Design Wall Monday

Shhhh - don't tell anyone it's "technically" Tuesday!!!

"Design Wall Monday" is a new thing for me to blog about. However, Judy Laquidara from Patchwork Times (I do LOVE her blogs, so I'll probably end up mentioning her quite a bit from here on out) hosts a "Design Wall Monday" linky party on her blog, so I thought I'd chime in. This is her last DWM for the year. Makes sense, since it's the last Monday of the year. Wait - did we even have a February this year? I can't even remember...

Ok, getting back to business here... I just spent about 8 lovely hours at my sewing machine! This is what (part of) my design wall looks like now:



My goodness, is the lighting TERRIBLE in this photo!!! YIKES! (UPDATE: I fixed the photo - took a new one in "daylight" and replaced the old yucky one)

So, here is what is in the photo: The top 2 photos are a BOM I'm doing called "Lollypop Trees," designed by Kim McLean. I'm doing my BOM through The Quilt Studio, and they've been fabulous so far. The series started in August 2011, and goes for 16 months. The blocks are 18"x18"!! I'm going to love my ginormous quilt!!! So far, I have fused down the pieces for the August and September blocks. I will machine appliqué the pieces down. At least that's my plan as it stands now. It's going to be a BIG job!
The 10 blocks on the bottom are the "buck a block" blocks that I mentioned in a post from Christmas Day. I'm doing this through a lovely shop in Seattle - The Quilting Loft. I got 2 blocks done on the 25th, 4 done on the 26th, and another 4 done in the same sitting, but technically on the 27th since it was past midnight. SO glad to have started the blocks and to now be caught up - in less than 48 hours from starting them! Now I'll wait till the beginning of January to receive my next blocks - then staying caught-up will be my goal!
Lastly, on the right, is a block I made on the "quilter's cruise to Alaska." I started this block in a class taught by Sue Nichols, who is an AMAZING machine appliqué quilter! I have enough fabric to make 3 more of these, but I think I might add fabric of my own and make the quilt larger. We really don't have space for this type of wall hanging, so it needs to be a "usable" quilt! I do love the design, which Sue did specifically for our cruise group, so I definitely want to continue it on!!