Back To The X Plus!

I've been fairly productive in the Studio lately - I just need to get better about blogging it!  Here's a look at what's been going on.

I'm still doing the hand sewing on the Kansas Dugout Quilt and the X Plus runner:

Maggie has been tremendously supportive, as you can see. She's even tried to give me some guidance on the layout of the first X Plus quilt:

"Umm ... no.  Just no."

I tried   We tried just taking out those three blocks in the alternative color-ways, but that didn't cut it. That's when my friend Pam's suggestion of setting blocks came into play!

At first, I was thinking Snowball blocks, but then ...

A star!! Even cooler!

I didn't have enough fabric to do plain blocks between the stars in that beige with turquoise/mint/black flowers OF COURSE - so I went through my Amy Butler stash.  (All of the colorful fabs are Amy Butlers.)  I wanted to do the beige with pink floral/cabbage, but no.  Not even close to having enough of that, so ...

BOOM! Nothing like keeping things quiet and subtle. Or not. Go bold or go home, right? Yikes. It works for me, though.

The "plain" setting squares form a cross, which pleases me - echoing the "plus" in the X Plus. Here's a look at the top:

I really want to take it outside in better lighting for a photo, but we've been experiencing such cold temps and/or high winds, that it's not really feasible right now. Once I get it quilted, I'll give it a go. For now, it's hanging out on my pressing table, making me happy:

Yes, I re-covered my pressing "table".  Actually, it's 1" thick plywood with batting and fabric staple-gunned to it, then set on an old butcher block table we had in our kitchen.  Not this kitchen.  I don't remember the last place we were able to use it in a kitchen, but I do remember buying it when we lived in Belgium. (At Habitat, if memory serves.). Anyway, a nice, solid piece of furniture.  It makes a swell pressing area.  The fabric I had on the plywood got pretty stained up from the ink on the phone book pages from the phone book quilts I've been doing, so it was time to change it out.  The pink camo makes me smile.

I've come up with a plan to quilt this; I'll start on in a few days.  I took a day off and made new collars and leashes for the pups - I'll share those pix tomorrow.  I'm also putting together the Scrappy Not-Really-A-Jelly Roll blocks from 2012.  More to post soon!

Thanks for reading!
KZK