Quick, here's a jewel block

Fabric with dots is Aerial View. The other is Lands End.

I like the colour blue. In lots of shades. And pink. In many hues. And I like the weight of Ruby Star Society fabrics, especially for EPP. Put those together, and tonight I have much of another block for my Eden quilt sorted.

I also like making blocks that have a center hexagon, lol! Cornflower blocks, Eden blocks; what I appreciate is simply stitching around a basted shape, not worrying if center points meet up. I realized that while making the Cornflower blocks, and it's reinforced with these little beauties.

Earlier today I put fabric on the design wall, but I'm keeping this quilt under wraps until it's gifted, as it's a surprise. Not in time for Christmas, but hopefully before February. Large squares will lend themselves to being quickly turned into a top, but as I plan to hand-quilt this project.... It's going to take a few weeks of evening stitching. Yet having completed the design element freed me to poke around the office, first looking for Christmas fabrics that I wanted to sew along with that quilt top, but I couldn't find them! Now I didn't thoroughly inspect my bag of Christmas cottons, but I did a decent job, although not a successful one. Yet that led me to eyeing some half-yard cuts of Jen Hewitt's recent collection Reimagined I purchased at the same time as that delayed layer cake. I had wanted to press, then cut into the Reimagined fabrics, but it's that busy holiday time and.... And other tasks muscled those prints into last place. Until today. Today they sparkled on the ironing board, shone on the cutting mat, then twinkled in being basted, then stitched into a gorgeous cohesive whole.

Whipping this block into shape took little time, but brought my heart great pleasure. Aerial View and Lands End, both in teal, are the fabrics, and I had Aerial View in gray and a smaller scale years ago when I was plotting out those Lucy Boston blocks. The chance to use that lovely print again, ooohhhh! I don't mind fabric designers repurposing their designs, freshening the colours and changing the scale. It's like writing a series, stretching out beloved characters as far as they want to travel.

Anyway, that's what I did today, as well as freshening up the dustbox for the chickens. Two days in a row we've received four eggs, which means half of our little flock are in the Layer's Club! No more eggs in the dustbox thankfully, though one hen finds the nesting boxes not to her liking, laying eggs on a large shelf near the dustbox. The shelf exists as it's a cover for a horse trough, and the Barnevelder hen, who I have named FUSSY (ahem), flew up there last night, squawking and poking at the board. I'll get a photo of the area, as my husband screwed a board at the end of the shelf so eggs won't fall into the dustbox. Fussy laid there this morning, and I'm curious if one of the four remaining non-laying chickens will use it too.

Rain starts tomorrow, will be soggy all week, and into next week too. Which means plenty of sewing time, interspersed with checking on the hens, and Christmas preparations. Maybe some editing? Part Four of The Hawk is also calling my name, what would Owl Chicken think of that?

I won't tell her, nor will I reveal the irony of her moniker. A quilt top secret alongside that, just part of the holiday season, and at times life in general.