Progress, at last

I'm happy to report that I am finally making progress on Sylvie's Christmas stocking (albeit, a little late for Christmas... this year).  I ordered some more fabric, as the green fabric is still hiding from me somewhere in my house. The front is fully pieced and cut, I just need to pick a fabric to line it, and then I can actually put it together.

Almost a ready-to-sew stocking!

I also got the fat quarter bundle of "Mediterranean Dream" to make a quilt for my sister.

I'm going to do a simple patchwork quilt (just squares), so I cut the fabric to 7" squares. I cut the usable scraps to 4" squares to use when piecing the back. I think I'm going to do two rows of squares separated by 4" of backing about 1/3 of the way down the quilt. I like playing with the backing. Since I don't (yet) do anything fancy with the front, or the quilting, the back seems like the little touch that makes it feel more handmade and unique - you don't tend to get touches like that with store bought quilts.

I keep thinking I should play more with the quilt blocks on the front - try for an actual pattern, but I keep just wanting to do squares. I think it's because I keep picking fabric that I just want to show off. Plus I like the look of simple patchwork. I'm planning on making my mom a quilt next for her birthday, and she picked out a fat quarter bundle that is much more muted. So that may be the project to try something beyond squares. Since I don't want to ruin it or get in over my head, I'm thinking I might try something like this:

Possible pattern for my next quilt!