Crazy Quilt Days 32 and 33

Oh, Dear Blog, I have missed you so!  It has been a busy, busy couple of months trying to cram projects and activities into the end of our summer break and prepare my boys for another year of school.

My goal has been to complete my 1st crazy quilt within one year.  Thankfully, I was ahead of schedule when I began the January block, as I am now falling behind.  I should be working on my 4th block right now...  This one has been a bit challenging for me.  (And finding time to stitch has been tricky!)

I have decided to keep "January" as scarves.  I just need to add the little fringes to each end, and perhaps add a snowflake in the middle of the A's to cross them.

And, as you can see, I finally finished the snowman!  I may have liked him better without the buttons, but I let my family vote and I was overruled.  I was worried that I would have a hard time fitting in his face with the hat; but that was not too difficult.  Although, I did have a challenge with his French knots.  The mouth was overpowering his eyes.  I pulled everything out twice.  In the end, I used two strands of black (DMC 310) for his eyes, and one strand for his mouth.  This kept the mouth from overpowering his face.  The mittens look a bit large; but, I figure, mittens hanging off of sticks on a real snowman would look big too.  I am not sure how much I like his hat, but that is my family's favorite part.  (Last May, I purchased the buttons at Acorns and Threads in Portland (on Scholl's Ferry Road).  Unfortunately, I did not make notes of the names so I could share them here.)

The next challenge - the part I would do differently - was the house in the lower-right corner.  I cut out 4 separate pieces.  In the future, I would make it two.  Prior to stitching the pieces in place, all of the corners actually met up.  This week, I get to see if I can add a decent looking window and door to the house.  I will also attempt a little path from the door to an edge of the block.  I still need to decide if I want a leafless tree to the left of the house or an evergreen.  We shall see!

So, January is only a few steps away from completion: the scarves, the house area, and the addition of snowflake buttons to hide the section where the rickrack overlaps.  If I am lucky, it will be done by the end of the week!

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,
Renee