Here's the circle for Thanksgiving day. I didn't make something to represent the holiday. I just wanted to make a circle out of triangles, so I did.
This is for Black Friday. Leave it up to me to commemorate Black Friday and not commemorate Thanksgiving. I spent way too much.
Here is Saturday's circle. Although we are still eating turkey, I had this bowl in the recycle bin. It is from a frozen meal, and I always wanted to do something with the design. I used the Shiva Paintstiks again, with a paintbrush this time, even though I had already put away the Paintstiks. I'm sure it would have looked better if I had picked a different background fabric.
I put up a fleece blanket on the wall to make an impromptu design wall, and tried again with the Square Steps layout. I did better on the layout this time. I still need to play with looking at the design to see if I prefer the the dark or the light fabric is on the top left or if it matters to me. In some blocks, all the darks meet in the center, in others they vary.
Wanda and Julie both thought I should make another red and black block to help balance out the design, and they have convinced me, so I am doing just that, along with some more red blocks to make another row. It will now be 5 x 7.
As a Leader and Ender, I am using the leftover rails to make this little baby. Once I had an idea to do this, I started cutting the rails the opposite way - the 22" side instead of the 18" side so I would be sure to have more leftovers. I'm not planning this piece - whichever piece happens to be the right size, shows up in the space. I am very happy with it so far.
I started with the log cabin then moved to courthouse steps. I still have some more rails left, which will have to be pieced together to make more courthouse steps. I like using leftovers as Leaders and Enders because then, I only need one set of fabric out. I also like being able to use the leftovers while I am making the original quilt so I don't have to figure out a way to store them.
In case you were wondering which book I was waiting for, it is this one. It came in the afternoon on Friday - I had just about given up on it when I spotted the mail truck, so I decided to wait until the package was delivered before I went out. I waited for a long time listening for the sound. It took so long, that I looked out the window to see what had happened to our mail carrier, and apparently it had been silently placed on the porch. I didn't get any other mail so there wasn't the familiar thump of the mailbox closing. It's nice to get a package and no bills.
Even though the long anticipation was sure to make the book be a let down, it is a great book. Red &; White Quilts: Infinite Variety: presented by the American Folk Art Museum are all the quilts that were at the Red & White Quilts show that was held last year. There are several articles about the quilts, the collection, and the show, and then there are pages and pages of photographs of each of the quilts. It's a lovely book, and I highly recommend that you add it to your holiday wish list.
The Small Quilt Yahoogroup is making red and white quilts this month and I sure would like to join them if I could get some current projects done. It's going to have to be a very simple and quick one and this book showed several options. There are no patterns in the book, so you can enjoy looking at the pictures without feeling any guilt about the need to make them.
The other pictures on the camera are photos of quilt magazines as my scanning project continues at a relatively quick and steady pace.