I found a neat little downloadable program called "The Hat" that has solved my problems in deciding what to do with all the ideas in my head and all the stash in my pantry and thought I'd share it with you.

http://download.cnet.com/The-Hat/300...-10074565.html

Essentially it pulls names out of a virtual hat and was originally created to help teachers randomly pair up kids, but it will use two sets of anything.

I put all my "collections" (eg. flamingos, stonehenge, dogs) of fabrics in one column and all the kinds of quilts I'd like to try my hand at in the other (eg. Lady liberty, mariner's compass, drunkard's path). Hit go and it will pop out random pairings. If I'm feeling really creative, I will make myself do something with the first pairing even if at first it doesn't seem like it will work, other times I just scan the list and see what takes my eye. Even if I don't use any of them, I find that it jumpstarts something for me.

What a clever concept! Thanks for sharing.

very cool - thanks for sharing.

This is what our Beelet is doing. When we formed last November, we put all the things we wanted to learn in a hat and when we complete one we draw another out of the hat. We are having a great time with it.

just downloaded. will add to my list of things that will get me organized that i will never get to because i am not organized enough to actually get to it!!!!

:lol: :lol: :lol: Me too! :oops: :roll: :lol:

In fact, that was how I wound up with my avatar. When the match came up, I was concerned with using stripes in the crowns, but I decided to go with it anyway and I fell in love with it by the end.

I was just going to ask about your avatar. Can you post a photo of it? It's lovely. :)