What is this quilting lark all about anyway?

When you live with an avid quilter like I do you it's pretty hard to escape it.  There are piles of fabric on every flat surface.  Carrier bags of scraps.  Half completed projects hanging over the door.  Loose threads EVERYwhere.  There are two options.  You can either learn to live with it or fight against it.

Well, there IS a third option.

Learn to sew.  I have a good teacher you see.  My wife is Brioni, none other than Flossyblossy!  She's also one of the founding members of the Fat Quarterly e-zine.  It's really hard not getting inspired by all the stuff she's got laying around.  Don't get me wrong, I'm creative too and have the art degree to prove it.  I've done the odd article for the mag and have drawn up several quilt patterns for her to use.  But sewing? Really?  ME?

I'm a planner so the first thing I did is to decide what I'm going to make and draw it up.  Bri and I thought a good starter quilt would be a 9 patch.  I couldn't leave it that simple though you see.  This is what I've come up with:

Now all I have to do is dig through her mountain of scraps to find the fabric I want and then figure out how to thread that damn sewing machine while she's away at the FQ sewing retreat this weekend.  Wish me luck!