The biggest thing I did this weekend was this:



I finished cutting allllllll the strips for the latest quilt, and began sewing up the patches. This stack represents 65 of 108 (if I counted correctly) blocks for the quilt. The good news is that this is the fun part - deciding what patch units go together and then sewing and pressing them.

I also found a piece in my stash that will work for the backing - it is a very large pink and green floral print (and I do mean LARGE - the flowers are perhaps 8" across). I don't remember exactly where I got it but I have just about 5 yards, which means I bought it with the intention of using it as a backing (and besides, with the huge flowers it would not work so well in a quilt). It's an Alexander Henry print, so I'm guessing I got it at some quilt shop, probably as part of a "take what's left on the bolt and get 30% off" deal, which a lot of shops do. That's usually how I acquire backings - by scouting for fabrics that other people seem to have rejected and that have gone on sale. It helps to have slightly different taste; all the "awww cute" stuff is gone by sale time, and it's the "Well...that's INTERESTING..." stuff is left. But often the stuff that people reject as "interesting" (which is Midwestern Nice for "I don't like that") actually works well as a backing, and a lot of those great big prints are actually kind of fun, and a nice contrast to the smaller fussier prints on front.

I always like finding a piece to use for a backing (or a big border, or whatever) in my stash for two reasons: first of all, I've already made the monetary outlay for it, so I feel like it's "free" to me - or at any rate, I don't have to go out and hunt for something. And it also feels good because it gets a big chunk of fabric out of the stash and into something useful.

I'm contemplating the next quilt. I have several I want to do - those fabrics I photographed last week (I think?) for the Avalon quilt, and I have a pile of Mary Engelbreit prints put aside for a 1930s-inspired pattern (sort of like Trip Around the World but sort of not).

I also spent part of the money I made reviewing a textbook on another Jelly Roll of fabric - this one is called Hill Country Spring and is, as you might guess, Texas-inspired. Lots of wildflowers and a few bandanna prints. I've already decided I am going to see if I can find a red bandanna print to use as the back for this - it's going to be a framed four-patch.

I also have some very cute pink-and-brown fabrics in "dog" prints - different dog breeds, and some polka dots, and dogs-in-purses-and-teacups, that sort of thing. I think I'm going to do a simple large four-patch with those and do that as another Project Linus quilt - it looks kind of "8 or 9 year old girl" to me.

Oh, and I have others. I have little stacks of fabrics scattered all around my sewing room just waiting to become quilt tops. In some cases I have the pattern tucked in with them; for others, they're still waiting on a pattern.

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I also hand-quilted more on the quilt in the frame, and knit a bunch on the sleeve of the Cobblestone pullover. (It seems odd to be working on a bed quilt and a warm sweater when the heat index outside is 102*, but you do things when you find the time for them). I have four "big" blocks left to do on the quilt, and a few edge half-blocks, and then the borders. And then I'm done! I find I work faster on things when I can actually see the end in site - I get a burst of motivation once I push through the middle of a project.

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I also got a package Saturday. One of the people I correspond with on Ravelry (she goes by KnittyBe on there) suggested we do a swap of stuff - some yarn, some silly little things. I sent her box out last week, mine came this week. One of the things she is known for are what have come to be called "Nellyphants" - small knitted toy elephants. They are done in sort of the Waldorf school mode, where you knit a flat "pelt" in garter stitch and then, by clever seaming, you get a three-dimensional animal with separate legs and everything.

The Nellyphants are kind of a coveted item, so I was excited to find that she sent me a Nellyphant "kit" - the already-knit-up "pelt," plus beads for eyes and instructions on how to seam it. So I put mine together.



I'm calling him Claude because the colors remind me a bit of the colors Monet used in some of his paintings. (You can see how tiny the sockyarn Nellyphants are).