I Love Holidays!

Today, I'm very glad that Presidents have birthdays.  I really needed a long weekend to recoup from the last 6 weeks or so.  And I planned to be very productive.  So I got up this morning and decided I didn't like this project after all and that I had to add some more contrast in the string portions of the side panels.  Boy was that a bad idea.  I wanted to add someof the yellow medallions that you can barely see in the corners.  Guess who ran out of fabric?  So now I have 2 finished placemats and two that are still in pieces.  I suppose a trip to A&E is in order after work today.  Oh darn!  Still it is frustrating.  I could have gone to A&E today, but I just didn't want to make the drive, not that it is far, but it would just be too much interruption.

The good news is that this placemat process yielded some interesting scraps.  I am going to make string quilt-esque pot holders to go along with the placemats.  I was going to do an apron also, but I may just let the market bag do.  

Anyway, I was playing with the pieces, and came up with this:

I'm thinking it may be the beginnings of a pillow top for my Urban Home Goods partner.  She said she likes modern and traditional mixed, and bright colors, and this string-quilt-meets-log-cabin may just do it.  Here is the center detail:

Right now it measures 14" square, so with the last border and binding, it should be about 18".

On another note, I am the QB in my First Time Bee virtual quilting bee in March.  I have been racking my brain for an idea for my blocks.  In the charm square swap, we have been discussing quilts that we have known and loved, and it reminded me of a quilt we had when I was a little girl.  It was a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt that my great, great grandmother had made for my dad.  It was made of teeny, tiny hexis cut from old dresses and shirts and who knows what all, and tied together with a peach border between the flowers.  Perhaps that is where my love of quilts came from, because I loved that quilt.  I would have slept with it every day, but my mom would only let me use it when I was sick (hmmm...  maybe that's why I was sick so much as a child...  but I digress.)  Anyway, this thought keeps coming back.

So on Saturday, I made this suggestion to my Bee Buddies and they were so supportive.  There were a couple of hesitations, but now everyone seems excited.  I have been intimidated myself by all those hexagons, so made a sample block just to see.  I had bought some templates a couple of weeks ago, and those - along with a good pressing - make the job pretty easy.  Here is my sample block, in stages.

GMFG flower, stage 1, one row

GMFG Block, stage 2, two rows

The fabrics are from my scrap bag, so this quilt should be a good scrap buster.  I left the choice of fabrics up to the quilters, but while this block is terribly traditional, I think the quilt would be more fun in a mix of traditional and modern fabrics.  And I saw a totally non-traditional block on Flickr that really excited me.  I'll have to see what I can do with it. 

And I just realized that my Mini QT quilt has to be done by the end of the month, and all I have is a sketch.  Guess I'd better get going, huh?