Thistle Pods

I'm challenging myself this summer to work on a Judy Niemeyer paper pieced quilt that features curves as well. The quilt is called Thistle Pods and here's the view of the quilt from the pattern box.

Yes, I did say pattern BOX. This is no quick-and-easy quilt, that's for sure. To help motivate and commit to getting this done, I signed up for a three-session class at Patched Works. The first session was held on Sunday afternoon, and I'm still working on getting all of the fabric cut out! (Never mind the four or five hours it took me to cut apart all of the foundation papers and template layout sheets prior to the class session! I cheated and purchased a kit with the approximately 30 yards of fabric required for the project.)

You know you're in for a challenge when you have to organize pieces in 12 different gallon-sized bags so you don't lose them! Here's what my progress looks like to date:Not a lot to look at, is it? I can't wait to get to the actual sewing! But I have managed to cut out 17 out of the 18 fabrics required (all but the background fabric). The instructor provided a 10-page Excel spreadsheet with all of the cutting instructions; the background represents 3 full pages of this, so I'd like to think that I'm close to 70% of the way through the cutting! Sigh.

Here's a close up of the fabrics in the quilt. Mmm.. yummy purples and greens and blues.
I have some vacation days coming up, so I definitely hope to get some significant paper-piecing done this month. I'll post some pictures as I get through some of the piecing. Do you think I can stick with this one?