A Quilter Goes Into a Hardware Store...

So I'm not one who really frequents the hardware store unless its to pick up some salt for icy steps (which I was hoping that I wouldn't actually need again now that it's spring...but the snow did not get the memo) or some random piece of flotsam once or twice a year.  As soon as I walk in the doors, my eyes kind of glaze over and I feel a little lost.  But I've found a new reason to actually like going to the hardware store.  I'm sure that I'm ages late to this brainstorm, but for those of us who don't have these AMAZING color cards of Kona solids to match colors, let me introduce you to the life changing hardware store staple of...wait for it...paint swatches.

I know, I'm a genius.  (insert sarcasm here)

For a while now, I seem to be taking my cues from color schemes first and then trying to find quilt patterns that complement them.  So my inspiration board is full of random scraps of paper where I love very specific colors paired together.  You might remember that a bit ago, I posted a picture that my daughter drew and said that a quilt might be inspired by it.

Well, I haven't been able to get that sketch out of my mind and for once it didn't take me long to figure out how to make an original quilt out of it.  Of course, the colors had to be different swatches of pinks and I assumed that the background might be either white or gray.  But the more I thought about it, I wanted to do something different.  While working on countless weeks of Bookworms blocks  I took occasional peeks at my inspiration board (which happens to be right next to my ironing board) and I kept going back to this scrap of paper:

I just loved this peacock blue paired with the deep raspberry.  Raspberry...pink...peacock blue....hey!  What if I did the background in blue with the pops of deep pinks?  Yes!  But I really liked this SPECIFIC blue and pink combo.  I brought the swatch of magazine paper into my local hardware store and snagged a few strips of perfectly matching swatches so that I could get the full spectrum of pinks and blues in the color line. 

Matching up with some fabrics from my stash and some newly purchased cuts...and I think a top will be coming up soon!  I'm thinking a mini quilt - just to keep things simple.

I think that from now on, I'm going to be keeping an envelope with all of my collected hardware store paint swatches.  Maybe now and then, I'll just pull a few randomly and see how I like them together.  At least until I can justify getting one of those Kona cards...


Linking up with: Really Random Thursday