First Finish...Finally

My family thinks all I ever do is make quilts. Granted, there are a lot of quilts in our home and I give a lot of quilts away, but I don't sew ALL the time. Case in point. Everyone has clean clothes to wear. Everyone is always fed...the 2-legged ones as well as the 4-legged ones. The house is clean...mostly. Grin. All town errands have been tended to. The yard and garden is ready for spring. Cattle at the sale barn are all weighed and in their right pens...I hope. And it is April 4 and I am just now posting about my first quilt finish for the year:

It's just a simple little strip quilt for a little boy who was in the hospital fighting pneumonia. I found this little dinosaur print years ago...I seem to recall I found it at Walmart. It was just too cute to not bring home then and it's still cute now:

Simple square in a square blocks seem to be my go-to default when I want to showcase a fun novelty print:


                             

I just pulled everything from my stash and backed it with a gray minky and bound it with a solid navy and as usual, Jackie's quilting is the star if the show:

                            

At 40 x 45, it's just right for a little one to snuggle beneath.

                                       

Under the Needle

As busy as things are around here right now, I've managed to move a few projects forward in my sewing room these past 2 weeks. On Ringo Lake is pieced and now officially a top:

I love the brown scrappy border. It'll be a while before I get it quilted, but our little peach bush (yes, it is just a bush - the tree died, but it is coming up in another spot ) is in bloom and I wanted to catch a photo of it before the winds strip it of it's pretty flowers:

The wasps were out in full force

After the winds get done, there won't be any blooms left and once again we will be left peachless.

I also made all 168 HSTs for Sequoia and trimmed them up

Making a copy of the photo in the book was incredibly helpful in keeping things in order and it kept me from turning blocks around. I didn't have to bring the stitch ripper out even one time with this method:

                                              

As I pieced the blocks into rows

                           

and then into a top

                                          

I am looking for something for the back.

I also needed a baby quilt and bought this fabric (the dot is from my stash) when I made my trip to Texas a few weeks ago:

                                   

This pattern, called Petal Power, caught my eye

                        

It didn't take long to piece the blocks

                                         

I hope to get it to Jackie today, but I neglected to get a shot of the full top before heading out this morning.

 And the binding on this little quilt ought to be finished this week