friday homestead

Hi folks! Just a quick post today as we start a nice sunny weekend here in NYC.

I had just a few hours to squeeze in some sewing today. I really wanted to finish up that last Butterscotch Tart block before the weekend. But they take about 3 hours apiece, and I like to start and finish a block all at one time. I decided to try this new Homestead house quilt block by Joanna Figueroa at Fig Tree Quilts. That should be quick and easy, and still leave plenty of time to read and clean the house before going out for sushi, right? I've made lots of house quilt blocks over the years, but this one has an unusual, modern log cabin look. Homestead is a new pattern introduced last month. I downloaded the pattern a few days ago and started searching through my stash in search of fabric from Fig Tree with a clean, summery look. I pulled my stack of Avalon fat quarters from last summer. It still had the original shrinkwrap! You know that I've been in a red and navy mood lately, so I immediately pulled this navy mini floral for the first house.

There are LOTS of pieces here, and I sewed a few pieces incorrectly and cut the grass strip too short. Ugh. Seam ripper time. So my quick little project took just as long as a tart block!

Do I even need to mention that there was no time to read or to clean the house?! I think I'm ready for my sushi now. Happy weekend everybody!

pinwheels!

I'm nearing the end of the Butterscotch Tart quilt! I needed a break from the tart blocks so I worked on the pinwheel sashing posts. 

There are 24 of these guys. They measure 3" now, and will be 2.5" when finished.

I've completed 11 of the tart blocks and have just two more to make before I can start the big quilt assembly!  The blocks will be sashed with a pale blue print from Pam Kitty Picnic that I used very sparingly in my blocks. I used no light blue or pink in the pinwheels because I want darker colors to "pop" against the sashing. Can you believe that the sashing print is actually current and in stock? No midnight Ebay and Etsy searches this time! It's due to arrive in the mail tomorrow, so you'll see it very soon. 

I actually like making half-square triangles. I know that I'm in the minority here. I make them too big, and then trim them down to size using my 6" square ruler. This ensures that I always have exactly the correct size. (I take the pattern measurement and add 1/2" regardless of what the directions specify.) Yes, there's waste involved. But I don't need to squish and mash and stretch the blocks to get them the right size. I did that for years and was always unhappy with the results. And really, what's a little waste? It reduces my stash faster and frees up space for more new fabric!

Butterscotch Tart is a pattern by Fig Tree Quilts, and my fabric is mostly by Pam Kitty Morning. The tart blocks also have several red and pink prints by Lori Holt, plus a few random pieces of Lakehouse, Riley Blake and Bonnie & Camille. 

quilt blocks for aneela

I received my special delivery of Aneela Hoey's "Posy" fabric on Friday afternoon. Hello little bunnies, chickens, flowers and... is that pollen?!

As I mentioned on my previous post, several quilters are making blocks to comfort Moda fabric designer Aneela Hoey as she undergoes treatment for breast cancer. Chelsea at Pins and Bobbins has organized this project, and I knew that I wanted to participate as soon as I heard the sad news. Blocks can be made in either 10" or 5" (mine are 10") using any of Aneela's prints and need to be mailed out by July 1. You can read the full details of this project here. The pattern that we are using is a free tutorial by Canoe Ridge Creations. These were fast to sew - start to finish took me just 1 hour! - and really fun to make. I used fat quarters, but all you really need is 8 charm squares, plus some white stitch-and-flip corners. They were a calm, easy break from the complicated red, white and blue Butterscotch Tart blocks that have kept me occupied for the past few weeks. This pattern really allows the focus to be on the fabric.

I had to make a block from my favorite color combo, pink and green (ok, I cheated a bit with the lavender, but I wanted the block to have a softer look). And now I have 9 nearly full fat quarters to use in another project! I can't wait to see how Chelsea finishes the quilt, and I think that Aneela is really going to love receiving this gift. Get well soon!

I'm linking up with the Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times, and I invite you to check out what other quilters are working on this week.

butterscotch tarts + a special quilt

I've finished another three Butterscotch Tart blocks! See that red rose print? Probably one of my favorite prints from the past few years. Love it. It's Annie's Farm Stand by the talented Holly Holderman at Lakehouse. I knew that I wanted to use this fabric. It's so American Beauty - the rose, not the movie! Just one problem. I checked my stash and found none in the studio. I used it all up on last year's Quilty Barn quilt. Panic! I considered sending a note to Holly or putting out an SOS on Instagram. Never mind that there are a gazillion other rose prints. I needed THAT one. So, late one night I searched online and found just one seller who had some. When it arrived I made one block with a rosy center. And then another with a rosy ring. 

