a slight detour in the plan is a good thing :)

:) this year started out a bit differently than I expected. Funny how our plans sometimes get redirected. In this case I think this detour is even better for me. 

I am aware that every year I get what I call the "after Christmas blues". You know, you do months worth of preparing for the day of giving gifts from your heart, then your gifts are sent out, and everybody loves them, but there's an emptiness left with a feeling "ok, what now?"... So what's a girl to do when it's all over??

I thought I had the solution! Many of my Possum Town Guildies participate in the Bonnie Hunter's Annual Mystery Quilt. This year it's Allietare! Since I knew I'd be giving up one of my quilt babies (Desmond & Annette 2015" Bronco quilt), I decided to join in on the mystery to fill the empty spot on the sewing machine. My plan worked for a short while....

Step 1: make almost 300 half square triangles...

Step 2: 20 sets of 4 trapezoid units = 80 total

Step 3: 120 fourpatch squares....

I am half way through step 4....

To tell you the truth, I prefer working one block at a time. The numbers are not quite so overwhelming... 

18 half square triangles vs, 300, 

4 trapezoids vs, 20 sets of 4, 

4 fourpatches vs. 120.... 

lol, it's just not as intimidating!! 

anyway, I think I'll name my Allietare "Star Light, Star Bright". 

But like I said, my plan worked for a little bit. Then I hit the wall on New Years Day. Perhaps I was over zealous to catch up on the Bonnie Hunter clues (I joined in a couple weeks late). Or starting this blog replaced time at the sewing machine... Or something.. But I didn't make it back into the sewing room until the 10th. And it wasn't to pick up the Allietare! Mystery but instead it was the hand-pieced Double Wedding Ring started 20+ years ago!... which is coming along nicely btw, it's all planned out and I found the perfect batik fabrics needed for the center squares at Main Street Fabrics in Ackerman. I am amused that it feels like I just started a brand new project, because starting something new is my favorite step!

I thought I would add a faux Cathedral Window
to the center square.
I'm loving the feeling of past and present that
mixing the batiks with calicos  gives me. 

 only the rings are sewn together,
Everything else is just placed in the design board
So I can get an idea of how it looks.

While I'm having fun with hand-piecing, I'm afraid of losing what I've learned about Free-Motion Quilting! I figure if I don't practice I'll have to start all over! ugh... So I dedicated today to FMQ. 

Free-Motion Quilting is very much like doodling with thread on fabric. I find it difficult to doodle, It's not easy for me to fill a blank paper up with random shapes much less a big piece of quilt sandwich. I needed help filling my block up with sewing doodles. I found a wonderful blog with FMQ tutorials, The Inbox Jaunt by Lori Kennedy . (I actually followed a link from Pinterest to her blog. I'm really appreciating today's technology and social medias :)!)

Anyway, here's a small snapshot of what today's efforts produced. I'm loving the basic-leaf design along the bottom border! Lori Kennedy's step by step tute was extremely easy to follow. I also used The Fabulous Flower along the left side but not shown in this pic.

Lots of fun FMQ review and progress today :). 

And I must show you the sweet treasure my Heart got me for the anniversary of the day we met. It's a 1950s Featherweight with many of the original accessories. I love how he encourages me to pursue my crafting passions. Should I name her "Sweet Beauty", or since I got her in Mississippi maybe "Miss. Beauty" or "Miss. Belle"? I like all three names and can't decide :).  

There's even an original spool of white thread and an original sewing needle in the package, the oil can, and a lube tube, bobbins and the original manual! Just amazing. She sews perfectly :).