Come on baby...let's do the Peppermint Twist!

I bet I'll have you singing that song now all day today. *grins* Saskia and I decided to order a number of charts together last week after returning for our visit to the tea garden. HA! Like I did not already spend enough money that day which you can see here. We had rescheduled our play date after I was too sick last Monday and yesterday was the day. Happily, I emailed her the evening before that the envelope containing our charts was laying on my doormat that afternoon. So we decided to start our little SAL with the chart Peppermint Twist by Blue Ribbon Designs.


Now I am a huge fan of Blue Ribbon Designs. I just adore the various design that are set up like a patchwork quilt. It speaks to my quilter's heart, of course. As you may remember, I am already stitching the five sayings from BRD of which I have the first two finished. So it will not surprise you to hear that four of the five charts we ordered are from BRD.

As this one has a Christmas theme, I got out my Little Women DVDs and let Saskia pick which version she wanted to see and we got into the Christmas spirit. A very good thing on a hot summer's afternoon. We did take a break for lunch and for ice coffee with freshly baked banana bread as we needed some refreshments as all stitchers do. *wink*

But the really fun thing about this SAL is sitting together to watch a fun difference come together as we stitch. I am using a piece of 26 count unbleached linen from my stash. Saskia stopped at a handwork shop on the way to my house to buy a piece of 25 count unbleached linen just a shade lighter than mine. But here comes the fun part...hers is being stitched 2/2 and mine is 1/1. I could not resist the temptation to create a miniature version of this as I love stitching over one.

It was fun to see big and little together. Saskia held mine against hers to really show you how much smaller it is. It fits in the top section of hers. And how is this for confidence with a super duper close up. Good thing my stitches are straight and neat. *wink* We have agreed with our goal for now until the quilt evening in July. We will then see each other's work and start our second parts. We are taking it slow and easy so we have time to do all of our other projects so this will be done in 10 weeks time.

Speaking of Christmas! I got the nicest gift in the mail this week too. It is a fabulous book called Jane Austen's Sewing Box and was sent to me by my dancing partner Barb. Barb and I are constantly joking about which happy dance we are doing through our blogs. Hope you are resting up Barb for our next dance? It will be a while now on my side as I have some UFOs running now. Thank you for your thoughtfulness over our friendship and this beautiful book! I have it on my coffee table to constantly leaf through.

And finally...an update on my Between Charming Friends QAL. I should have done an update last week with this stage of putting these blocks together. I cannot tell you how often I wanted to just bin these while I was sewing them. It is so far out of my comfort zone with the bright colors. I kept asking myself what I was thinking while I was sewing them. But I LOVE Susan Branch and so want to make something fun from the charm packs of her fabrics that I have had sitting for ages in my stash. So I swallowed hard and keep up the courage...

...and now that I am sewing the blocks into a quilt top, I am loving it! This is so daring for me as I am also using a plain, bright white for my background which is again very far out of my comfort zone. I am a warm and muddy tones kind of girl. I love autumn and the colors of that season. These colors are like a colorful summer picnic.

Am I glad I ventured out of my comfort zone? Yes, it is good for me to give this a try.

Have you ventured out of your comfort zone lately?