The Doll Quilt Swap was a success!

Yesterday, I received the most wonderful package in the mail- it was the doll quilt that was made especially for me, by Christina, The Sometimes Crafter. I was so excited! I had ordered some fabric online so when I got the package, I just assumed it was my fabric. When I noticed the fabric was wrapped in tissue, I got suspicious and when I saw little cat faces peeking at me, I was bumfuzzled- I didn't remember ordering any cat fabric. Then it HIT me! It was my little quilt and I knew exactly who had made it for me and what the other side looked like- it is the coolest pineapple block and it's so me!

Included in the package was the most lovely notecard that she made herself with a great owl on it. I love owls, too! And a long, handwritten note that I read aloud because Jim was standing next to me, wanting to know why I was so excited! Such a sweet, personable note, too. And she had noticed that I was a very active member of the swap, which was nice. Of course, some people probably wished I'd shut up a little, I was into everything like a rotten little kid! lol

Also in the package, in its own little glassine envelope- a sweet little month-by-month calendar with the most exquisite photography- the top of each month has a close-up photo of something to do with sewing- either fabric or thread or binding, a tape-measure, etc. I love this so much! I really enjoy things that have "parts" and this set has 13, man, this is so great. lol Really, I was giddy over this calendar. And then to ice my cake, Christina- a fellow pirate aficionado- sent me a fat quarter of some really cool Japanese pirate fabric!

Wow. She is a girl after my own heart! She nailed me- knew what I would like, made it happen, sent it all on time, added goodies and the sweetest note ever and I am just still over the moon with it all. Big, huge thanks go out to Christina, the sweetest, cleverest and most talented young woman I've met in a long time! She couldn't have been a better partner for me!

I have hung the little quilt by the back door where we'll both see it constantly. It looks outstanding! I've been needing something there and it's just perfect on the apricot colored wall. And unbreakable, which is why that spot's been vacant for years and years. It's a busy little doorway and things get bumped.

Doesn't it look great here?

And this is the quilt I made for my partner, Kristan.Ellsworth. I sent it out last Saturday, wrapped in a tube for mailing and she received it on Monday, in AZ. I was shocked at the speedy delivery time. She was pleased to get it and I'm glad. I had fun making it and searching out just the right kind of birds to put on it to give it some life. I had to go get these fabrics because this style and color of quilt was not really my cup of tea, but I liked it very much and it was hard to send it away.

So the Doll Quilt Swap is over for now, for me at least, but I'll still have fun watching to see which quilts are received by the other members. And also- I joined another little swap since this one was so fun- a potholder swap. I have to make 2 potholders for a certain someone. I have an idea of what she likes but I'm off to stalk her and search out more information before I settle down and make her something. This ought to be fun! She's got lots for me to look through, yay!

I am hereby sold on swaps, this was so much fun and great entertainment and a real learning experience for me. And it kept me inside during our long, cold winter, too!

My mum's NUTS!

Bwahahaha! Not saying she's not, but I did pick these up for her at the store the other day, since it's so hard to crack them when you buy them in the shell.


Sorry about the lack of photos of NP lately- she doesn't seem to sit still long enough to be photographed, unless she's WAAAAY up in the walnut tree, scaring us to death. I'd need a telephoto lens for that! (We ended up stretching a tarp under her in case she fell onto the rocks under it, which she didn't, but it was heart-stoppingly frightening to watch her finally come down. What made her come down? The other cats were playing under the tarp and she wanted to play, too. lol)

A method to my madness.....

It's taken me about 10 days to make these- 11 different sewing caddies for the Etsy shop. Each caddy has about 13 pieces of fabric and various assorted doo-dads involved. It took me 2 days just to fussy- cut them all out. (I cut out 14, I still have 3 to make but my fingertips are so sore from sewing on binding that I am taking a much needed little break.)

All of these were sewn with stash fabrics, I didn't have to buy anything except more snaps. I tried to make a nice assortment, not just ones that I like. lol You know, bright gaudy ones.... I threw in a couple of grown up ones, too, like the golden brown one and the Authentic black one and the light blue one.

This is the inside of one- maybe you can see why it takes me so long to make them, but I think I've finally figured out a way to streamline the process a bit.

