A Pink Nightmare

If you've seen the movie "A Christmas Story" (who hasn't?!), then you know exactly the scene that the title invokes.  Poor little Ralphie is standing there in a full-body pink bunny suit complete with ears and a tail.  His aunt has made it for him for Christmas so his mother doesn't want him to take if off because it's so cute.  She only relents when his father says he looks like a deranged easter bunny and a pink nightmare.

On Christmas Eve, TBS plays that movie for 24 hours.  I've watched it so much over the years that I can literally recite every single line.  You might get the idea that I like it *just a little bit*.

But the reason I'm channeling A Christmas Story last night is because of quilting.  I started my new quilting class last night and, after having picked out some perfectly suitable fabrics in beautiful blues, I walked into JoAnns and saw this fabric with huge pink flowers in a sea of pastel greens and yellows.  And that's when something in my brain said "Hey, that would be really cool!"

Those of you who know me well know that I am NOT a pink girl.  I'm much too conservative.  In fact, I don't own one thing that is pink or any bright color. The majority of my closet is black, followed by navy, followed by white.  Pastels?  Oh, heck no.

So did I hit my head on the way into the store?

Have I been brainwashed by watching too many design shows on HGTV?

Is it something more sinister than that?!

Not only did I buy that fabric, but I proceeded to buy all the coordinating fabric that I would need for the class.  The one on the left is the backing fabric.

This class covers a method called quilt as you go, which is kind of interesting.  You actually cut the batting and the backing and sew everything together at once.  The thread only shows on the back of the quilt and not the top, so you have to pick thread that matches your backing fabric.  (And, yes, I picked PINK!)
I'll describe it later once I get started.  But it's relatively simple - four blocks of 5 strips of fabric cut 8 inches wide by the width of the fabric. 

Since it's such an easy quilt to sew, I'm hoping to use it to practice my freearm quilting. With not having any stitching already on the front of the quilt, it will be fun to use some variegated thread to do some decorative stitching on top.

And, if I screw up...oh, well, it's pink!  :-)