Better late than never

I haven't been TOTALLY remiss in blogging recently; I did post (once) on the New England Quilt Designers Cooperative Blog, on which I am a co-blogger. I can't use lack of time as an excuse; between days off around Christmas and New Year's, and several snow days off from work, I've had more free time than I've had in the last couple of years. Free time to cut down and hem five pairs of thermal drapes to fit my living room windows. Free time to jury rig bits and pieces of several second-hand curtain rods to fit across my huge triple window, and spray paint two new rods to match for the side windows. Free time to shop for a new stove the week before Christmas, narrowly averting a cookie and fruit cake debacle when my old stove gave up the ghost. Free time to finally put up the tree, give the house (and dogs) a much-needed cleaning before any holiday entertaining. Free time to make a second sample from one of my patterns (see photo above, as well as here for the original quilt), so I can have a spare for those times we have two quilt shows the same weekend, as well as having a second photo so I can update the cover.
Now it's a new year and I'm FINALLY getting around to starting on a new pattern. I've been agonizing for days over how to explain one part of it, finally tonight I had one of those "duh" moments. The difficulty lay with three bias cut pieces that were to be stitched together. I finally realized they were so close in color and value that you could hardly tell they were three pieces, and a single piece would not only be so much simpler and faster to make, it would actually look better! No pictures yet.