More pics...

Here's Aunt Helen's "90 Blocks for 90 Years" in its entirety.

Front...

and back, post-wash.

It crinkled up very nicely, and Aunt Helen was very pleased...and in not the least bit offended that it was four months late! Now she's ready for another Polar Vortex winter!

And just in time...

Aunt Helen is coming for a visit this weekend, and I finished her quilt just in time. It should come as a surprise to none of you that I waited until the absolute last minute...or close to it. It's still in the dryer as I type, but will be nice and crinkly and ready to wrap by the time she arrives tomorrow.

 "90 Blocks for 90 Years," Aunt Helen's Birthday Quilt:  45" x 50", flannel top and backing

When I decided not to kill myself over finishing in time for her actual birthday in April, the top sat draped over the back of my sofa as I flip-flopped over which backing to use. Originally, I didn't want an entirely flannel quilt, but in the end I decided to use some of the same fabrics I used on the front, and I'm glad I did -- with 100% cotton batting, it's a really nice weight that will do well as a lap quilt this winter. I'm not a fan of flannel bindings (too thick), so the binding is a cotton marbled brown that comes very close to matching the brown print stripe in the blocks.

More pictures later, but let's just heave a big sigh of relief that this one's complete, shall we?

A sneak peek...

This has been on my design wall (or rather, a piece of batting clamped to the frame of a large picture on my kitchen wall) since May, which is quite a long time, though not as long as I would have expected. My WIP's can stretch out for months, if not years.

I arranged and rearranged those tiny 2" HST's every time I walked by it, pulled strips off and put some back on, begged for polka dot scraps, and now it's ready for binding.

Feels like it might just be a productive week!

Never say never again...

I've been curious about fabric bowls for a while -- there are some really cool examples out in the blogosphere, and I like the looks you can achieve with different fabrics. In an effort to procrastinate on a dozen other projects, I picked this weekend to see what they were all about.

In a post-coffee mania Saturday morning, I pulled a confetti print linen blend from my stash and started slicing. Eight hours later, I was still zig-zagging, only about two-thirds of the way done. My back was killing me from tailbone to shoulders, my hands deformed into claws from incessant wrapping -- this was not the easy-peasy project I envisioned when I began.

After another couple ibuprofen-fueled hours on Sunday, I got tired of trimming a gazillion stray threads and switched to the purple cotton, which frayed far less -- however, because of the weight difference, the purple needed to be double-wrapped to keep the coil size consistent.

Lots of lessons learned (for instance, if you're going to "experiment," don't start with a project the size of a 6-quart dutch oven), but the biggest one is that I will never make another one of these again. I know I shouldn't say that, but I'm pretty sure now that I've done it, I don't need to repeat the process. Ever.

Curiosity satisfied.

For a Texas cowboy...

My friend Judy welcomed her second grandchild this spring -- and what better use for this stash fabric than a quilt for a little Texas cowboy?

I'm not exactly sure why this print was in my possession (suffice it to say it's been in there a long time), but it was a perfect backing for this quick project, and worked really well with the cowboy hat print on the front. I also had an old Alexander Henry burgundy print to piece with it, and used a little in the binding.

My Western phase, thankfully, was brief, and this fabric is where it belongs, in a baby quilt in Houston.

The quilting turned out pretty neat:  five lines a quarter-inch apart, running in a zig-zag. It didn't show up very well in any of the photos I took (except the in-progress detail here), so here's an overlay. It made it a little more interesting than just doing a grid.

Sydney, the neighbor's pup, had to supervise the nursery photo shoot. I warned her she might show up on the internet, and she didn't seem to have a problem with it.

Gifted at last...

Well, this one took way longer than expected!  I was done with the top in short order last summer, but I knew how I wanted to quilt it and, quite honestly, I wasn't up for it. But the wedding couple's first anniversary was fast approaching, I was headed to Michigan and planned to see them, so it was pull-myself-up-by-the-bootstraps time.

Made with a Comma charm pack, Kona black and a few additional Comma squares, it measures 42"x56", and this is the only picture I have without Archie sitting on it -- for some reason, that cat LOVED this quilt, in all its various stages. There was so much hair on it I had to clean the dryer vent twice.

The quilting gets a little lost in the black, but I started off-center and just did one big spiral, using the edge of my walking foot as a guide. The lines are roughly a half inch apart. The whole thing got torqued a little out of shape from quilting continually in one direction, but I was able to tug it back to square...eventually.

I am definitely not crazy about going 'round and 'round in circles, but I do like the look when it's all done. And after washing when it gets all crinkly, I love it even more!

The back is Comma fabric, too. I wanted my message to be subtle, and I also didn't want to applique their names on it, so the strip reads K+M in Morse Code. It took Katie and Mike a couple weeks to figure it out, so I think I succeeded.

A little ditty...

I received a little packet of Sphere charm-lets, and was making the quilt within an hour of getting back home. For some reason, they spoke to me, and I had to respond. I love it when that happens!

It's not very big (only 24"x38"), but man, is it cute! Lots of straight-line quilting give it great texture, and I'm loving the color combination. I think aqua is the new theme for my summer.

I paired the 2.5" squares with a darker teal Kona (not sure of the color name) and Kona Snow. The yellow and white stripe binding (better pic here) is subtle on the front, but really pops with the backing, one of my favorite Jan Mullen prints.

Little Ditty, 24"x38"

The neighbor upstairs let me borrow her daughter's nursery for the photo shoot. Total coincidence that the quilt matches the crib sheet -- maybe I can convince her to buy it?