Thanks Margo and Charae. I don't know why but this is one quilt I just keep wanting to work on and can't stop--did not go to sleep last night until all the blocks were ready to go on the wall. Now, I'm ready to look at my fabrics for the half square triangles and when I get bored with putting rows together I'll make 156 (?) half-square triangles.

Charae, hurry up and get the checks done and run home! You can do both!!!

Thanks, Alex, for a fun quilt to make. Will you forgive me if I put Chinese New Year lanterns and firecrackers instead of lights in the border or Santa riding a dragon?

This is wonderful, Renata! Wouldn't change a thing. Fighting the urge to leave my office, run home and get started... on the other hand, I probably should stay where I am and get pay checks written~ or not!

It looks GREAT, Renata!!

Okay, folks, here's my Holiday Lights on the design wall. I've moved things around, took a photo and am posting in case you want to play along .. I'll take a break and relook in a bit. Happy to play with your choices too.

Did not have a design wall because of lack of wall space so yesterday I found a $3.19 flannel-backed vinyl tablecloth at Joann's, hung it on our bedroom closet door and, voilà, a makeshift design wall--difficult to do this quilt without one.

Anyone else out there making Holiday Lights?

I am liking this quilt! I want to make them all! Time!? &%???!! Yikes!!

Thanks Charae--I originally purchased them over the summer (along with some red fabric) for a holiday bed quilt, but there was enough there to do both that and Holiday Lights!

What yummy fabrics, Renata!!

rehak wrote:
Oh yes! THANKS!!!

You could also used extras as a label and/or part of a pieced back. I love to do things like that!

Nancy

Thanks!

I like your idea of cutting as you go along--what you see in the greens is what I own (although further down in the stacks there is a little more variety than what I've shown in the photo) so I figured I'd take a slice out of each of the fabrics and that's what went into the blocks. I think it was 10 different greens and 11(?) backgrounds. I did not want to go out and buy more (do you believe that? Of course I wanted to, but I decided I would be good). I am prepared to set aside a few, if I need to, and make a few more in lighter colors or with something to give more pop and I'll use the excess trees for something else (coasters, small table runner, we'll see).

What Nancy said !!

Oooohhhh! I'm loving them so far. From what I can see in the pictures, the balance looks good. But a lot of it depends on how dark you want the final quilt to be. When I'm doing a scrap quilt, I feel like I get a good idea for the final color mix just by watching the colors as they go through the sewing machine. But I also like to lay out and admire my blocks periodically. I'll adjust my fabrics as I go along. Because of that, I also don't do all of my cutting at the beginning like some of my friends do. I like the freedom to change as I go along.

I'm seeing several fabrics that I have in my own stash! You must have very good taste in fabric!!

Nancy

Since I am still putting tree trunks to trees, I thought I'd whet Nancy's appetite and show a sampling of trees and backgrounds as the are lined up by background type so I can attach the trunks to the trees without messing up on the background. Even I wonder what it is going to look like when on the design wall. Did I use too many dark trees? Will I have to make a few lighter ones and substitute? Or will the variety in the background mitigate all that and I'll be okay? Just talking to myself here out loud...

I took a picture of all my fabrics together and indeed there were too many darks but I liked them so I'm chancing it. This could be a lesson for balancing darks and mediums better as well as size of patterns... we'll see!



{!-- ia0 -->PA160088.JPG{!-- ia0 -->

Nancy, the tree trunk when sewn between the two background fabrics turns out to be 5/8", so there is enough room to press inward, basically the two opposing seams touch when pressed inward and that's what gets sewn against the tip of the tree. I think Alex is right, you can probably do it either way, it should not matter; once I saw how thick the intersection was going to be, I switched course just to be safe since I don't have the skill level some of you do and I would feel as if I had to go over 70-plus bumps when quilting later (especially since I'm thinking of ESS'ing around the blocks...).