Happy Birthday to Me

It's my birthday, and for my present to myself, I am allowing myself to run headlong into three new projects. The first one is Katie's Values Quiltalong, represented by her photo below, although this is not the one she is working up for this project. I am behind on this, as I just began cutting my fabric last night.  I am finding fabric scraps from every quilt I ever made, going back to 1992!  Not all of them will make it into the quilt, I have no doubt; but it is nice to handle them again, and just cutting them into tidy 5" squares makes it more likely that I will use them at some time.  I am really inspired by the myriad fascinating ways these half-square triangles can be laid out to evoke the dark and light qualities.  To get a sense of the variety, have a look at the photos in the Flickr group dedicated to this quiltalong.


Values Quilt Tutorial, originally uploaded by Willy-Nilly.

The second project is Allyson and Nicole's Snowball Challenge Swap.  We're going to make this quilt.  The original is red and white scrappy, and Allyson is organizing a white fabric swap.  I'm not yet behind on this one, since I think she is still enrolling participants.  I haven't yet committed to the idea of red and white (kind of liking the idea of golds and whites), although as the days close in and the weather gets colder, I'm thinking that a wool batting and flannel back to a cozy red and white quilt couldn't possibly be beat.

Finally, I love the variation on Rail Fence that Cheryl whipped up, and couldn't resist the temptation to join her in making one.  I love the low contrast of her taupe-y greys in her Gratitude quilt shown below.  I'm only slightly behind the curve this week, since I'm supposed to have selected my fabrics already, but with luck will be caught up by the weekend.

So, I've just doubled my WIP pile, but dang it, it's my birthday and I'm entitled!