fabric shopping--again

OK--so the blue quilt is almost done. Just a bit of tweaking and finish work. It's time to start a new wall hanging. Now I do have another large wall hanging to work on. It is also blue. But first I need to work in some other color. After all, I will be doing the Washington Craft Show in about a month and my selection of work is a bit limited.

So it is off to The Textile Co again. You may remember this wonderful fabric store--in Greenfield. I have posted about it before. An old buggy factory. In the same family for 3 generations. No web site. No credit card but a wonderful selection of fabric.

I make sure I have a bit of extra time. I am not sure exactly what I am looking for. I think I want to make another quilt like desert hills only in different colors. It is a good size. Sells well.

At first nothing is leaping out at me. Some fabrics just seem too familiar. Too much like the blues I have been working on. Then it hits me. I see a fabric I just have to work with. It is a green--rather soft in color but with so many other interesting fabrics on top of it. I am not sure what to do with it. Maybe that's why I like it. Also it does remind me a bit of feed sack cloth. It could be a reproduction fabric. No, it is from 2009. But still that is what it reminds me of.

I keep looking. Grab another fabric that could be a reproduction. These prints seem to conjure up memories.

Look at all these designs. I grab another--this one a bit more brown. But again a pattern that looks old.
I start to think of prairies. Dry fields and endless skies.

I grab some others--a Civil War reproduction. A fabric called Simpler Tymes. An olive green with wheat enclosed in a hoop. Oh this is getting interesting.

I put them up on my design board trying to get inspired. Hmm.

What interesting colors. I decide I have to make a test piece first. I need to get a feel for how the colors are going to work together. I don't see them as potholders, but I could make some placemats. Get used to the colors. I arrange the fabrics for the placemats. It is hard to get the order right. Which fabric is darker? How do the prints work?

There is something haunting about these colors. The placemats are soft. Maybe a bit greener than I might have thought they would be. I like the bits of pink and green though. The undertones of gold.

Should I make another test--or will the quilt be too studied if I do. I want to plunge in. I remember in grade school my sister and I took swimming lessons at the city pool. Now since we were country kids our lessons were always at 8 am. The water was still cold from the night air. There was a high dive--this was a long time ago. And we had to jump in from the high dive. Now I was not a great swimmer. The dive scared me. The fall was long enough that I can still remember the feeling. The water when it hit you was cold and deep and startling. But I soon learned that it was even worse if I stood up there and thought about it. Much better to hold my nose and just jump in. Get started.

That's what I think I will do with this quilt. I have so much I want  to do before the Washington Show. I think I should just start. I do know what a couple of rows will look like. Maybe the other rows will then follow. If not I can always make more placemats while I am thinking. Hopefully then the questions will become more obvious.

And you my reader--how do you start a quilt or any other project?  Do you just look and begin and do you fret about the quilt? Any hints?