Happy Wednesday everyone!

I find myself in need of a distraction from life today. 

Just last night there was a horrible shooting in my sleepy town of 20,000 and as of right now 3 people are dead. Let's get one thing straight... this type of thing NEVER happens here. The police even issued a warning for everyone to stay inside and lock all the doors. I wasn't at home when this all happened, instead I received a panicked text message from my boyfriend which told me come straight home after my quilting class and not to stop anywhere. I was even afraid to bring my puppy out for a pee! Needless to say I hardly got any sleep as I kept picturing a raving lunatic with a gun at my back door... even at 4:30am... and what's worse is that I was just across the street from the shooting not 15 minutes before it occurred. 

My heart aches  for the tragedy of it all, but also for the innocence that seems to have all but dissipated from my usually happy, bustling yet quiet little town. I completely fail to understand what drives one person to do this to another...

As you can probably tell my mind has been pondering this tragedy all day long... so I've decided to get it off my chest and distract myself a little by taking pictures and writing a post of my new dive into the quilting world.

I have to say I am loving what I'm seeing so far!!!

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I began taking a quilting class back in September and hope to complete a small lap quilt (although it's quickly becoming bigger as I add more things).  Here are my squares so far:

Apparently this type of quilting project is called "stacking the deck" or something like that. I'm not overly fond of the pattern but it'll do for my first quilt :)

Originally I was just going to sew them up in the way I've laid them out above... but I was thinking that perhaps it could use a little sashing between the squares to help break up the patterns I've used. I can't help but feel that it would just be "too much" if I just sewed them up as they are now.

And believe me when I say that those squares weren't so square before I cut the edges off them and made them a consistent size. I lost about 2 inches over all from each square by the time it was all said and done... but I do take comfort in the fact that I was not alone in this :) Thank god for my quilting classmates. 

In the end I suppose I have to accept that I'm just a newbie, and unlike taking up cross stitching again, it will not be like riding a bike!

In preparation for the fact that I will get better (one hopes) I've already bought fabric for my next quilting projects!!!!

Don't those faby's look delicious! They are in what's called a Jellyroll and they can used in various ways to create a quilt. One quilt I'm planning on making is the Jelly Roll Jam quilt that Fat Quarters has kindly created a tutorial for (thank god). Here's the video if your interest is peaked!

If you have any other suggestions/tips or favourite quilt patterns you'd like to share with me I'd love to hear them!!!

Until next time,

Melissa