A little catching up, a card, and a sneak peek.

I'm going to subject you to a whole bunch of nine-patches, because apparently, I can't do one a day. I did fine at the beginning, but somewhere around week 3 the end of the school year took over my life. So I'm trying to catch up now. I'm still a little behind, but I believe I have one week left to get completely caught up.

So now I have 45 nine-patches out of 70. I can do 25 this week, no problem. I have a few partially cut out already. I still need probably 100 or so more squares for the scrappy border, so I'll need to do that too. I feel good about this, though -- like I can get it done. Geese in the Forest? Now that's another story. I have no updates to show you on that one just yet. This is the Applewood Farms block for June, so I'm good there. I still have to do the roses for May, but she doesn't post the next block until the 14th, so I have a couple more weeks to be completely caught up there.

This was a card project that we did in card swap. So in addition to making my two sets of cards, I also had to come up with a third card for everyone to do. Fun, though. Card swap gives me a deadline and an excuse for making cards -- which I love to do but might not without the deadline.

I was trying to get a close-up of the glitter, but it just kept coming out blurry. Sorry!

So if you have endured this long of a post, you shall now be rewarded with a sneak peek. Have you seen this? I just love it. Love it. Love it. LOVE IT! So I'm making one. I'm totally stealing her color scheme and everything.

I was going to do a tutorial, but she beat me to it. I made my blocks slightly bigger than hers and I'm doing more of them, because I wanted a bigger quilt. When I finish it, I'll give you my measurements, or you can go ahead and just use hers if you want to make your own. So now I'm back up to 74, but I'm very close to finishing two quilts. Hopefully you'll see them this week. Hope springs eternal.

My week . . .

My sister came to visit me this week, and among other things, she wanted to make a quilt. Well, she wanted me to help her. It's hard to teach someone to quilt in just a couple of days, but we did our best. This is what we ended up with.

She helped me cut and sew some of the squares. By the time we got to the stippling, she had only two days left here, so she left it to me. I have no doubt, though, that when she goes back home, she will take what she learned and apply it to another project. Plus, she'll have Jill to help her. And now she has a stash -- leftovers from this quilt.

A couple pieces of satin. Some fine-wale corduroy.

Finished in three days.

So I started a new one and finished a new one, so I'm still at 73. Kinda makes you wonder why I haven't finished more, doesn't it? Hey, I can't be on vacation every week. Sometimes a girl has got to work and do laundry. I do need to be more focused like that, though, and then I could finish more. Okay. Renewed effort. Here we go. = )

Dragonflies Baby Quilt

I remember tying quilts with my aunts and grandma when I was very young. In college my roommates and I made "quilts" for our beds by putting some batting between two flat bedsheets and tying them. I dabbled a little bit here and there. The summer that my second child turned two was when I started to quilt more avidly. I still was not very good at it, but I loved it. Anyway, when we moved to Texas nine years ago, there was a lady in my church who quilted all the time, so she and I naturally gravitated toward each other. She taught me a lot. She also, however, preferred to do simpler quilts most of the time. Because of that, I have a lot of simple baby quilts. That's why I'm telling you this long, boring story -- in apology for the finishes that I will have in the near future. They're not particularly thrilling as quilt specimens. Anyway, to spice it up, I decided to add more quilting than I might normally have done (machine, of course).

So while the quilt itself is rather mundane, I think the quilting really makes it pop. I love the quilting, even though it took me much longer than normal for a quilt of this size.

One more for the pile of baby quilts. Many of my friends don't even know the gender of their baby yet, so I'm a little ahead on the girls. Ahead? Me? This may be unprecedented. Seriously. And now I'm down to 73 projects in my sewing room -- at least that's what we're going with. When the number gets smaller or I get more organized, I'll count again. A few extras may have crept in from the garage or may have not gotten counted.

Okay. Now I'm off to go get everything ready for my quilting group this morning. We're just finishing up projects over the summer, starting something new in the fall. I'm trying to help them not be like me -- UFOs all over the place.

Old Red Barn Co Quilt Along

I can't explain why this top is done and others aren't. I guess it's because of all the strip piecing. I'm feeling sort of "meh" about this one since there's just not that much contrast, but my oldest daughter keeps commenting on what a pretty quilt it is, so I guess it can go on her bed (although she shares a bed with my other daugher, and that one's not sure about it).

Now I need to figure out a back and get going on the quilting. I don't know if I want to just stipple or if I want to do diagonal crosshatching or something else entirely. Any suggestions?

A new purse

I know some of you are thinking that this purse is wild and crazy and you would never use it. That's okay. It's for me. I got this fabric a number of years back at the fabric outlets here in Dallas. It's a stretch twill. I got it with the intention of making some capris and matching cropped jackets for the girls. Of course, I never did. So last week I made this instead.

I have a ton of the fabric left, so I'll have to figure out what I can do with the rest of it, but in the meantime, I LOVE THIS BAG! I took it to my daughter's play on Friday (because I was wearing all black), and the ladies behind me were all commenting about it before the play started. Seriously, I just love it. So fun.

Now lest you think I'm clever in any way, let me tell you that this bag was designed by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson. It is her Margaret sling bag, and she has a free tutorial on her blog for you to download. So you can have one too -- only just not out of my cool fabric. Unless you want to swap something for some of the fabric, in which case, I might be persuaded. As long as you don't live too near me. We can't have two of the same purse walking around my area. That just wouldn't be right.

Another BOM

This BOM was brought to my attention by my friend Kim. We are in month four. Month three is a monstrous amount of appliqued roses. Fortunately, it's machine applique -- although confessedly I'm better at hand applique, though quite a bit slower as well. Anyway, I haven't started the applique. I'm slightly afraid of it. But I am caught up with the piecing. It's being hosted by Applewood Farms.

Month 1

Month 2

Month 4

So I'm hoping that in June I can get caught up on all my quilt-alongs. I'm a little (a lot) behind on Amanda Jean's nine-patch one-a-day. I'm right on target with Old Red Barn Co. I need to do the roses for Applewood Farms. I'm a lot behind on Anina's Geese in the Forest, and we just started month 5 -- and it is a DOOZY! Seriously. It's gonna be fun, though. I am loving the paper piecing. How about the rest of you? Any plans for June?