The one I didn't do

I have had such a hard time getting inspired to do a pink quilt. Sorry, but I just don't like pink, except in small doses. Last week when our STASH group visited quilt shops I bought this fat quarter.

It is a subdued pink—not too bubblegum or Barbie. I told Gerrie I was going to take it home and stare at it until something came to me. Then a few days later I drove up to meet some friends in North Portland (you may have read about it on my blog. It was the tour of Mississippi street) and I had to park a couple blocks off the main drag in a, shall we say, "transitional" neighborhood. Right across the street from where I parked was this sad, pink house.

My photo doesn't really show the full extent of it's peeliness and patchiness and sagginess, though if you look closely I think you can see that the address plaque on the door hangs at an angle. It was obviously many years ago that someone had the inspiration to paint it a precious combo of pink with aqua trim. Its grodiness really appealed to me and I got right to work drawing up a plan for it when I got home. But as I worked I could see that it was going to end up in fabric being "cute"—exactly what I did not want. Hmmmm. What to do?

I got sick the same day I was humming on where to go with this darn pink challenge and went to bed with a slight fever that night. I slept fitfully and dreamt, crazily, about making a pink quilt. At one point an old friend, an angel really, appeared in my dream, waving scissors and pointing me in an altogether different direction. When I awoke I had my new idea, goofy as it is. And I have to tell you that subdued pink is not going to work at all. Yesterday I went out and bought a nice garish bubblegum pink fabric. I have gone over to the pink side...