I have always wanted to do some type of map to show our travels from we were full-time RVers, but never seemed to find what anything that really stood out to me. Well all that changed when Missy from The Little Greenbean created this awesome pattern that she titled, "Quilted Wall Map Design". It was exactly what I had been looking for. I started putting this project together right away and had it all finished in less than a week. 

I have it hanging on the wall in my living room. I wish I could get more of the wrinkles out, but for some reason no matter how much ironing I do, I cannot get rid of them. I added buttons to represent the states we traveled in, the states I have traveled to solo, the states we have traveled as a couple and the states we have lived in.

I have begun another Lori Holt quilt! This one is called, The Quilted Scarecrow. It is a pieced quilt and does not use the sew simple shapes that she uses in a lot of her quilts. The fabric is from Lori's newest collection, Autumn.

The pattern breaks the process down into small segments, which I like, so hopefully it will not become overwhelming with all the fabric used before I can even get started. I am going page by page and doing the piecing in order as shown.

The first step is to make the The Swirling Leaf Blocks. There are 4 different ones. My goal is to complete a step per week until I have this finished.

This is the way it is supposed to look when completed.

The Swirling Leaf Blocks!

This Trixie Pouch I completed is from the BloomBerry panel by Minki Kim. The panel consists of 3 different pouches and other adorable items. This is my first completion, which I was able to do in one afternoon.

On Sunday I decided to join the Prairie Crossroads Challenge that Leslie with The Seasoned Homemaker was sponsoring. The challenge is only for a week from May 11th to May 18th and you only have to create 1 block, either a 12" or 6". When she had posted this some time ago that this was going to happen I loved the layout of the block and wanted to give it a try. She provided the patterns, a video and a Facebook group where we could share our progress and get help, if needed.

I decided to use solid fabrics from my stash of Bella Solids and cut and made the block all in one evening. The darker fabric is a deep navy, but in this pic looks black.

I still haven't decided if I will make a couple more and turn it into a table runner, make a pillow or what, but for now I can say I finished the challenge, which was my goal in the first place.

After a day or two of posting this post, I decided to do another 12" and 2 of the 6" blocks and turn it all into a mini quilt. I still need to quilt it and add the binding, but this is the outcome at this point.

You can find Part 1 by clicking here and Part 2 by clicking here, which shows my progress on the 16 dress blocks.

As stated in my previous posts, Millie's Dresses is another wonderful pattern by Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet! She said this pattern was inspired by her grandmother. When I look at these dresses, they remind me of my Aunt Bill (her real name was Alice, but we always called her Bill instead, no idea why). Anyway, my Aunt Bill always wore dresses no matter what she was doing. They were never fancy, just a simple dress and an apron.

According to the QAL, 4 dresses would be completed each month. Although I got a late start, I was able to catch up and end up exceeding the time frame of the QAL. Like they say in the quilt world, "you are the boss of your own quilt", which means you can go as fast or as slow on a project as you want. 

In March I completed 8 dress blocks and in April I completed another 8 dress blocks. As of today, I have finally added the sashing and borders to complete the quilt top. For some reason when I add multiple borders to a quilt, the quilt becomes wavy. I hope I am able to work this out when I quilt on the longarm machine and not end up making it look crazy.

I love the dresses and the border that was done out of the same color fabrics as the dresses. Not too crazy about the other borders.