Work-in-Progress

I am not a fan of quilts with millions of small pieces; in fact, I manage to avoid them at all cost, but when it was time to decide on a Christmas quilt for our living room, I plunged into the fray, purchased a Thimbleberries pattern (top photo) and am now firmly ensconced in this sweet Village Patchwork design.


Yesterday I constructed the first row (bottom photo). I've been working on this top for what seems like an eternity. You can't really tell from the picture, but there are probably 30-40 pieces - maybe more - in each house and star block.


I started on the tree blocks and have made 17 of the needed 60 branch pieces to construct these. That translates into 60-1 1/2 inch x 4 1/2 inch rectangles and 120-1 1/2 inch squares. I have half of the sections (30) either sewn or pinned and ready to sew. This afternoon, I will work on the other half. 


This top isn't so difficult to make as it is tedious and unforgiving. You can't squeak by making small mistakes the way you can when working with large pieces. I've re-made a number of block sections, but the work paid off when I made the first row and everything fit together perfectly. "Whoopee!" she cried. 


I am also working on a t-shirt quilt for a dear friend's daughter. Today, I go to my long arm quilter's home for the second of private lessons in how to make one of these tops. We are designing it together and it is quite an enjoyable experience. I have all the interfacing fused to the back of the t-shirts, so today we'll probably get out the design wall and put up the pieces to see what we have. The creative process in action!


Tomorrow I have a dance lesson with Coach Chris. Only one more lesson left (after tomorrow) before I test the Ten Fox on August 21. Passing this test is a roll-of-the-dice. Given what has happened to my best skating buddy with her last two dance tests (completely unfair judging) I am going into this test with a good deal of trepidation. But testing with a Hollywood good looks, Gold-level ice dancer helps a lot! 


Onward in quilt land.