Ok, I'm making this quilt for my mother in law. Her birthday is mid August, and I'm hoping to have it all finished in time to mail it off. My goal is actually just to not have it be *too* late. But I wanted to share my progress in this little hobby of mine.

First, Jen sent me a cross stitch pattern that she kitted up for me, so I did two of each flower, a daffodil and a daisy:
This part took a few weeks.This part took a few weeks.

Then I searched for "grandparents" quotes online and found this one, that I stitched up in a gradiated green floss:

As I was stitching, I was thinking it should be done one square at a time instead of one row at a time like I was doing, but I already had a lot of it done. Later Jen confirmed I was doing it wrong, but I decided I was ok with the way it looked anyway, and left it as is.

Then I picked out some fabrics and (quickly) laid this out:

Then I sewed the top and added two colors of borders and came up with this as a final top piece:
Not the most perfectly straight piecing job ever, but it makes it - um - charming?Not the most perfectly straight piecing job ever, but it makes it - um - charming?

I've started quilting the layers now. I'm doing a zig-zag pattern through the ladder section (the dark green # sign looking part) and I'm doing what's called a "seed stitch" through the daffodil pattern. A Seed Stitch is a bunch of tiny random stitches through the background. If I had realized it was going to take so long, I would have probably just outlined each flower and leaf, but it's too late now. I also bought a generic stencil to do flower chains up the yellow and green borders. I think I could probably fit four lines of that, but I may do only two if I'm really sick of stitching by then.
Texture shot of the seed stitchingTexture shot of the seed stitching
A little bit further out. Obviously, I'm still working on this square.A little bit further out. Obviously, I'm still working on this square.

Ok, so that's what I have done so far. I'll update this as I get further along, and maybe I'll do another blog with the baby quilt I'm working on, too.