Stroke of Genius

First let me say I've been spending some time over at Pinterest.  Are you familiar with this? It's a virtual bulletin board, so that you can pin things that you want to remember instead of loading up your favorites or bookmarks. This is especially helpful for those things that are more just good ideas, not necessarily a whole website you want to bookmark.

You can also search through other boards and get ideas that way.

I've been using mine trying to find decorating ideas for the new house, and quilting ideas. Yesterday I spent a large portion of the day shopping my favorite  on-line fabric store (the Fat Quarter Shop) for fabrics that will work for the 4 or 5 quilt ideas I have rattling around in my brain. I made a separate board at Pinterest for each quilt idea, sort of a virtual design board so I can preview what all the fabrics will look like together, before I buy them. Will they work? Do the colors or patterns clash? Is it a harmonious grouping? Now I can answer that without buying the fabric, without leaving my chair. Then I can use the board, open in one tab, to fill my shopping cart in another tab. Beautiful.

Last night I made The Chemist look at all of the fabric finds. He was not quite as excited as I was, for some reason. But he did talk with me about the ideas, this quilt for that person, etc. and give me some direction on what project to start next.  Next being "after I finally ever finish the Diary Quilt" sometime next year.

And then I had it. The stroke of genius.

I've seen on Pinterest this great idea for saving kids' artwork --- take a photo of each drawing you want to save. Use your photo editing software or on-line photo ordering service to turn the photos into a large (poster sized if you like) photo collage, showcasing all the drawings in one piece to display. Brilliant.

example of collages of artwork
taken from my Pinterest board

I've also seen loads of printing on fabric, or iron-on image transfers, and beautiful quilts using these techniques.

example of printing on fabric
taken from Pinterest search results

Are you following me? Do you see where my mind went? I mean, it's obvious, right? Take the photos. Print them onto sheets of fabric (original size if you like, since you'll be making a bed sized quilt from it) or iron-ons. Assemble the fabric prints of your child's original artwork into a quilt.

something a little bit like this, but bed sized
image from Pinterest search results

I mean, it's genius, right??

The Writer has a whole stack of cartoons he's drawn, so those will become his quilt. He's even thinking about drawing new ones just for the quilt.  The Artist will be given the choice between an artwork quilt, a t-shirt quilt, some other random quilt, or any combination of the two (bunk beds....I feel compelled to make him 2 quilts for his room.....). The Adventurer will likely get a Mario themed quilt, with some of his Mario drawings mixed in. I can hardly wait to get started.

Now I just have to figure out the best way to get photos onto fabric....

(oh, and we move soon. We'll probably lose internet for at least a little while after that; hopefully not as long as last time. I'll post when we're back on-line.....)