Big day tomorrow!

As I mentioned in my very first post, I am part of an informal quilting group with some women I work with at Penn State.  Since last February, we've been working on a monthly block swap.  At the start of the swap, we put together a bag filled with several different fabrics.  Every month, each person receives a different person's bag and makes a 12" block using the fabric and whatever design she chooses.  Well, tomorrow is the big day in which we get our bags back.  I cannot wait! 

When this quilting group started, I must admit that I didn't want to do it.  I felt intimidated by the expert quilters and also felt rusty, as I had not quilted in years.  Well, in the past year since starting this swap, I have created my first quilt top, created numerous handbags (and zipper pouches!), and am working on Block 9 of my Kate Spain 12 Days of Christmas Block-of-the Month program.  And, of course, I bought my wonderful Bernina Aurora to replace my 10-year old inexpensive Singer, an investment that has really paid off.

I can't wait to see the beautiful quilts revealed tomorrow.  I will take a lot of pictures and share these on the blog.  In the meantime, I'm posting two of the blocks that I created for my fellow quilters' blocks.  I'm kicking myself that I didn't take a picture of all twelve that I made.  But at least I took pictures of the last couple!

This is a picture of my first attempt at pinwheels.  I am considering an all-pinwheel quilt for my next project.

The square above was inspired by Jen's recent post (at Miss Punkie Pie ) on the layer cake blocks.  I really liked her selection of fabrics and found the pattern at Moose on the Porch Quilts' "Layer Cake Quilt Along."  I did make a slight change to the order of the fabric in the squares with the rectangles.  I'd like to say it was intentional, but really, I just made a mistake and thought it looked pretty even if it doesn't exactly follow the pattern.  I'm curious to see if the recipient will like it! 

Tomorrow is going to be a lot of fun...