One of the great things about working for a quilting magazine is that it’s practically mandatory that every office have a quilt hanging in it. Usually, the quilt on the wall was made or designed by the office’s occupant–a quick and easy way to lend our personalities to our work spaces.

Until today, the quilt hanging on my wall was “Cinco do Mayo,” a wall quilt I designed for the 2008 issue of Quilt It: More Two Block Quilts. This quilt has lots of bright, paper-pieced, spiky triangles on a background of dark blue. Very dramatic. But, alas, I had to take it down today, and for good reason–the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum is getting ready to hang its new show of work by QN staffers, and, as far as I know, “Cinco de Mayo” made the cut.

Anyway, that left my wall very bare and very white. So off I went to pillage the QN sewing room.

I was pleased to find “Buttercream Icing” (see the June/July 2009 issue of QN for the pattern), which was designed by Liza Prior Lucy and Kaffe Fassett, using Kaffe’s new–and rather uncharacteristic–fabric collection. It’s a lovely quilt, but sooooo not my palette. I’m a darks, brights, hots, and neutrals kind of gal.

I hung the quilt up anyway, and not only did my office feel transformed, but I felt transformed, too! (Insert the Tinkerbell-waving-her-wand sound effect.) I felt, well, kind of like a princess. The soft, cool pastels suddenly had me thinking I was eight years old again, and I wondered, “Hey, why don’t I ever choose these colors? They’re gorgeous!”

So thanks, Kaffe, for designing such fabulous fabric and for making me feel like a pretty, pretty princess. I doubt you were thinking “girly girl” when you were at the drawing board, but it sure is fun to feel a little girly again!