WiP - Wishing I had my Toes in the Sand somewhere!

It's a a blustery, blustery day out there. After all that lovely snow last week, we've had a classic Nova Scotian warm up. Rain, fog, and afternoons that look like dusk. I could do more fluffy snow and blue skies! In any case, I decided to make a school night a little more enjoyable and make some time for a project I started back in the summer - the Toes in the Sand BOM from Jaybird Quilts. It makes me think of sunny days, even if I can't see them out my window, especially since each block is named for a California beach! Here are the blocks I've completed thus far...
Eight blocks of twelve! And this week, one more! I'm on to Block 9 - Long Beach. This one's not too taxing - no partial seams or teeny tiny pieces.

Just three more pairs of blocks to do... I thought about setting a goal to have the blocks done by the end of January, but there's been a lot of goals floating around the blogosphere lately. I think I'll just work on it when the spirit moves me! :) It's nice to be making a little progress on something that's been in the hopper for a while now.

My Giant Starburst quilt from the Canoe Ridge Creations QAL has taken a big step. Since I'm back to work this week, I took advantage of the big tables in the art studio to lay out and pin this lovely. I even press ganged a colleague into pinning some of it. She kept saying how it was hurting her fingers to close the pins. Guess my fingers are like leather from all that EPP!

It's a little jumbled up right now, but you can see the quilt in all it's glory here. I have some ideas on how to quilt it, but I've love to hear your suggestions. Feel free to leave me a comment. It's also pretty exciting to me that my LQS brought in this extra wide backing by Riley Blake. Finally, an extra wide print that fits my style!
I'm linking up today for the first WIP Wednesday of 2014 over at Freshly Pieced. I'm really starting to get the hang of this linky business!

I've also resolved to have a new perspective on WiP Wednesdays. In the past, they were like a report on what I still hadn't finished. Not so fun. Now, I'm going to celebrate whatever happens to get made! Much more fun. This should be fun, right? Thanks for stopping by!

J