November Already/Sewtopia prep

Didn't the rest of October fly by?  I seem to have gotten little done in the sewing room towards the end of the month.  While caught up in the World Series finals, however, I got a lot of stitches in on the newest Lizzie Kate cross stitch project.

We weathered the entire 18 innings of that one wild game between Boston and our Dodgers, who finally won.  Unfortunately, I discovered the next day that the poor night lighting meant I used black instead of dark green for the red sweater's detail and had to rip it out! 

Prep work continued on the Michael Miller Challenge for Sewtopia Boston.  

I used the GO! cutter to get all the same size pieces from the fat quarters provided.  My plan was inspired by the cover quilt on this APQ magazine.  I made a bunch of blocks but then ran into trouble, having failed to make some mirror image blocks for the layout I wanted.  After making all the blocks I could squeeze out of the five fat quarters, several layouts emerged.

#1 included all the blocks of the fabrics with their color removed on one half, and the black and white/multicolored blocks.

 #2 with a more colorful array using only six of the blocks.

#3 using 8 of the blocks with a center medallion look.  Then my sister came over and played around with the blocks some more.  I have decided on a layout and will get this finished up tomorrow, I hope.  This year's fabrics were a lot harder to work with since there was no variety in scale.  Last year I made this tablerunner.

There is also a swap gift to make, packing to do of clothes, projects, accessories, and a hundred last minute items to check off the list before we head to Boston next week--my first visit to that city.   Looking forward to seeing people we met last year at Sewtopia New Orleans, and getting to know new friends  There is a shop hop, a couple of classes, lots of giveaways and games to enjoy, a popup shop, and open sewing til midnight.  What fun!