Plus, I made another block with an alternate rose print by Pam Kitty Morning. 

I've been working towards an even distribution of red and blue outer rings which isn't so easy because I've come up with lots of fabric combinations! The final three blocks might see just a bit more pink. And so far I've avoided stripes and gingham because of the fear of wonkiness. I expect to finish the last three by early next week, and then I can start the sashing with fun pinwheel posts. I've been auditioning sashing fabric (scrappy whites? pale blue print?) and thinking about my outer border. 

On a more serious note... 

I read just a few days ago that fabric designer Aneela Hoey was scheduled for surgery for breast cancer this week. I've loved Aneela's fabrics for a few years. They're so naively whimsical. She opened up her quaint English house to us on her blog. She's given us lots of fun fabric collections, such as Sherbet Pips, Little Apples and Cherry Christmas. And now a group of quilters is getting together to create quilt blocks that will be assembled into a special quilt for Aneela. The request is to create two simple blocks using Aneela's fabric and to ship them by the end of the month. You can read how you can help here. I'm happy to contribute. And now I need to admit that I ran out of my supply of Aneela's fabric when making the Quilty Barns last year. So I just bought more of her Posy collection from an Etsy seller and asked her to put a special rush on my order. Are you noticing a common thread here with me always running out of the perfect fabric?! Oh well. I can't wait for it to arrive!

butterscotch tart's new colors

The experimental blocks are done for my Butterscotch Tart quilt. I've completed the blue-on-blue star, and the red-on-pink star. And here they are!

And you know what? I'm loving the addition of the pink! I was positive that the light blue would work, but the pink was iffy. But I didn't just stop there. Oh no. How about some blue strawberries?

And maybe some pink and red polka dots?

I'm having so much fun putting fabric combos together that this is the only quilt that I want to work on! I'm not the slightest bit bored. And I am sooo excited that I'm more than halfway through. 7 blocks done and 6 to go. Woo hoo. I can finish these blocks by the end of July. Yes, I can! Now I just gotta come up with a few more fabric combos. Hummm, maybe some stripes will be next...

The Butterscotch Tart pattern is by Fig Tree Quilts, and I have used an assortment of fabric by Pam Kitty Morning and Lori Holt.

Thank you for stopping by. I'll be back in a few days with an update, and I promise to not add any green or yellow!

butterscotch tart

I've made it official. I have now pledged allegiance to my latest quilt blocks. 

It's so much fun to see these blocks come together. The first block was easy (but time consuming) to sew and I hoped that the next one would go together as easily. I reversed a few of the pressing directions so now the seams all nest perfectly. Just for fun I checked to see how many pieces are in each block. Sixty five pieces! These are definitely a make-one-at-a-time blocks. But once I've turned on iTunes radio I'm good to go!

(Have you checked out iTunes radio? You choose an artist that you like and then you get an endless stream of similar music. So for anybody curious, tonight's block was courtesy of Kylie Minogue radio - all dance. Last night's block was accompanied by Martina McBride's country radio.)

And coming soon are some experimental blocks! I'm curious to see light and dark blue together, and red with pink. Yes, pink in my patriotic quilt. It's just light red, right?! I think that light blue and pink will add a bit of whimsy and help to reduce the sameness of the blocks. The Butterscotch Tart quilt pattern is by Fig Tree Quilts and you can pick up a copy here. I've had a few requests about my background. It's Pam Kitty Love and is now out of print, but there is a similar white with pink dots currently available in the Pam Kitty Picnic collection. Here's a sneak peek of some upcoming star fabrics - the reds are Lori Holt's out-of-print Polka Dot Stitches, and the light blues are Pam Kitty Picnic and Pam Kitty Morning. I'm making strawberry print stars. Imagine that, it's my never-ending strawberry addiction. And look at how different and soft the pattern can look when made from Fig Tree fabrics. I think that this pattern would be perfect for a Christmas quilt, too. 

I'm off to slice up this new fabric stack. Be back soon with more stars!

a fresh start

My patriotic quilt month continues! Remember last week's Milky Way stars? I loved them, but I just wasn't having fun sewing them. And quilting needs to be fun, right?! My third block finished lumpy and bumpy and I knew that it was time to hoist the white flag and surrender.

