This Isn't Design Wall Monday

This isn't Design Wall Monday or even WIP Wednesday; somehow the week got away from me, I'm afraid.  But I have been sewing a bit here and there and have three more star blocks almost completed.  Most of the blocks have a dark and light blue center, but I felt that things were looking just a little too uniform, not enough surprise for the eye, I guess, so I tried a red and blue center.  That red paisley print kept jumping out of the sewing box begging, "Pick me, pick me!".




I did, and I like the result.  It remains to be seen whether I make more.  Although I am enjoying making the blocks, I'm not feeling the love enough to want to make a ton of these.  So far I've cut out enough to make nine blocks total (three more than my original plan), so despite myself this seems to be taking on a life of its own.

My husband was away over the weekend and I decided to take advantage of the relative quiet to work on the challenge quilt for my guild.  I set up an ironing station and cutting station on the kitchen counter and my Featherweight on the dining room table and had a wonderfully productive two days of cutting and sewing.  All the stuff that is normally clattering around in my head (what to do about dinner, is that load of laundry done yet, did I remember to take out the garbage, etc., etc.) just vanished as I got completely submerged in the moment.  I cut, I sewed, I unsewed, I compared colors, I think I even invented a new quilt block.  I wish I could get to that level of concentration more often because it feels so incredible to come to oneself hours later and see all you have accomplished. 

This is just a teaser, I fear, because we are supposed to keep these under wraps until the big reveal next month.  And of course I still have to quilt it.  I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and do it on my machine.  Here's hoping that I don't muck it up too much with my less than stellar machine quilting skills.