We had to take a trip to Jamestown yesterday, to pick up a quilt from the patchwork shop.  It's always dangerous when we go there, and this time I was determined to limit my buying to 4 FQs.  HAH! There were some remnants of batiks at $12 a metre, and Mereth & I fell in love with a big floral and each got 2m, plus some Jo Mortons.....  Well, it was only 5.5m in total, so if I get busy and make some backings I will remove that much from the stash easily.

We had a lovely time visiting with Elaine, the shop owner, and Sharon, a longtime customer of ours; it's so nice to spend time with people who 'get' what you do.  As I was leaving the shop (with my bag of goodies)  I told them about my 4 FQs intention, and they roared with laughter.  Seems like I was the only one who thought I would actually be able to stick to that.  And I was wrong.

After I'd finished a few chores at home I messed around with some trial blocks, because this year is going to be about more than just UFOs.  I've been wanting to do something with my cheddar/orange fabrics for a while, and the quilt Bonnie showed a couple of days ago might just be The One.

Super Simple, but fun too, and it would make an excellent Leader-Ender.  My red nine-patches are nearly all done, so I need something else.

I also have a preoccupation with tree quilts, and spied a pattern on Mereth's computer that appealed to me.  I made a trial block, and I'm still deciding if I want to go ahead with it straight away.  It's a lot of HSTs, made easier with the Accuquilt, but nevertheless, a lot of piecing per block.  It can sit on my design wall for a while, till I make my mind up.

Of course, the leftover madder stars are still on the design wall, but I'm not going to finish them right now.  I want to have a good rummage through the stash and make sure I pull out every large print that I could possibly use in these alternate blocks, and maybe make more stars.  This is going back in the project box for now; I love having a simple project like this up my sleeve, for those hectic times when I can't devote time to making decisions.

Then there are two batik quilts simmering in the background, as I try to choose which one to work on first for a quick finish.  Should I do a 16-patch, which is lightning quick, or a cross quilt like this? (Second part of tutorial here).  I may very well do both, but which one first?  I love this time of choosing what to do next, like hesitating with one hand over the chocolate box.  Whatever I choose, I'm going to enjoy it.