A Fun Baby Shower Quilt

One of my favorite books to read to my boys when they were little was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  So when I saw this panel at my LQS last summer, I knew I had to get it!

I wasn't sure what I would do with it until I found out that a sweet young teacher at my school is expecting a baby this May.  Then I knew what would make the perfect gift!  (My teaching partners are adding the book and a few other little things to make a team gift!)

I decided to add some sashing out of the leftover Kona Snow jelly roll strips from my Winter in the Woods quilt. And then I thought of the leftover yellow and white polka dot fabric I used for the backing of this quilt.

It's going to be adorable!

A few more signs of Spring... And dots!

Seen in my flower garden this morning: the first daffodil!

And a Spring-y finish:

I love the teal, flowered backing I found in my stash for this one.  

I am definitely slow at the big projects, i.e., I am still quilting Winter in the Woods.  But the little ones are sure satisfying for me!

I have been adding to my stash of dots this week.  Fun shopping, for sure!

Looking forward to the Oh Scrap! link-up today, for more scrappy inspiration!

The 10 Minute Quilt Block

Have you seen the 10 Minute Quilt Block?  (Find the tutorial at this link.)  I had never heard of it until Thursday evening when I went to my quilt group and a friend demonstrated how it is made.  So simple!  Then another member of my group shared that she had just finished a quilt top made out of these blocks.  When I saw her quilt, I was hooked!  Perfect for the scrappy quilter!

Here is my first try at the block:

Inspired by my friend's quilt which is completely made out of dot fabrics and is so adorable!  I'm going to have fun with the dots in my stash, and maybe even collecting a few more wherever I can find them.  

Due to work and family obligations the last couple of weeks, I haven't done a lot of sewing.  I did put my hourglass mini together and started quilting it.  Love how it is turning out.  Reminds me of tulips coming up in the spring!

And, speaking of spring, I think it has arrived in Colorado!  Hooray!

Linking up at Oh Scrap! today and looking forward to more scrappy inspiration!

Playing with Hourglass Blocks

While slowly quilting my Winter in the Woods quilt,

I decided I want to experiment with hourglass blocks.  I had a little bit of Color Me Happy leftover from the Charm Pack Cherry quilt I made last spring and this mini:

Probably when I sewed up that mini-quilt, I had sewn all the rest of my charm squares into HSTs, so it was easy to cut them again and sew into hourglass blocks.  Just to be sure I was doing it right, I checked out this tutorial from Red Pepper Quilts, another one of my favorite bloggers.

I ended up with 16 little hourglass blocks, which I have been busy trimming and squaring up to 4 inches.

A goal I have for myself this year is to work on the accuracy of my cutting and piecing.  Trimming and squaring up are not my forte, as both seem fiddly and tedious!  But I am sure I will appreciate the results.  So far, I am working toward another mini, something like this:

It makes me think of spring, tulips coming up and green stuff growing, something I am looking forward to immensely!  

It's fun to see the pinwheels that form when you look more closely!

Linking up to Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.  Go check out all of Cyndy's fun ideas for using up scraps and orphan blocks.  Great quilty inspiration!