I work on the accessories upstairs until I get to a point where there's handwork involved, then I move downstairs and watch the Olympics with Jim, or something else that we've recorded. (We really like having a DVR!) I call this "my homework." It helps keep him entertained too and not feeling so neglected.
I do turning, basting, gathering, wrapping (like on the hair elastics), etc, and eventually the hand sewing part of the binding. Then I go back upstairs and sew with the machine or iron on the fusible Velcro or do the assembly portion of the program.

When I'm working on so many, organization is important, especially because Nosey Parker is in a horrible stage right now of being kind of rambunctious and destructive. Nothing is safe from her and I can't even leave my typical piles of things lying around like I usually would.

I make up little kits for each caddy when I am doing a bunch at one time. This way I know that I have everything I need to complete the project, the kits hold the little things as I complete them and also the things I haven't used yet, like the binding, the Velcro, the cat collar buckle, buttons, I even make up little containers with all the snap components in them (not shown). Since I live 25 miles from the nearest shop where I can get most of my "ingredients", it's important to me to know I've got everything I need before I start. Otherwise I get stalled and I just hate that. I had 14 of these bags on the table and SOME LITTLE MONSTER decided they were toys and batted them and chewed on them and I found them all over the place. Now I have to hook them all together on a chenille stem and tie them to the wall! lol She's so rotten. It's not like she doesn't have 400 toys scattered all over!

And this is my excuse for being so absent lately- I've been sewing my fingers to the bone! I've got all 11 of these in the shop now, that's a record for me and gives my customers great selection, I like that. And hopefully I won't have to make any more of these for a while! At least, not so many at once.

Of course, the tutorial for this caddy can be found over on the sidebar, to the right. And a tip- if you're doing a bunch at once, group them by thread color so you're not always changing the thread. I did 3 with black thread, 3 with blue thread, 5 with brown and I have 3 more to do with black again. I hate changing thread, it's such a waste of time to me, so that's why I do it like this.

There you have a little peek into how I do mass-production. Hope I didn't bore you too much!

Lila Tueller is having a giveaway...

Of a most glorious quilt, in all my favorite colors!

I just love her patterns, her fabrics and her sense of style. She's incredible and generous to boot!

Thanks, Lila!

You didn't hear this from me, 'K?

Because you wouldn't want to get me into trouble, would you? Thank you!

Many many moons ago, when my husband was in the Navy and was in Vietnam, he got pulled out to attend and compete in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. The host country gets to pick a new sport to add to the games and they picked judo. Jim was a black belt and had qualified before he went overseas, so when it was time, they pulled him out (he had 2 weeks left to serve in Vietnam- he worked with Special Forces teams and they extracted downed pilots, amongst other things) and he went to Tokyo, marched in with the US team wearing someone else's clothing, and just in general, had a fabulous time. He is NOT a braggart so everything I know about this has been dragged out of him over the last 25 years, painfully. ;) He didn't medal, unfortunately, and was eliminated before the quarter-finals, but he had a lot of fun hanging out with the Australian female swim team and was there when Dawn Fraser got in trouble for swimming in the Emperor's Moat.

I had to go digging to find this pin, it was buried with some other pins and cuff links.

And this was what he looked like before he went overseas- pretty stinkin' cute, huh? I'm sure his experiences in Vietnam (another thing he never talks about) hardened him up a bit and he probably looked a little more fierce by the time he got to Tokyo.

He sent his mother some cool stuff, too, from Japan. This is a mother-of-pearl inlaid table that has removable legs, I decided to hang it in my sewing room. He gave away his sake set and chopsticks.

Oh, and the kicker? After the Olympics were over, they sent him BACK into action for his last 2 weeks. Can you imagine what a culture shock that was? And how paranoid you would feel, knowing you were this close to going home? Of course, getting home was an experience, too- he was swept overboard by a rogue wave in the Pacific Ocean with about 20 other men standing in a lunch line on a ship. Some of the guys couldn't swim so while they waited to be rescued, he had to help some of them stay afloat. He's a Florida native and quite the swimmer/scuba diver so it was good that he was there. IN THOSE SHARK INFESTED WATERS!!!! Eeek. I'm so lucky that he lived long enough for me to meet him and fall in love with him.

Now, Mum's the word! You'd never hear any of this from him. He hates when I brag on him, but I just can't help it. He's the smartest, funniest man I've ever met. As we say around here- he's no slotfish. lol (A slotfish is one of a certain size that must be thrown back.)

Finished the color wheel ticker tape quilt....

