Starting New Projects

While I have been doing fairly well at avoiding starting new projects this year, in spite of  accumulating them (patterns and fabric) at a fairly rapid rate, I can no longer resist temptation.  A couple of new challenges/stitch-alongs have recently started and I am excited to play along, so my goal this month is  to develop plans and get started on both.  

The first is a challenge for my local TAS chapter. I was originally planning to look for an orphaned workshop project to use as my center/theme block and spent an afternoon digging through a drawer of workshop projects.  I had narrowed it down to a couple of options, but upon further consideration decided to go a different direction and instead design this project from quilts in my collection.  Here's the suggested layout:

My goal for this weekend is to figure out my center block.  I have acquired a couple of new quilts in the past week that definitely have to be included.  One of them arrived yesterday and it is absolutely gorgeous!

The other group project/stitch-along I am planning to get involved in is based on the alphabet.  The guidelines are fairly open, and I think many will likely be stitching actual letters, but I am leaning toward a floral theme.  The goal is one letter per month - I can keep up with that, right? So my goal for this month is to design my "A" block - I'm thinking an amaryllis, anemone, aster or azalea.  

I missed my opportunity to link up with Elm Street Quilts OMG this month, so my one monthly goal for March will be to remember to post in time to link up in April!