But I'm not ready to give up on my patriotic quilt dream just yet. And so began the time consuming search for a new pattern. Of course, nearly every pattern that I own is scrappy, so I had to imagine what they'd look like in three colors. I pulled patterns out of my notebooks. I bookmarked photos of vintage quilts. I bought more pattern downloads. I searched Flickr, Pinterest and Instagram for new ideas. I am an expert at making myself myself crazy! And then I remembered that I had a pretty pattern from Fig Tree Quilts called Butterscotch Tart. It's from several years ago, with on-point blocks in pale caramel, taupe, ivory and pink. Aha! Couldn't this classic carpenter's wheel block look like a firework if I did it in red, white and blue?!

It looks firework-y to me. I like this block even better than the previous blocks! It was fairly easy to sew, although I might change the direction of some seams on my next block so that they'll nest better. It's 10" and is designed to be set with sashings and pinwheels. 

And even though I've been quiet for a few days don't think that I haven't been sewing. I was back in the strawberry fabric patch. I have just a few more strawberries to sew and then I can begin the big assembly!

milky way

If it's June, then it must be patriotic quilt time! Meet Milky Way by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree Quilts.

I often like to piece with fabrics that match the seasons, and in the hot summer months I think of red, white and blue. I also like overblown garden florals. (No pumpkins for me in June. They need to wait for their turn in September!) My initial fabric pull is a Pam Kitty Morning assortment, but I'll also add in other fabrics as I progress. I had been searching for just the right Fourth of July quilt idea. That involved considering just about every pattern that I own. And then I remembered this quilt, and how Joanna calls the red, white and blue version "Firework." Perfect! The only problem was that I had been dreading all the bias edges. And there are a lot of them. So with starch, pins and about 5 hours, I got my first block.

After Instagraming this block (and whining about how making it almost killed me), I received some good advice from Joanna herself. She told me to remember to measure and cut carefully, handle the bias edges as little as possible, and that the only seams that really need to match are the perimeter of the center star. Ok, deep breath. I can do this. I am not a quilty quitter! I will beat the bias! On to the second block.

This one went together MUCH easier and even took less time. The center is just a smidge off but I think that I can live with it. And you know I'm not redoing it because those bias edges would just s  t  r  e  t  c  h. This block is 19" and I will also be making 14" and 9" blocks. I think that the smaller blocks should probably go together easier (and quicker, please!) now that I've got the method down. 

I ran out of the background fabric after just two blocks! It's from Pam Kitty Morning's "Love" collection last year. Now why did I use a discontinued fabric for my background?! I'm very happy that I found a seller on eBay with 7 yards. I bought all of it, and I can resume star making in a few days. My crazy self-imposed deadline is July 4!

Milky Way. Hummm. I love the Milky Way Dark candy bars. They aren't red, white, blue or floral but they are delicious. Wish I hadn't just thought of that...

Thanks for stopping by to visit with me today! 

back to the strawberry patch

I've completed all 25 strawberry blocks for my Strawberry Social quilt!

But I'm not ready to leave the strawberry patch! The quilt pattern finishes at 53" x 66." I really want this quilt to be larger. I have red and pink fabrics in my stash that I haven't even used yet, and there are some, like Lori Holt's "Bake Sale" red recipe print that I would like to repeat. (It's the bottom left corner.)

Last night I asked my Instagram followers how they feel about making the quilt larger. The feedback came in quickly, and nearly everybody had a humorous way of reminding me that we can never have too many strawberries. And some people thought that my quilt would be a nice decoration in THEIR homes. Haha. So, larger it will be! But yes, maybe a whole bed-sized strawberry quilt would be too many strawberries. My goal is now sofa-napping size. I'll need another 17 strawberries for a quilt that measures 69" x 76", or another 24 strawberries for a quilt that measures 69" x 87."

I'm ready for the real strawberry season to begin... I need to check out the farmer's market! And as I await the crop of strawberries, I think that there's more rotary trimming in the near future...

a schnibbles finish

X-Rated is finished!

I was SO happy that the extra charm pack of Fig Tree's Mirabelle arrived just before the long holiday weekend. I was able to squeeze in a little slicing here, a little sewing there, and it was finished in no time at all.

Seriously, this is one EASY pattern. Cut a bunch of squares, rectangles and a few setting triangles and start sewing. 

