Bits of progress on several things

I've been working All things Christmas and the blocks are now complete as well the embroidery.  There are buttons, ribbons and beads to add once the top is quilted.   I can now piece the top together and start working on the borders.  The second border has some more appliqué in it.

I also have finally made a decision about the background for Love Entwined.  It will be a light green.  The compass is now stitched to a square and I'm ready to start making tiny circles to go around it,  I've found my circle template and the size of the finished circle .  also found my sandpaper board so I have some to gripe the fabric as I trace the fabric.  Part 3 was released this week and I'm still puttering on part 1.  Now that the background is decided I can get things prepared and it should move along.

I've spent the last two evenings tracing onto steam a seam, the rest of the pieces for Bringing Home the Tree, this years $10 quilt.  There was about 6 feet of pieces in the end.  There are lots of little pieces already prepared.  I think I want to change part of the bridge fabrics but might try paint or crayons on the piece to shadow the inside.  

I'm sill debating about the Road to Llano fabric choices.   I replaced two of the fabrics but I'm still debating if I really like the collection.  I'm pleased with fabrics 4 and 5.  I took photos of the two collections and switched them to black and white so I could see the values easier.  The bottom set in this photo is the original choices and the top set is the newer choices.

The blocks I've already completed will need to be pieced with the first fabric so I tried putting one of the blocks onto the background and hiding the corner with the new fabric 2.  Again black and white to help see the values to see if I like the contrast to the background.