Remember I said I wanted to do something old, something new, something finished and something fun?

This is the Sisters Choice top, finished and ready for quilting. I battled with myself all the time I was putting this together, convinced that the blocks were too boring for words, and the setting was overkill. It wasn't until I hung it up that I fell in love with it. I think it's so strange that something makes me keep going with an idea, even though my rational brain is railing at me that it's all a mistake, and then it turns out that I knew what I was doing after all. I have lost all sense of judgment it seems; I need to turn off that horrible voice of reason that is so sure everything is wrong.

For my something new, I played with EQ6. Judy uses it to great effect with her quilt designing, and I want to make it a more regular part of my design process. Maybe I'm worried that I will spend all my time making virtual quilts instead of real ones, but nothing really takes the place of the feel of fabric and the hum of the machine. I enjoy working with EQ6, and I know that I haven't explored even a fraction of what it can do.

The old? I dug these buttonhole applique blocks out of the cupboard and started previewing fabrics to set them with. These are 5" blocks, and I sell a pattern pack of the patterns; (American quilters can buy it here). I made a quilt of these patterns in red and green 15 years ago, but it was stolen on the way to a show in America, so it is no more, alas. I'm working with blue and brown this time, and enjoying the small scale and the embroidery aspect; I have 3 more blocks kitted and ready to go, simple stitching for the evenings.

And the fun thing? I sorted out all my embroidery threads and wound the new ones onto cards. It was mindless entertainment and brought order to my thread box. I'm obviously easily amused!

I hope all of you are enjoying the first days of 2009; I haven't looked at a calendar yet, so the full impact of being so close to the end of the first decade of the 2000s hasn't hit yet. Next week we'll be back to work on our various ventures, so it will wait till then.