I've measured it, and the size is about 50 x 70. If I add borders it's just going to be too large (if I make them 3 inches...the size of the sashing) so I think I'm going to stop here. I might add a 1 inch border so I have something without seams to sew the binding to. Someone suggested I use a striped fabric for the binding. That sounds fun, and I have some great stripes so I'll figure out which one to use. I'm going to find a white (pity the poor person that gets this) fleece for the backing. though I guess I could use a pastel of some kind, that might be a better idea...then not quite so bad in terms of dirt.
I'm pretty sure the local Hancock Fabrics is having a sale on no-pill fleece this weekend, so I'll go down and see what I find. I think I know who is going to get this one, another niece (I have many). This turned out better than I thought it would when I first got the blocks. I guess white can really set things off too, especially a disparate group of blocks like this.
Hey, I made a scrappy quilt, and I didn't have to make a big mess!
I read blogs every morning what I wake up. This morning I didn't sleep very well, woke up at 4:30 an started reading. What about Orange had a post this morning about time management help. There is a site called mytomatoes.com that sets a timer for 25 minutes, asks you to write a couple of words about what you accomplished during that time, then gives you a 5 minute break. I know I work well using a method like this, because I've done it before. Usually I set the timer for an hour, then get a 30 minute break, but I thought I'd try it this morning. 
I've not been sewing or quilting much. Just been wasting time on the computer. I had this 9-patch nearly finished quilting for quite a while (quilting is my least favorite part of the process, I just don't feel confident or creative.) Anyway, when I woke up at 4:34 (to be exact) I lay in bed for a bit to see if I would fall asleep again. No luck, but I did think of a way to finish this quilt. I had all the sashing quilted, but didn't know what to do in the blocks. I thought about spirals and tried a couple--really ugly, so I un-quilted them. Then I just put it aside. The simple outline around the center square is working for me. Nothing exciting, but it does the job and I like the way it looks. I finished quilting around 2 columns in 25 minutes. There are 5 on the quilt, so it should only take about 1 more hour or so to finish the quilting then the binding. I can then send it off to my niece. YAY!
