Decisions, decisions....

I'm in a quandary.....

I'm of two minds lately with the project I just started, which is the Grandmothers Choice block of the week by Barbara Brachman.  As I've of late become very interested and active in the modern quilt movement I'm thinking I should approach this project with the idea of making it modern and fresh.  Then again I love reproduction fabrics (and have loads of it...) so should I use the William Morris fabric I have to create this quilt?  Decisions, decisions.....

My solution, since I couldn't make a decision is that - I've made a decision.  I'm going to do both.  If I'm going to be a fence sitter on this then I'll be a committed fence sitter.  Here are my first two blocks (only one block has been posted this week, but I'm making two each week for two different style quilts):

William Morris fabric in blues

Modern solids in greens

There are going to be 49 blocks in all at 81/2 inches each so at the end of the project I'm going to have two lovely quilts in two very different styles.  I'm going to hand quilt the traditional and machine quilt the modern.  I'm hand piecing both because that's what I enjoy the most.  Truly sitting at a sewing machine for any length of time gives me anxiety.  I much prefer to bring my piecing to a sunny, quiet and comfortable place and leisurely work my needle and thread through the fabric while contemplating life.  THATs relaxation to me.  So making two blocks each week is no big deal.  I did both of these blocks in two days (a day for each).

My idea for the traditional quilt is to keep to the color theme of blues, greens, greys and a little white.  And for the solids I'm going for every color under the rainbow with each block in one color.  The block above of course is in greens.  I'm also playing with the idea of making the modern quilt a quilt-as-you-go by adding a small border, sandwiching it, and then machine quilting each block as I compete it.  I haven't decided yet though.  I do know that the next time I square off my blocks I'll be more gentle with the pinning of the solids as the pin holes really show up (they blend in with the prints).  Hopefully once I add a border you won't see the pin holes.

So, this is the beginning of my year long project.  Yeah!