With little more than two months left of 2012, I’m feeling anxious about the number of projects I started this year but haven’t finished. I think of them as works-in-progress rather than UFOs, which means I have every intention of finishing them sooner rather than later. Quilt Camp is coming up in mid-November. I’ll have a three-day reprieve from cooking, cleaning, and (I have to confess it) wasting time on the computer. That should help me move at least a couple of projects from the “to do” list to the “ta da!” list.

Still, I’m chomping at the bit to start some new projects, inspired by ideas spinning in my head and by fabrics I’ve acquired lately (i.e. found utterly impossible to resist). I’ve decided to grant myself permission to spend the next two weeks and at least part of the remaining weeks of 2012 yielding to those impulses to play with fabric and be creative. The tradeoff is that I will devote the first month of 2013 to working only on my WIPs and UFOs. Okay. There it is in print.

So . . . where to begin? I want to do something with these fabrics, which include some of Denise Schmidt’s Flea Market Fancy in the aqua and red colorway, a large chevron stripe from Riley Blake, and an ombre that gradates from white to charcoal gray:

As you can see, I’ve already cut strips. I’m experimenting with the Disappearing 9-Patch design, for which free tutorials abound. At this point I don’t know how many of these fabrics I will actually use — but isn’t that part of the fun of playing around with them?

I don’t often buy several fabrics in the same line but I fell in love — deeply in love — with these prints from the Ainsley line for Northcott fabrics:

I have a weakness for Jacobean florals, and this grouping features the most delicious shade of green, which happens to be my favorite color. I added that herringbone batik to the mix; doesn’t it look good with the other fabrics? I’m not sure what I’ll do with this grouping yet but don’t be surprised if kaleidoscopes make an appearance.

A few months ago I saw this giant poppy print with companion fabrics online and then found the real thing at a quilt shop near Kirkland, Washington earlier this month while visiting my best friend from college:

The line is Scarlet, designed by Pamela Mostek for Clothworks. I read somewhere that the poppy print is a rerelease. If so, I completely missed it the first time around. The fabric in this line has a lovely soft hand — and it was on sale, which sealed the deal.

I am surrounded by beautiful fabric. Let the creativity begin!