Today is the day, I'm up in the Paintbrush Studios Mad for Solids March Madness 2018 bracket.  What does this mean?  Time to vote for me (or my competitor, that's ok too) but only one of us will move on to the next round.  There are 16 players, each choosing their own 8 fabrics and color story and in the end there will only be 1 winner.  It's all in good fun, so no worries.

You can vote on the Inspired by Fabric blog, Facebook page and Instagram.  One vote per platform per person, so you can have up to three votes.

Above is a photo of my bundle, and now it's time for me to share my title and inspiration:

Glory of the 80's
Inspired by my childhood in the 1980's, all the great things that I loved, flamingos, Sanrio, Little Twin Star, plastic charms, stickers, boom boxes, Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears.  Taking all those memories and updating the color palette into something a little more modern and totally 2018.

All of these vintage 1980's items are my personal treasures from my childhood.  I was born in 1980 so I experienced the whole decade!  I can honestly say I still love these items, especially my Sanrio and Little Twin Star items, it's all so cute and little.  Love that flamingo pen too though I will say most of his tail feathers have rotted off. LOL

What do you think?  Did I succeed in capturing my memories in fabric form?  I hope so, I love it.  These fabrics will have to become a 1980's inspired quilt.

I dug out all my treasures and had to decide what to include with my fabric pictures, but I thought it would be fun to share some of my other treasures.  The photo below is all stationary, pens and stickers.  Who remembers the Snorks?  Some of those stickers are plush, some fuzzy, some holographic, but all from the 80's.  That grape pen totally smells like grapes still today.

The photo below is just a small sample of the hoards of sticker sheets I still have.  This collection totally represents the 80's to me.  That Muppet Babies sheet smells like bananas, are we sensing a theme here?  My kids have recently become obsessed with Duck Tales, and would love those stickers, but hands off, you aren't playing with these.  Did I mention hoarder?  I think so.

I hope you enjoyed my collection and if you have a moment, take a wee bit of time and go vote!  Thank-you!  I also want to thank the wonderful people over at Paintbrush Studios for asking me to participate again this year and for making such great solids.  If you haven't worked with them, I really recommend it, great hand and a ton of colors.  What's not to love about that?

I have been invited for a second year to participate in the Paintbrush Studios Mad For Solids 2018 game or playoffs if you will.  This is honestly the only type of March Madness that I care about.  As a participant I chose eight fabrics from their impressive collection of 168 colors and created my own "color story" if you will.  There are a total of 16 participants that have been randomly drawn and placed into a bracket.  Starting on Sunday, 3/18/18 at 6 pm CST you will be able to vote on the Inspired by Fabric blog, Facebook and Instagram.  Each day there will be a new "face off" of sorts until it eventually narrows down to just one winner.  This is completely for fun and honestly most of us participants are friends, which is really great.  You have the chance to win fabric just by voting, so win win!  All the details and all the color palette's of the Sweet 16 can be seen HERE.

The color palette I have chosen can be seen above, and I'll tell you all about it next week when it is my day for voting (Saturday, March 24, 2018.)  If you want the inside scoop ahead of time you can visit the Inspired by Fabric blog and read all about it.

I do hope you decide to play along, I think it is fun and only takes a second to vote, so why not?

March is my month to choose a prompt for my fellow bee-mates and after seeing a Spoonflower design challenge a little over a month ago, I knew instantly what I wanted to do.  Honestly I had never even heard of Kilim, so after seeing that Spoonflower challenge, I did some research and below is the basics of what I learned and then following is my prompt. 

Curious to play along?  Read through all the way to the bottom for more details.

Thanks for hanging in there to the end.  Curious to play along?  Using my prompt, create a quilt block for yourself to keep, then post a photo on Instagram using the hashtag #inspiredbybeesewcial and if you want me to see it quickly, tag me in the photo @Marci_Girl.  We would love for you to join us, this month or any month.  These monthly prompts are a great way to play around with improv, learn new skills and have fun sewing!  Hope you join us!