Another snow day!

Crazy weather today....we are supposed to get 2" -5" in a few hours, with winds picking up later so no school today.

I had left my retreat grocery shopping to do after work today so I decided it might be easier to clean off the car and get around at 6 AM than it would be later, depending on how much snow we get. So I headed out to do my errands....a trip to the bank, some gas in the car and then groceries. I was home by 7:15.

I've been working on a new design and went out to Cut Up and Quilt last night after work to pick out some fabric. I hadn't planned on getting batiks, but after Cindy helped me choose the background (teal/green) the rest came together. I can't wait to get started! This will probably be my first retreat project. I've picked out a few others to take along as well, plus I want to make myself a Whatcha Got Bag...I gifted all the ones I made at Christmas.

Happy SnEW day!

Vibrant Lone Star

 I have a Lone Star quilt that I made a few years ago hung as a model for the upcoming Lone Star quilt class later this month, but I wanted to make a working model as well. I have been collecting some batiks over the past several months, so I got them out and started playing with progressive layouts. You can use any fabrics for this quilt, but I had collected some grays and reds and wanted to use them in the same quilt. How to blend them?

After I settled on these eleven fabrics, the final decision (in my mind, at least) was whether to put the black and gray with the gold squares next to each other, or separate them with the gray mottled fabric. Part of me wanted to put the gray mottled in between them because technically speaking it's darker, so if you are doing a progression of color, it should probably be in between. But I really liked the effect that they have on each other when they are side by side. It looks like the squares are spilling from the black onto the gray. You can see which way I chose...what would you have done?

I only cut one strip of each color the other night so I could see how they looked as a star point. I will probably sew one or two points completely together ...I have to leave some of it to demo cutting and sewing during class. I don't have a background for it either, so I need to take the point with me to find something that the star will show up well on. I have a few ideas....any suggestions?