Housewarming Party blocks

Month 3 of the Housewarming Party BOM was to make 4 of these blocks. Done!  And I looked ahead at Month 4. Can't wait to start those blocks, which will have more of the appliqued birds.

Trying to catch up

I have received quite a few "traveling squares" at the past couple of guild meetings and really need to get caught up on making the star blocks with them.  So, a little time on Christmas Eve morning and Christmas Day afternoon spent in the sewing room and there are 4 more Traveling Stars blocks done. Only a few more to go . . .

The blue fabric above is from Israel.  And the next 2 are from Sturgis SD (famous for its motorcycle rally every August).  The final star is made from a "fishy" print from a vacation to a tropical locale.  And I counted the ones left to do - 14 more have the star points and white background cut and ready to sew.  I'm getting closer to a queen-size quilt.

A new project for this week

Tonight I cut all of the pieces for a new project to work on this week. This will be a baby quilt for a friend of DD#2 who is expecting a girl in April.  The new mom sports the nickname of "Frenchie" - and that inspired the fabric I chose for her.

I'll share more about the pattern as I sew this.  It's a really great pattern for a fast finish.

Working on gifts

Another travel pillow done. A niece is having a new baby any day now and this pillow is for her toddler daughter so that she gets a present too.  I need to find the perfect book to add to this.  She is a little cowgirl, so this should be appropriate.

I also made a mint green flannel self-binding baby blanket this morning - in case the new baby is another girl. And I have a blue one ready to sew this afternoon in case she has a boy.  

Just a tiny glimpse

I'm not really giving anything away with this tiny look at the latest round robin addition for our guild project.  We are all supposed to add at least 1 star somewhere this month.  I have this little star all ready to use. Now I just need to figure out what else I'm going to add to this.

Round robins are so much fun, but can be a little intimidating too.  Each month it's a surprise when I open that bag or box to see what I'm working with.  We need to add something that enhances the flow of the design and hope that we are going to make the original owner very happy when she gets the quilt back.

Handmade ornaments

Two new handmade ornaments were just added to my Christmas tree. I finished the counted cross stitch ornament with a simple binding.  It has folded fabric star points for a little dimension and is about 5 inches across.

This little felt button ornament was a project from our Sew Vintage group this weekend. It's so cute and was easy to make. Some circles of felt blanket stitched together. The holes were punched so we could add the "thread" to make it look like a real button sewn on.  Thanks Pam for helping us with this little project.

Design Wall Monday - Mystery Quilt

The mystery quilt that we've been doing for Saturday Sampler . . . it's a flimsy!  This photo is terrible, but we have a grey day with freezing rain and no sunshine. 

This mystery called for 6 fabrics of our choice and was done in 4 monthly "clues".  We had only cut into 4 of the 6 fabrics after 3 months so I was totally stumped about what this would look like. But on Saturday we got the final clue. On Sunday it took me less than an hour to add the big center square-in-a-square and then add those border pieces. Another hour to audition some outer border choices and add those.  This made a nice large lap quilt.

I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday at

 http://www.patchworktimes.com