See the pinked edges of the charm pack on the perimeter of the quilt? I think that they'll work to my benefit here and will reduce fraying. I'll just pretend that I don't see all the messy crumbs that those edges seem to drop all over my studio. 

X-Rated is a Schnibbles pattern by Carrie Nelson. Fabric is mostly Mirabelle by Fig Tree Quilts. I also added in a few random dotty and floral pieces of Joanna's older Strawberry Fields collection, because I need to have some dots everywhere! Background is Kona Snow, and the finished quilt measures 31" square. 

I'm finished just in time to make it into the Another Year of Schnibbles parade for May!

Now what can I work on next?

PS - I've added something new to my blog! I've signed up with Bloglovin to make it even easier to follow my blog. I know that lots of you like Bloglovin! Just click the link near the top of the left column. Or you can have my blog delivered by email via the Feedburner link. Or visit me however you wish! 

Linking up with Finish It Fridays at Crazy Mom Quilts! Check out what other quilters have completed this week here. 

memorial day

With respect and gratitude to those who have lost their lives while defending our country. Thank you. You will not be forgotten.

it's another schnibbles, and it's called...

It's called X-Rated. Can you believe it?! Carrie Nelson has a twisted sense of humor!

X-Rated is the "Another Year of Schnibbles" project for May. I bought the pattern pdf from my work computer, and was a little horrified when I downloaded a file called "x-rated." Yikes. Well, my employer will be amused if they actually check out this file! Haha it's just a harmless quilt pattern!

For my fabric, I decided to revisit a softer side of Grey Dogwood Studio. I sewed almost exclusively with Fig Tree fabrics for several years. A quilt friend had to gently nudge me to please, please try something different. But I haven't used any Fig Tree fabrics since last October! It's kinda nice to use Joanna's softer, vintagey fabrics again. I'm using charm packs of Mirabelle and Strawberry Fields. (Strawberry Fields is one of my favoritest fabric collections ever, and I still have a stack of fat quarters, jelly rolls, charm packs and yardage.) Those Mirabelle precuts sold out fast! I needed an additional charm pack, and now I'm waiting for one to arrive from here. 

I love, love, love that Mirabelle apricot print. I bought yardage that can be used as either a border or as backing. I'm a bit of an apricot fanatic. I buy the large jars of Sarabeth's peach apricot preserves. And it reminds me of the cookies that my grandmother used to make. She called them apricots cookie. Not apricot cookies. I always used to make fun of her pronunciation, but it's stuck with me.  So this is my apricots fabric.

Ok, so this needs to be finished by the end of May so that it can be a part of the Schnibbles parade on Sherri's and Sinta's blogs. (Ohmigosh Sinta is also using Fig Tree fabric!) Well, in just four days, here's where I am...

X-Rated is very easy to sew. As Carrie notes, "cut it out, lay it out." It's that easy. It's constructed by sewing strips of squares and rectangles together instead of creating traditional blocks. Finding a space to lay it out was tricky in a small studio with two floppy cat tails, but the coffee table worked just fine. 

Now as soon as that extra charm pack arrives I can start the pieced outer border! Or maybe I'll get lazy and use the apricots fabric... deadline is next Friday!

a great granny squared finish!

It's done! The mini Great Granny Squared quilt is finished!

Wow, didn't I just start this a few weeks ago? I made Lori Holt's quilt pattern at half size, and my finished quilt top measures 20x26. It is the perfect size for a standard bed pillow sham!   

I managed to follow all of my own "rules" - I used a colored background instead of white (It's Kona Bluebell), I integrated some white prints that I don't usually use, and I avoided darks. It seemed to take forever to choose a border print. And now I definitely want to make more quilts with pale pastel-y backgrounds! 

Reducing the size by 50% was definitely a challenge. Why can't I just follow the directions?!  Many pieces were cut at 3/4" and 1" and weren't always a pleasure to sew. I'm sure that they would have been really easy if I had done them at full size. There might have been a lot of swearing and seam ripping. And yet every time I finished a block I felt like I had accomplished something (and deserved to eat a New Mexican chocolate truffle).  I like to reinvent!

The Great Granny Squared pattern book can be found here, and each week's customized pattern pdfs can all be found here. My block fabric is an assortment of Pam Kitty Morning, Lori Holt, Atsuko Matsuyama, Bonnie & Camille and Riley Blake.

