Something I've always wanted to say...

I've been working on a secret project.  Hee Hee!!  I've always wanted to write that on my blog.  I'm going to do my first tutorial in a little bit.  I had to make some prototypes to take pictures for the tutorial.  I might even do a give away.  I know, a giveaway, craziness!

We're entering my favorite season, Fall.  I have a bunch of projects lined up for the next few months and I'm hoping to make a bunch of Christmas presents, plus Halloween costumes, plus a mini craft fair.  It's a good thing both kids are in school, even though it's only 2 hours for Baby Girl.  Truth be told, I'm not quite sure what to do with Baby Girl all afternoon while big brother is in kindergarten.  We've been at loose ends the last week.  I've been letting her watch too much TV, while I sew.  I need to figure out things for us to do in the afternoon.  I'm just used to the two of them entertaining each other all afternoon.  That's why I had two kids in the first place.

In the midst of all the other projects in the pipeline, I finally got some inspiration for these stacks of fabric.

I've been wanting to make a spread for our king sized bed.  I've been intimidated by the shear size of the undertaking.  Usually, I decide upon the design I want to tackle next and then I pick the fabric.  If I have the fabric first, before the design, I have trouble deciding what to do.  I wanted a design that would feature the large scale prints from the Aviary II bundle I bought, but I didn't want to do just a large patchwork.  I also wanted a design that might lend itself to a quilt as you go project.  I've sort of used up my long arm quilter budget for the year.  Add to that, I've thinking about doing more of a bed spread and less of a quilt.  I want something pretty to throw over our bed, not so much something to keep us warm.  That's a long way of saying that there were a lot of requirements.

I started cutting on Friday and I have to say I'm really pleased with the way it's turning out.  I'm keeping it simple with lots of wof strips sewn together horizontally.  I'm currently trying to decide if I should add a few perpendicular strips to mix things up.  I'm thinking yes.  I really enjoy these projects where I have a vague notion of where I'd like to end up, but where I let the fabric dictate how we get there.  The giant courthouse step quilts were like that and now this strip quilt is the same.  As an added bonus, Hubby says he really likes what I've shown him so far.  As soon as I find a spot to layout my progress I'll take some pictures.  I'm planning on about 120 inches square and it's hard to find a piece of bare floor that big.  I wish I had a big design wall.

This evening, I think I figured out how to assemble this monster just using my little Janome.  The secret will be that I'm not using any batting.  I'm going to quilt the top directly to the flannel back.  If I don't assemble the back until I've quilted the center panel, then I should only ever have less than one wof piece rolled up in the neck of the machine.  I think this will work!