Blue Plus Sign progress

Went straight into the studio when I woke up today and worked on the blue plus sign quilt top for a few hours, stitching the top together. I am a big proponent of sewing one's tops together in chunks instead of rows, and even though this design is laid out in rows, there are a few opportunities for breaking it up into chunks.

You have to pay close attention to what you're doing, though, and I didn't pay close enough attention, so there was a lot of sewing of long seams going on.

When I had the top laid out unpieced, I liked the way some of the plus signs were extending out into the border area because I hadn't cut all the pieces to size, so I left them that way as I pieced. I don't have any extensions at the top or bottom, though, and it feels unbalanced to me. I can add some to the top and bottom or I can unpick the sides and take out the pieces that are extending into the side border area. I'm trying not to let my decision be driven by the reality of which approach will take less work.

Taking Jaye's advice to "avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry," I am going to go away and eat dinner and see how I feel about it then!

Weekly fabric 1

Patty Young: Flora & Fauna/Dandelion in Stone (Michael Miller)

Not my usual taste, but for some reason I couldn't resist this.

Lunchtime, October 8

And it did indeed feel good.

Center Diamond Leftovers

I have a lot of scraps. A LOT of scraps, which make me very happy. At one point, they were all contained in an Ikea wire basket system and a bunch of plastic storage bins

- nice and tidy, yes? Ha! The scraps have way outgrown this space, and much as I love them, I want some shelf space back. And floor space. So I'm into round five or six of "My Scrap Bag Runneth Over," my work series dedicated to making quilts that are not only scrappy-looking but really made out of scraps.

This week's project -- using up some of the scraps left over from the Center Diamond One of Each 6" fabric club I belonged to for several years - lots of 2"x 6" and 2" x 4" pieces. This "plus sign" design is perfect for using these, and I got on a roll on Friday night, staying up into the wee hours laying out this:

I'm pretty happy with it, but debating whether that white/blue leaf print in the middle stays or goes. Is it jumping out too much? Do I take it out, or try to find another couple of white background prints to scatter around the top? Decisions, decisions...