Back to Basics and Learn a New Technique, Week One

Back to Basics. Well, holdover from 2009 WIPS, anyway. Here is "A Quaker Christmas"nearly 50% complete (I've only been stitching with the Balsam Fir Crescent Color so far --- there are still a red (Cupid) and gold (Very Old Gold) to do which is why you see some unusual gaps in places...

Now, as for "Learn a New Technique", it's sort of preliminary but here is the paper-pieced Grandmother's fan block (5.5"  square) which I intend to use as a background for my January "installment" in the 2010 Bead Journal Project. I have a pattern in mind, a series of swirls radiating from the blue corner at the bottom right, in white and blue beads. Meant to represent snow (which it is doing right this minute, in fact)... I hope they will show up on this fabric but, if they don't, it's a learning process after all.