A distraction.....

In a weak moment I signed up for a BOM.  (Block of the Month Club for those of you not in the know.  Wink.) I have been drooling over New York Beauties like these by Venus de Hilo on my Pinterest Board for a couple years.

I even bought Karen Stone's book, which includes patterns for similar quilts.
But I put off starting a new major undertaking, knowing how much I hate unfinished projects hanging around.  I already have some paper piecing stars that I need to make something of....

But when my LQS announced a BOM that is a version of a New York Beauty called Almond County Beauty my resistance crumbled.

The BOM is from Sewn Into the Fabric.   I like the area of open space (negative space as the modern quilters call it.  As an aside, I think that term was stolen from architecture... but that's ok, all those elitist pompous asses need to get over themselves).  Ahem.
The BOM even provides the fabric, which at first I didn't love.  But again, it's all ready to go, no design and color decisions to make..... And if I get ambitious I can make two sets each month, one of my own choosing .... yeah.... right.

Anyway.... I have found that some nice left brain precision paper piecing can be a respite when my artist's right brain gets tired.  I'll try to remember to share.

They're Breeding Down There

Somehow while I wasn't looking the UFO's started breeding down in the basement.  Last time I really looked I was at a very manageable 22 items.  Suddenly it's 27!  Ack!

We split this into six pieces, each person to create one, then they will all be sewn together.
Only one done so far, though.

I had completely forgotten the Grateful Threads Pink Petunia Project until I discovered it tucked away on a shelf.  (I’m still organizing and figuring out what to put in all this storage space!) I don’t know if that thing’s even going to happen, but I do want to work on it – hence #22.   Then since my super efficient friend sent me a beautiful beaded necklace in our Facebook gift exchange, I figured I’d better get going on her iPad cover.   Technically I agreed to make six gifts, so I should have added six separate items and deleted “six gifts for friends,”  but the other five are not only unfinished, they’re unstarted.  Hence not UFO’s in MY lexicon, anyway.

The next item to appear was the neutral strip piecing/restructuring piece which seemed to literally start itself the minute I finished assembling Film Strips.  It was bubbling under the surface just waiting to burst forward, as were the figure-ground study(ies) which involved cutting up a stack of 16 squares “stack-n-wack” style then reassembling them.  It is also called a curved piecing study because even though the curves I cut seemed subtle, they really are a bugger to sew!  Good advice from Alison Schwabe who was kind enough to write and share some of her work with me.

I really don’t know why I felt I HAD to make deck cushions…but as noted here, I did.  Learning process, I guess.  I am fighting the urge to play with more paper piecin.  This is a constant battle, since I created ¼ of a Christmas star, and UFO #25.  I’ve been particularly drawn to a beautiful New York Beauty by Venus de Hilo.  You can see her blocks in progress on her site, or her Pinterest page. But I don't WANT to get sucked into something that isn't my own creation that I will get bored with half way through.

What gorgeous colors. They make me drool!  I’d love to do something combining the “white-plus-bright” color scheme of the Galaxy quilt I showed in my last post, but with the NYB patterns.   I think there are nine different designs, so four of each would create 9 blocks…  could be parlayed into a bed quilt with some accents and borders.... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!