Black Opal

What inspires you?

What is inspiration?  What little thing can spark your imagination and inspire you to create something awesome?

I asked someone what her favorite colors were because I wanted to make a quilt for her.  She told me the colors in a picture I had on my Facebook page were all her.  I took a good look at it and fixed it in my mind and every time I went to a quilt shop I found more colors to add to the mix.  I eventually had a wonderful collection of pinks, blues and purples to satisfy the scrappy gene that dictates how all my quilts must be made and I set about cutting squares.

 

This particular quilt is called Black Opal and can be found in a book called Spectacular Scraps.  The quilt in the book is made by Margaret Rolfe.  I must give credit where it is due, as this quilt in the book inspired me to follow the colors in the picture.  Margaret had a few more pinks, and hers were all deeper in hue.  All the quilts in this book are made with half square triangles and I knew when I saw the Black Opal I needed to use it as my pattern.

The picture of the flag pole, though, is what caused me to pull the colors I pulled, gathered, and begged for.

Unfortunately the person this quilt was originally for has left my sphere of acquaintances and now the quilt will be mine.  I would have been hard pressed to let it go.  It is much lovelier than I imagined even looking at the pieces in the box waiting to be assembled.

Last year I went to a quilt retreat in Amish country and about all I sewed on for 4 days straight was Black Opal.  I made my quilt bigger than the picture and I needed 1152 half square triangles.  I swear if I had not sat down for 4 straight days and sewn 1152 half square triangles, this quilt would never had made it to completion!  That’s a lot of triangles!

I do love the result, though and now it is on the stack of quilts to be quilted.  

What will inspire me next?