Beginning a new quilt...

I started a new quilt this week. I've been pretty productive lately. I'm motivated and I think I feel summer creeping up on me -- during which I probably won't be creating too much. So I have to make the most of these last few weeks of school time.

I started flipping through my sketchbook looking at various thumbnail compositions and pulling out fabric.
I was really wanting to use this piece of loosely woven cloth in deep purple, rose and off white. I bought it at a beautiful shop full of imported items from Thailand in Wiscassett, Maine. You see it below the white house shape in this photo. I was building my whole palette around that piece.
But, I was having trouble making it play nicely with the other colors, prints and fabrics... so I pulled it out. Much better.
Isn't it funny that the item that feels like the cornerstone of a piece in the beginning --- a fabric, a theme, a shape --- might need to be set aside? You can't get too attached, I guess.

In other studio action, I felt like my floss selection was out-of-balance. Here I'm trying to see what's missing.