Thank you all for celebrating baby Elora with me!  Reading your comments on her baby pictures feels like being in a room full of women friends rejoicing over our healthy baby girl.  A room full of friends who understand why she is so especially a gift.  Oftentimes you thank me for being vulnerable in this space when I share my family life, but I see less that vulnerability and more a community who has carried me.  It's a true privilege to share your company.

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The day before my induction I felt compelled to start a new quilt, a scrap quilt.  I wanted something mostly mindless and very colorful, something I could just putter along with between things.  I started by making 3" finished hourglass blocks, using lots of multicolor scraps paired with solids or low volumes. 



I thought at first I might make big blocks of hourglasses arranged in a grid with tiny, 1/2" gray sashing.  Sometimes it's nice to have a project that's open ended.  Who knows what might happen?

A scrap quilt can easily become chaotic when colors and patterns overwhelm.  That's OK at times, but I realized with this quilt I wanted something more like my Sour Pickle quilt from December last.



Here, as with Sour Pickle, my approach to harmonizing diverse scraps is to include lots of low volume.  I tend to buy rather plain low volumes:  just gray, white, black with no extra colors.  I've been wanting to get past that simplicity, so I requested a Inside Voices Bundle from Westwood Acres.  Here are the pretty fat quarters that arrived!  Clouds, flowers, foxes and dots - it's a great mix of shapes and a nice assortment of soft colors.  This bundle is more than enough low volume to anchor an entire scrap quilt (or two).



Once in my new sewing room, I arranged my hourglasses on the new design wall.  Now I feel like the quilt may go together in rows, with sets of same-style blocks arranged like patterns in a fairisle sweater.

Still sashed in gray?  Maybe.



My next batch of scrap blocks is an elongated 9-patch inspired by bathroom tile.  I'm enjoying pairing the Westwood Acres low volume fabrics with something that coordinates from my scrap drawers!



Here's where I've landed at the moment.  I haven't quite decided what style of block to put in between the upper and lower hourglass sets.  Perhaps snowflakes or large plus blocks?  I think I'll let this one marinate for awhile and redirect my attention to starting our bedroom quilt.

Sometimes it's nice to have a few balls in the air!