...and here it is, out in the snow. Measures about 22" square.

In its entirety.....

Close-up, you can just make out that I quilted in the black background with radiating lines, 24 of them, I think. And a free-handed 7 petal flower in the center. I'm debating sewing a great glass button to the center.... it's blues and purples and just lovely.

Last night, Nosey Parker took a snooze on her daddy's book, under a nice warm light bulb. That stone coaster isn't long for her world, though. Twitch, kick, CRASH.

And now for the not-so-pretty portion of our program-

We've been battling some kind of dog flu around here- over the weekend we had to take Shanzie in to a different vet as ours was out of town. She is doing well after having a terrible 24 hours. Now Artie seems to be getting at least one of the symptoms- diarrhea, oh, the joy. He's had me up twice so far tonight to go out in a hurry and while I'm glad he's not puking and feeling bad, this is bad enough. It's 2 AM and I'm wide awake now. At least we didn't get the 8" of snow that was predicted, so if we have to take him to the vet, at least we can get there. These animals are killing us, financially. We have 3 big dogs and 4 cats, most of whom were unintended and either showed up at our house or needed rescuing. Never ever did we think "let's have a ton of animals!" Nope, we were so happy way back when we were a 1 dog, 1 cat family. Not that we don't love each and every critter, we do, but they are such a drain on our limited resources! Right now we have one older dog that has to wear a "bikini" at all times with a Poise pad inside it to catch any accidents. She's old and can't help it, is on two different medications for it that make the situation better but not perfect. Consequently, though, my husband and I can't both be gone from the house at the same time for more than about 3 hours, because she needs to go out that often. And sleep is interrupted, to say the least. We haven't been to a movie together in AGES. The nearest theater is about 45 minutes away. I miss that! But we'll muddle through it, Paisley is a good girl and worth any inconvenience. But if you see me at Wal-Mart with Poise pads in my cart- just know that they're for the dog- MY bladder is just fine, thanks! lol

Color wheel ticker-tape wall quilt.....

So this is the plan- sew down about 15o little bits of colored fabric in a sort-of color wheel pattern. I took the liberty of adding pink to my wheel. After I cut out all the little bits and arranged them how I wanted them, I ironed Wonder-Under onto the backs of all of them. I did 7 at a time, one of each color so I couldn't mess up my layout. (Sometimes I did 14, making sure that I couldn't get the 2 yellows or the 2 reds mixed up when I put them back in place- I would do ones from the outer ring and the inner ring, for example.) That took about 2 hours to do. Then, after careful scrutiny, I pressed them into place. Now to stitch them all down, that ought to keep me out of trouble for a while!

Speaking of trouble-


Parker was trying to settle down for a nap but felt the urge to show me her tonsils instead. "Is my throat red? Can you see what I had for breakfast?" She likes to lie down on the fabric that is waiting to be washed. Months ago I ordered and paid for some Bone Head fabric, skulls- pirate stuff, partying parrots, jungle prints, etc- all by Elizabeth's Studio. It came when I had about forgotten about it and now I don't know why I ordered it, other than I liked it. :)


And I leave you with this- I went to the dentist a couple of weeks ago and this was on my "bib". I just howled when I saw it and told them to keep it clean so I could bring it home, I love it, it cracks me up. The one with the mirror? He just kills me. I don't know what I'll do with it yet, but there's something I need to make using these funny little guys. Maybe a little wallhanging for the bathroom....


Gosh, I may have to actually take up embroidery again, eeek.

Lettuce entertain you!

Artemis is our only boy dog, he's big and red and kind of goofy and very suspicious of strange foods. You should just see him with a marshmallow- he takes it, finally.... puts it down, crosses his eyes at it, picks it back up, puts it down, noms on it a bit, puts it down, this goes on until it is a mushmallow and very yucky. lol But he loves a nice bit of lettuce, especially the hard, crunchy stalk. Usually. This evening, he just wanted to hold it. lol While laying down. On the sofa. Where I sit. I know why he's holding it, though, because if Paisley knew it was there, she'd take it from him and he'd have to let her because she's shown him her teeth before! Rawwwwrrrrr!

We had a lovely snowfall the other night, about 9" all told, when it was done. First one out in it? The invisible white kitten we all know as Nosey Parker, but in truth her name is Snow Leopard! The big boy cats all hate it when we get snow like this, in fact- one of them walked out the door and pooped in the snow, right there! We were aghast, but didn't really blame him, except for the fact that there are litter boxes all over the place when the weather gets bad. Silly Sammie.


