Belated Happy New Year , a New Project and an Old One

Now all the Holiday excess is over and school has returned yesterday, I have at last a quiet afternoon to post a few pictures and a few words, lol. A dear friend has recently moved within visiting distance and I have introduced her to applique and now we are making the Moda Sampler Shuffle blocks together. I found the downloadable patterns of the 6 inch blocks, contributed by many Moda Designers, at www.bearcreekquiltingcompany.com. They have been a great way to teach piecing (machine piecing)as there are lots of different designs with different challenges, even an applique block! I am making mine mainly with some Fig Tree charm packs and a Fig Tree layer cake with some of my stash fabrics thrown in for contrast. While I do love how fresh and pretty the Fig Tree fabrics are I have found, whilst making these blocks, that there is a lack of good contrasting darks...plenty of medium and light values but very few darks. So I have supplemented these from my stash. So here are the photos of blocks 1-11.

I will have to re-make this block. The green and cream fabric is a complete disaster! Live and learn! Bit of a laugh that I'm teaching my friend, lol, but it was a very good example of how certain fabrics and values Do Not work well together!!

The following is Block 19 of Benjamin Biggs which I am still plugging along with. Not many blocks to go now! Then it's on to the applique border!!

Last but not least a picture of my Christmas Pavlova which has been a family tradition started by my Great Aunt who past the recipe on to meto continue on with it after she was gone. My children would mutiny if there wasn't a Pavlova and a good old fashioned Sherry Trifle on Christmas Day! No photos of the Trifle, it didn't last long enough! I'm not sure what has happened with Blogger but I can no longer see the actual photos in the post as I'm writing it (only computer language!)so I cannot see where the text is ending up until I preview the post! Bit annoying , I have fiddled around but I give up!! The end result is the best I could achieve, sorry. Happy New Year to all! Rowena