This past month I have been participating in a QAL with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts. The quilt we are making is Hampton Square, one of her patterns. I have had my ups and downs with this quilt. It is a well written pattern, and I like my fabric choices too. I just can’t seem to do things right the first time. It has become a “It’s not you, it’s me” kinda thing. I gotta keep following the directions and not going off course. I got all the strips sewn together (despite cutting errors) and started making units of 7 strips. They are long and slightly different lengths, no seams to match. Okay, this is easy. Mmm, not really. I found that by the last strip there was a bit of creeping going on. The last strip was a full inch too short. I quickly deduced that, yes, I should have ironed all the seams flat and some of these strips need pinning. Had to rip and resew that last row. I spent some more time organizing, labeling and ironing my strips. Sigh. The next unit went together easier, until the second to last strip, ugh, it was sewn in upside down, wrong end up, two long seams to rip and resew. Deep breath. I am going to try to finish this top before the end of this month, the date on the QAL is 3/29, oh, tomorrow. I have four, no, eight more units to complete, then I’ll start on the H2H quilts.

Then a British squirrel showed up. Last week I made this Union Jack from a tutorial over at Molli Sparkles blog. I was planning on a mug rug to include with the shopper bags and zip bag for a gift I am giving. Should have looked at the finished size, before starting, because it turned into more of a place mat size, I’m going with Tea time mat. I spent a fair amount of time, two hours I think, happily quilting and finishing it.

I did get two units of the Hampton Square done later that day.

Last Friday, Jo, at Jo’s Country Junction posted about a new scrap quilting book by Lissa Alexander called Scrap School. I immediately bought the Kindle version, since I have the kindle app on my laptop and I had a dollar off coupon, I felt thrifty too. There was one quilt in particular that grabbed my attention, Rolling Nine Patches.

I am thinking of making one in blues and tans and whites. There are also quite a few that would make good H2H donation quilts. While looking at my new kindle acquisition, I realized that I had another Lissa Anderson book in there, Sisterhood of the Scraps. There are a few in there that I’d like to revisit too. Patterns, patterns, everywhere.

Linking up wit Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts today for Design Wall Monday.