What now?

Well, the Tree of Life quilt in my last post had been on my design wall for so long that after taking it down and finishing the borders, the room seemed strange without it. What goes on the wall now? I wish I could show you, but it is a gift for someone who reads this, so I won't be showing it until after Christmas (and she knows who she is). I will say that it is a quick pattern and I am loving the result. I will probably make another one in the future.
I spent much of last night cutting out more blocks for John'aLee. I was going to make one a week, but like Freda, once I had the fabrics out to make one, I figured I would cut them all. Once they are cut it is hard to not just get them sewn up. Tonight I made another one.

I really like to try and make each star unique. Gets the creative juices flowing. I have five more blocks cut and hope to have them all in the mail by the end of the month.
In the meantime I am also working on a Christmas quilt for the family room. After digging up the entire strawberry bed this afternoon and separating plants and replanting, my back was really talking to me. So this evening I sat on a heating pad, deconstructing shirts, while watching the world series game. Apologies to my friends in Texas, but I have a SIL from St. Louis, so we have been cheering on the Cardinals, and what a night they had!

These are the shirts I took apart while the
 Cardinals kept crossing home plate!

Anyway, back to the shirts. I am planning on making Bonnie Hunter's Smokey Mountain Stars, but I want to only use red and green plaid shirts, along with the tan background color. My dilemma is this, should I make the centers of the stars one color and the points another? Should I make some all red stars and some all green stars? Or should I let the red and green fall randomly? This is Bonnie's quilt below (which I love), but if I am just using two colors besides the background, I can't decide if I should control the placement of the color more, or just let the chips fall where they may. Do you have an opinion (you know you do)? Please share--I love brainstorming--even via blogs!

From Bonnie Hunter's free patterns. The link above
will take you right to this pattern.

This is uncharacteristically short for me, but the heating pad calls.
Until next time, from the little mountain valley where the sagebrush grows,
Janet O.