WIP Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday!  I actually usually dislike Wednesdays - it's the only day of the week that my class doesn't have a specialist, and since we're in the rainy season now, well, let's just say Wednesdays are looooong.
But I am on Spring Break!  Woo hoo!  I have been sewing a lot this week, too, so I decided to link up to Lee's WIP Wednesday.

After finishing my Pop Garden quilt, my husband asked where HIS quilt was.  Then he proceeded to give me a pretty tall order for what he wanted in a quilt:

1.) No prints.  Seriously, none.

2.) Must include purple.

3.) Be manly.

Hmm... well, I like prints, and I don't think purple really screams "manly".  Crap.  But then I remembered that I saw this really great quilt made entirely of solids over on Julie's blog.  And there was a sale on Kona going on too...  So I really quickly emailed Julie for the yardage requirement, placed my order (he decided he was ok with purple and gray), and now I am knee deep in what I think is a pretty 80's-looking quilt.

I do think it will be pretty cool when it's done though.  I successfully cut out the 588 pieces in one afternoon, still have all of my fingers intact, and have actually finished 31 of the 84 blocks.  Go me!

I also finished a springy Nicey Jane table runner for my dining table (I pieced it a long time ago & finally got around to quilting/binding it).  I don't have a picture yet because it's too darn gloomy in here.  I finally gifted my mom her birthday table runner, as well.  She loved it & sent me this pic right away:

Finally, I made a block for Jodi for April of the Fat Stash Bee.  I feel terrible, because her first round of fabric never got to me.  Either one of my neighbors has it, or it's floating around in postal no man's land...  So I made her this one, but I am going to do an extra or two:

Buzzzzzzz...

See that little badge on the right over there?  The one that says, "Fat Stash Bee"?  Yep, I joined a bee!  Quilting bees are not just for grandmas anymore.  It turns out there's this whole world of "virtual quilting bees".  A VQB is a group of people that come together, and just like a traditional grandma-bee, each person makes blocks for everybody else.
Typically, a bee has 12 members, and each member is assigned a month.  They send out fabric and directions to the other participants when it's their month, and everyone makes blocks & sends them back.  At the end of a year, every person has a whole quilt, made in part by everyone in the group.  In this bee, we're sending each other a fat quarter when it's our month, and then we get to pull from our stash of fabric.  Hence the name "Fat Stash".
March was our first month, and I just finished my block:

This is Rebecca's month, and she asked for a "neighborhood quilt".  Every person was to use some of her orange fabric to make a block with a house, or other building.  I made her a log cabin.  =)  She's expecting a baby, and mentioned that she wants to use the quilt in the nursery.  How great is it that people all over the world (we have members in Canada & Germany too!) are helping to make something for her baby?

See that crocheted flower in the picture, too?  I crocheted something!  It's been a while since I've crocheted anything.  I first saw this on Angela's blog, Fussy Cut, and have been wanting to make some since.  It's supposed to be a potholder/trivet, but I think it'd make a great scrubber too (it is made of all-cotton yarn).  Tutorial can be found here.  Now I must go and binge on our impulse-purchased Easter candy, and cheer on my Buckeyes (even though I hate basketball).  Go Bucks!