We Have Blocks!

Well...we sorta have blocks.  We're well on our way to having blocks!

I tried to pace myself this past week because I don't want to burn out before the quilt top is done.  I took a couple nights, at an hour each, to work on my Easy Bake quilt.  An hour is the perfect amount of time for this quilt; in an hour Tuesday night, I was able to sew all 42 initial blocks; in an hour Thursday night, I pressed them and cut them into more strips.  I didn't feel rushed or like I wasn't doing things accurately.  This is a great quilt for a beginner!

As of today, here's what I have sitting on my sewing table:

I'm sure more advanced quilters see this and wonder what the fuss is about.  But this is big to me!

As you can see, each strip is now made of two fabrics instead of one.  My next step is to sew two strips together to create 9.5" squares, which are the final blocks.  I've matched up each strip to a "random" partner.  I put random in quotation marks because I didn't leave my selection to the quilt gods.  I didn't want blocks to have the same fabric next to each other, so if that came up while I was matching these, I did fool around with it a bit.

Side note, who are the quilting gods?  Kaffe Fassett?  Denyse Schmidt?  I'd go to that church.

Anyway, the second photo is a demonstration of how it should look after the blocks are sewn and I start piecing the quilt top together.  Those were the first three blocks on the stack, so I might not put those together, but I love how there's Christmas everywhere.  This quilt is going to make me so happy!

My plans for this week are:

• Sew the final blocks together.  I can probably do this tonight, in an hour after dinner.
• Start piecing the quilt top.  I'd love to get it all sewn, but our week is busy.  Tuesday is our anniversary and we have a friend visiting on Saturday for a week, so a lot of my time will be cleaning this apartment so she isn't completely grossed out.

I also need to buy backing and binding fabric.  There were a few prints not included in the Dear Mr. Claus layer cake, such as the Santas and the Christmas tags.  I'm trying to decide which to use for the backing, and I think I might use a red polka dot for the binding.  What are your thoughts?

If you're quilting, how'd your week go?  I'd love to see anything you've made!  I've been pinning the hell out of quilts lately!