En Provence & Shiny Objects

While I am not nearly as far along as many others with En Provence, I have finished all of the final pieces and started assembling the top.

I am still not completely convinced that I like how my colors came together in the final design.  It doesn't help that I've seen a few alternate colorways that I like a lot better, but it's too late now!  And I have to remind myself that I didn't care for my Allietare at first either but loved it when it all came together.

I plan to add a border to make the top a little larger. I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to do yet but am thinking it needs to be about 6" to work with the quilt, so that would bring the size to around 100" square. A bit of a monster but 87" isn't quite big enough for our beds.

I put together my 2017 UFO list over the holidays and plan to play along with both the APQ and Patchwork times UFO challenges. I decided to be a little smarter in how I developed the list this year, only including projects that I can reasonably expect to finish or that I want to be sure to progress significantly this year. I didn't include any new starts or "filler" projects (those things I grab for a trip because they require no prep work).  This month's challenge UFOs are #3 (Farmhouse) and #6 (SLAM) and I think I can make a fair bit of progress on both this month.

And then there are the new things..the shiny objects that grab my attention at every turn. I love Facebook and blogs but sometimes wish they didn't offer up quite so much inspiration!  I fell for Sue Spargo's "Fresh Cut" BOM this year - it should be showing up in my mailbox soon:

And I also couldn't resist Sarah Fielke's "Down the Rabbit Hole" project. I'm not completely sure that I will actually start the quilt but thought it would be worth signing up at least to watch her videos.

And then there was this one that popped up last week - no way I couldn't join in on this one! Never mind that I am still working on the Magic of Christmas blocks...

With the passing of Sue Garman yesterday I am really feeling a pull to work on the quilt I started in class with her at BOTP in 2014.  She was an incredibly talented designer, wonderful teacher and all-around great person that was taken way too soon. I'm so lucky to have had a chance to meet her and learn from her in 2014 and 2015!

So far I've managed to resist jumping in on a couple of other projects that were tempting me, but I know there will be many more. The year is still young!