6 & 6 in 2018

When my friend Heather posted about the 6 & 6 in 2018 link-up hosted by pomegranate and chintz and frayed at the edge I was immediately interested in joining in. I am definitely one of those people that can't commit to only working on UFOs or not starting something new until I complete something else. Where's the fun in that?!? It's been particularly problematic this year - I think the fact that I have barely left the house in three weeks due to the extreme cold has prompted more internet surfing and blog reading which has resulted in inspiration overload!

I chose 6 items from my UFO list for this link-up. I especially like the fact that we won't be assigned a month so this gives me a little freedom to pick up some of the projects I am most excited about when the assigned ones aren't doing it for me. I've posted pictures of all of those previously so for the purposes of this link-up I have just marked them with an asterisk on the sidebar and on my UFO page.

And then there is the "new project" list. I had to go back and read the fine print on the 6&6 post to be sure it didn't specify anywhere that we could ONLY start 6 new projects - I couldn't commit to that! Between the Primitive Gatherings SBOWs and the annual Bonnie Hunter mystery I would only have a couple of new starts left...or perhaps I can restrain myself from signing up for all the SBOWs this year? Anyway, my head is about to explode just trying to decide what new project I will start first.

One that will have to be on my list is the Jane Austen quilt. A few of my friends and I saw a version of this quilt being created by Jeanna Kimball at the 2017 Baltimore on the Prairie conference that inspired us to want to do this project as a group.  Here's a picture of the original from Linda Franz's site:

And then there is the "Alabama Star" quilt that I fell in love with when Barbara Brackman posted it on her blog back in 2016.

One of her followers designed stamps to use to hand piece this quilt but she is located in Europe so they are a little pricey, and I was thinking this might be better to do with EPP.  So I contacted Paper Pieces and now have a complete set of papers to get this quilt started. Now I just have to decide on what fabrics I want to use!

I recently came across this picture on Facebook and fell in love with the birds.  The pattern is "Feathers" from The Pattern Basket. The birds are all pieced - no applique. So cute!

While running through all the recordings on the DVR in my sewing room over Christmas break I watched an old (2015) episode of Fons & Porter that featured a really nice log cabin variation made with a fat quarter bundle. I think this would be a great way to use one of the many fat quarter bundles I have collected over the years.

When I first saw The Quilt Show BOM for 2018 I wasn't really interested, even though it was designed by Edyta Sitar. But then I watched her on the BOM kick-off episode of the show and saw an email featuring the multi-colored version using her new Crystal Farm line, and I started to waiver.

Which then led to an impulse order of a bunch of new fabric (which arrived in only two days)!

I am still undecided on this one.  The Crystal Farms fabric would look really great in the Alabama Star project too. I will have to give it a little more thought and try to narrow the field to just ONE new start to report on at the end of January!