Lots of sewing, little blogging!

Hi,
Sorry to be so scarce, but I've been super productive on the sewing front! I finished the top of my storm-at-sea, and I just love it! Fabric arrived today for the back (though it is not the perfect blue that I had hoped for - drat!). Hopefully I can get some better pictures this weekend...it's a rainy, dark day today, and I just snapped this one as I was heading to bed!

I took Monday off work and started a new project. I'm making a duvet cover for my brother out of Kate Spain's Fandango line. I had picked up a bit of yardage when it was on sale at Hancock's of Paducah, and then I managed to find 2 charm packs online to buy. I had been showing my brother some pictures of my recent quilts during our all-too-brief visit after Christmas, and he liked Hyacinth Design's garden fence pattern as much as I do, so I told him I'd make his duvet cover in that design. One problem - when I got home, I discovered that I didn't have a jelly roll in Fandango (I was confused by the fact that I'm planning to make myself the same quilt out of Terrain!). Luckily, my most local quilt shop (Tomorrow's Treasures in Crofton, Maryland) had 17 bolts from the line still in the store, and better still, they were willing to cut me 1/8 yard strips when I explained that I'd been in search of a jelly roll. They tear their fabric, which I don't love, but they tore it generously, so even after washing it, I had more than the 5" I needed for the design. With a 5" strip cut from the yardage I had, I had borders for all of my 36 blocks! I've already done the inner block and decided on my order and which strips contrast nicely with each charm square, and I've cut about half of what I need for the outer part of the design in just a few days! Pretty exciting! It's amazing how much more time I have to sew when we eat leftovers or pizza!

I've also prepped all my fabric for the Chasing Chevrons quilt-along (including a good bit of starching/Best Pressing), and I've now received the stencils I ordered from Connecting Threads that I will use to mark my gridded triangles for quick half-square triangle construction and picked up a pounce pad from Tomorrow's Treasures when I picked up the fabric to make said marking even easier.

I've got several other fun projects in the works, but my 2012 resolution was to post shorter notes (and more frequently - ha!). Like all my New Year's resolutions, we're off to a rocky start! Hope you are having a great week!