I finished the last of the 25 string blocks. Now I'm supposed to cut 1/4 circles out of some of them. Somebody better come over here and do it for me, I don't think I can! I love these blocks. I used up a lot of my favorite fabrics making these and don't know if I could ever make anything so pretty again, that's how much I'm taken with these.


And I've started a new little project- can you tell what it will be? I'll give you a hint, I needed to use to my color wheel to lay out the lines and the colors. And none of those fabric scraps are more than 2" long or wide, not that I measured or anything. :)


Wouldn't you just love to see me make something dull and grown up for a change? I hope you don't hold your breath. lol

I've been a little busy sewing....

...and neglecting my blog, that's for sure! I got the little doll sized quilt done for the swap, I wanted to get it done before anything else could come up and put pressure on me. This is what I gleaned from my partner's Flickr favorites and her blog and her list of likes and dislikes- I hope she likes it. It measures about 24" x 18, roughly. The little blocks finish at 2.5". I thought it needed some life and color so I appliqued on some birds made out of fabric scraps. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Then I decided to make another little one- this one is a beach scene that reminds me so much of our times at the beach house which is owned by our friends, Katie and Patrick. It's in FL and we have so much fun when we go down there. Like someone said when they were helping our visiting friends find the house- "it's always a party at 1610!" I might be sending this quilt off to someone if their partner flakes out and fails to come through as prearranged, but I sure hope I get to keep it, I really like it!

This is heavily appliqued and the back looks like a line drawing of all the detail on the front, it's very cool looking.


There are several 3D features on this little quilt, which measures about 13" x 12". The palm tree leaves, the napkin under the drink, the beach towels and umbrella all stick out somewhat, giving it lots of dimension.

Nosey Parker felt the need to help arrange the noisy beads as I was setting up the photo shoot. Then I realized it wasn't done, I hadn't put on the 2 cool leaves! Eeeek.

I've also been making string blocks for another quilt along. This is so much fun! Bright, aren't they? :) I'm having a ball laying these out, finessing the layout only to have a renegade kitten come flying thru and rearrange them all for me. I finally took a photo so I could remember where I had them. Twist one block and the whole design goes wrong!

This quilt along design incorporates several different kinds of blocks together- the strings like the above photo shows and some Crazy 9 Patch blocks, and some pieced and appliqued circles. I made 13 of these Crazy 9's but didn't like them too much as I messed them up a bit. (The top one in the photo below- see how the middles are much bigger than the corner bits?) That was really bugging me and it was only going to get worse when I sewed the blocks together to each other. So I "fixed" them by adding in strips of black. I cut an inch out of the middle of the block in one direction first, added a 1" black strip, then cut them again and added another black strip going the other way. That made the trouble areas smaller, perfect! I was happy to have found a solution that worked.

So that's what I've been doing- sewing, pondering, planning and plotting and scheming.... And I'm having a lot of fun hanging out at the DQS8 Flickr group and seeing all the little lovelies that the ladies are coming up with. It's quite addictive and informative and very inspirational, too. I have a million ideas in my head of things to make. Now, if only I could get some of them done!

DQS8 is about to begin!

DQS stands for Doll Quilt Swap, something I didn't know until last week, when I got talked into joining it by my friend, Dena. I am SO glad she was persistent, because it's going to be great fun, I can already tell. This is being held over at Flickr.

Here's how it works- 160 or so people signed up. A number of "swap parents" are given a group of about 20 quilters and their questionnaires that they filled out. It's up to each Swap Mama or Papa to assign a person to receive another person's doll quilt, which is between 12" x 12" and up to 24" x 24", any shape or size in between. They aren't partnered, though, so while I'll be assigned to make a doll sized quilt for someone, a different person will be making one for me. So it's all a surprise, no one knows who they are getting from. Doesn't that sound fun? It's going to be torture, though, because all along the way, quilters will be showing their quilts in progress, or sneak-peeks of them, to tantalize and make the others drool, but since you don't know which one is for you, they could any of them be for you!

