BOM new and old with some argyle on the side

We are heading full on into the winter drudgies. At least that's what I call the time between New Year's Day and Easter. The long, cold, often dull time we New Englanders spend waiting for Daylight Savings time to come back. One of the things I love to do is force bulbs to bring a littler color into the house...



We got these gorgeous paperwhites for a Christmas gift from White Flower Farm, and amazing plant/gardening company here in CT that has an amazing catalog and mail order business. Everything I've ever gotten from them has been gorgeous.

I, like so many of you, put together a 2011 plan this week. It has goals for my sewing, design, and blogging. It has dates. It is written down, and I will be doing my darnedest to follow it. One of the more vague concepts is to keep learning, and to allow myself to make mistakes sewing.

With that in mind, I set out to do my seventh block in my Starry Night BOM quilt. I never posted doing block #6, so here's that one.



As you can see, my borders don't line up with the inside of the block. This has been an issue for me for all of the blocks. I am still not a proficient 1/4" sewer. I'm getting A LOT better, and I see improvement with every block, but I'm not there with the precision yet. Knowing this, I started number 7.



When I got to the edges, as usual, they were off. But...in honor of my new goals, I actually ripped the pieces apart *gasp*...the dreaded...UNSEWING. I actually walked away from the block for about 15 minutes, but I couldn't not finish, and I couldn't leave it as it was. So I started over. This was not an easy thing, but I was VERY happy with the second try.

Can you see the difference between the last one and this one? (PLEASE say you can).



I buckled down and did this, in great part because I got my first block for the Rose of Sharon BOM quilt. I've mentioned on Twitter, I am WAYYYYY over my head on this one. But I am for sure, if nothing else, a "sink or swim", baptism by fire kinda' girl. But...*gulp*...look at this...





This is block ONE?? Dear Lord. But I am diving in this week. I am bravely going to cut into that juicy fabric. (After I've confirmed, measured, and placed at LEAST twice). I will take any and all suggestions, tips, and know-how regarding applique. The whole purpose of this BOM is to get me over my debilitating fear of applique. I want to be fearless when it comes to my sewing machine...so what the heck, let's go full on.

Of course, I won't be feeling this brave all the time. So I'm working on a quilt for my son, that we bought fabric for close to two years ago. It's from a pattern in this FALL 2009 Quilt's 'N More magazine.



I am a huge sucker for argyle. I showed my son the pattern, and he picked out greens and creams for the fabric. And he picked gold minky for the back. You read that right. Gold. Minky. He's obviously into the "luxe" look.



I've got four of the 9 rows done, and all of the side pieces. I'll be excited to post pictures when the top is done.

What hairbrained project have YOU started this month?