Yesterday, just after waking up, I got to spend 2 HOURS cleaning up a very nasty mess courtesy of my 4-year-old.  I could scarcely believe the brutal reality of that chore.  As in, really do I have to do this?  Seriously?  Only me?

How do you recover from a morning like that?  Of course I was furious when I started cleaning, but by the end of it all I was just ready to be done and move on and actually begin the day.  We took a holiday from formal homeschooling, opting to sing Christmas carols and play some math games instead.  The home seemingly back in balance, I invested some time in fabric therapy.



Nope, not the shopping kind... the making kind.  These paper-pieced blocks were assigned by Kelsey, the quilter for December in the Faith circle of do. Good Stitches.  Her inspiration was a new design by Faith of Fresh Lemons merged with Elizabeth's ever popular, New Wave quilt.  I like the blend of the too!



The solids I've used are Kona coal for the darker gray and Kona ash for the lighter gray.  I know that these particular Konas are super popular these days, but I'll admit that I never seem to reach for them.  I do like the effect of the grays with pops of bright color, as Kelsey requested, but something in me is just dreadfully out-of-fashion for "gray" does not make my heart go thump, thump.  Ah well, that is the thing about quilting bees - you're bound to try new things.  Thanks, Kelsey!

With these two blocks I've now completed my 2011 blocks for do. Good  Stitches.  I am in two different circles at do. Good Stitches, so that's approximately 45 blocks for the year!  Let's see a sampling...



Yes, I thought that was a lot. Fun, fun!  It has been a wonderful journey seeing this bee just grow and grow.  We started with one circle, the Love circle, making 1 quilt each month for Wrap them in Love.  Every month or so a new circle is born and the list of benefiting charities just keeps growing!  We have two new circles coming up in January, one out of the US and another based out of the UK.  How cool is that?  This year we scored a new logo, designed by Lee of Freshly Pieced and added individual Flickr groups for each circle so that team members can stay more connected. 


If you enjoy quilting in a modern style and would like to add your stitches to our efforts, all you need is an active Flickr account (since that's where we manage the bee) and a willing heart.  See " The Rules" so you know how it works and go here to register to join.  When we have enough on the wait list, I'll put together yet another new charity circle.  Hurray, hurrah!

Here's to being a blessing in the New Year!