A Sophisticate on Easy Street - Part 5

'Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the house, I was happily cutting and stitching and chatting with friends and family on the phone. I woke to find the electricity had gone out in the night. What was light rain and falling temps when I drove home last night had turned to snow, so I pulled on my robe and stepped out to take some pictures of the first one of the season. I let the dog in and then sneaked back to bed while the house warmed up.

Snow on Magnolia and Holly in backyard.

I'd cleared out part of the kitchen for Christmas Eve by piling things in my sewing room. First thing this morning I sorted and put that stuff away, instead of just moving the piles someplace else, which can be tempting when you have an entire house to yourself. Then I rewarded myself by cutting fabrics for week 5. Bonnie's purple is also my purple, but I have only one fabric, and I cut some 3 1/2" squares from that plum print to begin. Her blue is my green; I cut a pile of 2" squares with some scraps I had left over from an earlier week. Initial sewing and trimming showed me that my final pieces were just a few threads short of 3 1/2", so I cut the next set of plum fabric with the edge on the outside of my ruler line instead of hidden by the line. That worked perfectly, giving me the little extra width I needed. There's no real name for this shape, but it looks like a house to me. Given the time of year, I'm calling them "Up on the Rooftop" blocks. With only three greens it didn't seem worth trying to mix colors up within blocks so I stitched my Rooftop blocks with matching greens in the corners.

"Up on the Rooftop" blocks.

 My quilt won't be the scrap-happy one Bonnie's is, but I'm fine with that. I love my fabrics and colors, and look forward to seeing it all come together. One of the best things about quilting is watching something emerge from fabric, threads, and ideas. You can plan all you want, but the finished project is always at least a little surprising. I like that!

Playing with the pieces we've made so far.

An after-Christmas chat with DS on the phone got me to thinking about why I like quilting. A lot of the pleasure I get comes from remembering my Grandmothers' quilts. One of them enjoyed piecing simple patterns with a large variety of fabrics saved from sewing for her family. She pieced at home on her treadle machine or by hand, but quilted weekly with a group of women at church. The other Grandmother created applique quilts with realistic birds and flowers, reflecting her interests in art, garden design and bird-watching. She pieced and quilted them at home, controlling the results completely. Their quilts were different, like the women, but all of them are beautiful and special to their family.

Front yard snow.

Wasn't it the perfect day to be inside sewing and fortifying myself with hot tea and yummy Christmas leftovers?

This post is part of Bonnie Hunter's Week 5 Link-Up.