The un-fun part of making HSTs

I spent some time yesterday squaring up my half-square triangles for the warm/cool quilt along quilt that is my current leader/ender project. Man do I hate doing that. But there is such satisfaction when it's over! I laid out the squares I have done so far and I'm somewhat unhappy with my decision to use vintage sheets for this. I think it's a bit too blendy. I'm hoping the watercolory, Monet look will be okay. But I think you can still see the patern formed by the warm and cool color contrasts. It's definitely not going to be as big as I was hoping so I'm already thinking about border options for this one.

I also finished up this pillow a couple nights ago. I have a window seat in my sewing room with lots of naked pillows on it that I'm trying to cover. I've had these pillow forms for a very long time. I have no earthly idea why I purchased so many pillow forms over the years and never did anything with them! The center square in this one is a block I saw in a magazine and made at least 12 years ago. Glad to have it out of the "what am I going to do with this" pile!

A week or so ago, I went completely ga-ga over a picture of Joel Dewberry's new Heirloom prints in the Ruby colorway. I bought a half-yard bundle and have been working on this.

It's a variation of a free pattern JD has on his website but I'm taking a much easier approach to the design. The background is Kona bone, so a nice muted white that goes nicely with the rich, vivid colors of the prints. My plan is to quilt the white columns that develop between the colored lanterns and something inside the lanterns too but I'm not sure what. This picture really doesn't do those fabrics justice. They are so rich and yummy. This one is going together fast and I'm excited to have something finished very soon!