In order to make a quilt for your recipient that you think she/he will like, you have to stalk them at Flickr, or at their blog, being sneaky and stealthy so they don't know why you are there. You look at the things they've made, the things they've marked as a favorite, you look at their personal photos, if you can and see how the decorate their home, etc. You basically get to pry! lol I'm up for this task, somedays I think I should have been a private detective or a cop, anyway. :) And I'm marking a lot of people as contacts, so just because I might have marked YOU, that does not mean that you are the person I am making a little doll quilt for!

And you also have to leave clues for the person who is making YOU a quilt. So here we go- clues! The photo above is a mosaic of some of my favorite doll quilts that were made in prior swaps. I just love these. And in my profile on Flickr, I've made a list of the things that please me the most. Hopefully it's enough to give my "maker" some clues and hints, but if not, maybe someone could give me a heads-up to be more specific. I'm pretty much an open book, though, and not what you'd call "deep" so I should be easy enough to get a handle on.

Today we get the name of our recipient. I can't hardly stand it, I'm already having fun with this!

Revamped Ironing Board Cabinet with Selvages...

In my last post, I showed what the ironing board cabinet looked like with a pink floral fabric in the door. Here's what it looks like today.
Inside- please notice my winning wall hanging compliments of Lynz. I think it's just perfect in there and I'll see it ALL the time. Thanks again, Lynz, I really love it!

That bit of lime green inside the cabinet is a permanent reminder to me of why you shouldn't paint a room that gets little natural light, lime green, no matter HOW much you love lime green. :) I painted it again, 2 shades lighter, the minute my husband left town for a few days. I'm not sure that he has ever noticed the change! lol I couldn't stand that much lime green, though, it was photographing nicely but in person was such an overwhelming color and it had a gloss to it that made it even worse. This is much better!

This cabinet is right next to the hutch that holds all the fabric, so I dug out my selvages that I'd been saving and lined them up on a piece of Warm and Natural and sewed the down. I also marked several lines on it to help me from running off level as I sewed.

Once they were all on, I trimmed it and then added a backing fabric and used the pattern on that to quilt them together. I basted around the edge after trimming it again to size and then I hot glued it into the frame. I didn't have any pretty cord that was big enough to cover the raw edges so I covered some cord with a bias piece of fabric that went with the colorful selvages.

Close up of the cord- it looks like spline, but it only covers the raw edges.

And the exterior- fabric by Paula Prass.

And Nosey Parker is SO sweepy! Actually, I sweep and then she jumps behind the broom and scatters my pile of debris. What a girl. :)

Her daddy sees her like this and says "she's retracted her landing gear." lol Spoken just like the pilot that he was. And honestly, I DO mop, but the floor sure looks dingy in this photo! It must be the artificial light! Yeah, that's gotta be it.

Sewing with selvages...

It's hard to get a good photo of a black cat, so you have to admire Sammie in this one. :) He's our little mutant kitty, he has a stubby tail and long fangs, the victim of horrible inbreeding from a bunch of wild cats over at Jim's mother's old house. We rescued him while he was young enough to get over his feral beginnings. He's a very sweet boy but he loses collars at a horrible rate!

I've been working on two different selvage projects. Here's one of them, I think it took me all of 5 minutes! I made a cat collar for Sammie out of a piece of selvage fabric from my last quilt, it looks pretty cute on him and if he gets it off this winter, maybe I'll be able to find it out in the drab woods/snow. See the selvage dots on his collar?

A better shot, but only slightly.

The other project should be done tonight or tomorrow, but all it is is a selvage quilt for the door to my wall-mounted ironing board. I had a piece of fabric in it that I just didn't really like. It was wrapped around the board that was originally in it, it was a tole painted thing from 20 years ago that I covered with fabric. Anyway, it was too thick and kept wanting to pop out of the frame so I thought I would quilt something to fill that space. Here's the before- it's the pink rectangle on the left. I just laid out selvage strips and sewed to them to a piece of Warm and Natural. I'm backing it with a piece of black and white fabric and machine quilting it right now. A little binding and some tacks and it'll be done. I'm excited. I'll see the selvage strips all the time because I rarely close this cabinet. The cover on the ironing board is black and white, too.

So that's what I've been working on. Stay tuned for a finished shot hopefully tomorrow.

Stash post........ this is almost embarrassing...

