A Couple of Thimbleberries Projects

Yesterday I said I'd show you what I'd been working on lately. Besides some applique, here are my two most recent projects--

First is the quarterly Thimbleberries Club project that I changed around a bit.

I ended up making more of the pieced flowers and used a trellis-type of setting. It will make a pretty decent sized lap quilt--it's sitting on top of our king size bed, which means it's close to 6 feet square. Of course, I still have to quilt it but that can be done later.

Next is the March UFO/swap block project. I had 30 of these red and golden yellow blocks and after thinking about what I wanted to do for awhile, I decided I'd use 20 of them "as is." For the other ten blocks, I took them apart and started putting them back together with the color positions reversed--red for the backgrounds instead of gold.

The "hitch" is that the background fabric in each block is the same and the pieced design is scrappy, so I have to mix and match and go through my stash, trying to find the right background fabrics. And, of course, I need a total of 36 blocks, so I have to make additional blocks.

I think I'm going to pull out that red and white checked background block. See it? I'm sure you must--it sticks out like a sore thumb because it's too light. I thought it didn't really "go" when I put it up on the wall, but taking a photo sometimes helps to show color value a little better than the naked eye. It's a good trick to try if you're ever not sure about something.

As you can probably see, I'll put these blocks together into four patch blocks and then I'll have nine of the larger blocks. I think I want to put sashing between them and I have a couple ideas, but I haven't made up my mind yet.

Because Easter arrives this weekend, I'm not sure how much time I'll have in the Sweat Shop, but I'll keep working on this second Thimbleberries project when I can and show you how far I've gotten by the end of the weekend.

Soccer Son and his Lovely Wife to Be Someday are coming over for Easter brunch on Sunday, and there's some house cleaning and cooking to be done on Saturday. How about you? Are you cooking for the holiday or spending it at someone else's house? Will you get any quilting/play time in?