I have finished that 9-patch UFO!  I think I finished sewing the binding on the 16th.  I'm continuing to work on the Florabunda blocks.  I probably have 24-30 petals to sew onto block 11 and all 8 centers before I can call that one done.  I should have a photo of the 9-patch in a few days.

More quilting this weekend.  I quilted with some friends on Saturday.  I don't particularly like making bindings for quilts, so I figured this was a good opportunity to spend some pleasant time with friends doing an unpleasant task.  I trimmed the 9-patch quilt before I went and took the rest of the supplies to do the binding there.  I made the continuous, bias binding and sewed it onto the quilt there by machine and started hand sewing the binding to the back of the quilt.  I also made a label and got that attached before machine sewing the binding.  Labels are another piece that I don't really like to do, but I do like the preprinted labels that I got as part of the UFO auction from my guild last fall.  I may take some muslin and pigma pens and make up my own labels to have on hand when these run out.  I've gotten over half the binding sewn down so far and then have to look over the quilt and snip off all the loose ends of thread from machine sewing.  I'm anticipating it to be completed by the end of the week.  Yahoo!

Just an update on the progress I've made... I believe I got to sew down one and a half petals (of 44) last night before my daughter came home for a visit. 

Here's another attempt at photos.

I think I've got this upload problem figured out.

And another...

I do need to do a little fix on this one before I'm really happy with it.

And another.

And another.

And the last one completed.  Two more 12" blocks and one 24" center block to go.

More Applique Progress

I got one whole leaf sewn onto Florabunda block #11 last night.  I thought I'd try to post some more pictures of the ones I've completed.

This is one of my favorites.

OK, my fussy computer is only allowing one picture tonight, so I'll try again tomorrow.

Applique Progress

I've completed 10 of the 13 Florabunda blocks now.  There are a few tweaks that I need to make to two of them, but I'm really happy with what I've done so far.

This one I want to add replace the pale yellow center with pink.  This is the only block in the series that I didn't have any pink in.

 And for some reason I can't upload any more pictures tonight.  So, the two listed so far will be all for now.  You can take a look at Erin Russek's blog for more of her beautiful patterns.

More quilty progress this weekend.  I completed the third section of quilting on the nine-patch quilt.  It's done with free motion machine quilting in a Baptist fan pattern.  I created a template which was a good idea for this.  I don't think I could have done this without markings; especially around the edges of the section in the center of the quilt where the pattern only covered a portion of the block.  I thought I might be able to do the quilting on these curves using a straight stitch, but I would have had to twist the whole quilt around too much.  Free motion was easier to move around.

I'm also nearly done with the applique on Florabunda block 10.  I have 4 more leaves, 6 flower centers and the double center of the patch to complete.  I'm looking forard to getting this top together, but I'll be sad when it's done because I have really enjoyed working on these blocks.

A little bit of light, Holywood style snow today (you know, the kind that has big, fluffy flakes that don't really look real).  But it was less than an inch and melted off the driveway before noon.  I do love my brick walkway, but the snow rarely just melts off of it.

Got a bit more quilting done this weekend.  Spent Saturday afternoon with my applique group and got all of those pesky stems sewn on.  Spent Saturday evening basting all those petals (60 of them) and the centers (12) to get ready for ironing.  Spent over an hour starching and ironing 8 leaves, 12 centers and 60 petals.  Now they're complete and I get to do the fun part - sewing them down.  Always a relaxing thing to do in front of a roaring fire watching a movie.  And that's just what I did last night.