Beginning a new paper pieced quilt

Quiet end of summer -- is it the "dog days of August?" I don't quite know what that means. Anyway a feeling of quiet before everything gets a lot busier hit me this week. I started a book that's been on my "to read" shelf for maybe five years. And I'm enjoying it.

I pulled out a batch of paper piecing pages that I xeroxed so long ago I don't remember when it was. I decided to sew them and see what I get. This is what I've got so far. The choices were seat=of-the-pants, not planned. I was straightening stash and thought that I have a lot of blacks and I like quilts with black so why not use some? With what? I have a piece of white and black checkered fabric, the whites have delicate Japanese-like designs. Why not use them for the centers? They were the right size. With what? Something for contrast ... yellow and orange are beginning to pile up [but then so is red, blue, brown] ... Well, this is how it's going, seat-of-the-pants without a plan. Decided to make is more interesting to sew by alternating color arrangement. Obviously that turns into a kind of checkerboard. And now on the design wall, it looks like I"m making a Halloween quilt. I think Halloween is a silly commercial holiday that has lost any meaning it ever had [and once it had LOTS of meaning]. I really don't like black and orange in large dollops mixed together. What am I doing? Maybe it's good to be in touch with our "inner child" or "muse" but I'm not so sure. I should have give my color choices more thought.

I like this paper pieced twisted log cabin, easy to sew, interesting to look at. This particular twisted log cabin lends itself to a very different color arrangement and final look as well. I may do only a dozen this way, make a small wall quilt and then use the other dozen printed patterns the other way just for contrast ... maybe. I'll give it some thought, as I should have in the first place.