before, many, many times. But I've never been bossed about by a shirt, before I even started turning it into a quilt. That is what has happened this week.
I wanted to start working to a colour scheme inspired by a photo, the latest AHIQ challenge. I had an initial pull from my shirt bag, which looked like this:
and also wanted to dig out the scraps of this green, from my last top. It all seemed pretty straightforward, until I found this shirt on ebay.
It's lovely. Just the right shade of green, and with brown and a soft pink running through it. I was a little smug. Ha! Did this shirt want to play ball and work with my other greens? It did not. It sat on top of the pile glaring at me and absolutely refusing to play nicely.
I am, maybe, a little wiser than I used to be, so instead of insisting it did what I wanted and forcing the issue, I have given in. This shirt is not going to be paired with lots of other greens. Instead I will be pairing it with browns,
with pinks and with a creamy yellow shirt with fine pink and deeper yellow, and blue-green stripes.
This pile consists of 6 shirts, one half-metre of quilting cotton and a dress made of a beautiful Monaluna quilting cotton that my daughter wore when she was five. Let's see where it takes me.