Design Wall Monday

I have decided very late in the day to participate in the Design Wall Monday Link-up that Judy hosts over at Patchwork Times. The idea is to show others what you are working on and to check out what other quilters are working on. I've never participated before. Other bloggers have said it is very motivating to have that link-up every week. They sometimes make themselves go sew just to have something to report. I can see that working for me too, so here I am.

My design wall is actually a large flannel backed table cloth hung on a blank wall with command hooks. It might not be fancy but it works and it is easily removed when I need the spare bedroom for something else (like a guest room).

I am working on several things today, but the one I am going to show you is a 7 year old UFO. When I was learning to quilt with a group in 2003-2004 the lady teaching us had us making a queen sized sampler quilt. She chose traditional blocks with a variety of techniques to teach us the basics. We also did some little side projects from time to time - a doll using crazy quilting, a tote bag, things like that. Unfortunately, our teacher moved away and soon I put all the quilting away including the sampler. Fast forward to late 2010 - I decided I wanted to take up quilting again even if I had to teach myself and rely on the internet for help. That is when I started the red/white/blue quilt for my son that is shown on my first blog post. At the time I was still a little intimidated about working on the queen sized sampler by myself. Last summer, I decided I was ready to figure out what needed to be done with it. These are the 12 blocks that were done with the group shown with sashings and corner blocks I cut out in October, 2011. The original plan was for it to be on-point, but there were only 2 blocks done that wouldn't work in a straight setting, so they are going to be pillows, and I'll show those later. These are the 6 blocks I have made in the last 6 months. I need 2 more and one of those - a hand sewn Grandmother's Flower Garden, is nearly done. I need to choose and make the last block, then I can square them up and sew those sashings. Then on to the borders. There really is a good sampling of techniques and styles in this quilt and I can't wait to see it on my bed. I am so determined to finish this that I actually have the next few steps written on my calendar. Keep checking back for more progress and don't forget to check some of the other design walls.