Austen Jubilee

Down in Fairhope, Alabama, a place we have visited a few times in winters past, they experience an occasional "jubilee," an over-abundance of shrimp that wash onto the shoreline.  People rush down to Mobile Bay with buckets to fill up, take home, and cook loads of shrimp.  It sounds wonderful to me, t only because I love shrimp, but a local celebration that brings people together in this sweet community seems great.   Sadly, this seems to happen in July, if it happens at all, when it's hot.  We tend to think of visiting there in winter because of the easy walking, slow pace, cozy size, and plenty of fun things to do and see.  We hope we can go back next winter for a few weeks. 

This year Quiltmaker magazine is featuring a mystery quilt called "Ruby Jubilee."  It includes variously sized Bonnie Hunter blocks from her long-running "Addicted to Scraps" column.  I've been using "Jane Austen at Home" fabrics to make my Austen Jubilee quilt.  Every other month, there are patterns for a number of blocks in the quilt.  This month, I'm making four different types and sizes of blocks and a total of ten or so.  

I don't think this line of fabrics was the best to use for these blocks, but it is my way of honoring one of my favorite authors.  I probably should have chosen a darker background fabric to enhance the lighter blocks.  It will be subtle, that's for sure.  I do have a bunch of solid "nutmeg" colored fabric that I might be able to use to provide better contrast when I put the quilt together.  I'm keeping it in reserve for the last clues this summer.

It's been quite dark lately, even with my Ott light over the cutting table, and the print in the magazine is small.  Despite checking and doublechecking cutting sizes, I misread the instructions for Grandpa's Star.  Luckily, I only needed to make one, so I put it together without the sashing between the four segments.  It looks nice to me!  Today's project will include making four Spinning Star blocks and then setting the whole bunch aside for a few weeks.  Next up:  the March portion of the Unity quilt.