Okay, I'm Back

I told myself that once I retired, that I would try my hand at the blog again.  I've actually semi-retired, which means that I'll work full time one semester per academic year.  My dear colleagues feted me with parties, gifts, and many kind thoughts.  It's gratifying to look back on my career and celebrate all the relationships I forged.
 

Now that I have some unstructured time, I've started a big project: a king-sized quilt for my daughter and her husband.  She asked for scrappy, and so I've gone through the scrap bins (and I confess, I've bought a few novelty prints) for this project.  This pattern is from Bonnie Hunter's book String Fling.  Bonnie's quilt used solid turquoise in the alternate blocks, but I'm using a variety of prints to augment the bit of solid turquoise I had on hand.

The string centers are paper pieced.  I thought it was appropriate to cut up an old professional jounal for my foundations when I organized my office.

Here are some cut squares and string blocks for the quilt.  I'm sure I'll be cutting fabrics for awhile.  The string blocks are bundled in groups of ten.