Easy Street Mystery

Have you guys heard about Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt, Easy Street?  You can see the latest linky post here.  Bonnie originally suggested a grey and white as neutrals, deep purples, teals and lime greens as colors for the quilt and many quilters are following that suggestion.  But there are several others who are creating their own color schemes.  I have to admit, while I like the  original color pallet I'm not in love with it, so I would probably choose a different combination of colors.  I was thinking chocolate brown and cream as the neutrals, and rich red, pink and tan as the colors.  Or maybe red, green and blue.  Or pink, green and blue. Or yellow, orange and red.  

My semester is almost over (both teaching and taking classes) and I am anxious to get creative in my sewing room.  Dr J has completed his section of our Christmas gifts, but I still need to do my part, and there are two Christmas quilts I was hoping to get to, and his quilted gift.  I can't wait to get in there!

A Little Help...

Progress on the HS quilt is slow. I tire easily with the fussy cutting of the 9-patch squares and have become bored again.  So, I moved on. I'll come back to it, but I needed to make some visible progress on a project.  So, I finally finished the binding on this:

Yeah! So, I'm continuing at least one finish a week and I feel good about that.  I'm working on a couple nameplates for Christmas stockings.  Those should be completed this week too... if I have time.  We have company coming.  A lot of company.

Anyway, I would like your feedback/opinion on what to work on next.  I need a wall quilt to switch to when July is done (but have no idea what it should be - should I continue with the summer theme or go for an autumn look?), I also have a couple Halloween projects to work on, and an anniversary wall quit (or four) to complete.  So where do you think I should go with my next project?

Christmas Projects

I did work on a couple Christmas projects this year.  I made these coasters for a friend who I thought would enjoy the kind of French Country house feel to the fabric, but it didn't seem to go over well.  Lesson learned.  If anyone is interested in this using this fabric or receiving a project form this fabric, let me know.

But the big project was this wall quilt for Dr BB's office.  I worked hard to design the college's logo in quilt form.  The center portion of the M was the hardest part to get right.  Here's a sketch and some squares I used to visualize the appropriate sizing.

The school's colors.

Surprisingly, cutting and putting these squares together wasn't as hard as my brain wanted me to think it was.  

I've got it all pinned together to do the quilting here.  Dr BB liked the white of the batting so much he (not so subtly) suggested another border of white would be particularly nice.  So, after I quilted the flimsy, batting and backing together, I put a narrow, white border around to make the man happy.

I hate to say it, but he was right.  The white border with the burgundy binding does make the quilt pop!  Here's the finished product:

Now he just needs to hang the quilt rack (which is currently laying in our entry with the starter kit and seed catalogs) so he can put the quilt in his office!

And that's a couple completed projects! Yeah me!

Advent

I've never given advent much thought.  We don't have kids in our household and the days leading up to Christmas is a very busy time about here. As a result, we are rather boring by putting mini candybar bites in our calendar's pockets and forgetting about it.

(The advent calendar my MIL made for us.)

But last year I made an advent calendar for my sister and her family (who do have small children).  She posted a question on Facebook that asked what ideas others had for putting in the pockets.  One woman suggested a small lego project to build little by little each day which I thought was amazingly clever!  However, the more I thought about  it, the more I worried about lost pieces and/or choking hazards.  

So, my question to you, dear readers, is what non-food items would you suggest putting in the pockets (about 2"x2")?

(The advent calendar I made for my sister's family)

Just a teaser...

Christmas project in-progress.

Secret Projects and New Arrivals

It has suddenly become that time of year when I cannot talk blatantly about the projects I'm working on.  I finished a birthday gift for one of my sisters (I can post pictures next week after she receives it) and am now beginning to work on Christmas gifts.  It took me a while to figure out what projects to make this year, but I think I've got it.

I did place a small order with Fat Quarter Shop.  I had received a coupon for 20% off my next order and I had already started looking at patterns.   

My booty (plus kitty):

First up is this selection of Farm Fresh - a new line of baby fabrics.  I liked this one because it was gender neutral.  I have a few plans for the fabric.

The other fabric I bought was this Desired Things collection. 

For this pattern:

The original used a blue for the border, but with our bedroom walls a different kind of blue, I thought I'd go with a more neutral color for the border.  I'm looking forward to making this in the spring!

 Finally, I bought these patterns:

 They are mostly quilt patterns, but there's a bag pattern in there too.  I also signed up for the Miss Rosie's Quilt Company pattern club.  I love these patterns and keep buying individual ones, but this way they will automatically ship me the new patterns as they arrive for retail. 

This is the first time that I have bought pre-cut collections beyond charm packs - pretty exciting for me!  Have you bought pre-cuts before?  What did you think of them?  Were they more or less helpful?

This Year's Holiday Projects

See?  I really was busy doing things for the last few months!

The Stockings

Advent Quilt

Some were pleased, some were not.  

I have been thinking a lot about what Christmas means to me and what it should mean.  It's made me rethink how we currently celebrate the holiday and what probable changes I'd like to make for Christmas 2011.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!