Snow Day--Let's Play!

Every quilter in North Alabama is happy because we are supposed to get 6" of snow today and Alabama is closed.  I'm sure there are some essential personnel, like first responders/doctors/nurses who have to go to work today and we thank them for being there to protect us.  But most quilters are home and sewing today.

Yesterday I finished my Kisses and Hugs top (AKA Japanese X and + blocks), at least as far as I'm going to finish it until I teach the class in July.  I want to show this at the March guild meeting so they can see what my Quilt In class will be:

I like how these are coming together and will make quite a few more of these. 

Some of the blocks I made seemed too dark,  not bright and exciting enough.  I thought I might use them as an outside border:

But I don't care for that.  So I'll make more dark ones, after all the brights are done, and make a second quilt with them:

As I was making these, I thought there was something not quite right about them.  So I went to the computer and looked all lots of photos of the Japanese X and + quilts and studied the ones I really liked.  It was the bright, vibrant colors that really appealed to me.  So from then on that was what I used.  My studio looks like a bright fabric factory exploded in there so now I will clean all those fabrics up and put them away until July.  I've got other things I need to go back to.

Here are the Stars in a Time Warp block so far, really enjoying this project:

I've got a few different ideas for how to set these, this is not one of them, they are just on the wall so I could show them all to you.

Saturday I had 3 friends come over to help me prepare for the Make It University class I'll be presenting in Chicago next month.  First, we spent an hour on a test run class--I taught the class to them to be sure what I thought could be accomplished in one hour actually could.  Good news--we were right on time!  Then, they helped me mark and prepare the kits with the star parts I  had cut out previously.  In two hours we got 25 done so I'm half way there.  A big thank you to Brenda, JoAnne and Kathy!

6" Lemoyne Star, hand-pieced
 

After I clean up the studio, I'm going to piece a back for the Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt, using leftover blocks and fabrics from the front.  Then I can put all that fabric away too.

 

Be safe in the snow and stay home and sew!

 

Let's Quilt!

 

Barbara