October 30

Between giving Carolyn imput for her layout designs and browsing flickr & blogs, I once again feel ready to dive into a project.
Patty, my fantastic longarmer, left me a message earlier to say that my quilt is ready for pick up. Wow, that was fast. I had really wanted to have a second one to drop off, but I don't have anything ready yet. All sorts of creative ideas are flowing, and i'm nervous to cut into fabric, but don't want to wait any longer either.

My first idea was to make something like the log cabin in Hedgehog's post here, and last night I pulled out a bunch of 2" strips. I even found reds for the centers. But the more I thought about it, and as I was ironing the fabrics I need to incorporate (a request from the recipient, who doesn't know i'm working on this quilt yet), I realized 2" strips (1.5" finished) won't show them off at all. I need a bigger, more fabric-display type pattern. Carolyn had posted this (second pic) idea, and linked to this pic over on flickr and I really think that this "crosses" pattern has more potential. I whipped one up in EQ5:

(with a totally random fabric arrangement, I don't have or even like most of these fabrics) and I like the pattern. How to put it together though? instead of five 3.5" squares, I like the idea of putting in a 9.5" strip, but then I've got to sew one whole strip together first before joining it to the next, and.. well, that's a lot of seams to match up. I started cutting some scrap fabrics, and I think I'll break it into 4 big patches, then sew them together at the end. I want it to work, but I need more room to spread it out, and aside from the patch of rug in the upstairs hall, I don't have anywhere available at 10:12pm on a Tuesday. OMG, it's that late already?

Anyway, I have about a million emails to write and nothing to wear to work tomorrow. Better stop posting and do some stuff before heading to bed.