welcome to the north pole sew-a-long

This year,  I am psyched up about having joined several sew-a-longs and block-of-the-month online programs. I have stayed on top of things so far, but it is still just February. I wonder if I have the staying power to complete all of them? Hmm.. I am certainly going to try. It will probably get a little more difficult in the warmer months when I don't want a warm quilt on my ready warm lap or want to spend more time outdoors than in. Maybe I will just have to take the sewing machine outside when it gets warmer!

Welcome to the North Pole with Val Spiers has become a revived SAL with several new participants - I being one of them. I really didn't know what I was getting into when I joined this program; I thought it was be easy cheesy. Boy, was I wrong! I spent all morning trying to get my fabrics right on the first block - Mr. and Mrs. Claus' House. I really loved the green fabric for the main house, and cut a smaller entrance way in green as well, but it didn't stand out the way I wanted it too. I returned back to the blue and added the blue shutters. The chimney was also an afterthought or change of fabric; it was first in browns. I might change the front door to brown?!

I am not going to appliqué until I have a few more blocks finished. I want to see more of a collection of blocks before I make an impromptu decision and change things later.

With the snow on the bottom, I went with the idea of cutting three inch wide strips, folding in half and sewing along the edge of the block. I made some ripples and sewed very close to the edge below the house and hill. I like the 3-D appearance of snow and drifts. I could add more stitching to the snow later. We'll see. So far, I am quite content.

I could really envision hand stitching lots of details.....this is a very exciting journey for me. I am feeling much better about it today than when I made the block. I am now looking forward to the next block and have already picked the color scheme for it.

One thing I have to remind myself about BOMs or SALs in that I shouldn't put too much weight on one individual block. In the end, it will be a collection of blocks. The overall impression is more important. Better said than done sometimes, right? I also like to hang the block up and live with it for a while.

I am curious to seeing what the other lovely ladies have done on their North Pole blocks!

Keep sewing and thanks for dropping by.
Karen