Nine Patch In Pink

Near the beginning of the year I joined a block swap on the Quilters Club of America quilting forum. My reason behind joining the swap was that I wanted to challenge myself in accurate hand piecing and add to my goal of quilting everyday.

This swap consisted of making 12 nine patch blocks in the colors of white and pink. The blocks measure 6 1/2 inches.

I purchased my pink fabric at the local Jo-Ann's. It's a fun looking fabric and I really like the non-uniform white polka dots scattered across it. The white fabric I already owned. I did not pre-wash my fabric. (Yup, I'm one of those quilters).

My blocks have now been shipped off. Within a couple of weeks I should be receiving 12 different blocks in the mail. It makes me smile to think of getting fabric in the mail.

Flower Quilt

Yesterday I stated cutting out pieces for my daughter's quilt. Today I've been trying out different layouts for the quilt. I think now the squares have settled on the cross or plus sign pattern. 

You can see in the picture below the fussy cut flowers that I cut out from the vintage pillowcase. There is also a noticeable splash of blue that asked to be added to the quilt. I think it just wanted to be noticed.

I had ended up with an uneven number of blocks due to the fact that I had more of some fabrics then others. I tried to work in as many squares as I could so that I would have very little left over. Don't worry, the squares that didn't get included will find a home in another quilt.

I do like the way the pieces lined themselves up. I wasn't sure at first about some of the colors I picked, but now seeing them in this arrangement makes me feel a bit more confident in my skill of selecting fabrics.

After getting all the squares where they wanted to be, it was time to stack up the rows for easy sewing.

Starting from left to right, I stacked each square on top of the other. This created a total of 12 stacks with 8 squares in each stack. I used Post-It notes to easily label each row so that I would know in what order the rows would be sewn.

Now it's time to mark the back of each square with a 1/4 inch seam around the edges and get to sewing.