My quilty friend Lara suggested this, taking stock of what we have..... and a smart person would have straightened up the mess before photographing, but I didn't. I do it every month or so, though and it's almost time to do it again, but it seems like the minute I get it all straight, I start a new project and trash it immediately, so I'm beginning to understand the futility of it all. lol Anyway, here's one shot of it right after I got the hutch and put my fabrics into it. That was July, I think. This is super-tidy, it is not like this anymore.

This is now- fabric stacked 2 layers deep with more on the sides when there's room..... Blues and purples on the top, pinks and greens and novelty fabrics folded on the middle shelf, red, orange, yellow, black and white and Kaffe Fassett's on the bottom.

More fabrics on these sides- muted fabrics I rarely use and fabrics that are reserved for special projects and batiks-

In the drawer- a layer cake and jelly roll and yardage of Neptune and a pattern for a Candy Bar Road quilt, some Authentic, a quilting booklet and a whole big bunch of Mendocino.

I think I've bought a little too much fabric lately. I'm afraid to open the drawer and the glass door at the same time in case it decides to fall over on me! I would just die. Not from the crushing blow, but just thinking about the mess it would make and the shattered glass and wood.... oy.

And then in the little hall up in the sewing room, I have a shelf unit with a fabric cover. In it and on it are overflow fabrics, battings, interfacings, paints and boxes filled with color-sorted scraps.

Seriously, I need to go on a fabric diet. This is pretty ridiculous and even I know it. I just wish my buddies would quit showing me the wonderful, cute things they're making out of the new fabrics that are always coming out!

Happy New Year! Presents, kittens and quilts, oh my!

New Year's Day- it was a tough night! Nosey Parker needs a little icebag for on top of her noggin. Poor thing partied just a little too hard! And would you look at those MANKY paws? :) They aren't the sweet little pink things that they used to be, not even close.

Giveaway photos! Woo hoo, LOOT!

Recently, I won another giveaway from my quilting friend, Marguerite, at Adventures in Quilting and Sailing. She had a very generous giveaway with lots of prizes and winners and I was lucky enough to be one of them! The package arrived in perfect condition from the UK and just chock full of great loot! The big prize is a notebook with a cover on it made from the most gorgeous Laurel Burch fabric, Dancing Horses. I just love this, Marg! It's so ME, bright colored fabric, wild with lots of action, thank you so much. And the cool green notebook with the holographic green cover- it's almost a shame to hide that inside this cool cover. Also included was the CUTEST little felt kitty! At first I thought- "oh, she made something for Nosey Parker, isn't it adorable?" and then I felt it, it was heavy and kind of hard. *lightbulb moment* I tugged on it's little tail and voila! It's a tape measure! How cute is that????? I just love this and it's going to come in so handy, I'll be putting this in my purse when I go shopping, but the rest of the time it'll be in my sewing room, someplace safe but where I can see it all the time! (I may have to attach it to the ceiling to keep it away from marauders!) It is beautifully made, just perfect and quite inspirational, if you know what I mean! Also, a lovely Christmas card with very kind sentiments inside and some cool labels, too! Loot, I'm tellin' ya! What a fun package to get!

I started a new, small quilt the other day. I had 2 charm packs of Neptune, by Tula Pink, and a nice solid Kona cotton. I had seen a whirlygiggle quilt made up that used a more triangular shape than the usual whirlygiggle quilt, giving it more rotation (at least in my mind) and it also used Neptune, so I thought I would make one too, hoping the original artist didn't mind. I mentioned on her blog, Salt Marsh Designs, that I planned to do this and asked permission and she never said no so I'll assume that's a yes. :)

Here are some of the pieces, this was taken in progress- I used 70 charms and an equal amount of the solid aqua blue. I had to steal a piece from a layer cake to make up the last pair of charms. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the solid color, I'm thinking it's Kona Aqua but I could be wrong. I bought it months and months ago before I realized that I should write this important stuff down. And Hobby Lobby has stopped carrying this color, I made a special trip there to find it Thursday and they don't have any and won't be getting any and they didn't know the name of it, either. Grrr.

Here's the top, nearly finished. I just have to sew my rows together. I had to square up each block as they were quite wonky, so I squared them to 8" and that made a wonderful difference and made the rows go together like a dream. Finished it will be about 37" x 53". Not too big, just right for a snuggly quilt.

I'll get this finished up today and set it aside to finish when I get something for the backing. I love this fabric, though, it's so fun!

I hope you all have a great 2010 and get lots of fun things made and enjoy being creative.