Did you see that Lori announced another sew along on her blog last week? I already have the pattern!

I'm linking up today with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

back from vacation & back to quilting

Hi everybody! I'm back from a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

It was time for my semi-annual visit to the Land of Enchantment. This was perhaps my 20th visit to Santa Fe in the past 10 years. My first visit was completely on a whim, and I immediately fell in love with the pure blue skies, the historic architecture, the delicious New Mexican cuisine, and the unique cultural blend of Mexico, Spain, American Indian and cowboy. It feels like home to me. 

No trip would be complete without a cooking class at the Santa Fe School of Cooking. This time I specifically wanted to learn how to make biscochitos, the official state cookie. This will be a fun recipe for my new pink Kitchenaid mixer!

I visited the many historic churches, such as the San Miguel Mission, built in 1610 and believed to be the oldest church in the US.

And then on the full day of snow and HAIL I visited Santa Fe Quilting. Yes, hail in the desert! The shop stocks a large assortment of Southwestern fabrics and patterns. I bought some Paris Flea Market fat eighths and Scrumptious yardage. I was even invited to sit in with the Thursday night hand stitching group! I declined because there were green chile cheeseburgers and parmesan sweet potato fries waiting to be eaten.

I finished most nights with a climb up the mountain to Fort Marcy Park to watch the amazing sunset over the city. I think that it's the most peaceful place I've ever been. I always see "my" rabbits at sunset. Ok, that's probably not so interesting to most of you, but we don't have too many rabbits hopping around Times Square! And on this visit I was, um, stalked by 20 big, black ravens at the top of the mountain, watching me from a telephone line. I could feel the air moving when they flapped their wings, and then there's the loud caaaaawwwww sound. Maybe they were really hungry? I got out of there FAST. I wasn't gonna be their green chile cheeseburger!

I even managed to applique 12 dresdens in my hotel room at night!

And have you seen all those photos of quilt market in Pittsburgh? It looks like there will be some great fabric and patterns coming soon. Carrie Nelson has lots of fun new patterns, and I'm dying over the new Pam Kitty Garden fabric. But right now I need to squeeze in some quality time with my sewing machine. The Great Granny Squared quilt along needs me to catch up!

still dresden-ing

I'm still making slow but steady progress on my Dresden plates. It feels so good to see the finished blocks piling up!

Doesn't it seem like every quilt blogger seems to be writing about how they're getting ready for quilt market? Yes, I'd love to go! I hope to be there someday. But in my real-life work, the cosmetic and fragrance market just wrapped up last week. My retail clients visit New York seasonally to see what's coming soon in the cosmetic and fragrance industry. And they get to be entertained by my sales pitch! The meetings are actually fun - I enjoy the rush of the performance, but after a full two months of those presentations I am tired. Many times at night all I could manage to get done was some hand applique.  

I now have 40 blocks done, with another 24 blocks still to go. They'll all have a round red dotty center, and the blocks will be 8" when finished. Now I need to decide - should I rush to finish them, or should I just work on them between the other projects? I wonder how many I can get done this week?

I'm linking up today with Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

yarn and crochet hook

I've caught up with the Great Granny Squared sew along! I finished the yarn and crochet hook block.

And here it is combined with the yarn basket block.

Making this half size (4 1/2" x 5 1/2") made me crazy. That crochet hook is 1/4" wide! I don't think that I've ever used my seam ripper this much. The back of the block looks like the Bride of Frankenstein, with several rows of stitching, a few thread knots, a few lumpy seams and some extra holes. But only me and my quilter will ever see that. Maybe I should have just used hot glue or staples. That probably would have been less painful. But the extra effort was truly worth it. I'm really happy with the finished block even if it did push me right into eating a  pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food. 

Next week we'll receive directions on how to put it all together. But I couldn't resist playing with the blocks. Here's the whole grouping. Definitely worth the all the crazy! And check out the blocks from everybody else at the Flickr group here. 

great granny squared quilt along - mama blocks

It's the third week of the Great Granny Square quilt along! And this week I made twenty mama blocks.

The Fat Quarter Shop is hosting the Great Granny Squared sew along using Lori Holt's book, and the blocks will be set to make Mama's Crochet Quilt. I'm having fun working on my blocks... except that oops, I missed last week's block. Maybe I was too busy making strawberries! This week's little granny squares were super easy to make. I once again downsized the original pattern, so my blocks measure 3 1/2" instead of 6 1/2". I usually like to make these from my precut 1 1/2" strips, but I ran out of them last week. So yes, I individually cut all these squares. The fabric prep and cutting took more time than the actual sewing!

