Its Been a While...Once Again

Once again, it's been a while since posted but now that I've started working on Christmas projects I thought it would be a good time to reconnect with you all.  That is if anyone is actually still reading. 

For Christmas I decided to make my very first quilt and give it to my little (21 year old) brother.  I found this great easy pattern and got to cutting!  I had to cut a total of 110 large rectangles and 10 half rectangles.  This seemed to take FOREVER and by the time I was done I had to go in and get a massage.  Given my house and furniture setup and options I spend my time sitting on the floor and cutting out squares which results in a lot of hunching and tense muscles.  One day I'll figure out a better setup for this all. 

Please excuse my hit and miss photography.  I'm working on it.  Here are some of the fabrics I'm using for the quilt.  I think I have around 15 different patterns although a few look VERY similar. 

I've gone heavy with the music note fabric in the quilt top.  Lil bro is a drummer so I thought it appropriate to have plenty of music in his gift. 

and here is a sampling of some of my stitched together rows.  I didn't really plan it out ahead of time, other than to know that there were some fabrics I had more of so I needed to use them regularly or even occasionally 2x in a row.  When selecting I just tried to make sure I used any of the fabrics that weren't in the previous row and tried to make sure the same fabric never touched.  It seemed to work pretty well thus far.  I've completed 6/10 rows and stitched 5 rows together.  I also went through the last of the fabric and picked which squares will be in which of the last four rows.  Thus far I'm really happy with what its working out to be.  I hope to have the top finished by the middle of the week and the quilt itself finished sometime next week.  We shall see though, after all it is my first one!!

I'm also planning a pink and brown colored quilt for my sister.  I bought the fabric for it, but haven't gone looking for a pattern I like yet. 

Check back later in the week for an update on the finished quilt top!