More old friends

Some days when you decide to just do a little bit, and then a little bit more - you get quite an amazing amount done. 

I had borrowed an audio book from the library, so with the narrator merrily prattling away in the background, I finished putting together Block 6 on my Gail Pan BOM.   Now I just need to release my Brother sewing machine from the clutches of the quilting frame, and settle in to doing the machine blanket stitch.

My Swoon quilt has been calling to me too...

I had hoped to take it along to retreat in May to make some progress on Block 5, but after the burgulary just couldn't face trying to decide what fabrics to select.  It was just too hard.  I find this whole process really interesting, as I normally have little problem making fabric choices.  For some reason it is a huge consideration for this quilt! 

Today I pulled out the remainder of the original FQ bundles and made some decisions - yay!

Bundle One: brown/tree as centre star, cream as accent, green as outer ring

Bundle Two: navy as accent, floral as centre star, plain aqua as outer ring

Bundle Three: large circle as centre star, aqua as outer ring, cross hatch as accent

Leftovers: well, these ones don't go together!  I need to make two more blocks!

This was the thing that worried me most - coming to the end and realising that the leftovers just wouldn't cut it together.  After a bit of playing with the bundles, mixing them up and trying "creative solutions" without much success, I just decided to start cutting up the bundle I liked best and worry about the other blocks LATER.

I absolutely love the fabric in the central star. I have also developed a love of the Heath fabric (the cross hatch in the outer accent pieces), they are awesome, and I've got a couple of metres of the grey/charcoal version jealously guarded in my stash.

So now I just have the background pieces to cut out... it doesn't seem so bad splitting the cutting load up between different days.  Helps to stay fresh when doing so many pieces.  You never know, I might get this block finished by the end of July!

On family news, last day of Term Two today... so school holidays for the next two weeks.  I just want to sleep, well, sleep and sew...

Edited to add: linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.