I sure am learning about color value with this quilt! Working with a pale Kona Bluebell background is a nice challenge. I like the freshness that the blue brings to the project. Several fabrics with similar values had to be edited out because they didn't have enough contrast. 

And now my cute little blocks will get packed up, awaiting next week's assembly instructions!

more strawberries

If you're joining me today from Sherri's and Sinta's blogs, welcome! I'm glad that you hopped over to see the finished mini Dwell pillow. It was a fun project to work on. Just scroll on down to my entry from a few days ago to read all about it.  

I'm currently adding to my strawberry collection for the Strawberry Social quilt! I've made another ten berries this week.

Red, ripe strawberries.

Not-quite-ripe pink strawberries.

And the, um, confused berries. 

The striped strawberry and double strawberry were interesting experiments. I love the stripe and double berry fabrics. I wasn't sure that they would look good when chopped into tiny pieces for the berry cap, so I substituted similar fabrics. And now I think that those two berries just look confused! They might find themselves on the back of the finished quilt. (Hey, that's better than the way I treat imperfect real strawberries!)

I am loving how the whole berry bunch looks grouped together! 

The finished Strawberry Social quilt has 25 berries, but I'm determined to keep on sewing. How big can I make this quilt? The pattern is by Margot Languedoc and can be purchased from her website. I'm sewing with an assortment of Pam Kitty Morning, Lori Holt, and Riley Blake ginghams, and I plan to add some Flower Sugar into my next batch. 

Thank you for stopping by today!

strawberry social

I'm getting a jump on summer with my new Strawberry Social quilt!

I first fell in love with this pattern last summer when I saw Pam's version. Seriously, I love it. And then it started popping up around the internet. The pattern is by Margot Languedoc's The Pattern Basket. I bought the pattern immediately, but I was busy working on Christmas quilts (in July!) and just couldn't look at any more red and green fabric. Well, last week I thought of this pattern as I was stirring fresh strawberries into my morning oatmeal. You know that moment when strawberries are almost TOO ripe and the fragrance completely fills your kitchen? 

It's another excuse to use my favorite color combination! I started with three strawberries and got hooked. 

It just makes me happy working on these. I can imagine the upcoming crop of strawberries that I'll pick up at the farmer's market in Union Square. Isn't everything better with a strawberry? Ice cream, pancakes and waffles, jams, shortcakes with whipped cream, pies, cheesecake (like this one from Juniors in Brooklyn). I even like the freeze-dried strawberries in Special K!

And now for the technical part. Margot's pattern has a tricky method for making that leaf section. I couldn't understand how the technique could possibly work. I finally just trusted the pattern and started sewing. It's genius, really. The sub-units are made larger than needed and trimmed using a square ruler. All of the seams nest perfectly. The finished quilt needs 25 strawberries. I really want to just keep sewing and see how large I can get this! I have yards of the perfect backing, so that's taken care of (it's a red and white recipe print!) But what if I deplete my pink, green and red stash?! 

If you'd like to make a quilt like this, I found a few kits online. There's a Pam Kitty version at Fat Quarter Shop and a  beautiful version at Shabby Fabrics which resembles the original pattern. Or just dive into your scraps like I did!

mini dwell pillow!

Oh happy day! It's finished! Presenting the mini Dwell pillow!

This is my first entry into the "A Year Of Schnibbles" sew along hosted by Sinta and Sherri... except that it's not a Schnibbles! This month's assignment was to make a mini quilt using a Thimble Blossoms pattern. I made 3 extra houses and adjusted the borders so that I could finish with a 20" square. I've used an assortment of my happy fabrics from Lori Holt, Pam Kitty Morning, Bonnie & Camille and Atsuko Matsuyama. 

The little houses are all hand quilted in the ditch - nearly every seam is stitched. The hand quilting was fun for hours... and then I just wanted it to be finished, NOW. 

I spent a few days auditioning backing and binding fabrics. I am so happy with this butter floral and red gingham from Pam Kitty Picnic. That gingham is scarce! I needed to do a big internet search to find it. And I picked up a new, fluffy down pillow insert from Pottery Barn. 

So happy! I think that more pillows will be in my future!

I'm linking up today with Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.