Time to start quilting again

 I always find it refreshing after all the excitement and family and food of Christmas to settle back down to doing the things  I like. My sewing machine has awaited. 

                                                    Christmas dinner 

So the planning has begun: which new projects to start,  which UFOs to finish, and what presents need to be done for January?  It is like new fallen snow, so fresh and fun and the sparks of ideas fly.

So let's start with the project I did begin a couple of weeks ago: Here is where I left it.  Lots of blues in 3 1/2 inches and 2 inches. The pattern is from 2006 or 2008 by Bloomin Minds Have to Have, a series of small quilts. 

Then to assemble and applique the concentric circles. And it is about 21 inches square. It was fun to pick out the colors and assemble.

And last to add the borders and wool applique.  Those pieces keep getting lost.  But they do look great on the background. And it will give me some needlework to applique in front of  TV. 

The next project started out as 3 inch Nine Patches.  I had  whole bundle as in at least 100 completed with the intention of making a Jack's Chain. But I decided to get out all my 9 patch books and patterns and settled on a scrap quilt. I only had a picture, but it was easy to visualize as a 25 patch block. 

My original 9 patches were all Kansas Troubles and I didn't really want a dark quilt. Plus I had leftover half square triangles from my RSC in 2017.  When making my blocks, I just inadvertently made too many of each color.  That is over 99. Plus the darn blocks were made too darn small. All of the them had too large seam allowances.  And the challenge was to deconstruct and then reassemble. 

So having said that, here is how the blocks are coming out with lots of extras being made to vary the pallet of colors. The final block is 15 inches square and I need 25 of them. ( And I realize I have the perfect back awaiting.)

Thus far I have 14 at least.  Two are incognito in my messy sewing room.  But I do like how it is coming. I have been trying to do this as a once in a while block. So far so good.