Quilterly March Madness

Finally! Signs of spring in the studio:


And I'm back at the sewing machine - yippee! :- ) Yesterday I was inspired to get out a couple of shamrock prints to make a few blocks in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

The day before that I spent time tidying up around the cutting table. I have more of the bigger scraps to deal with now, leftover from my most recent quilts, than I've ever had in the past. I've never been as productive as I have been these last couple of years. Being home bound has its silver lining - at least on the days when I feel up to taking advantage of it.

For the most part I just folded up the remnants and set them aside in their own pile. I'm going to have to figure out a way to deal with them soon. I really don't have room for any more piles! I did cut some patches and sewed up more of my six inch scrappy blocks:

After the shamrock blocks yesterday I kept going and ended up with this on my design wall:

That's a nine inch liberated star on the left and five inch Churn Dash or Monkey Wrench blocks on the right.

I'm seriously thinking of trying to put together at least one puzzle quilt out of all this madness. I know Luana Rubin at eQuilter.com is talking with Kathleen over at Mission of Love about collecting quilts to be shipped to Japan for the survivors of the earthquake and tsunami. I would love to have one ready for that effort. When I say "puzzle quilt" I'm referring to a quilt top made from orphan blocks and scrappy blocks and whatever bits and pieces are necessary to make them all fit together. I find I really enjoy the challenge of figuring out how to make a bunch of mismatched blocks play together nicely. Hopefully the results aren't too chaotic to be enjoyed by someone under extreme stress.