The first copies of Jelly Roll Quilts have just arrived in our office. It's a beautiful book – Pam and Nicky Lintott have done such a great job in devising clever patterns that, in many cases, you wouldn’t even recognise as a strip-derived quilt. So simple, but just brilliant! The book will be available later this Spring – see it first at the Spring Quilt Market in Oregon (if you are lucky enough to be going).

Check out Pam and Nicky’s quilt shop, The Quilt Room, to see photos of other jelly roll quilts in their gallery.

I was chatting with Jenny about pre-cut fabric bundles, be that jelly roll, charms or layer cakes, and how enticing they are for the quilting novice (like me). All the scary colour choice has been made for you and lots of the cutting too. While the experienced quilter may want to spread their creative wings and select from an unrestricted palette, folks like me are very tempted by those rolls and charms.

For those who want to re-use and re-cycle fabric (it is nearly Earth Day, after all), look out for Worn & Washed, a wonderful company who search out good quality cottons, perfect for quilting, and reclaim them. They are then cut into strips and offered as colour co-ordinated fabric rolls. Because the fabrics have been pre-loved, they all have a wonderful soft aged look. Irresistible!

It's funny how old quilts bring out old emotional ties. I recently had the uncomfortable task of going through family quilts and distributing them to younger family members. As I dug through my mother's chest, I realized that these were quilts made to fill a purpose -- keeping warm through the Kansas winters. They are beautiful, crafted from feedsack materials, and reminents of garments. All the quilts were made by the women in the family, grandmothers, great aunts, aunts and cousins.

The first was one that brought me back to my grandmother's house. It was always on the old iron bed in the front bedroom. I'm not exactly sure who made it. It was feedsacks from around the 1930s, and looked like the work of my aunt Melitta (the wild child of the family). Of course, it needed to go to my neice Kathy, the wild child of her family.

The next was an old nine patch of blues and reds. It is worn and is actually a quilt within a quilt (new top and backing over a previous quilt). It was obvious this one was made by grandma--nothing went to waste in her house. I'm keeping this one.

Then there was the most amazing Texas Star -- red and a field of white, beautifully hand quilted in feather motifs. We think it was made by our great grandmother, but not exactly sure. It goes to my brother, the only boy in the family, to be passed on to his daughters. And on, and on, the quilts came out of the chest and were lovingly put in stacks to be distributed.

What most occurred to me out of this exercise was how many of the quilts I make and my friends make, and give as gifts, will become the family heirlooms of tomorrow. And some day, there will be other family members going through the old quilts and the ones that are being made today (but will be old at some point), and feel the same emotions I felt. It is amazing how much comfort there is in simple pieces of fabric stitched together with thread, and bound with backing and batting.

A few years ago, I was involved in a project to get quilts to Hurricane Katrina victims. I have a fantasy of someday when I'm very old and gray, getting a phone call from a grandchild who is sorting through famiy heirlooms and discovers one of these quilts. They call to find out the history of the quilt and to update me one where the quilt has been since it was lovingly packed with other supplies headed for Louisiana.

I'd love to hear some of your stories of your quilts. Or if you received one of the Katrina quilts, where is it today?

I recently had to squash my fabric stash under the bed as part of a frantic tidy up before friends visited. (Would your stash fit under a bed or has is become so large it creates gravitational pull?) As I hastily folded and shoved fabric, I noticed how many of the unused quarters and yards were online purchases that had to be rejected because their colour did not match the rest of the project I had intended them to join.

This issue must affect many of us. It is surely very difficult for online quilt stores to accurately show fabric colour on a website, especially when the computer screen the customer is sitting at is unlikely to be perfectly calibrated. Perhaps there should be an industry standard for displaying fabric on screen? Or more swatches available (though this is no good if you are in a tearing rush to finish something, or just have no patience)? Or you could argue that we should all support our local fabric stores, where we can pick up the real thing and make colour judgements with our own eyes.

I'm going to ask a few quilt store owners (both online and bricks-and-mortar ones) to see what their experiences are, and how they've tamed technology to provide the best service for their customers.

I'll get back to you...

I return again with an inspirational link to help you get through "Friday Eve" and the first day of Spring (which isn't very Spring-like where I am *sigh*)

This week's link is to my local quilting guild, the

Ohio Valley Quilters' Guild.

Even if you don't live in the area, the site is great for eye-candy and inspiration. And if you DO live in the area, make sure to check out the website for membership and meeting information. Maybe you can join us sometime for quilting, learning and fun.

Are you part of a quilters' guild? Make sure to tell us about it on the messageboard!

This is my other hobby: Bullet the horse.

Technically she is a piebald gypsy cob, which means she’s a hairy black-and-white patchwork pony. Here I am adjusting her seams.

I’m sure this is just the thin end of the wedge. As I become more and more attuned to quilt-making inspiration I’ve started to see patterns and blocks in all sorts of places. Christine Porter drew our attention to beautiful designs in Quilt Designs from Decorative Floor Tiles, and Cathy Geier creates astonishingly beautiful textile art in Watercolour Landscape Quilts, but where do you find your inspiration? Is it close to home or from distant memories or images of far-flung lands? Do you keep a book of ideas ready to burst into life when the creative mood takes you?