Bento Boxes

There has been quite a bit of discussion on one of my yahoo groups (BQL - British Quilting List) - about Bento Box quilt blocks (aka quarter log cabin), and being me, I have been itching to make some. But I don't really need more blocks or more unfinished projects, so I was resisting. Today, however, it occurred to me that I need to have several 12" blocks to send to Margaret along with my centre for the Spring Fling Round Robin 3 (in lieu of postage payment), so I could satisfy my urge to piece without actually creating more blocks for myself. Almost. I grabbed my shoebox full of 2.5" strips and went to work - I created 12 (four shown above left), 12" blocks suitable for use in boy quilts for Project Linus (this is what Margaret will be using her blocks for) and have also started on some girl ones - admittedly, I only needed to produce two 12" blocks, but I know she'll be happy of extras - and she does a lot of work hostessing this swap and others, so I thought a little extra wouldn't go amiss.


I also made four (or rather, they will be four once the quarters are joined) for myself from some strips I forgot I had - they came in with my Christmas Booty Quilt from Toni as part of the packaging and though I love these retro prints, there weren't really enough to do much with - in fact, I have added 4 strips of an Amy Butler fabric which is not the same range, but just about matches enough to work. This piece, I will keep for myself, I think - unless an occasion comes up which demands it, of course.


While doing all this (and several loads of laundry, which seems to be my main function in life most of the time!) I also managed to pin baste the brown pineapple quilt - hoorah! - the last of my Janaury goals can be struck off the list - not bad, considering I didn't make the trip out to get the batting until the 31st of January. Of course, my mother arrives Wednesday and then it's half-term the week after, so my free time for sewing in February is going to rapidly diminish. Might be able to squeeze one or two things in, but frankly, it's a good thing I got a lot of them done in early February.