Not gone

 Just waiting for the blog mojo to wander back from its walkabout.

Christmas is finished, the Goose is over-fat...

It's a weird juxtaposition when your brain tells you the Christmas projects--and therefore Christmas itself--are done, yet Hallowe'en hasn't yet arrived!

In my last post I'd listed the projects I'd hoped to get finished and donated at the final (for this calendar year) meeting of Community First! Quilters in October:

Advent Calendar

Bunny

Wallhanging

Garlands

Bunny didn't make it (he's still 'living' with me, with hopes of more relatives in the next 12 months) but everything else did!

Garlands

I did it! I made garlands as planned!! When I finally sandwiched, quilted, and trimmed all the strips and scraps, I had 367 strips (7.25"x1.5") to make into chains.

Why Can't Carolyn Count?

So, back to the Arkansas Cross Road blocks and project.

From this layout of all the pieces . . .

. . . I carefully sorted everything into two piles, making sure the blocks with the bright orange squares were equally split between the piles. It doesn't look like it here, but the bright orange really flashed out to me in person, and I didn't want them all grouped in one border or area.

Shattered

Another project took "cuts" in line and demanded my attention before I could get back to the Arkansas Cross Road borders. I've been reading the blog of hand quilter Gretchen, and while that will never be my sandbox, I really appreciate the beautiful work she does. The more I'd read, however, the more I wanted to get back to quilting the vintage top I'd been working on while visiting my mother (waiting for her to wake from her naps). I was hand quilting using a large but portable hoop, but had discovered another fabric that had shattered. I'd auditioned some fabrics and thought I had a plan for replacing at least one of the squares.

Reading Material

I'd mentioned an interesting brown fabric I found at clearance price at the Wisconsin quilt show, but had forgotten to post a picture of it then. Since it was hanging around waiting for the next load of laundry to accumulate (I hate to run the machine just to spin out rinsed fabrics), I took a photo.

Huh.

Those Flipping Corners

I'm back in my studio! I realized a few days ago that I had been suck[er]ed into (by a friend's overwhelming enthusiasm) a project that was Too Soon and Too Much, so I asked that we pump the brakes on that until after the holidays. There was no need to dive headlong into things right this minute--which we were doing--and everyone else agreed. Big load off my mind, and lots of time freed up as a result.  

My pile o' squares, after their Big Adventure in Wisconsin, weren't content to going back to Leader-Ender status when we got home.