Cornucopia of Thanks

I started a new project yesterday.  It's part of a quilt-along with one of the Yahoo! groups I belong to.  We decided to work on Cornucopia of Thanks, which is one of Jennifer's Chiaverini's patterns in her latest book Traditions from Elm Creek Quilts.   You can see the finished quilt here, and it was featured in Jennifer's book A Quilter's Holiday.

The original quilt suggests fall colors and Thanksgiving, but I have gone off the page with a brighter scrappy look, mixing batiks and prints.  Here are my first blocks:

The one on the left is this month's block, "Augusta," and on the right is an extra block because I'd like to make this quilt queen-sized.   It requires only 12 blocks, but there is wide sashing with cornerstones.  Below are a few of the cornerstones, and I'll be using the black multi-colored dots for the sashing.

I really like the background fabric which has red dots and flowers in yellow, red/pink, and purple, with bright green leaves.  So anything goes.  I think my next block, another extra one, will be a Dresden Plate to pull in a variety of colors.  When it's finished, I'll put it all away until the beginning of July when we'll receive another "assignment."  This is a rather painless way to end up with a very nice quilt over time.