I had a doctor’s appointment in the big city (San Antonio) last week and we had just a bit of time for a stroll through Joann’s to see what we could see.  They had blank note cards at a phenomenal price and we are always searching for blank cards if we are out of specific cards (such as birthday, thinking of you, etc.).

As my scooter went in and out of the quilt fabric aisle, my chicken-eye caught on some extremely busy and bright fabrics.  Let me assure you, these are NOT the types of fabrics I have in my stash!  I am much more of a traditional quilter – it even took me about a year before I would even try to work with batiks!  But, for whatever reason, these three fabrics below beckoned to me:

When I was unloading our purchases in my sewing room, something in these fabrics once again had my chicken-eye roving.  I *had* to figure out why the colors were so familiar to me – even though I would never have chosen these fabrics since they were so far out of my comfort zone.

Lo-and-behold, my stash search immediately found what was in the back of my mind – fabrics I already had from AbbiMays.com that matched these new fabrics better than I could have matched them if I’d had them in mind when purchasing the new fabrics!

Lesson learned for me!  Not only did I realize that my MS brain still has some areas that worked, but also that just because fabrics are out of my comfort zone, they are fabrics that are crying out for me to design a quilt for them!

How about YOU?  Have you purchased fabric out of your comfort zone, only to realize it was the best fabric for the  job?