Finding the Perfect Fabric

Sometimes, when I am sewing for others they have request that at the time seem no big deal. Then when I start to try and find fabrics that might be reflective of what they have requested well, then it doesn't work out at all. Last fall a friend asked if I would make a baby quilt for someone we both knew who was a professional photographer and he wanted cameras in it. No worries I said and sort of forgot about it because the baby wasn't due for 9 months. Then in Jan I realized that I needed to start figuring out the quilt or it would sneak up on me and so a shopping I did go. Fabric stores far and wide, Etsy Ebay you name it I was looking and nothing screamed out at me and said pick me pick me. So, a few more months went by and then it was March. Now I really have to get busy so I remembered that she also loves vintage and started collecting images one lazy Sunday morning and before you know it, I had a whole design of images including one that she took of an old camera. I manipulated it in Photoshop and turned it into a drawing and colored it to match the colors I was working with and a yard of fabric was born. I sent it off to Spoonflower in Seattle and my fabric was born. Since I created a fabric to feel like a quilt put together of images of cameras I quickly quilted it to it's back and bound the edges and a very personal baby quilt was born.
It's such a rush to see something that you created in any media come together and then work... that's the tricky part as we all know, they don't all work all the time. This past week they finally gave the quilt to the Mom to be as she is just about to pop. They were happy with the quilt, the mother was happy with the quilt and I was thrilled to be realizing that I can create the fabrics that for so long have lived in my head but haven't been in the stores and in the colors I want. This will be a whole new chapter for this girl who has spent her

whole life surrounded by fabric