Thursday night my husband brought me a new book — well new to me.  The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy with pictures by Jerry Pinkney.    Published in 1985 by Dial books for Young Readers, the summary says:

Using scraps cut from the family’s old clothing, Tanya helps her grandmother make a beautiful quilt that tells the story of her family’s life.

The Patchwork Quilt is the 1986 Coretta Scott King Award Illustrator Award Winner.

I really enjoyed the book.

This month’s UFO Christmas blocks are Visions of Sugar Plums and Hole in the Barn Door.  Pulled from  my pre-cut bins where I could, then dug in the FQ boxes. That red and white stripe was purchased specifically for this block — years ago.  I think I bought 3 or 4 over the years looking for just the right fabric.  Then the appliqué stopped me. But not now.  It may not be this week, but sometime this month, I’ll get these two blocks made.

Tuesday when I went out to pick up my mail I found a package sitting on my porch.  At first I tried to figure out what I had ordered.  Then I remembered, I won the little jelly roll lunch box from Shelly at Prairie Moon Quilts.  Why I didn’t remember this I don’t know.  Shelly had sent me an e-mail less than 24 hours earlier telling me the package was on the way.

Anyway, the box came into the house and I opened it up to see the little lunch box.  She stuffed it with cool stuff.

The box is decorated with Brannock & Patek’s Hemming House fabric designs.  The burgundy fabric is a 1/2 yard from the same line.  The heart is Oatmeal & Honey Soap made by Anna Lee with Goats’ Milk.  There a package of itty bitty paper hexagons. Each side is only 1/2″ long. They are just barely bigger than my thumb.  There’s a cute little note pad with a travel theme cover & coffee flavored lip balm.  It’s hard to see, but the last thing from the box is a redwork elephant and thread ready for me to stitch.

Opening the box was a great break to an otherwise long day.  Thanks Shelly.  I really appreciate the goodies.

This year I’m taking it easy working on one or two blocks from my Christmas BOM quilt that’s been in the works since 2003.  That’s my “official” list, but I thought I’d try to do at least 2 of the blocks for my Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler that I started in 2007 and quilt at least “one ring” on my Double Wedding Ring quilt — my oldest UFO.  The good news is I accomplished all of that and did a bit of other quilting as well in January.

Here’s my Christmas block — the Cookie Jar:

My two SBS blocks:

And finally my Double Wedding Ring.  Well, a visual representation of where I started (left) and where I am now (right).

For February Judy picked #1 .  That’s  Visions of Sugar Plums & Hole in the Barn Door.  I’ll aim for at least two more SBS blocks and one ring on the DWR as well.

I’ll be working on other projects as well — Ocean Waves, the Frog quilt and the purse.  And I’d like to finish up Diamond Links.  I sound like a broken record.  Haven’t I’ve been saying this for the past 4  1/2 weeks?  Oh — I’ve got to get the instructions for my next mystery quilt written.    This should be interesting.  Good think there’s an extra day this year in February.

Check out the links over at Patchwork Times to see how others are doing for their UFOs and what they are planning to working on this month.

I was summoned for jury duty and Monday was my day to serve.  Definitely not a routine day for me.  I had to be up dressed to be seen in public and on the road by 7 AM.    My normal morning is shorts and a t-shirt and pass through the kitchen on the way to my desk about 7:55 AM.

Two panels were selected, I was dismissed, but while we were on break and had other “downtime” I stitched.  Since this is my travel/meeting/waiting while out  project it may be a while before I work on it again.

On the design wall proper are the blocks I finished this weekend.  They seem to work up faster when I’m not trying to do them one at a time.  This time I did all the wing sections then attached them to the square.

Currently hanging out on the ironing board is the bag I’ve been working on for started six weeks ago.  The lining is now attached  and bag is turned right side out.  Just need to finish stitching the seam between those two pins.  Then I can start the hunt for the fabric which has been carefully put somewhere so I can find it again — ha!

Finally, the poor frog is still hanging on the side of my fabric shelves.  I think I like these eyes better.  He still needs front legs, a mouth, and tongue  — well, I guess eyes too, these are paper colored in with a Sharpie.  Don’t want to rush into anything — this has only been hanging around since the 11th.

My design wall may look like this next week as well.  A big project and a couple of little projects are due this week for work and I’ve got jury duty (at least on Monday).  I’m taking my Redwork Snowmen to work on while we sit around and wait for jury duty.

Don’t forget to check out the design walls at Patchwork Times.

This is Bonnie Hunter’s pattern Playing with Jacks.  It went together very quickly (started 1/15) from my pre-cut strips.  I recently took a que from Bonnie and sorted my strips (and bricks and blocks) by color in their appropriate bin, so it was easy to grab the red, blue and neutral strips to cut what I needed.  The red sashing is left over from my Texas Braid quilt.    The backing is Bugs Bunny from my mom’s stash.

Tomorrow it goes into the mail.

This past week I quilted and bound Playing with Jacks and I made the alternate blocks for the next section of Ocean Waves.  I even worked on the purse, but now I can’t find the rest of the fabric….  I should have pictures of the quilt either later today or tomorrow for Design Wall Monday.

Here’s this weeks results:

Fabric Added Last Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 4.25 yards

Fabric Used Last Week: 2.485 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 12.989 yards

Net Used for 8.739 yards

Follow the links over at Patchwork Times to see how others are doing with their fabric usage goals.

The bottom half of the quilt is one row of blocks larger and then there is that pinwheel border.  A little over half of the pinwheels are made, but I’m not counting them yet as they are not sewn together.

This morning Ocean Waves is back up on the wall, as Playing With Jacks is being quilted.

My guess is I’m halfway through the quilting and will get the binding on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Then I really need to work on finishing Frog, the purse and Diamond Links.  Ocean Waves will continue to be a work in progress for a while.

Friday, my brother-in-law told me he wanted my Autumn Splendor quilt.  I dug through my yardage to see what, if anything I could come up with for a backing.

I think this brown fabric will be great for this quilt.  Now to get some of the other stuff done first.  And while I was digging I found 3 yards of a neutral/background that I can use for my Scrappy Irish Chain.

Sometimes I’m surprised at what I find and/or can make work in my stash.  When I finally cut into the background I’ll list this on my quilts in progress tab.  Until then those 4-patches are simply orphan blocks.

Check out the links over at Patchwork Times for other design walls.