Juggling

I am working on two projects right now.  The wonky stars baby quilt and a picnic quilt based on Elizabeth Hartman's Crazy Nine Patch Lattice quilt pattern.  I have put down the Wonky Stars baby quilt because I really want to start using the picnic quilt ASAP.  We are using a twin bed sheet for picnics right now, and it's hard to "keep up with the Joneses" in the park when you are rockin' a nasty old green sheet.  Granted, when my wife sat on a blackberry (the fruit, not the phone), I was glad it wasn't the new quilt, but I'm still anxious to show off my skills to all of the neighborhood moms!

The pattern requires 23 9 patches, so you need to make 27 of them.  I am making 3 stacks of 9 using slight variations in the fabrics.  My wife wanted all orange patches and I wanted blues and greens, so we compromised and did a mix of the three.  The stripey fabric in the upper right corner of the block below is the anchor fabric, containing some brown, blue, green and orange.  It's from the line "Toomuchery" by Helen Dardik, and I love it!  I am including another fabric from that line in the third set of 9 (which I am cutting and sewing during baby's nap today).

Last night I received an order of fabrics I absolutely HAD to have in order to finish the picnic quilt.  Of course I had what I needed, but not the ideal mix of fabrics I wanted.  Fortunately, Fabric.com had a sale (don't they always?), and I got most of my fabrics for about $4/yd. 

You can see the other "Toomuchery" fabric in the middle, as well as "Castle Peeps" orange flags, which will be included in the 3rd nine patch along with the Toomuchery and the green bamboo fabric.  I think I'm gonna like this block the best :).  We'll see.