May Bee Blocks

Finished up my blocks for May! This ginormous tulip block is for Penny. It is 18x18 inches, bigger than you might think from the photo. Someone commented on flickr that it looks like an elephant. Funny, huh? I had to do a substantial, tulippy leaf there.

These two will go to Mary in the Block Swap 2 group. She said we could use decorative stitches on these if we want, and I love how it looks. Especially the one with darker thread. This could be fun on a mini-quilt... someday, maybe. I had to get a little creative for the block on the left, I was running out of larger pieces of fabric so I pieced a couple of the strips. These are foundation pieced on printed muslin fabric. I haven't done foundation piecing for a long time, it's different than using paper!

And, I decided to get on the ball with a couple more UFOs for the Spring to Finish challenge.

I collaborated on this placemat with my oldest son, who's 10 now (he was 9 when we started). It's been sitting, partially quilted, for a long time. I finished it up today, including machine-finished binding. I'm not sure if that's why it ended up so wavy around the edges. Maybe it will shrink up after being washed.

I also pulled out the pieces of the green placemat I had started for the 5-year-old. He helped sew one important seam in it tonight. The top needs one more strip added so it will be the same size as the blue one. I am thinking of binding it with yellow.

And, really, in the spirit of not letting projects drag on for ever and ever. I'm going to get on it and finish my 9-patch quilt.

Right now the plan is to make 7 of these each week. I'm hoping to get them cut out so I can use them as leaders and enders while I'm doing other projects. I had 31 finished before today, and pulled the fabrics out to make 11 new ones. I'm planning on making this quilt which calls for 70 nine-patch blocks... so a little more than 5 weeks. Unless I make them faster. I'm excited for when this quilt will be done--it's going to be so pretty.