Quilt Projects New and Old

I bought a small kit at Appletree Fabrics during Joannie's Birthday Road Trip two weeks ago. And last weekend, I actually made it!

Here it is:

Voila! A finished project.

This little batik beauty is billed as a Portfolio. It zips at the top and it also has a large patch pocket on the front. For those of you who constantly want to know how long it took, I actually timed myself, and this project took me two hours. The portfolio was easy to make and it used a really neat zipper insertion technique (the zipper is sewn into a fold of the fabric) that I've never tried before. There is no pattern, just a sheet of directions that the Shop created to sell with the kit.

This weekend, as you're reading this, I will be in Maine with Marion, Sue, and Joannie at a quilt retreat in Freeport. I've booked a massage and a pedicure, as well as a cleaning for my machine. So we will all be pampered and pretty. And in between princess treatments, my project of choice is an ancient, unfinished oldie from my quilting archives...

Four blocks done (and only 26 more to go)...

I started this project in a class with Charlotte Angotti at the Houston Quilt Festival in 2002. The only reason that I know the date is because Charlotte wrote it on her teaching handout. There is even an actual photograph included in the package. If I manage to finish the remaining 26 blocks for the center this weekend (highly doubtful), I've brought along the optional border kit with 44 more star blocks! Perhaps now you understand why this little beauty fell to the wayside...

Here is my handsome LarryPug all snug on the couch atop two pillows and a blanket. Doesn't he look comfortable? LarryPug says "Pugs are a lot like pillows, you can never have too many!"

Linking up on Tuesday to Freemotion by the River. Linking up on Friday to Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy