Bonnie K. Hunter over at Quiltville  is having a Linky  Party to see what everyone has on their bed at the moment.
I've just changed over my quilt from my Summer Look-

A 1930's inspired Dresden Plate quilt.

Now we have a reproduction Civil War quilt on the bed from a pattern by Susan Smith.

I must admit that last night was so cold that I had both on the bed!  Sooo, what do you have on your bed?

It wouldn't be Easter without Hot Cross Buns.
Somehow this year, I forgot to buy some from the bakery, so recipe searching was in order.
I found a great recipe at Taste .....

I was 1/2 way through assembling the  ingredients when I realised there were dry cranberries in the dough.  Luckily some were in the cupboard- a yummy surprise in the buns.

I was supposed to seive some apricot jam and then brush the warmed jam onto the buns as a glaze.  Much too labour intensive!  I just spread my jam onto the warm buns.  mmmmm.

Delicious just out of the oven and still warm.

After a couple of weeks of total quilting inactivity, I've finally started finishing off some small projects.  Here is my finished little quilt from Temecula Quilt Shop.  This was their 5 week mystery project to celebrate 5 years in business.  The fabrics are Old Savannah by Paula Barnes, not my usual colours but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

This sweet little quilt is March's option from Jo's Country Junction.

And lastly, these gorgeous little baskets are March's quilt from a quiltalong with Kathy from Sentimental Quilter.
Feeling pretty happy with myself at the moment, but now I need to get started on April's quilts.
Whilst the momentum is still speeding along, I also need to catch up on my Just Takes 2 red and white quilt blocks.

Well, we've been away on a small break before Easter.  It's school holidays here for 2 weeks and the weather is lovely, so taking advantage of that we escaped to the country for a while.
Sewing was top of my agenda whilst away.  I spent a good portion of my day stitching the next round of hexagon flowers to my Summer School Quilt.

The size is growing quite quickly as each hexagon is 1" on the straight edge.  The little red trails take a lot of time, but  I do like the way they look .
Only one more border of these hexagon flowers, then a little "squaring up" to make the quilt square, some large borders, and it's finished.  Sounds easy doesn't it?  LOL.

Before we left, I was advised that my youngest DD's "most favouritest teacher EVER" was leaving the school.   With 2 days before end of term, and work each of those days- I was really scratching my head.  What was a good present? 
Luckily,  we'd made a pencil case during the school holidays, and I knew that DD was able to make another by herself up to insertion of the zip.

Amazingly, the zip went in very easily at 10.30 at night (after I came home from work) and DD embroidered the teacher's name on the pencil case.  I was very pleased with her first try at backstitch, and in Japanese to boot!

By all accounts, the teacher was very happy, so was my DD.

What does the eldest DD do on our holiday when she'd received her Learner's Permit just a week before?

Why, practice driving of course.  DH came back a little greyer each time.  Thank goodness for private country roads.  On to some serious professional lessons now I think, before I let her loose in the car with me!

Well, finally got that centre piece sewn in, so now it's on to sewing the little red triangles and diamonds around the outside edge.

I really like the red between the more pastel colours.

A very busy Friday Night Sew In resulted in some much needed stitching around here.
I finished the 15 1/2" Feathered Star Star block for my Red and White quilt.

It needs a good press and trim, but it's not too bad!

I have been watching the weekly blog postings from the Temecula Quilt Co blog.  They are celebrating 5 years in business this year and have a weekly mystery basket block presented on their blog for March.  The very cute little 4 1/2" blocks will then go into making a small quilt with some plain fabric squares in between the baskets. 
I was waiting for their fabric kit to arrive in the post, and finally  on Thursday it found its way here.
A really lovely group of fabrics from Old Savannah by Paula Barnes. 

And yet again, as I look at the photo, I see a mistake.   The bottom basket block should have a plain triangle at the base of the basket.  I'm soooo observant!  LOL.
To round out the  night, I finished stitching my Pom Pom hexagon quilt centre together- well the hexagons anyway, I still have to make up my mind about the feature fabric in the centre.

Can't wait to stitch the centre into place so that I can take out some of the paper pieces and make the centre a little softer to sew.
Don't you love it when you're in the mood to sew, and the planets align (the kids leave you alone!) so that plenty of sewing can happen.
Bliss.

Well, I'm still a little behind this week for my Just Takes 2 blocks.
I've finished the last fortnight, now I have until the 15th of this month to get the next blocks done.  Thankfully there are only 2 blocks in the next part.

From a distance, the applique looks OK!
I think after the next blocks, we get  to sew the first section of blocks together.  That will be interesting, to see how this quilt is starting to take shape.
I'm very thankful to the Just Takes 2 ladies for going to all this trouble for our benefit, with no cost involved.
A lot of these blocks are paper foundation pieced.  I really dislike foundation piecing, however, I'm choosing to make this a learning experience.  LOL.  By the end of this quilt, I'll either like this form of piecing, or I'll never do it again!

My Summer School quilt is slowly taking shape.  The centre hexagon flowers are now being sewn together.

I still need to decide on something to go in the centre.
The glue stick method of baste-ing the small red shapes is fantastic.  No fiddling with needle and thread, no hours of sewing.  Just a very quick pin shape into place, cut around, then glue.  I'm best friends with my Sewline glue pen at the moment.

A busy week in the house this week.
I really feel like I haven't accomplished much, but I have found a little time here and there thank goodness.

 I finished my February small quilt for Jo's  Quiltalong with plenty of time to spare, but I've just decided to handquilt it.  I found some fabric with plums (what was I thinking?) on it, perfect backing I thought.  So, I've cut batting and backing for my 2 small quilts and 2 other little quilts and I'm good to go.  Mind you, they'll take me months- I'm realistic! 
I really like hand quilting, but I'm very slow.

I've also been working on my Just Takes 2  blocks for this fortnight.  The latest blocks came out on March 1, but now I'm only one block behind.
Finished this last night- please don't look too close at the applique.

I must admit to really loving this quilt-along.  There is something very "clean" looking about a two colour quilt, and I love red and white together. 

Lastly, I'm back doing a little stitching on my "Princess Feather" border.

I'm stitching one block then one border at a time.  I've recently seen another Kim McLean quilt in the works that I love, need to finish this one first.
Variety is the spice of life, isn't it?  LOL.